My Mother, The Car
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| Arrested Development episode | |
| "My Mother, The Car" | |
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| Episode No | 1AJD07 |
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| Airdate | December 21, 2003 |
| Writer(s) | Chuck Martin |
| Director | Jay Chandrasekhar |
| On the next: | “George Michael and Maeby sneak back into Les Cousins Dangereux and Michael’s insurance takes another hit.” |
| Guest star(s) | Liza Minnelli as Lucille Austero Patricia Velasquez as Marta Estrella Mark Blankfield as Dr. Miller |
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Arrested Development Season 1 |
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| All Arrested Development episodes | |
"My Mother, The Car" was the eighth episode aired of TV comedy series Arrested Development.
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[edit] Synopsis
Michael Bluth was fed up with his mother, Lucille’s extravagant spending, and refused to allow her to throw a lavish birthday party for herself. But when Lindsay suggests a surprise birthday party (which was suggested to her by Lucille), Michael agrees on the condition that Lindsay visit George Sr. in prison, who she had been somewhat estranged from the last several years, feeling that he only appreciated her for her appearance. But when Lindsay arrives at the prison, she finds that her worries of receiving sexual harassment from rowdy prisoners appear to be unfounded. Concerned that perhaps she has lost her touch, she decides to go shopping and try again the next day.
Meanwhile, George Michael was finally getting beyond his crush on his cousin Maeby, and the two were settling into a friendship, sneaking into an R-rated movie together. But when George Michael saw a trailer for a French movie about love between two cousins called Les Cousins Dangereux, it rekindles his feelings. And when the two are booted out for being underage, he decided to get a fake ID from his uncle G.O.B. so the two of them could get in to see the movie.
Michael drives his mother to her surprise party, but both are surprised to find that nobody else has shown up. Lucille is hurt that her children did not care enough to remember her party, so Michael decides to make up for it by throwing a second surprise party and insisting that this time, all his siblings are there. When no one else shows up for that one, Michael and his mother bond for the first time, both feeling unsupported and ignored by their family. Feeling sorry for his mother, Michael agrees to let her drive, despite the fact that her license has been revoked due to multiple accidents and reckless driving. But when Lucille sees a man on the road riding a Segway, assuming it to be G.O.B., she decides to "give him a scare" and causes their car to wreck. In the aftermath, Lucille drags an unconscious Michael over and stuffs him in the driver's seat so that she won't be blamed for the reckless driving. But due to being hit on the head by a giant rock Buster had left in the backseat, Michael has lost his short term memory and is unable to remember the actual details.
Worried that her son would regain his memory of the accident, Lucille insists that he recuperate in her apartment and bribes their family doctor to give him heavy painkillers, calling them "aspirin". Next door, Buster, who is secretly dating her mother's neighbor and rival Lucille Austero, also takes a knock to the head when, while dining on Austero's balcony, he spies his mother on her own balcony and jumps through the window to get inside and hide.
Meanwhile, G.O.B. has been trying to get Michael to let him use the yacht to take Marta on a romantic cruise before Michael is forced to sell it. But when George Michael tells G.O.B. of Michael's accident while asking for the fake IDs, G.O.B. decides to take the yacht and sail down to South America for the summer.
Lindsay continues to visit her father in prison, growing increasingly frustrated that none of the inmates are taking note of her increasingly sexier outfits. On her third visit, George Sr. begs her to stop, and reveals that he had been paying off the inmates with gold Krugerrands to behave in Lindsay's presence, but her repeated visits are driving him broke. Touched by her father's gesture, Lindsay finally reconnects with George Sr.
Michael, meanwhile, remembers seeing G.O.B. on the road and trying to scare him, but still thinks that he was the one behind the wheel. Thinking that he had been resentful of his brother because of his attraction to G.O.B.'s girlfriend, Marta, he calls his brother and tells him he can live in the yacht, and confesses that he had been trying to scare G.O.B. But when G.O.B. hears this, he realizes that Michael was duped by Lucille and decides to cancel his escape plans to tell Michael the truth. Helping Michael remember that Buster's rock was behind the passenger seat, they confront Lucille, who admits her guilt and says that she was afraid to risk losing Michael's new found respect and admiration. Michael suggests that she could stop manipulating her children, but Lucille decides that manipulation is easier.
[edit] Episode notes
- Although this episode comes after "In God We Trust" in both broadcast and production order, it appears before it on the Season One DVD. Technically, My Mother, the Car SHOULD come first, as Buster and Lucille Austero start their relationship in this episode, and go on their first date in that one. Additionally, In God We Trust contains many references to Christmas, but this episode aired much closer to the holiday.
- The title of this episode refers to both Lucille's car accident and the sitcom My Mother The Car.
- Tobias does not appear in this episode.
[edit] References
- AARP - Formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, AARP is an organization that works to further the interests of Americans 50 years and older.
- The usher's statement, "You’re too young to be holding that ticket.", is directed at Buster, indicating that Lucille used her AARP card to purchase tickets with a Senior Citizen discount for the both of them.
- FOX - The program Lucille was featured on, FOX's World's Worst Drivers, is a nod to the type of sensationalistic reality television that FOX has historically aired, such as World's Wildest Police Videos and When Animals Attack.
- Krugerrands - The gold coins that Lucille smuggled in to George Sr. are a type of gold coin first minted in South Africa.
- Krugerrands are most notorious due to a boycott on the coins in many countries from the 1970s to the mid-1990s that made them illegal to possess, which is another reference to George Sr.'s various illegal business.
- My Mother the Car - The title of this episode is a play on the title of this 1965-1966 sitcom starring Jerry Van Dyke about a man named David Crabtree who discovers that his mother has been reincarnated as a used car. His mother speaks through the car's radio, but only to Crabtree. In 2002, TV Guide called it the second-worst show of all time.
- G.O.B. and Lindsay are watching this show on television when Michael confronts them for not showing up at Lucille's surprise dinner. The show's theme song can be heard in the background.
- Neiman Marcus - Lindsay says she went to "Neiman's", a reference to this US upscale retailer known for its extravagant pricing.
[edit] Callbacks/running jokes
- Buster's rock - The rock that Michael hits his head on was left there by Buster in Charity Drive.
- GOB is a slut - When Michael's potential buyers for the yacht show up, GOB confuses them as the 'hot asians' he has booked yet nevertheless says 'well, let's start with the little one', referring to the wealthy middle-aged woman interested in buying the yacht. Over the course of later episodes GOB sleeps with an assortment of women. In fact, later in the same episode, a woman GOB had been sleeping with jumps overboard when George Michael visits GOB at the yacht, a splash is heard and GOB throws a floating ring to her.
- Hit by a car - While this is the first episode where someone is hit by a car, it would later happen again in The One Where Michael Leaves, Afternoon Delight and Sword of Destiny.
- I like the way they think - George Michael would make this statement about the French's relaxed attitude towards incest again in Righteous Brothers.
- Les Cousins Dangereux - This is the first mention of this film about two cousins with a forbidden love that George Michael grows quite attached to. Later, Maeby would produce an American remake of it in "Righteous Brothers".
- Party - Once again, Lucille attempts to throw an extravagant party, the last one appearing in the previous episode, "In God We Trust".
- SLUT shirt - This is the first time we see Lindsay wearing her red "SLUT" shirt, which she wears next in "Good Grief", and again in George Michael's campaign video in "The Immaculate Election"
- South America - G.O.B.'s decision to go to South America for the summer is most likely based on his theory that Michael was fleeing to South America in "In God We Trust". However, given that this episode is intended to be seen before In God We Trust, G.O.B. may have gotten the idea that Michael was fleeing based on his own actions here.
- Yacht - This is the first time we see G.O.B. staying on the family yacht from the Pilot, which he would later destroy in Missing Kitty, but in Development Arrested, we learn that he had been living on another boat called the "Seaward" ("C-Word").
- This is the second episode where someone tries to flee on the sea. It first happened in the Pilot, and would later be attempted again several times in "Development Arrested".
- "Don't think so" - This is the second time GOB uses the line "Don't think so" after giving away a sort of secret. In this episode he said it after he revealed to Michael that he was "half way to South America". He last used it in the Pilot.
[edit] Hidden/Background Jokes
- Both times that Michael and Lucille enter the room where her surprise party is to be held and yell, "Surprise!", they greatly startle the same two waiters.
- The restaurant is playing Bach's Italian Concerto in F major*
- When Lucille asks how Buster hurt his head, he replies, "G.O.B. was just teaching me how to hit it with a hammer."
- When Lucille opens the balcony door to let in some air, Buster jumps through Lucille 2's window, and Lucille 2 remarks she's calling a doctor, in fact, the same one across the hall, as his cell phone rings while he's treating Michael.
- When Michael is on the balcony, talking to G.O.B. over the phone, police tape can be seen over Lucille 2's window. Buster jumped through this window earlier in the episode.
[edit] Character Cameos
- This is the first and only appearance of the Bluth's family physician, Dr. Miller (Mark Blankfield), first mentioned in Key Decisions by Lucille concerned about Buster. We learn in a DVD deleted scene he lost his license over telling Michael the painkillers he gave him were children's aspirin. The bandage around the head is referenced several times later in the series, notably in Afternoon Delight with Tobias's head injury, which could indicate him getting his licence back - something Tobias never manages to do.
[edit] Foreshadowing/Future References
- In this episode, we first find out that G.O.B.'s cheating on his girlfriend Marta, which would become a major problem with Michael in Storming the Castle.
- Michael asks his mother jokingly if there are gold bars in the bag she has trouble lifting. Later we find out it is actually gold Krugerrands, a type of gold coin.
[edit] Goofs
- The narrator calls G.O.B. Lucille's fourth-least-favorite child, but given Lucille's statement in the Pilot, "I don't care for G.O.B.", he actually means her first-least-favorite, or her fourth-favorite child.
