7x04 Motherless Child

Quality episode. I have to admit, I've grown a little worn out by Barry. There's nothing wrong with the character, he's just gotten a little played out and they needed to find a different direction for him. I don't know if this was it exactly, and in truth he was mostly up to his old schtick, but he and Archer have a good, funny dynamic that was particularly enjoyable when the two of them were in the cab together. Barry is understandably resentful of Archer, and Archer is kind of oblivious, lightly vindictive in that trademark jocular Archer way, and the clashes between them are usually entertaining because of it.

But the highlight of the episode was Mallory being locked in the underground chamber and finding her way out. Jessica Walter has such a verve in her world weary wit, to where when she's talking about the various steps of escape, it's enjoyable how acerbic she can be (like when she sees the Archer graffiti and realizes in a delightfully cutting fashion that someone blaming this on Archer doesn't narrow down her list of possible assailants much). Plus, it's also nice to see her being a bit of a badass spy herself, whether it's finding her way out of a SAW-like cell, or manhandling a truck driver. (And the Ron Cadillac cameo was great!).

Overall, there was a lot of the fun group dynamic in the A-story with the group trying to find out who Barry's mom is. Krieger in particular got to shine a bit, both from helping Archer with his electrocution plan (I assume Archer knows about the whole Edison thing from his brief time as Bob Belcher watching "Electric Love"), comforting his transgender frog, and the reveal that he has masks and gloves for each member of the former ISIS team. There wasn't as much narrative momentum to go with the laughs--Barry's plan felt more like an excuse to get everyone together than something that really drove the story--but the laughs were good, so the episode largely still worked.