WARNING: The following contains spoilers for "Colt Express," the penultimate episode of Archer'sSeason 12, which aired Wednesday on FXX.
Archer'sSeason 12revealed more about the Agency's inner workings. Although the team has been largely successful in their missions,they're pushed to the brink by rival Fabian Kingsworth (Kayvan Novak) and the interference of Lana's husbandRobert (Stephen Tobolowsky). Astensions build to a head in "Colt Express," theteam gains a surprising ally in Colt (Eric André), who bonds with the Agency's longtime mad scientist, Krieger.
During an exclusive interview with CBR, Lucky Yates revealed his love for Eric Andre's bonkers scientist joining theArcher universe. Yates alsoreflected on the growth of the series overall and teasedArcher's Season 12 finale,the last episode starring the late Jessica Walter.
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CBR: So, we have to start with the obvious: Krieger has a new best friend, and he's played by Eric Andre!
Lucky Yates:Oh man. It continued to wow me when I read the script. It was a long time ago that I recorded it. So watching it again, I'd forgotten throughout the episode how similar they are. It's hilarious. And that Ragnar Rockington, that hologram was is just so brilliant.
Getting to see two of them, bouncing off each other -- especially with how we're not quite conditioned to Colt's brand of weirdness -- it really reminds you how fundamentally odd of a character Krieger is.
Krieger is a type of scientist. A modern-day, mad scientist-type is going to be super odd. And man, there are so many good Krieger moments... I forgot how many because I really remembered the episode from last week ["Dingo, Baby, Et Cetera"] because Krieger never goes on missions. And so that's an episode that really stuck with me because I was like, "Oh man, Krieger got to go on a mission. That's so cool." I forgot how much he was in this one and how hilarious it all is. He finally gets a mad scientist moment, in the beginning, throwing a big switch!
What was it like seeing Eric Andre step into this role of Krieger's surprise counterpart?
So great. He's killed it, man. He's so hilarious.Can we say spin-off?
Eric Andre is absolutely hilarious in it. Like he just really mines every line for gold. It's just really hilarious. Honored to share an episode with him.Krieger finally gets to have a playmate and, oh man, there's more of those in the world. That's sad [for the rest of the Agency]. Are they sad because there's more, or are they sad because they thought they had the only one and that's why they're a little bit more special? I ask you.
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On top of Colt making his return, this episode sees the return of Ray -- and he's been working for IIA andFabian Kingsworth! But it speaks to the work-family unit you've spoken about being at the core of the show because he jeopardizes everything to help Archer.
Yeah, I got to go f*ck this up with you idiots. There goes my future because you showed up. Brilliant. That's the thing, ultimately the entire main cast will all sacrifice themselves for the good of the group. And so, Ray completely throws away the sweet life that he has built on the side with IIA. Just like, "Yeah, I'm not going to do this now."
This episode also delves further into Lana's increasingly troubled relationship with Robert. Now both Archer and Cyril -- two men who cheated on her during their relationship with her -- are calling her out for, as Cyril puts it, her "growing similarities with Archer." What has it been like, seeing these characters you've been effectively working with for over a decade, continue to evolve in interesting ways?
It's amazing that... I will say because we've opened up a pool of writers and people that have absolutely been fans, clearly been fans, that are laying it out there, because they know what the heart of the show is. When the rest of us are so deep into it, we're just only looking at going forward and all that kind of stuff. It's tough to remember sometimes at the very core of this show are these very simple, beautiful ideas that you don't really play up a lot further down the road, especially when there's a single writer. [Series Creator Adam Reed] wrote like nine seasons. He didn't want to keep writing the same ideas and stuff. You want to keep developing and furthering.
So it's really beautiful to see these ideas of family and them laying themselves on the line for each other and all that kind of stuff brought to the light again in really great scripts, I think, really hilarious scripts, and the end of this episode's funny. But anyway, yeah, I really attribute it to just the great writing that's going on right now. Casey Willis too, our showrunner, our executive producer, I really should give him a lot of credit too, because he really is the guy who shapes all the mud at the beginning before it goes on to its various people. He is just really knocking it out of the park.
We're still learning new things about the characters, which is great. Adding backstories that just weren't there. Not that it was lacking it, but given those kinds of nuggets, like last week's episode, is really what I'm talking about, just giving that rich history to the characters because you know when somebody's such a dick like Archer is that there are layers and layers and layers under them and then you're like, "Oh man..." You can see them, really get sort of humanized. There are tons to be mined from all of these characters. Jesus, Pam alone.
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This episode also ends on a genuine cliffhanger -- which uses to be a lot more common practice for the show in the early years, before they took on more season-long overarching plotlines. What's it like seeing that element brought back to the forefront?
Right. Well, and early on the first few seasons, we used to do that. The final two episodes [ofanArcher season]were always connected. They were always sort of one big story. The first of the two would be cliffhanger-y of like, "Oh no, trouble! Pick up and see what happens next week." And then we really just started getting away from that because, again, Adam wants to break new ground and try new things and all that kind of stuff. So it is fun to get back to like the old tried and true. This is where the show is. This is great. I love it.
As we head into the season finale, is there anything you're particularly excited about for next week's episode? Obviously, you can't spoil anything, but are there any teases you can share?
Sadly, it is Jessica's last episode. So if for anything, just what's going to go on there.
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