Altar Egos

"Altar Egos"
Arrested Development episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 17
Directed by	Jay Chandrasekhar
Written by	Barbara Feldman
Production code	1AJD16
Original air date	March 17, 2004
Guest stars
Amy Poehler as Wife of G.O.B. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Maggie Lizer James Lipton as Warden Stefan Gentles Jane Lynch as Cindi Lightballoon
Season 1 episodes
November 2003 – June 2004 Pilot Top Banana Bringing Up Buster Key Decisions Visiting Ours Charity Drive My Mother, the Car In God We Trust Storming the Castle Pier Pressure Public Relations Marta Complex Beef Consommé Shock and Aww Staff Infection Missing Kitty Altar Egos Justice Is Blind Best Man for the Gob Whistler's Mother Not Without My Daughter Let 'Em Eat Cake
All Arrested Development episodes

"Altar Egos" is the seventeenth episode (though originally aired as sixteenth) of the TV comedy series Arrested Development.

Plot

Michael Bluth and family gather to discuss George Sr.’s upcoming trial. They've received a plea offer, but lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn hasn’t read it yet because he is too busy picking up cross-dressing prostitutes. Lucille, speaking for George Sr., wants to accept the plea because he needs a woman back in his life. However, George Sr. already has a woman in his life - Cindi Lightballoon, an undercover FBI agent who had watched George Sr.’s "Caged Wisdom" series of self-help videos and fell in love with him. She tells George Sr. that she knows for a fact that he can beat the government's case against him, so George Sr. wants to go to trial. Michael takes the plea documents to a nearby bar to read.

Meanwhile, Lindsay receives a letter from Maeby’s school saying that her daughter is failing 9th grade. Lindsay and Tobias hire George Michael to tutor Maeby. Later, Maeby shows George Michael a recent (failed) test and pays him to fill in the correct answers instead of actually tutoring her. George Michael wonders where the money came from.

At the bar near the courthouse, Michael sits down to read the plea, but Gob suggests he have a one-night stand with a lawyer instead. As Michael reads the plea, a woman, Maggie Lizer, bumps into him and they talk. Michael, following Gob's advice, introduces himself as "Chareth Cutestory," maritime lawyer; he goes home with Maggie. The following morning, Michael wonders how to end the one-night stand. Maggie appears with coffee and he suddenly realizes that she is blind; now he cannot just dump her.

George Sr. presses Cindi Lightballoon for information about his case, and then starts tweaking her nipples through the prison yard fence. Lucille catches him and storms away, threatening divorce. Michael comes home, upset that his one night stand is still not over. Gob is there, also upset, because last night he got married during a series of escalating dares. Later, an unenthusiastic Michael arrives at the park for his second date with Maggie.

While working on a chain gang, George Sr. is approached by Cindi, who tells him she knows for a fact he will be set free. Actually, Cindi misunderstood one of his "Caged Wisdom" tapes in which he said faith was a "fact" instead of "facet"; that bit appeared only on the bonus blooper reel. At the high school, Maeby pays George Michael to do an essay for her, then runs off to a fundraiser for a sick girl. George Michael, curious, 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, having still not read the plea. Zuckerkorn hasn't read it either: he's working on George and Lucille's divorce. George Sr. decides to take the plea even though no one has read it. Lucille forgives him. The hearing gets underway; Maggie Lizer is the prosecutor, the toughest one in Orange County because her blindness wins sympathy from the judges, the juries, and often the defendants themselves. Michael later visits Maggie, who, still believing he is a lawyer, hands him the Bluth case file so he can advise her about it. Michael is stuck with an ethical dilemma.

Episode notes

• Episode 18, "Missing Kitty," was originally intended to come before this and the next episode.
• This episode and the following episode Justice is Blind are regarded as a two-parter, as all the storylines continue on and nothing is resolved in Part 1.
• The title is a play on the term “alter ego,” referring to Michael's alias Chareth Cutestory, Maggie Lizer's pretending to be a blind person, Cindi's job as a mole, and Maeby's confidence trick as a disabled girl. The word "altar" refers to the fact that Gob gets married in this episode.
• Proving he is a Milford man, Buster is neither seen nor heard in this episode.
• In the "On the next Arrested Development..." section, a Cornballer (a now-illegal product marketed by George Sr.) can be seen on Maggie Lizer's kitchen table. Also, it shows Maggie stalking Tobias with a baseball bat, one of the few times this segment shows a scene that indeed occurs in the following episode.
• On the next...: "Maeby attempts to deposit her cheque. G.O.B. adapts to married life. Tobias is sent to break into Maggie’s house to steal evidence, only to discover that she’s not blind."

Cultural references

• Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler, Fonz on Happy Days) does the "Fonz" pose in the bathroom mirror.
• Cindi Lightballoon (Jane Lynch) is seen in front of a fake pet grooming truck. In the movie Best in Show, she played a professional dog groomer.

Character cameos

• Gob's wife - This marks the first appearance of Gob's wife, played by Will Arnett's real-life spouse, Amy Poehler.
• Maggie Lizer - This is the first appearance of Maggie Lizer, who will return in the following episode, followed by another two-parter in Season 2.

Foreshadowing

• Maggie opens her front door near the end of the episode and immediately recognizes Michael - a subtle hint at the twist (revealed in the "On the next Arrested Development..." tag) that she is faking her blindness.

External links

• "Altar Egos" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Altar Egos" at TV.com
• "Altar Egos" at The-OP.com