Exit Strategy (Arrested Development)

"Exit Strategy"
Arrested Development episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 12
Directed by	Rebecca E. Asher
Written by	Mitchell Hurwitz Jim Vallely
Production code	3AJD12
Original air date	February 10, 2006
Guest stars
John Michael Higgins as Wayne Jarvis Bronwen Masters as Adelaide Richard Belzer as Detective Munch Gary Cole as Richard Shaw
Season 3 episodes
September 2005 – February 2006 The Cabin Show For British Eyes Only Forget-Me-Now Notapusy Mr. F The Ocean Walker Prison Break-In Making a Stand S.O.B.s Fakin' It Family Ties Exit Strategy Development Arrested
All Arrested Development episodes

"Exit Strategy" is the 12th episode of season three and fifty-second episode overall of the TV comedy series Arrested Development.

Synopsis

Michael Bluth is preparing his sister for her upcoming deposition in the case against their father. But she can not focus on the task at hand, as she had a lot to drink the night before. So did Tobias, who was trying to fortify himself for a sexual encounter with his wife of many years. But Tobias has a low tolerance, so Lindsay finished the bottle of vodka herself, thinking vodka goes bad once it is opened.

Tobias announces that he cannot be deposed, as he has been called by the prosecution, which asked for old photos and documents. Tobias happily grabs them from the model home's secret room and puts them in a box, thinking that he is auditioning for a role on a new CBS drama.

In the kitchen, George Michael nervously tells the family that Maeby's birthday is coming up. He suggests throwing her a surprise party, an event he has already informed Maeby about after she complained that her parents probably did not even know her birthday was on the horizon. Tobias decides on the spot to go buy Maeby a present.

Then G.O.B. enters and informs Michael he is going to be performing in a USO show in Iraq. Considering that their father is being tried for treason for building homes in Iraq, Michael thinks this is a fairly bad idea. But G.O.B. insists he is going, despite his brother's protests and he had been doing his Christian magic act, including his walking on water and wine into water illusions.

Later that day, Tobias meets with Wayne Jarvis. Again, this is not an audition, despite what Tobias thinks - something that Jarvis coldly reminds him of. Jarvis offers Tobias a deal if he can put George Sr. behind bars. But because Jarvis pans Tobias' acting, he angrily turns down their offer. But as he waits for the elevator, a flyer catches Tobias' eye: an advertisement for a scrap booking class. He thinks this will make a perfect gift for Maeby, not knowing the ad was actually a trap set by Jarvis.

Meanwhile, Michael goes to confront his father about G.O.B.'s trip to Iraq. George Sr. explains that he needs a way to get off the hook. Buster went into a coma, Lucille was taking Lindsay to rehab, he was running out of options. Michael complains that he will have to ask the prosecution for a delay, and then warns his family not to make a liar out of him by skipping rehab.

But Buster finds his coma increasingly hard to withstand. His mother offers his body to doctors, dentists and beauticians in training to practice very painful techniques on his supposedly unconscious body. But he endures it all for Adelaide, the nurse who fell in love with his limp form. When she tells Buster she wants to hear him say anything, even if that would mean he was faking the coma, he says "anything". Adelaide slaps him, calls him a coward and a faker and berates herself for allowing herself to fall in love with a comatose man. Buster tries to follow her as she runs off, but he has not used his legs in three weeks.

Michael meets with Wayne Jarvis, assuring him that no family members is in hiding. Jarvis informs him that surveillance tapes show that the two women who checked in to Shady Palms under Lindsey and Lucille's names are clearly not his relatives. Buster had made fifteen phone calls to radio stations while supposedly in a coma. Lastly, G.O.B. is in Iraq, being held in jail as an insurgent.

Michael is called to sign Buster out of the hospital. Buster is despondent over Adelaide calling him a coward. Michael tells him that he has to travel to Iraq to get G.O.B. out of prison. Buster begs Michael to let him come along. He can prove to Adelaide that he is a hero, and use his limited Army training and Arabic language skills to boot.

The depositions are delayed, but the prosecution is about to get a bagful of evidence, thanks to Tobias falling for their scrap booking sting. Meanwhile, Lindsay and Lucille are at a spa in the desert, avoiding both rehab and their depositions. Unfortunately, it is a dry resort.

Michael and Buster check out of the hospital. Adelaide overhears Buster mention their trip to Iraq, which makes her think Buster is a hero again. After saying goodbye to Adelaide, Michael and Buster leave for Iraq, on "Operation Hot Brother," as Buster calls it. As they leave, George Sr. is admitted to the hospital, now in a fake coma of his own.

George Michael, meanwhile, gets a hold of Maeby's address book to invite all of her friends to her secret Sweet 16. And the guys finally get to Iraq, arriving at the prison the Americans are training the Iraqis to run. G.O.B. is thrilled to see his brothers and informs Michael that he was arrested for doing street magic. But what got him in trouble was doing "the late, great Jesus' biggest illusion, the 'Burning Bush.'" When the bush caught fire, the crowd began chanting "Burn Bush!" and soon it looked like G.O.B. was leading an anti-American rally.

G.O.B. confesses to Michael that George Sr. asked him to burn a few model homes in Sadr City if he had the time, but now he is ready to go. Michael tells him he was deemed an enemy combatant, and perhaps is going anywhere for a while. But they are actually released quite easily, which arouses Michael's suspicions. Michael then decides to go check out one of the model homes in question.

There, they find somebody the U.S. government has been able to depose, one of Saddam's many body doubles who lives with many other body doubles. The men are quite polite, so Michael offers to fix their air conditioning. But first, he decides to see if this model home also has a secret room. It does, and inside, Michael finds a bombshell: an actual bombshell.

Back at the American model home, none of the invitees show for Maeby's birthday party. The invitations reading, "Guess Who's Turning 16?" have exposed Maeby's secret and cost her the studio job. Alone, Maeby and George Michael help themselves to some wine, not aware that it is the fake wine from G.O.B.'s magic show.

Back in Iraq, the Bluth boys stare at the nuclear warhead in the secret room. Their American cab driver, who is actually an undercover CIA agent by the name of Richard Shaw, comes in and busts them, which explains why it was so easy to get G.O.B. out of prison. In fact, they had given G.O.B. multiple chances to break out. Then one of the fake Saddams points out the warhead was a fake made by Homefill, the same company that made fake home decorations for the Bluth model home. But inside the hollow shell is a U.S. government tape recorder. Richard Shaw calls Langley, where he learns the government got George Sr. to build houses in Iraq so they could wire them.

Back home, George Michael and Maeby are "drunk" on fake wine. George Michael tries to console Maeby by telling her Lucille once confided that Lindsay never got pregnant. Maeby is touched by her cousin's kindness in arranging a surprise party for her and, because of this, as well as the possibility that they may not be cousins, the two end up passionately kissing and finally reach "second base".

In Iraq, Michael finally learns that his father actually was a patsy, used by the government through a British building company, just like George Sr. had always claimed. Unfortunately, now that they know this, the CIA agent is going to have to kill them. However, Buster has already sent cell phone pictures of everything to Adelaide. Michael hints that the pictures can be kept secret if they were set free. Richard Shaw agrees to let them go, and now in a bargaining position, the Bluth boys are able to negotiate direct flights home, and that the treason charges against George Sr. are dropped. And so, with Operation Hot Brother a success, they return home.

Episode notes

• This episode was the third of four episodes, a two-hour series finale that aired on Fox.
• This episode's title refers to the fact that the family is searching for a way out of their depositions, many people are seeking an exit strategy for the Iraq War, and the fact that it was indeed an "exit strategy" on behalf of the writers, as they had to write a conclusion for many storylines at once here (namely George Sr.'s "light treason" charges). The title is also a callback to a line from "Charity Drive".
• This episode is the second episode where the Bluths go to a different country, the first being in "¡Amigos!", when Michael, George Michael, Maeby, Lindsay, Ann and G.O.B. go to Mexico.
• The scenes that take place in the Iraqi model home were shot on the same set as the original with some modifications. The footage was mirrored in post-production so that the layout of the two houses were opposite of each other.

Cultural references

• Dick Cheney In Iraq, many of the roads appear to have been renamed after U.S. political figures. Richard Shaw mentions "the Cheney Expressway was backed up all the way to Halliburton Drive," referring to Dick Cheney's former position as CEO of Halliburton Energy Services, and the corporation's role in the rebuilding of Iraq.
  • Later, Buster can be heard saying "Take Condoleezza Rice Lane. It's quicker."
  • Early in the episode when Michael and Buster are in the cab, Buster states "He said he is taking service streets to LAX because the free way is backed up all the way to Knott's Berry Farm."
• Enron Former Enron chairman Ken Lay’s scrapbook, “Where The Money’s Buried,” includes a line going into an elephant’s ass (i.e., the G.O.P./republican party of the USA, whose logo is an elephant).
• George W. Bush When G.O.B. performs an illusion called "The Burning Bush" at his Christian magic show, the crowd misinterprets this as anti-Bush sentiment, and begins to pull out effigies of George W. Bush to burn.
• Law & Order John Munch, a character from Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU played by Richard Belzer, has a minor role in this episode. When the camera pans up to reveal him, a piece of Law & Order-style sting music plays.
• Martha Stewart Martha Stewart’s scrapbook, “My Secret Stock Tips” reads “Up Yours G-Men.”
• Mickey Rourke The Narrator is surprised that George Michael invited Mickey Rourke to Maeby's birthday party, a notorious Hollywood actor who's had his fair share of controversy.
• Oliver North Oliver North’s “Too Precious to Shred” scrapbook includes a letter, “From the Office of the President: Oliver, Thanks for all the secret work! - RR” referring to Ronald Reagan.
• Saddam Hussein A video of the Saddam trial is shown, which is dubbed so that Saddam is claiming that he is just a lookalike and that the real Saddam has a scar on his head.
• Songs It is revealed Buster has made 15 phone calls to radio stations alternately requesting "I Will Survive" and "She's Out Of My Life".
• Vagina Monologues Tobias decides to do a Vagina Monologue for what he believes is an audition for a CBS show.
• Alias When Michael and Buster arrive in Iraq, "IRAQ" flashes on the screen, then zooms forward as the "camera" passes through the last letter (which is see-through), in a style nearly identical to how locales were revealed on Alias. Alias was mentioned twice before on Arrested Development - once when Tobias suggested that he wanted his own "Alias-type show" and once when Buster said that "Alias is a show about a spy!"
• Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse When Michael tells Buster and George Michael G.O.B. is in a U.S. run prison he says "God knows what they're doing to him."
• The Golden Girls Lucille and Lindsay go to a rehab called Shady Pines, the name of the nursing home Sophia escaped from.

Callbacks/running jokes

• Illusions When describing his Christian magic act to Michael, G.O.B. mentions that Michael has already seen his "walk on water" illusion, a reference to the ending of "The Ocean Walker".
• "Come on!" G.O.B. once again uses his catch phrase, ending all the flashbacks in Iraqi prison with it. G.O.B. first said "Come on!" this way in "Afternoon Delight".
• Phoenix G.O.B. mentions Phoenix, the destination Michael always threatens to flee to, when he demands business-class airplane tickets.
• Duck George Michael ducks out of the way when Michael throws the keys at him. George Michael first did this in "Notapusy".
• Homefill Michael mentions that the bombshell is a Homefill, the company that makes fake items for model homes. Homefill was first mentioned in "Burning Love".
• I'm No Scar (dot com) Saddam Hussein's plea of "I'm No Scar. Dot com," mirroring Oscar's "I'm Oscar. Dot com" plea in "The Cabin Show".
  • Fake sites from Fox were built for both www.imoscar.com and www.imnoscar.com; the latter mirrored the first one, with the exception of the fact that it was written in Arabic, and the pictures of Oscar and George Sr. were replaced with pictures of Saddam and the lookalike. The sites have since been taken down.
  • The Arabic text on www.imnoscar.com was actually just meaningless gibberish written in Arabic text. Furthermore, the text on the website seemed to be written from left to right, while Arabic is written from right to left. It is unclear whether this mistake was intentional.
  • No matter how many times www.imnoscar.com was visited, the counter at the bottom of the page always said you were the 42nd visitor.
• Ice Cream More references are made to the Bluths' love of ice cream.
  • G.O.B. and Buster say that the bombshell in the model home makes them want to have an ice cream cone.
  • Richard Shaw says "You'll have plenty of time for ice cream in prison. Ice cream sandwiches," referring to George Sr.'s love affair with ice cream sandwiches when he was in prison.
  • When the Bluths are bargaining with Richard Shaw, Buster demands some ice cream.
• John Wayne The hospital is named John Wayne General Hospital, a reference to Tobias earlier noting John Wayne naming airports after himself in the episode "Good Grief."
• Lucille's Fibs Lucille has invented numerous fibs in an effort to consume more alcohol, all of which she has passed on to Lindsay.
  • Lindsay says that Vodka goes bad when it's opened.
  • Maeby later says "Would it kill her to let some Vodka go bad?", to which George Michael replies "Oh no, Vodka doesn't..."
  • Lindsay says that wine only turns into alcohol if you let it sit.
  • Lindsay appears to think that grape juice might turn into wine if you take the top off it and let it sit.
• Robot G.O.B. calls Michael a robot when he realises he isn't crying. G.O.B. first said this about Michael in "The Cabin Show" and "S.O.B.s"
• Soup Nazi In "For British Eyes Only" George Sr. had claimed about a meeting with Saddam Hussein that he thought it had been the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. In this episode the actor who played the Soup Nazi, Larry Thomas, does in fact make an uncredited appearance as one of the Saddam impersonators. He plays the second impersonator who speaks.fact
• Switch The people who check into Shady Pines under the names Lucille Bluth and Lindsay Fünke appear to be Lupe and a younger Latino woman, possibly Lupe's daughter.
  • Lupe is wearing Lucille-style clothing, likely some of Lucille's actual clothes.
  • The fake Lindsay that checks into Shady Pines is wearing Lindsay’s “Slut” shirt, first seen in "My Mother, the Car".
• "That's okay, try again" When any of the students who are practicing on Buster make a mistake, their teacher will encourage them, usually using the words "That's okay, try again." Later on, the Americans can be seen saying this to the Iraqis who they are training as soldiers.
• Tobias is gay Numerous jokes are made about Tobias' questionable sexuality.
  • At the meeting with the prosecutor Wayne Jarvis, thinking it's an audition for a CBS TV show, Tobias recites: "A flower in my garden, a mystery in my panties." This is the ending of one of the vagina monologues.
  • Tobias tells Lindsay that she looks "very handso..." before passing out.
  • Tobias is wearing Maeby's suit, presumably unaware that it is a woman's suit, only made in a woman's size.
• "You here with me" When Maybe and George Michael begin making out, a Spanish guitar version of the song You Here With Me by Arrested Development composer David Schwartz is played. The song was previously used as theme to the romance between Michael and GOB's girlfriend Marta.
• "You're such a *bleep*" The scene where Buster is talking to Adelaide as he leaves the hospital directly mirrors the footage of "A Thoroughly Polite Dust-Up" from "Notapusy". Both scenes have a nurse telling a soldier he's brave because of what he's fighting for, then saying "You're such a *bleep*." The ending of the scene in Notapusy had the soldier saying "When I miss your lips, I'll put a fag in my mouth and think of you." The ending to this scene has Buster saying "When I miss your lips, I’ll put a fig in my mouth and think of you."
  • In "Notapusy", the actors in the "A Thoroughly Polite Dust-Up" footage are Tony Hale and Bronwen Masters, who play Buster and Nurse Adelaide, respectively.
• George Michael says "Gangee once said to me, your mom might not have ever even been pregnant with you." Lucille had indeed told him this in "Beef Consommé".
• Operation Hot Brother When Michael and Buster are in Iraq, Buster refers to the rescue operation as Operation Hot Brother. This is a callback to "Motherboy XXX" where Buster insists on having a codename for the rescue of George Michael from participating in Motherboy. He calls it "Operation Hot Mother", and though Michael thinks that is probably not a good idea, they never come up with a better name for it.
• Wayne Jarvis' Dramatic Moment Continuing his string of dramatic revelations undercut by poor timing Jarvis tells Michael that his brother, Gob, "is on the news. Right now!" only to turn on the TV and have to wait several minutes to see the story about Gob being arrested in Iraq. Jarvis then says, "And imagine the impact if that had come on right when we turned on the TV!"

Hidden/background jokes

• Set Dressing After Tobias comments on how "incredibly detailed" Hollywood shows are, he opens the cupboard to reveal that there is nothing in there apart from a Starbucks coffee cup. George Michael opens another cupboard, which contains nothing but a Nature Valley granola bar.
  • Ironically, all the other cupboards in the background appear to be quite well stocked.
• Flyers To the right of the scrapbooking flyer Tobias notices, is a flyer advertising "Self Hypnosis". It promises to help people quit smoking, lose weight, and "Rid your memory of that murder you com[mitted]." To the left is another flyer Tobias might be interested in as it suggests that if you "Learn Public Speaking" "You may even break into Hollywood!"
• Address Book The camera pans through Maeby’s address book which features: Grazer, B.; Grey, B.; Hilton, P.; Holt, S.; Howard, R.; and Kennedy, J.
  • B. Grazer and R. Howard obviously refer to Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, producers of the show. Ron Howard (as the show's narrator) later comments that some guests didn't go to Maeby's party because "a lot of us just didn't want to drive down to Orange County", referring to himself for the first time in the series.
  • S. Holt refers to Steve Holt.
  • P. Hilton, obviously, to Paris Hilton.
  • B. Grey, refers to the chairman of Paramount, Brad Grey.
  • J. Kennedy is Jamie Kennedy. He previously made an appearance on the show in the season three episode "Notapusy", where he was shown in a flashback bidding on Nicole Kidman's fake nose from The Hours for Maeby. He is also referenced as not being able to snowboard.
• Adelaide In this episode, it is revealed that the name of Buster's Australian day nurse is Adelaide. Adelaide is a state capital in Australia.
• Vegetables Adelaide says "Who said vegetables were good for your heart?" after she learns that Buster was faking his coma. When she refers to "vegetables," she is referring to people who are under a coma. (In the previous episode, Lindsay says, "Let's leave the fruits with the vegetables"; in a previous episode, Lindsay tells Michael "Mom asked me to bring her a tube of Vaga--TABLE paste" so George-Michael and Maeby won't know she's talking about Lucille and the warden having sexual relations.]
• Balboa Bay Window The cover of the issue shown has the article “It’s Worse For The Mother!” by Lucille Bluth. Looking closely enough at Buster in the picture, one can see that the photo was taken soon after the beautician that was experimenting on him had put too much collagen in his lips.
• Burning Bush When G.O.B. is in Iraq performing illusions, he repeatedly fails at performing them. When setting up his next act, he says, "And now one of the late, great Jesus' greatest illusions, the Burning Bush!". However, Jesus had nothing to do with the burning bush; God revealed himself to Moses as a burning bush in the Old Testament of the Bible.
• CIA File The CIA file says that George, Sr. is an “unintentional operative.” The full text reads: “Operative contacted to build housing in the country of Iraq for the purpose of extracting information within the confines of laws regarding the Patriot Act. Housing was built and prepared for surveillance with American Operatives. / Information extracted from surveillance devices has been retrieved and secured to be used as evidence in whatever case the United States government deems fit. / Operative Bluth cooperated fully with American and Iraqi agents believing them to be British Home Builders. / Normal activity was observed regarding business procedures that are in accord with U.S. business practices. O. Bluth was later suspected of treason however will be absolved of all guilt commencing the completion of Operation Hammad. / Evidence for Bluth file BT333 can be found in section 3 of the International Trade section of the Patriot Act files. / Bluth is currently aware he was utilized as a patsy for the government, not unlike every U.S. citizen. This is largely due to the Patriot Act as well.”
• Commercial When Wayne Jarvis is waiting for the news report, a commercial can be heard “... and they deliver insulin right to my door.” This commercial can also be heard in the next episode, "Development Arrested".
• "Connect a little" When Lindsay says she and Lucille can "connect a little," there's a brief pause, followed by Lucille saying "I must have a Xanax" and Lindsay suggesting "I’ll go score some weed from the staff."
• Just One More Season One of the Saddam look-alikes says that they "wanted to keep the house for just one more season," most likely referring to the Arrested Development writers, who felt the show had ended too early.
• Making Fun A "tipsy" George Michael can be seen holding a corkscrew to his sleeve, saying "Look, I'm Uncle Buster." This is a one of the few times George Michael has ever intentionally made fun of another family member in the series, the others being when he made a joke about George Sr. stocking up on "Get Out of Jail Free" cards in the pilot and when he insults GOB at the police station in Not Without My Daughter.
• RAM G.O.B says Michael may not have enough RAM to understand his brotherly love, a reference to him calling Michael a robot.
• Richard Shaw The CIA Agent is credited as "Richard Shaw," an obvious play on the word "rickshaw" (Buster also rents out "the only rickshaw in Baghdad" when they arrive in Iraq).
• Secrets George Michael brings up Maeby after Michael says "You don't have any secrets." Realising that he may have revealed he has a secret involving Maeby, George Michael says "I was changing the subject. We— no, yeah, we weren't talking about Maeby."
• T.A.I. Friday's When Gob is being tasered during the burning bush demonstration, there is a sign for 'T.A.I Friday's' in the upper right hand corner of the screen on a nearby restaurant. T.A.I. Friday likely means 'Thank Allah It's Friday' a play on the US restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's.
• True Lies When Michael discovers the nuclear warhead in the hidden room in Saddam's place, G.O.B and Buster comment on how it makes them want to have an icecream cone. This is a reference to True Lies where Harry identifies a nuclear warhead as a "snow cone maker".

Character cameos

• Richard Belzer makes his second appearance on the show (he was briefly seen as a guest star in "S.O.B.s"), this time as "Professor" Munch, who is in fact part of a police sting operation. On both Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Homicide: Life on the Street he portrays Det. John Munch. In light of the appearance in "S.O.B.s" as himself, it's unclear if he is appearing as "himself" or Munch. If the appearance is as Det Munch than the entire series is subject to the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis.
• The Saddam Hussein lookalikes are played by Al No' Mani, David Kavandi and James Evans. The role of Achmed is uncredited.
• Wayne Jarvis makes his second (and final) appearance in Season 3. His first was in "Fakin' It". This is the first time his Japanese assistant Cho (Mitsu) has a speaking role.

Foreshadowing

• No Scar It is revealed at the end of the episode that Achmed (the Saddam look-alike with the scar on his face) is in fact the real Saddam, and the Saddam on trial is a look-alike. This is hinted at by the fact that Achmed is fixated on the trial, with a sinister look on his face. He also complains that "I do a better Saddam than this guy. My Saddam would show his teeth." This also refers to George Sr.'s tendency to replace himself with his twin brother Oscar (hence I'm No Scar) to avoid capture and his personal infatuation with the pristine quality of his teeth.
• Religious girlfriend G.O.B. mishears George Michael, thinking that he said "G.O.B. should be ashamed of himself," to which G.O.B. replies "How does he know about her?", hinting at the fact that G.O.B. is dating George Michael's ex-girlfriend, Ann.
• Adopted Lucille "mistakenly" gives Lindsay's age as 40. However, the next episode reveals that Lindsay is adopted and this is in fact her true age. In the next episode, Lindsay also thinks that she is 37, but she stated that she is 35 in this episode.

External links

• "Exit Strategy" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Exit Strategy" at TV.com
• "Exit Strategy" at The-OP.com