Whistler's Mother (Arrested Development)
"Whistler's Mother" is the 20th episode of the first season of the Fox TV comedy series Arrested Development.
Synopsis
Michael is making plans for some Bluth company funds that recently became available. He is approached by successive family members, who each want some of that money. Lindsay wants it to start an affair; Michael suggests she take up charity work again. Lucille wants it to pay for Buster's operation on his clicking jaw; Michael suggests she stop coddling him. Tobias wants it for acting lessons and Gob just wants it; Michael suggests Gob and Tobias come up with a business idea to make money themselves. Meanwhile, George Michael spots a man who looks just like George Sr., except with hair. He tells Maeby, but she doesn't believe him.
George Sr.'s twin brother, Oscar, is in town; George calls Michael and asks him to give Oscar $10,000. Michael refuses. Maeby, working at the banana stand, spots the same man George Michael saw. Meanwhile, Lindsay finds out her hair stylist has been called up to serve in the Iraq War. She decides to protest the war as her charity work. Michael encounters Gob and Tobias at a coffee shop; Michael assumes they are planning to invest in such a shop and tells them to write a proposal. Uncle Oscar comes in after Gob and Tobias leave; he asks for money, then offers to sell some land to Michael, who doesn't realize the land is worthless because the government has an easement on it.
Maeby and George Michael discuss seeing the man they believe is their grandfather in a wig. They visit the prison to see if he is still there. Michael, now aware that the land he purchased is worthless, tries unsuccessfully to contact Oscar. Gob and Tobias approach Michael with their investment idea ("Gobias Industries"). Michael, embarrassed about his own poor investment, lies to them and says George Sr. made the deal and that no more investment money is available.
Lindsay joins a group of protesters at a military base; they are herded into a "free speech zone" (a large cage). But the media people are not there; they are confined somewhere else in a "free press zone." Meanwhile, Maeby and George Michael visit George Sr. in the prison and mention the lemon grove purchase. Michael tells the Bluth Company board that his father made a bad deal; Mr. Jordan, a potential whistleblower, points out that George Sr. cannot legally conduct business from jail. Then George Sr. then calls to discuss the deal with Michael. Lindsay and the protesters gets the attention of some local residents, who hose them down and play loud disco music. All the protesters except Lindsay run off. Defiantly shouting "no hair for oil," she does a triumphant pole dance; the enthusiastic response of the locals boosts her self-esteem.
Michael visits his mother to discuss the bad investment. Lucille comforts him and says she will "take care of it." She visits Oscar at his trailer in the lemon grove and makes him buy the land back, which he does because he loves her. She uses the money to buy Mr. Jordan off the board and puts herself in his place, solving the Bluth Company's problems but creating a problem for Michael.
Episode notes
- This is Oscar's first appearance.
- Buster never appears in this episode (it is explained that he is getting surgery in Canada).
- When Lindsay is getting off the bus to join the protesters, we can see a man holding the same freedom sign used in the pilot; also the "Freedom" song is again played in the background.
- On the next...: "Michael finds having his mother on the board problematic, Lindsay finds her true calling, and Oscar comes a-courtin'."
Cultural references
- Actor Dave "Gruber" Allen guest stars as an activist who says to Lindsay Fünke, "Face it Lindsay, they've won" when the protesters are forced out of the "free speech zone." This is a reference to the Freaks and Geeks episode "The Little Things," in which Allen (as guidance counselor Mr. Rosso) tells his student Lindsay Weir the same thing.
- All You Need Is Smiles - Refers to "All You Need Is Love" by The Beatles
- Bad Girls - The song Lindsay dances to while being hosed down is Donna Summer's "Bad Girls." It's also the song she plays to try to attract Tobias. (He rebuffs her so he can continue reading “Acting: Like a Man,” which reinforces her desire to have an affair.)
- Bluth Company board/employees are incompetent - To illustrate his point that he wants all Bluth company to report corrupt practices, Michael distributes whistles at board meeting; the board members then start blowing them and disrupting the meeting. Michael has to play the "father figure" and admonish them to return the whistles.
- David Cassidy – Oscar claims to have written the David Cassidy song “All You Need Is Smiles,” which he was supposed to sing on the The Mike Douglas Show. He plays a recording of it when he comes to "court" Lucille. In the next episode Oscar can be seen wearing a David Cassidy tour jacket at the soccer game.
- Free speech zone - Lindsay is put in a "free speech zone," a large cage, during her protest. The free speech zone is placed in a remote location; the same thing occurred in Pittsburgh on Labor Day in 2002.
- Say Anything - Oscar holds his radio over his head when he comes to court Lucille, spoofing John Cusack from the movie.
- War In Iraq - When Lindsay announces her intent to protest the war, Maeby points out that Lindsay once dismissed this Iraq War as having happened ten years ago (she confuses it with the first Gulf War).
- The title of the episode is a reference to the painting "Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist's Mother," popularly known as "Whistler's Mother," by James McNeill Whistler.
- When Lucille arrives at Oscar's trailer in the lemon grove, an episode featuring Gob's Mr. Banana-grabber ("Charity Drive") is playing on Oscar's television.
- Tobias is gay – “I would like to remake Annie Hall. I wouldn't want to work with a green producer like a Sophia Coppola... But give me an old pro like Robert Redford, and I’d jump into bed with him in a second."
- The Shawshank Redemption - Maeby jokingly suggests that George Sr. could tunnel through the prison's sewer system to escape.
Callbacks
- Lindsay telling Tobias that she wants to be a cage dancer, and specifically her gleeful squeal afterward, parallels when Tobias told her his dream to become an actor in the Pilot.
Foreshadowing
- Gob says that "people love to carbo-load," possibly foreshadowing the upcoming episode "Let 'Em Eat Cake," in which the Bluth family goes on the Atkins diet.
- Oscar greets Michael with a shoulder rub and "Hey, nephew," much like Buster does.
- In a flashback, Lucille comforts a high-school age Michael, stating that she will "have a little chat with Mr. Vandenbosch," his algebra teacher. Mr. Vandenbosch disappears the following day. In "Development Arrested," Michael discovers that Lucille was the criminal mastermind behind all the crimes committed by the Bluth Company, including the deportation of Annyong's grandfather, the original creator of the frozen banana.
- When Lucille confronts Oscar in the lemon grove, he is seen wearing a pin in the shape of a hand.
Hidden/background jokes
- When speaking in the coffee shop with Michael, Oscar passes gas frequently. When the two are in Oscar's lemon grove, Michael is seen stepping away from Oscar slowly, implying that he has passed gas again.
- Maeby tells George Michael that she has seen the secret hair no one is supposed to know about. Maeby is referring to Oscar's hair, but George Michael at first thinks she means pubic hair.
- Tobias is referred to as "just laid there" several times in the episode. Once by Lindsay and twice by himself.
Character cameos
External links