Buster's brief appearance in a TV weather report puts the Bluths back in hot water, but Michael has a plan involving his son's definitely real company.
Season finale relies heavily on character quirks but lacks the callback density that defined earlier runs.
Directed by Troy Miller · Written by Chris Marrs
WAR
111.4
Wins Above Replacement
“The Untethered Sole” ranks #83 of 84 Arrested Development episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 88.2 — Elite. The episode packs 86 scored jokes at 2.6 per minute, averaging 7.4 on craft and 7.2 on impact, with Michael landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Buster: Actually, Mother made the friend for me. So I named it after her: Lucille Ball.
Buster Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Narrator: Yup. This is how it ended for the honeybee, as well.
Narrator Callback Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Callback Narrator · Guilty Guys: As they clear a man... / They're billing hours. Get our time sheets in. / ...who had died two years earlier.
George Michael: I'm the only one who needs to lose feet over this... sleep over this.
Michael · Lucille: Mom, you had him on a leash until he was six. / Well, if that leash screwed him up so badly, why does he still want to wear it?
All Jokes — 86 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Lucille: Sorry, Gob. Looks like there isn't gonna be enough for you.
Lucille Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Lucille: I never should have done Lindsay first. Lindsay's having a widening spurt.
Lucille Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Buster · Unknown Sibling: Please, I don't need any suntan lotion. Dad never wears any. / Yeah. And he's doing fine in the lady department.
George Sr. · Michael: Well, Buster doesn't know what the hell he's talking about! / I think Buster was actually talking about Mom.
George Sr.: Oh, yes. No, uh... I thought... you were talking about recent... Yes, thank you. Yes, she is, uh... She is quite the beauty.
George Sr. Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Callback Unknown Sibling: Well, that's the downside of having a mother who never ages.
Lucille: It must be something in these cigarettes.
Lucille Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Unknown Child · George Sr. · Lucille: It doesn't hurt that you guys are the judges. / They are? / You guys are the judges?
George Sr.: Kids, your mother and I have discussed it, and you're all old enough now to actually impress us, so... we're out of the running.
George Sr. · Buster: And it can't just be push-ups. / Yeah, it won't just be push-ups.
Lucille: I'm sure you'll all be thin by Thursday, Lindsay.
Lucille Character Comedy Dark/Subversive Unknown Sibling · Lucille: Oh, come on. He still has to wear that dog collar? / It's not a dog collar. It's Buster's Gentleman Collar.
Lucille · Buster: And he barely even knows it's there. / Yeah, I barely know it's...
Lucille: Well, he's grown a little. [visual: the collar is visibly too tight on an adult Buster]
Lucille Visual Gag Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Michael · Gob: You bought me a dorky, lame, stupid, gay magic kit? / What? No. This is for me.
Michael Gob Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael · Gob: Does it come with that bird? / No, I gotta get a bird. But I'll get a bird.
Michael Gob Character Comedy Setup/Punchline ★ Rewatch Michael: Mom tightened it when he tried to put that starfish in his mouth.
Michael Character Comedy Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Michael: 'Yeah, but he's had a good summer. He's made friends.'
Michael Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Buster: Actually, Mother made the friend for me. So I named it after her: Lucille Ball.
Buster Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Michael: Is anybody else worried she's ruining us?
Michael Observational Character Comedy Buster · Michael · George Sr. · Lucille: Take that back! You take that back! We're normal! We're normal! / Okay. Down, down. / Easy, Buster. Easy, boy. / Sit.
Tobias: I would say wait for me, but it might be a couple of years.
Tobias Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Gob · Buster: I think Buster wants to go take a swim. [beat] I do! I've never even got my suit wet from the outside.
Lucille · Michael · George Sr.: Magic is for girls. / And your bird's gonna die, Michael. / And when it does, it'll go back to... whence it came. / Back to whence it came.
Narrator: Mr. Bluth was arrested last night in an elevator in Newport.
Narrator Deadpan/Understatement Running Gag George Sr.: This is what happens when you're rich and white in America. You happen to be caught on video, dumping some large person-type thing into the bay, and nobody thinks, 'I wonder how long that guy has been working for the real killer?'
Lucille: Yeah, and they jumped right to 'He's the killer,' and then don't think to add: 'but it's nice he's giving the help the night off.'
Lucille Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Tobias: No, they're jealous. They are jealous. And they won't stop until one of us is a murderer. Today, it's Buster. Tomorrow... No, I guess it'll stop today. Today's the last day.
Tobias Character Comedy Absurdist George Sr.: Really, we're just asking this Asian gentleman and his wife...? To move over to that group of chairs there, freeing up the end seat, which I would love to take a shot at sitting in.
Barry / Tobias: My friend spoke to the DA's office, and my lawyers were able to reduce my sentence to time served. Bad news? I can't spend any time with anybody under 25.
Eddie Cantrow: Son of a bitch! [evidence supervisor damages stair car in parking spot]
Narrator: In fairness to him, it had taken him a super long time to get a decent parking spot that he didn't have to walk, like, a mile from.
Barry / Lawyer: No, we... we didn't have him say anything. I said, 'Don't say a word. Put on your poker face.' Although Buster's poker face didn't really make him look like less of a murderer.
Michael · Lucille: Mom, you had him on a leash until he was six. / Well, if that leash screwed him up so badly, why does he still want to wear it?
Tobias: Even though they do say, in most cases, something happens in childhood and, usually, the person that raises them is to blame. But that's experts.
Tobias Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Lucille: Don't you try to pin this on Lupe. She had her own family to raise, too.
Lucille Character Comedy Misdirection Tobias: I'm in the family, and it's gonna be crazy. It's gonna be a media circus, Tobias. / Then I should be its ringmaster.
Tobias Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Narrator: In fact, Tobias would've taken any job at that moment, as his current living arrangement was tense, indeed.
Narrator Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy Narrator: Something that is really only clear without the quick editing and carefree score.
Narrator Meta/Self-Referential Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Unknown Adult in Tobias's Home: How 'bout I put your head through this glass table? How funny would that be, young man?
Unknown Adult: There were six. There were six in here. Who the [bleep] took 'em?
Tobias: As you see, it's latex, so it can go right up your ass.
Tobias Character Comedy Meta/Self-Referential Tobias · Lucille · Michael: A young, one-armed, Iraq War vet suffering from PTSD, raised by a young mother who had him at 17, whose only flaw was that... she loved him... too much. / Actually, I was 37. / Well, no one would believe that.
Lucille · George Sr. · Unknown Sibling · Tobias: Every time you handle things, they're mishandled. / Yeah, your mom's right. I mean, lately, you're just doing everything badly. / Yeah, Dad, nail his ass. / I'll pile on to nailing that ass, Dad.
Barry: Oh! I should have led with this. I have been officially disbarred. I can't handle Buster's case or anybody under 25. Saves me an awkward conversation.
Barry Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Narrator · Anita Bramwell · Garrison Sweet · Shara Winfield · Jack Griffin · David G. Barnes: The Guilty Guys [narrator introduces five elite lawyers with absurdly over-produced dossiers]
Narrator: She was an expert who wasn't afraid to get a little DNA on her.
Narrator: David G. 'G-Man' Barnes cared about but one thing above the law: his beloved Raiders.
Narrator: And I think I might have gotten Jack and David mixed up.
Narrator Meta/Self-Referential Deadpan/Understatement ★ Rewatch Callback George Sr.: 'Very expensive, but very, very good — especially if you're guilty.'
Lucille · George Sr. · Michael: We want the best. / Well, how are we gonna pay for that? We don't have any money. It's all tied up in Fakeblock. Thanks, Michael.
George Sr. · Lucille · Others: 'Thanks, Michael.' / 'Thanks, Michael.' [repeated by multiple family members unprompted]
George Sr. · Michael: 'Get us back on our feet.' / They're... They're threatening our feet?
George Sr. · Unknown: I will say this for Saddam Hussein. With him, you didn't have to guess. It was very direct. 'I'll chop this off, I'll chop that off.' Right. With him, you knew where you stood. Or... Or couldn't.
Guilty Guys: There's no way the killer was Ann Veal. No match. / DNA don't lie. / Take her off the board.
Guilty Guys · Michael: The Guilty Guys' first week of 'leaving no stone unturned' consists entirely of ruling out Ann Veal — for $7,000
Michael: I mean, Jesus Christ, $7,000 to find out that Ann Veal had nothing to do with Buster's case?
Michael Reaction Beat Irony/Sarcasm Callback George Michael · Michael: You sold the company? / A little. / You can't sell a company a little. That's like saying you're a little bit tired. / You don't think you can be a little bit tired?
Michael · George Michael: 'It's over now? A little.' — George Michael's 'a little' callback
George Michael · Michael · George Sr.: Well, you know, I'd be careful of promising even a little. You know, some people, you give them an inch, and they take... / A foot. / They're threatening our feet? Is it a foot now? They shortened it.
George Michael · Michael: 'Some people, you give them an inch, and they take... A foot.' — George Michael's callback
Michael · George Michael: I don't want to talk about it, okay? / What? / Why don't you go back downstairs and get to work on that software floor? / Shut the door on the way out.
Michael · Narrator: Just no rush on the software, but just... ASAP. Chop, chop. / Well, not 'chop, chop,' not... That's a bad choice of words. For Christ's sake.
George Sr.: I think you're doing the right thing. We want to make the Chinese happy. Believe me, you don't want them sending your severed foot to threaten some other guy who doesn't want to build a bridge.
George Sr. · Michael: That's what I'd do if it were one of my kids. / Did you want me to fire him for you? / No. That's nice of you. / I mean, it's not... It's not nice. Sorry.
Unknown Speechwriter · Michael: It's hard to find one where the wall builder isn't, you know, starved to death by his own wall, or dies of loneliness by his own wall. Or, of course, is crushed to death by his own wall. / Yeah. We don't want to blow the ending anyway. / Ah. Then you'll hate the one about the honeybee.
Gob: I need you to comply and walk over to the camera! / Comply!
Gob Character Comedy Running Gag Unknown · Gob: In fairness, it is a Thursday at twenty to four. / Exactly, and everyone knows the workday doesn't start until nine to five.
Gob: Exactly, and everyone knows the workday doesn't start until nine to five.
Gob Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Gob: You wanna see groundbreaking gay TV? Don't start without me.
Gob Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Michael: In a modern world where there are certainly more threats greater than a 34-year-old hard-working migrant hoping to send money home to feed his wife and three young... future rapists.
Michael Dark/Subversive Irony/Sarcasm Michael: Of course, I'm talking about the threat of cyber.
Michael Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Michael: We meant to do this, folks, so nobody was deceived.
Michael Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy Gob: My name is Gob Bluth, and as president of Fakeblock, I have an announcement! I'm building a wall! / Come back for the unveiling in two full weeks!
Gob Character Comedy Escalation George Sr. · Lucille: Wow, that was spectacular. / Couldn't have gone better.
George Sr.: Come in close. I think I'm winning your mother back. I'm gonna stick it to her tonight.
Michael · Gob: I had a shovel for you. / No, it's okay. I wanted to come in hot, make a show of it. / God, did you see the look on their faces? / Just when you said two weeks to the unveiling. / Right? / And when you turned and went after them.
George Michael · Michael: George Michael fires Michael — 'You're fired.' / 'You have more shares than me, so you could fire me.' / 'I just did.'
Michael: I was hoping to stall for six, but your uncle announced an unveiling in two weeks.
Michael Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Callback George Michael: I'm the only one who needs to lose feet over this... sleep over this.
Michael · George Michael: I can tell you what your grandmother would do. Um... / You're fired. / She does go right there, but obviously I don't think that you would go that far. / You have more shares than me, so you could fire me. / I just did.
Narrator: Yup. This is how it ended for the honeybee, as well.
Narrator Callback Dark/Subversive ★ Rewatch Callback Buster · Narrator: Buster becomes one of 2015's biggest memes. [with triumphant music, one-armed Buster dancing]
Guilty Guys: Guys, guys, guys, this fits with the fact that he can't walk. / And has been carried everywhere he went, damn it. / Which means what, G-Man? / He couldn't have committed this crime. In any way.
Guilty Guys: Get that box of evidence over to The Bluth Company with the bill. / They're billing hours. Get our time sheets in.
Narrator · Guilty Guys: As they clear a man... / They're billing hours. Get our time sheets in. / ...who had died two years earlier.
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