Staff Infection
Template:Infobox Arrested Development episode
"Staff Infection" is the fifteenth episode aired of TV comedy series Arrested Development.
Plot
Michael Bluth had begun working weekends, which interfered with his weekly bike ride with his son George Michael. With George Michael riding his bike alongside, Michael drove the stair car. After receiving an emergency call from Lucille, Michael quickly turned the stair car around, narrowly missing George Michael. Back at the model home, Lindsay awakes to find the house deserted. Tobias had recently been cast in a movie, playing the role of a frightened inmate. Seeing her husband find work, Lindsay felt challenged to find work of her own. Lucille is growing closer to her adopted son Annyong. Lucille is especially pleased that Annyong will begin working at the Banana Stand. Michael arrives and asks Lucille about the emergency. She needs money because she did not receive her paycheck from the Bluth Company. Michael was unaware that she had been receiving a paycheck, but announces that from now on she will not be getting paychecks for doing nothing. Buster reveals that he too was receiving a paycheck, so Michael makes Buster come to the office to help out. Michael also tells Lupe that she can have the bus for her family reunion pick them up at the Bluth Company. Lindsay shows up at the office, also wondering about her missing paycheck. Michael tells her that she must work if she is to get paid, and makes her 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 is working at the Banana Stand with Maeby, who, out of boredom, is trying to make him feel bad because his father is choosing work over his son. Tobias tries to check into prison to research his role as Frightened Inmate #2. The warden, a lover of the arts, is eager to help him, even letting Tobias stay in the same cell as George Sr. Michael takes Buster to the construction site, where he can work. Buster is eager to work, but not very effective. G.O.B. arrives to ask Michael why he hasn’t received his paycheck. Like Buster, G.O.B. is put to work at the construction site. With Michael gone, Lindsay begins taking over. She first replaces all the fluorescent lights, and then takes the staff out for lunch. Michael returns just as the staff leaves. Lindsay convinces him that the company will be fine without him, so Michael goes to find George Michael. Meanwhile, the employees mistakenly board the bus Lupe had reserved for her family, thinking the bus would take them to lunch as Lindsay had promised. The empty building gave the surveillance team that had installed the lighting a chance to gather evidence. At prison, George Sr. is converting fellow inmates to his newfound faith. White Power Bill, another inmate, threatens George Sr. to stop his teaching. He reluctantly agrees, but just then, Tobias arrives, hoping to learn from George Sr. Back at the Banana Stand, Annyong had arrived for his first day of work with George Michael and Maeby. Maeby continues to tell George Michael that his father doesn’t love him, eventually convincing him to take some time off and go to the beach. However, George Michael does not go to the beach, but to the office to see Michael.
Lucille has just come home from shopping. With Lupe gone and her family working, she realizes she misses them, because there is no one to unload the car. Michael stops by the Banana Stand to see George Michael, but finds out he had gone to the beach so Michael heads to the beach to find him. At the construction site, G.O.B. gives up on working and convinces the workers to strike. 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, looking for his father. Not wanting Michael to find out about the work stoppage, Lindsay puts George Michael in charge of the office so she can go to the site to fix things. Finding Lupe’s stranded family in the parking lot, she loads them on the stair car and heads out. At the beach, Michael is trying to figure out a zoning problem when he gets a call from George Michael. As George Michael tries to explain things, Michael figures out how to solve his zoning problem, and hangs up on his son. Upset that his father might really love his job more than him, George Michael notices a file in his father’s desk. The file contains a large selection of George Michael's school work, probably dating back to when he was in first or second grade. This is the first time George Michael has held proof that his father loves him, but at the same moment the investigators enter the office. With their cover blown, they grab the file and run out of the building. Lindsay arrives at the work site with Lupe’s family. She tells the workers that if they refuse to work, she will replace them. Lupe’s family protests that Lindsay has made a mistake. Michael arrives and tells everyone they are stopping work. He explains the design change, and promises the workers a party as a reward. Lucille arrives with her car still full from shopping. Michael decides to have the party now, and shares the liquor that Lucille had just purchased.
Character cameos
- This is James Lipton's first appearance as Stephan Gentiles, the new warden. He would later appear in "Altar Egos" and "Prison Break-In".
- White Power Bill appears in this episode, and would later be seen again in "Switch Hitter", in the form of flashback footage from "Key Decisions", and in "Missing Kitty".
Callbacks/Running Jokes
- Tobias is gay
- When Tobias is deciding to research a prison to play to role of "Frightened Inmate #2", he states, "I ought to check myself into a men's penal colony."
- Tobias refers to "White Power Bill" as "a shiny building of a man."
- 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 shepard"
- In Catalina, the Bluth Company employees begin following a sheep in single-file order (presumably the same sheep with which Buster had a bad experience.)
- When George Michael finds his elementary school art work that his father keeps in his 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", the sound a sheep makes.
- Bluth Family's Inability to Use a Hammer
- When George, Sr. is threatened by White Power Bill, he replies "No teaching. No teaching," which is similar to the "No touching" rule in earlier episodes.
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 "stairway vehicle" 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.