Altar Egos (Arrested Development)

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"Altar Egos"
Arrested Development episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 17
Directed byJay Chandrasekhar
Written byBarbie Feldman Adler
Cinematography byGreg Harrington
Editing byLee Haxall
Production code1AJD16
Original air dateMarch 17, 2004 (2004-03-17)
Running time22 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"Justice Is Blind"
Arrested Development season 1
List of episodes

"Altar Egos" is the seventeenth episode[a] of the first season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It was written by producer Barbie Feldman Adler and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. It originally aired on Fox on March 17, 2004,[2] and was the highest watched episode of the series, with 9.62 million viewers.[3]

The series, narrated by Ron Howard, follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family, who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of Michael, his twin-sister Lindsay, his older brother Gob, his younger brother Buster, their mother Lucille and father George Sr., as well as Michael's son George Michael, and Lindsay and her husband Tobias' daughter Maeby. In the episode, Michael has a deceitful one-night stand with Maggie, a blind prosecutor who is arguing against his father, while Gob marries a woman (Will Arnett's then-wife Amy Poehler) he has just met, and George Sr. uses an undercover FBI agent who has fallen for him for information on the case.

Plot

Michael (Jason Bateman) and the family gather to discuss George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor)'s upcoming trial, where lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) reveals that they've received a plea offer, which Lucille (Jessica Walters), speaking for George Sr., wants to accept. Cindi Lightballoon (Jane Lynch), an undercover FBI agent, falls in love with George Sr., and tells him that she knows for a fact that he can beat the government's case against him. Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) receives a letter from Maeby (Alia Shawkat)'s school saying that her daughter is failing, so she and Tobias hire George Michael (Michael Cera) to tutor Maeby.

Michael sits down to read the plea, but Gob (Will Arnett) suggests he have a one-night stand with a lawyer instead. As Michael reads the plea, Maggie Lizer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), bumps into him, and he introduces himself as "Chareth Cutestory," a maritime lawyer, and goes home with Maggie. The following morning, Michael realizes that Maggie is blind, while George Sr. presses Cindi for information about his case, where Lucille catches him and storms away. When Michael comes home, Gob tells him that he had got married a previous during a series of escalating dares.[b]

Michael then has his second date with Maggie, and George Sr. is approached by Cindi, who tells him she knows for a fact he will be set free, but is then revealed that she misunderstood "faith is a facet" for "faith is a fact." At the high school, Maeby pays George Michael to do an essay for her, then runs off. George Michael then attends the fundraiser for "Surely Fünke," where he discovers that Maeby has been collecting charity money by posing as a dying girl in a wheelchair. At the courthouse, Michael meets up with his family, and neither he nor Barry have read the plea deal. George Sr. decides to take the plea even though no one has read it, and the hearing gets underway, where Maggie is the prosecutor. Michael later visits Maggie, and she hands him the Bluth case file so he can advise her about it.

On the next Arrested Development...

Maeby attempts to deposit her check from the Surely Fünke fundraiser, and Gob adapts to married life. Tobias breaks into Maggie's house to steal evidence, where she is revealed to not really be blind.

Production

"Altar Egos" was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by producer Barbie Feldman Adler.[2] It was Chandrasekhar's third directing credit and Feldman Adler's second writing credit.[4] It was the sixteenth episode of the season to be filmed after the pilot,[5] and the fourth of Fox's second episode order for the season.[6]

Reception

The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode and it's follow up, "Justice Is Blind", saying "they're a prime example of how [Arrested Development]'s writers, cast and crew can sustain an intricate, comedically fertile, largely self-contained story for longer than just 22 minutes."[7] In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode as the 15th best of the whole series, saying it "serves up hysterical performances and characteristically ridiculous plots".[8] In the United States, the episode was watched by 9.62 million viewers on its original broadcast, an all time high for the series, and an increase of over 4 million viewers from the previously aired episode, "Staff Infection".[3]

Notes

  1. ^ The episode is listed as the seventeenth episode of the season on the DVD collection,[1] but originally aired as the sixteenth episode.
  2. ^ Gob's wife is played by Arnett's then-wife Amy Poehler.

References

  1. ^ "DVD Talk". www.dvdtalk.com. Archived from the original on 2023-11-28. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
  2. ^ a b Manager, Mr (2020-07-05). "Season 1, Episode 17: Altar Egos". Deconstructing Arrested Development. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  3. ^ a b "Disney General Entertainment Press – Disney General Entertainment Press". Archived from the original on 2014-10-10. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
  4. ^ "Arrested Development". directories.wga.org. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  5. ^ "20th Century Fox - Fox In Flight". 2011-10-30. Archived from the original on 2011-10-30. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  6. ^ "Arrested Development: "Beef Consommé"/"Shock And Aww"". The A.V. Club. 2011-07-20. Archived from the original on 2024-07-08. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  7. ^ "Arrested Development: "Altar Egos"/"Justice Is Blind"". The A.V. Club. 2011-08-10. Archived from the original on 2024-07-09. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
  8. ^ Tallerico, Brian (2019-03-18). "Every Episode of Arrested Development, Ranked". Vulture. Archived from the original on 2020-07-08. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
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