Shock and Aww
"Shock and Aww" is the fourteenth episode of the TV comedy series Arrested Development.
Plot
Michael is sharing his bed for the first time in years; unfortunately, it is with his younger brother, Buster. George Michael has developed a crush on his ethics teacher. Lucille barges in with a problem: her adoption application (filled out in a rage last year when Buster wouldn't finish his cottage cheese) came through and now a young Korean boy is hers. Michael then gets a call from Gob, who has lined up two women for them. Upstairs, Lindsay misinterprets George Michael's crush on his ethics teacher as a desire to set up a date for his father. Michael meets up with Gob and the two women, who turn out to be a high school student (Gob's date) and her frighteningly masculine chaperone named Nazhgalia, whom Gob intends for Michael. Michael is kind to her, which Gob reads as romantic interest. His jealousy and still-simmering anger over Marta kicks in.
At a parent-teacher conference, Michael sees the new ethics teacher, Miss Baerly. He is immediately attracted and asks her out for a drink. Meanwhile, George Sr. is dealing with his own admirer, a woman who visits him in prison and fawns over him. Later, Lucille calls Michael in a panic: the Korean boy, whom she named Annyong (Korean for "hello"), is in her apartment. Buster comes home and when Lucille notices his jealousy over the adopted boy, she decides she'll keep him after all.
Michael and Miss Baerly have a second date and spend the night together; the next morning Michael sees Nazhgalia just leaving after having spent the night with Gob. George Michael comes down and before Michael can tell him about the Miss Baerly development, George Michael reveals that he's in love with her. When he sees her come down the stairs, George Michael is devastated; Michael abandons ethics and tells his son that Gob slept with her. Over at the prison, George Sr. is preparing for an evening with his devoted fan, Cindi Lightballoon. She is really an FBI agent planning to catch George Sr. incriminating himself on tape. She presses him for details; when he tries to fondle her through the fence, the agents in the surveillance van panic, thinking he's found their camera. Meanwhile, Michael visits Miss Baerly to say he cannot see her anymore because George Michael is in love with her.
At the school dance, Miss Baerly tells Michael he has to tell his son the truth if he wants to see her again. George Michael, meanwhile, confronts Gob about sleeping with Miss Baerly. Gob is there to apologize to Shannon for sleeping with her chaperone. Michael finally tells his son the truth about Miss Baerly, and a gloating Gob tells Michael he slept with her too (he actually slept with the much-older civics teacher). Miss Baerly overhears Michael talking to George Michael, decides that Michael is moving too fast, and breaks off all contact. She goes off with another student.
Episode notes
- At first the series had a 13-episode order. This is the first episode produced after the show was picked up for a full, 22-episode season.
- Tobias does not appear in this episode.
- On the next...: "Buster’s competition heats up."
Cultural references
- The title refers to the Bush administration’s term for the Iraqi air strike at the beginning of the war (shock and awe).
- Many references are made to the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, who will play a pivotal role in the 3rd season.
- Beth Baerly loves him (as a teaching topic), and pictures of him are posted in her classroom.
- Michael makes multiple references to how pictures of Hussein's palace bear a resemblance to their model home, foreshadowing later plots.
- George Michael creates a collage of Saddam images to impress Miss Baerly. Its title is "What would Saddam do?" -- an allusion to the popular line of What would Jesus do? bracelets.
- Jeremy bakes a Saddam cupcake to impress Miss Baerly.
- The film Some Like It Hot, featuring men dressed as women, is referenced in an ad for coffee at Klimpy's Express: "Some Like It Hot! Some Like It Cold." The ad appears behind Nazhgalia, who is actually a male actor portraying a woman.
- The song "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by Wang Chung is playing in the background during the dance.
Character cameos
- Iqbal Theba, who plays Nazhgalia, is a man.
- This episode is the first to feature Annyong, Lucille's adopted Korean child. He appears throughout the rest of Season 1 and the start of Season 2, before being sent to the Milford Academy by Lucille, then returns at the end of Season 3.
- This is one of the few Season 1 episodes where Michael's deceased wife, Tracey, is mentioned.
- Heather Graham plays Ms. Beth Baerly, George Michael's ethics teacher.
- Jane Lynch plays FBI agent Cindi Lightballoon.
Foreshadowing
- Michael makes several comments about the model home’s resemblance to photos of Saddam’s palaces. This hints at George Sr.'s illegal housing development in Iraq, a fact which is revealed in the season finale, "Let 'Em Eat Cake."
- In the scene where Buster takes Annyong to register at school, there is a sign reading, “Hold on, Surely Fünke. Surely Fünke: How we (heart) thee.” Maeby's invented sister Surely is revealed several episodes later in "Altar Egos."
- Michael asks Lucille, "Did you and dad adopt a child?" It is later revealed that they had adopted Lindsay.
- In the first appearance of George Michael's ethics teacher, we hear her say "...even minor crimes are punishable by brutally chopping off the offender's hand," while making a chopping motion on her wrist. Loss of an arm or hand is a running theme in the series; this scene foreshadows Buster's loss of a hand in a later episode.
- When Gob describes his method of fighting, he says he only punches with his left hand because he needs his right for coin tricks. In the episode "Best Man for the Gob", Gob punches Michael with his left hand, despite his right hand being closer.
Hidden/background jokes
- In flashback Lucille tells Buster that she will adopt a child who will eat his cottage cheese. Later in the episode Lucille is out with Annyong and leaves nothing but a carton of cottage cheese for Buster to eat.
- The Saddam poster Michael shows to Lindsay at Parent Teacher Night has several misspellings. One caption begins, "Saddam is scene here with his favolite gun."
- Miss Baerly got the ethics post after the previous teacher, the elderly Mr. Daniels, had a stroke. Later, when George Michael and Maeby are discussing the school dance, Maeby reveals that, since she wanted to cause shock at the dance, she phoned Mr. Daniels and inadvertently caused his stroke by asking him out.
External links