The writers of Archer almost gave me a heart attack this week.

On Archer Season 5 Episode 11, I actually thought, for a harrowing few seconds, that Pam Poovey was dead.

Watch Archer Season 5 Episode 11 Online

I was both devastated and impressed when I saw her lying there. I believe Adam Reed is ballsy enough to kill a main character - he did revamp the show's entire concept this season, so this wasn't a stretch.

Also, for another second, I thought we'd see Archer go on a rampage, which is something I would have LOVED to see. Pam's death would have raised the stakes a bit. 

Anyway, all that speculation was for naught, as Pam was quite alive and well. As last week, there was barely any mention of her cocaine addiction. I suppose if she can survive a coke addiction cold turkey, a bullet is no big deal.

Besides the near heart failure, I enjoyed this episode. The characters all had some interesting moments and the story seems to be moving along nicely. 

My poor Krieger-San! I was honestly surprised at how callous the group was about Krieger's absence. He's a pretty integral part of the team, even though he does make idiot mods and occasionally turns Ray into his robotic slave. 

Watching his friends soundly reject him drove him into the arms of his mad scientist clone brothers, who seem to be even more off their hinges than Krieger.

I think the fact that he was the only one with a bow tie might mean there's something special about our Krieger. (Though really, that could just be for us to tell him apart from the clones.) Though Frogchild's got nothing on Piggly. Or Goatly.

We're still not sure what the story is behind the existence of the clones, though we know they're up to no good. All will be revealed in time. You know how we love annoying vaguery.

I never thought I'd say this, but the funniest one this episode was...Cyril Figgis. I was in absolute hysterics when he "woke up" singing "Stayin' Alive," his soliloquy imitating Malory in the garage was hilarious, and I was absolutely done when he pointed the tank at Archer. Cyril was on fire this week. 

As for Sterling himself, his journey on the road to relative maturity seems to have hit a wall. The character growth we've seen earlier this season has stagnated, and I'm unsure why that is. There's only two episodes left this season, so we'll see where this all goes. 

Well, now Cherlene is married to the dictator of San Marcos, and it looks like Cyril just took the palace. Not to mention Krieger's clones are building a nuclear warhead. I can't wait for next week!

This was a fun episode, and it was densely packed with cultural references, callbacks and recurring jokes.  Just the way we like Archer.

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