Staff Infection

This article is about the Arrested Development episode. For information about a staph infection, see Staphylococcus aureus.

"Staff Infection"
Arrested Development episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 15
Directed by	John Fortenberry
Written by	Brad Copeland
Production code	1AJD14
Original air date	March 14, 2004
Guest stars
James Lipton as Warden Gentiles Justin Lee as Annyong BW Gonzales as Lupe
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

"Staff Infection" is the fifteenth episode of the TV comedy series Arrested Development.

Plot

Michael Bluth had begun working weekends, but he keeps up the weekly "bike ride" with son George Michael. He receives an emergency call from Lucille and heads over to her apartment. Lucille, who is prepping new adopted son Annyong to work at the banana stand, tells Michael she needs money; she has not received her latest paycheck from the Bluth Company. Michael, unaware that she had been receiving a paycheck, announces that the paychecks will end, as she does no work. Buster reveals that he too receives a paycheck, so Michael makes Buster come to the office to help out. Michael also tells Lupe, Lucille's housekeeper, that she can tell her family to meet their reunion bus at the Bluth Company.

Back at the model home, Lindsay awakes to find the house deserted. Tobias has gone to the prison to research his new movie role of "Frightened Inmate #2." Lindsay goes to the Bluth Company office to inquire about her missing paycheck. Michael says she must work for it, and assigns her to answer phones while Kitty is gone. Lindsay immediately begins criticizing Michael's management style, while Buster struggles with his responsibilities in the copy room.

George Michael and Maeby are working at the banana stand; she teases him that his father chooses work over him. Tobias arranges with the new prison warden to share a cell with George Sr. Meanwhile, Michael takes Buster to a construction site. Buster is eager to work, but not very effective. Gob arrives to ask Michael why he hasn't received his paycheck. Like Buster, Gob is put to work. Back at the office, Lindsay has the fluorescent lights replaced with softer lighting and tells the staff she is taking them all out to lunch. Michael returns just as the staff is leaving, and Lindsay convinces him that the company will be fine without him that day. Michael goes to find his son. Meanwhile, the employees mistakenly board the bus Lupe had reserved for her family, thinking the bus was there to take them to lunch. It takes them to the ferry for Catalina Island, where they spend the rest of the day wandering around.

Back at the banana stand, Annyong has arrived for his first day of work. Maeby convinces George Michael to take some time off; he heads to the office to find his father. Lucille, meanwhile, comes home from shopping, the car full of bags. With Lupe gone for the day and her family working, she realizes she misses them, because no one is there to unload the car. Michael stops by the banana stand to see George Michael, then looks for him at the beach. At the construction site, Gob convinces the workers to strike, but Buster, who is enjoying the work, disagrees. The other workers convince the brothers to settle their disagreement with a game of "chicken" using bulldozers. Lindsay finds out about the work stoppage just as George Michael arrives and puts him in charge so she can go to the site. Finding Lupe's stranded family in the parking lot, she loads them onto the stair-car and heads out.

At the beach, Michael discovers the solution to a zoning problem by building a sand development. At the office, George Michael finds a file in his father's desk containing George Michael's school work, including some primary school art projects. He finally has proof that his father loves him; at that moment, federal investigators enter the office they thought was empty. Their cover blown, they grab the file with the schoolwork and run out. Lindsay arrives at the work site with Lupe's family, telling the workers that if they refuse to work, she will replace them. Lupe's family protests, and then Michael arrives to tell everyone he is changing the building plan. Lucille arrives with her car still full of shopping bags, and Michael throws a party with the liquor they contain. Michael and George Michael finally spend some time together.

Episode notes

• The “staff” in the title refers to the Bluth Company employees, and is a homophone for “staph.”
• This is the first episode in which the Bluth stair-car is a seventh-generation Ford F-series (1980-1986) rather than a sixth-generation 1979 F-150.
• Lindsay's complaint that Michael may ban dancing and the later game of bulldozer chicken are references to the film Footloose.
• This is the first time Gob's chicken dance is shown. His dance, and chicken dances by Lindsay, George Sr. and Lucille are later shown as well.
• A camera can be seen onscreen in this episode. During the scene in the board room where Lindsey is looking for her paycheck a video camera lens appears on the left side of the screen very briefly. This occurs at around the 4:33 time mark. Later, when everyone returns to the board room, a Boom Microphone can be seen when Lindsey is talking about the florescent lights. This occurs at around the 5:31 time mark.
• On the next...: "Tobias gets an insight into fear, and the employees find a new direction."

Character cameos

• This is James Lipton's first appearance as Stephan Gentiles, the new warden. He will also appear in "Altar Egos" and "Prison Break-In."
• White Power Bill appears in this episode, and will later be seen again in "Switch Hitter," in the flashback footage from "Key Decisions," and in "Missing Kitty."

Callbacks/running jokes

• Tobias is gay
  • When Tobias is deciding to research his role as "Frightened Inmate #2," he states, "I ought to check myself into a men's penal colony."
• Illusions
  • When Lucille Bluth explains that "It's important to the company that I keep up the image of my lifestyle," Michael replies "Illusion, Mom." This is an allusion to Gob's referring to his magic tricks as illusions in the Pilot episode (he replies to his father's "I don't have time for your magic tricks" with "Illusions, Dad. You don't have time for my illusions.")
• Hey Brother!
  • When Buster starts working at the Bluth Company, he says "Hey Co-worker" to a passing employee.
• No touching!
  • When White Power Bill confronts George Sr. about converting the prison mates to Judaism, George Sr. says, "No teaching! No teaching!" with his hands up, a reference to the guards in the visiting room who exclaim "No touching!" throughout the series.
• Sheep
  • In the beginning of the episode, the narrator says that Buster had a bad experience with a sheep in Catalina.
  • Michael refers to the Bluth Company employees as "sheep."
  • The bus that carries the Bluth Company employees to Catalina is called "The Good Shepherd."
  • In Catalina, the Bluth Company employees begin following a sheep in single-file order.
  • When George Michael finds his elementary school art work in his father's desk, the first piece of art is a paper cut-out with cotton balls glued to it, made to resemble a sheep.
  • When Buster is using the copier, the Bluth employees who stick their heads in mistake him for the person who had the job before, Bob. Their rapid-fire "Bob"s sound like "bah."
  • In the "On The Next" segment, the employees are seen being herded into a trailer by sheepdogs.

• Bluth family's inability to use a hammer

• Incest
  • Gob remarks that Kitty is starting to sound sexy; then Michael tells him that 'Kitty' was actually Lindsay.

• Cornballs
  • When Michael is driving to the office at the beginning of the episode, he is eating a cornball.

• The Bluth family's use of notes

• Politics
  • The shepherd in the "On the Next" segment appears to be (thanks to an impersonator) President George W. Bush.

External links

• "Staff Infection" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Staff Infection" at TV.com
• "Staff Infection" at The-OP.com