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"The Cabin Show" is the forty-first episode aired of the TV comedy series Arrested Development. It is the first episode of Season 3.

Synopsis

Michael Bluth begins his day with something he’d never seen before: good news about the Bluth Company. Television financial expert Jim Cramer upgraded Bluth Company stock from "triple sell" to "don’t buy". Michael tells Lucille he is going to prison to gloat about the good news. He had sold the property for the family cabin to keep the company afloat. The success will allow Michael to spend more time with his son, George Michael.

Lucille also wants Michael to spend more time with Buster, whose snoring is keeping Lucille awake at night. Furthermore, after mistaking Tom Cruise for a doctor talking about the evils of medication on The Today Show, she has quit taking her postpartum medication and is stressed out. Michael suggests that she relax by visiting the cabin before it is relocated.

Gob appears, complaining that he never knew about the cabin. Michael reveals that despite his father’s promises, he has never been to the cabin either. The two argue about whose plight is sadder; Michael offers to take Gob to the cabin.

As Michael heads off to prison, he discovers George Michael asleep in the stair car. George Michael says he is sleeping there because he wants to see his father, but in fact, since sharing a kiss with Maeby, he has been trying to avoid her. Touched, Michael decides to take George Michael to the cabin instead of Gob, much to Gob’s disappointment.

At the prison, Michael eagerly tells his father about the company’s success, not knowing it is actually Oscar, George Sr.’s twin brother, that is in jail. Oscar tries to convince Michael that he is the wrong twin, but Michael refuses to believes him. Oscar has even started a website, imoscar.com, to claim his innocence. Michael ignores Oscar’s pleas and announces his intentions to take his son to the cabin. Oscar understands, saying that Michael’s son comes first, and Michael suddenly realizes that he really is Oscar.

Michael returns to the office to figure out how to free Oscar. He finds Lindsay and the employees celebrating the good news about the company. Lindsay tells Michael she will use the new money to buy a car, and shows him several copies she has made. She claims she needs a new car because Tobias has left her. Michael tells her she only wants Tobias because she cannot have him, and if she has him, she would not want him.

Michael tells Gob and Lindsay that it is actually Oscar in jail, and that George Sr. is on the loose. He discovers that Gob has received a letter from a group called S.A.D. that reunites fathers and sons. Having not read the letter, Gob assumes his father is secretly contacting him. Michael calls the family’s lawyer, Barry Zuckerkorn, to find out if he knows George Sr.'s whereabouts. Barry’s assistant informs Michael that Barry has gone to Reno to meet George Sr.

Michael travels to Reno to find his father, and is forced to cancel the plans with his son. George Michael suggests that since the cabin is in Lake Tahoe, near Reno, they could combine the trips. Michael thinks this a bad idea, but notices his son's eagerness to go on a camping trip. He suggests that instead, George Michael pop a tent in the front yard with Maeby. Michael’s suggestion makes Maeby and George Michael extremely uncomfortable.

Gob arrives at the S.A.D. center, expecting to find his father. He sits down on a bench next to Steve Holt, who is also expecting to find his father. The Narrator reveals that Steve Holt is actually Gob’s son, and he has been trying to track down Gob The two do not realize they are looking for each other, but, upset that their fathers have not shown, decide to go on a son-son camping trip to the cabin.

Michael arrives in Reno, looking for his father. Unexpectedly, he finds Tobias working at Swallows, a family-style restaurant by day and an anything-goes, pan-sexual bazaar by night. Tobias confesses that he missed out on a role with the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas, so he came to Reno to audition. Furthermore, Kitty has left him after Tobias found blue handprints on her. Tobias says he wants to reunite with Lindsay, which Michael agrees to arrange. He also figures that George Sr. must be hiding as a Blue Man, given the blue paint on Kitty.

Michael informs Lindsay he has found Tobias. Knowing that she only wants what she cannot have, he convinces her Tobias does not wish to return. Lindsay decides she will go to Reno to get Tobias herself. She drags George Michael and Maeby along in the stair car. Tobias calls Lindsay while she is on the road, sending mixed messages about whether he wants to see her. Lindsay turns the stair car around after each comment by Tobias, forcing the already uncomfortable kids to fall on top of each other, before finally proceeding to Reno.

Michael goes to the Blue Man show, looking for George Sr., but finds Barry. Michael fires Barry, who fears he may have to resort to prostitution to make ends meet.

Lindsay arrives at the hotel in Reno and leaves the kids in the stair car, forcing them to finally face facts. Maeby suggests they are acting weird because they didn’t finish the kiss, and George Michael agrees. They decide to finish the kiss, but Lindsay calls them to the hotel. Deciding to meet back in the stair car the next morning, Maeby heads to the room, while George Michael stays in the stair car.

Gob arrives in Reno with Steve Holt, hoping to get the key to the cabin from Michael. A confused Michael reads Gob’s letter and discovers that Steve is Gob’s son. Gob runs off in fear, and Michael spies George Michael sleeping in the stair car. Thinking his son drove up to Reno to be with him, Michael is determined to be a better father than Gob, and decides to take George Michael to the cabin. They are an hour out of Reno when George Michael wakes up. George Michael is devastated to find out he has lost his chance to be with Maeby, but Michael is too excited about the camping trip to notice his disappointment.

As Michael is forcibly taking his son out to the cabin, Lucille is ready to forcibly throw hers out. Fed up with Buster’s snoring, she hits his bed with a tripod. However, Buster was not in his bed. Worried about what she would do when Buster returns, Lucille decides to drive out to the cabin. On her way there, she discovers Buster sleeping in the back seat of her car. Buster reveals he did not want to bother Lucille, but he left a recording of his snoring so she would not know he was gone. Buster and Lucille decide that a night at the cabin might be the exact shot in the arm their relationship needs. In Reno, Tobias is trying to find a way to convince Lindsay that he is not only a Blue man, but still with Kitty.

Michael and George Michael arrive at the cabin to find the bedrooms have been moved. George Michael, still upset about being separated from Maeby, confesses that he has been sleeping in the stair car because he is in the middle of a girl problem. Michael promises to help figure out his problem the next morning. But when Michael wakes up the next morning, he finds the cabin has been moved from its location, and is being driven on a truck by George Sr., who says that he cannot allow his son to release Oscar.

Notes

Continuity

• This episode introduces the family cabin. The cabin had not appeared previously, but would appear several times in Season 3.

Cultural references

• Susan Smith Lucille is watching a news story about Susan Smith, who drowned her sons by letting her car roll into a lake with her sons inside.
  • Lucille later lets her car roll into a lake with Buster still in the back.
• Tom Cruise Lucille stops taking her medication after seeing Tom Cruise on The Today Show, referring to a real-life incident June 24, 2005 in which Cruise got into a heated argument with Matt Lauer after arguing for the rejection of psychiatric drugs as dangerous. Lucille refers to Cruise as "Some sort of scientist".^[1]
• Les Misérables On imoscar.com, Oscar's inmate number is 24601. This is the prisoner number of Jean Valjean in the book Les Misérables, written by Victor Hugo in 1862.
• Reno is known as "The Biggest Little City in the World." The slogan on the cab that Michael gets into says "Make the biggest little mistake of your life," and Gob later says "I've made a huge tiny mistake." Tobias also says at the restaurant that, "Leaving Lindsay was the biggest little mistake I've ever made."

Callbacks/Running Jokes

• Incest Maeby gets over George Michael by making out with Steve Holt, who is also her cousin. Maeby and Steve Holt continue their relationship in "Forget-Me-Now".
• Huge Mistake Gob says that he's made a "huge tiny mistake" after learning that Steve Holt is his son.
• Steve Holt In this episode, Steve Holt and Gob learn they are related, something the audience discovered in "The Immaculate Election".
  • Steve Holt doesn't recognise Gob when he first sees him, even though he saw a photo of him in "The Immaculate Election".
• "That was a freebie" Lucille's comment after realizing Buster isn't in his bed refers to Maeby's usage of this phrase in season two. The phrase will be repeated several times throughout the season.
• Tobias is gay More jokes are made at the expense of Tobias’ sexuality.
• "Lindsay only wants what she can't have" Michael tells Tobias to not call Lindsay because "she only wants what she can't have", a claim earlier made by Lucille.
• Robot Gob calls Michael a "robot" in this episode when Michael doesn't respond to Gob's tears. This occurs again in "Exit Strategy" and "Development Arrested".
• Banner The Bluth Company has the “Mission Accomplished” banner, celebrating the “Don’t Buy” rating. The banner shows up in several episodes.
• Chant The Bluth employees chant "don't buy, don't buy".
• Pop-pop In Season 2, George Michael said he had "Pop-pop in the attic," to which Michael replied, "The mere fact that you call making love 'Pop-pop' tells me that you're not ready." In this episode, Michael says, "I almost had Pop-pop in Reno," to which George Michael says (after missing another opportunity to be with Maeby), "Me, too."
• Buster's Hand/3 Pounds After Lucille describes her behavior off of her post-partum depression medication, she states, "I must've gained three pounds." This is a reference to "Hand to God", in which Buster says(after losing his hand), "I feel like I've lost three pounds!" Three pounds is the approximate weight of a normal hand.

Hidden/Background Jokes

• The maid's sweatshirt In the 1994 flashback, Lucille’s maid (neither Lupe nor Luz) is once again demonstrating a family maid wearing an outdated clothing item, this time wearing a Bush/Quayle sweatshirt even though Bush/Quayle lost the 1992 election.
• Yearbook Several students are visible in the yearbook. Each has an entry under “Nickname,” “Hopes to One Day,” and “Quote.”
  • George Oscar Bluth's nickname is “Gob,” he hopes to one day “Go camping with my dad” and his quote is “Sit on it."
  • Eve Holt's nickname is “Eve Holt!,” she hopes to one day “Finish High School” and her quote is “My life is over.”
  • Stacy and Tracy Barroga are twins, but their pictures are different. Tracy's nickname is Stacy and Stacy's nickname is Tracy. Their goals are both to “Move away from sister.” Tracy's quote is “I’m Tracy” and Stacy's quote is “I'm Stacy.”
  • Stew Bass's nickname is “Gomer,” he hopes to one day “Fish” and his quote is “Huh?”
  • Jeremy Berger's nickname is “Fries,” he hopes to one day “Be in charge” and his quote is “I’ll do it!”
  • Gene Bishop's nickname is “The Bean,” he hopes to one day “Kill a shark” and his quote is “Gnarly.”
  • Marcus Bigby's nickname is “Chomper,” he hopes to one day “Take over the world” and his quote is “Chicks Digby Bigby.”
  • Sherry Brooks' nickname is "Sure Thing Sherry", she hopes to one day "Be a Star!" and her quote is “Why Now?” Sherry is also one of the girls who got pregnant.
  • Jay Falk's nickname is "Shoulders", he hopes to "Read War and Peace" and his quote is "Yea, right."
  • Steve Galvin's nickname is “Shaggle Rock,” he hopes to one day “Grow my hair” and his quote is “Beer!!! Now!!!”
  • Andrew Goodman's nickname is “Goody Got It,” he hopes to one day “Be on T.V.” and his quote is “NEVER.”
  • Tom Goodrich's nickname is “Eyes,” he hopes to one day “Be remembered” and his quote is “Remember me?”
  • Eileen Hespen's nickname is “Dude!” she hopes to one day “Join the Circus” and her quote is “Dude!”
  • Marilyn Kleist's nickname is “Crafty,” she hopes to one day “Serve millions” and her quote is “Who’s Hungry?”
• Barry's tricks on the street When Michael fires Barry, Barry wonders if he can get by "turn[ing] tricks on the street." He knows he can at least earn $50 "making out" in L.A. When Lindsay discovers Tobias making out with Barry in "On the next...," Barry says, "That'll be $50."
• Lindsay's ringtone plays the Arrested Development theme song.
• Oscar's latest entry The following text appears as the last entry in imoscar.com: "It's been a week since my last entry. I can explain. Last Thursday, I was counting ants in the prison yard and it was a scorcher but I remember, I started killing the ants with my feet, yelling "Die you little black bastards, die!" I got stabbed - a whole lot."
• Blue Man Theater After Lucille leaves the apartment after beating who she thought was Buster with a tripod, there is a still shot of the theater in which George Sr. is performing as a Blue Man. The actual theater that is shown is not in Reno, but is the Varsity Theater in downtown Ashland, Oregon.^[2][3]
• Swallows As Tobias approaches Michael in Swallows, he says, "May I interest you in a smoothie or an amyl—Michael!" The word after "amyl" is probably "nitrite," referring to poppers, a popular recreational drug among gay men.
  • Tobias's nametag has his name followed by that of the restaurant, thus reading "Tobias Swallows," a reference to fellatio.
  • Furthermore, the nametag on the manager who approaches him later reads "David Spitz," another fellatio reference.
• In the 1994 flashback, the news report is about a woman who let her car with her children in it roll into a lake. At the end of the episode Lucille does the very same thing with Buster in the back of her car when she sees that the cabin is gone.

Character Cameos

• Jim Cramer has a cameo as himself, the host of Mad Money. He would appear later in "Development Arrested".
• Oscar makes his first appearance in Season 3. He would not be seen again until "Prison Break-In".

Goofs

• When Gob meets Steve Holt at the Sons and Dads Reunion Project both are unaware they are father and son. However, in the episode "The Immaculate Election" Steve Holt is shown a picture of Gob as his father, although only in the "On the next Arrested Development" portion.

References

1. ^ "In tense moment, Cruise calls Lauer 'glib'", MSNBC.COM. (June 28, 2005)
2. ^ "National Register of Historic Places in Jackson County, Oregon". Noehill Travels. http://www.noehill.com/or_jackson/nat2000000446_varsity_theater.asp. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
3. ^ "Varsity Theater". flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytravelphotos/1384132404/. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 

Sources

• The-OP.com
• FOX

External Links