This post was written by Hatchet reporters Allison Kowalski and Andrew Avrick.
Hatchet reporters woke up at 3 a.m. on the East Coast to binge-watch Season 4 of Arrested Development, released May 26, and chronicle one of the 15 new episodes every day.
Episode 10: “Queen B.”
Gene Parmesan appearances: 1
Number of Country Club Prison gangs: 1
Best one-liner: “This toast has hook holes. Again!” – Lucille
Centered around: Lucille Bluth
Two-thirds through the season is a pretty late introduction for our matriarch plot line, but the writers must be saving the meatier stories for last. Especially after the bomb last season, where we found out that Lucille (Jessica Walter) was the mastermind behind the dealing in Iraq, it’s exciting to see the story filtered through her evil mastermind. And we’re not disappointed.
It’s Lucille’s turn to spend some time away for what she’s done, but instead of the ice cream sandwich-serving men’s prison George (Jeffrey Tambor) attended, she’s comfortably set in what’s effectively a resort with an ankle bracelet.
We’re also back to some unsettling racist humor. In jail, Lucille joins a gang, known as “The Real Asian Prison Housewives of Orange County,” which is just three other Asian women who speak loudly in thick accents and eventually attempt to stab Lucille with a sharpened noodle. Again, the show has done great bits playing off of the obviously offensive, but when it’s not funny, it just seems cheap and uncomfortable.
Luckily Lucille schemes her way out of jail, and comes home to find all her items labeled with the names of her family members: they’ve claimed her belongings while she was away. Her release also comes with stipulations that she attends Lucille 2’s (Liza Minelli) clinic, and shows up in the middle of Tobias’ (David Cross) play, where she takes over the stage as a villain (surprise, surprise). Lucille’s revelation towards the end where she mistakes Tobias’ recasting from the villain to the invisible woman as insightful therapy is arguably the most human we’ve ever seen her, yet she still manages to stay sharp and conniving.
Unsurprisingly, the setup of this season has shown us that the most flamboyant and outrageous characters shine in their episodes (Gob and Lucille), while other peripheral characters only used as side-gags tended to flop (Michael and Lindsay). It’ll be interesting to see if these last few episodes stand by that.
