Shock and Aww

"Shock and Aww" is the fourteenth episode aired of the TV comedy series Arrested Development.

Plot

Michael was sharing his bed for the first time in years. Unfortunately, it was with his younger brother, Buster. Getting ready in the morning, Michael oversees George Michael working on his ethics essay about the rightness of war. But more importantly, George Michael had developed a hopeless crush on his ethics teacher. Lucille barges in with a problem for Michael to solve. Her adoption application - filled out in a rage last year when Buster wouldn't finish his cottage cheese - came through and a young Korean boy was now hers. Michael then gets a call from G.O.B., who has lined up two women for them to hang out with. G.O.B. prods a reluctant Michael by pointing out that he hasn't slept with anybody in a long time. Upstairs, Lindsay misinterprets George Michael's crush on his ethics teacher as a desire to set up the teacher with his father. George Michael in turn misinterprets Lindsay's desire to be seen in a more maternal light with a creepy insinuation of a romantic relationship. Michael meets up with G.O.B. and the two women, who turn out to be G.O.B.'s date, a high school student, and Nazhgalia, her frighteningly masculine chaperone, intended for Michael. Michael has no interest, but is pleasant to her nevertheless. G.O.B. misreads Michael's politeness as a romantic interest, and his jealousy and still-simmering anger over Marta kicks in.

At the parent-teacher conference, Michael sees the ethics teacher, Miss Baerly (who temporarily took over the job after the previous teacher, Mr. Daniels, had a stroke, which, as indicated later in the episode, was possibly caused by Maeby asking him to a dance, purely for the shock value.) Michael was immediately attracted to Miss Baerly, and so he asks her out for a drink. Meanwhile, George Sr. is dealing with his own admirer, a woman who visits him in prison and fawns over him. At the same time, Lucille calls her son in a panic. The Korean boy, whom she named Annyong is now living in her apartment. Buster comes home and when Lucille notices his jealousy over the adopted boy, she decides she'll keep him after all. Michael and Miss Baerly head to dinner, and afterward and Miss Baerly sneak into his bedroom using the stair car. The next morning, Michael comes down to see that G.O.B. has slept with Nazhgalia. Michael breaks G.O.B. the news that he never really liked that woman to begin with. George Michael comes down and before Michael can tell him about the Miss Baerly development, George Michael lets it out that he's in love with her. When she comes down to leave, George Michael is devastated. Faced with a problem, Michael tells his son that G.O.B. slept with her. At prison, George Sr. is making preparations for an evening with his most devoted fan, while Cindi Lightballoon - the fan/FBI agent - is making her own plans: to catch George Sr. on tape and take him down. Michael visits Miss Baerly at school and says he can't see her anymore. When she hears the news about George Michael and G.O.B., she tells Michael to leave and never come back. At the prison, Cindi is pressing George Sr. for details. When he tries to fondle her through the fence, the agents in a surveillance van panic, thinking he's found their camera.

At the school dance, the Bluth family comes together. Miss Baerly tells Michael he has to tell his son the truth if he wants to see her again. George Michael, meanwhile, confronts G.O.B. about sleeping with Miss Baerly. G.O.B. is there, incidentally, to apologize to Shannon, Nazhgalia's charge, for sleeping with her chaperone. Michael tells his son the truth about Miss Baerly, and a gloating G.O.B. tells Michael he slept with her too, except G.O.B. actually slept with the much older civics teacher. Miss Baerly overhears Michael spilling his feelings to George Michael and decides that Michael is moving too fast and breaks off all contact. She then turns to Jeremy, one of her students, who asks in a jokingly way, "Do you wanna dance?" Ms. Baerly replies, "Sure, why not?" and walks off with Jeremy to the dance floor. The episode ends with George-Michael saying, "I can't believe that would've worked!"

Cultural references

• The title refers to the Bush administration’s term for the Iraqi air strike at the beginning of the war, Shock and Awe.
• Many references are made to the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, who would play a pivotal role by the 3rd season:
  • Beth Baerly loves him (as a teaching topic), and pictures of him are posted in her classroom.
  • Michael makes multiple references to how pictures of Hussein's palace bear a resemblance to their model home, foreshadowing later plots.
  • George Michael creates a collage of Saddam images to impress Miss Baerly.
  • Jeremy bakes a Saddam cupcake to impress Miss Baerly.
• The film Some Like It Hot, featuring men dressed as women, is referenced in an ad for coffee at Klimpy's Express: "Some Like It Hot! Some Like It Cold." The ad appears behind Nazhgalia, who is actually a male actor portraying a woman.
• The song "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by Wang Chung is playing in the background during the dance.

Character Cameos

• Iqbal Theba, who plays Nazhgalia, is in fact a man in real life.
• This episode is the first featuring Annyong, the Bluth's adopted Korean child. He would stick around for the rest of Season 1 and the start of Season 2, before being sent to the Milford Academy by Lucille, then returning at the very end of Season 3.
• This is one of the few Season 1 episodes where Michael's dead wife, Tracy, is referenced.
• Heather Graham is Ms. Beth Baerly, George Michael's ethics teacher.

Foreshadowing/Future References

• Michael makes several comments about the model home’s resemblance to photos of Saddam’s palaces. This hints at George Sr.'s illegal housing development in Iraq, a fact which was later revealed in the season finale, "Let 'Em Eat Cake".
• In the scene where Buster takes Annyong to register at school, there is a sign reading, “Hold on, Surely Fünke. Surely Fünke: How we (heart) thee.” Maeby's invented sister Surely was revealed several episodes later in "Altar Egos".
• Michael asks Lucille "Did you and dad adopt a child?". It was later revealed that they had adopted Lindsay.
• In the first appearance of George Michael's ethics teacher, we hear her say "...even minor crimes are punishable by brutally chopping off the offender's hand", while making a chopping motion on her wrist. Loss of an arm or hand is a running theme throughout the series, and this possibly foreshadows Buster's loss of a hand in a later episode.

Episode Notes

• At first the series had a 13-episode order. This is the first episode produced after the show was picked up for a full, 22-episode season.
• Tobias does not appear in this episode.

External links

• The-OP.com
• FOX
• Quotes for this episode on WikiQuote
• Shock and Aww at IMDb