Archer is never one to shy away from pushing the envelope, and the ninth season -- known as Archer: Danger Island -- took place with good old Sterling Archer in a coma and imagining a wild series of events featuring a talking bird, a bizarre quest, and Nazis, all set back in 1938. The season seemed to cram a whole lot into the eight episodes, but it turns out that there's one story that was left out due to time. During the Archer panel at San Diego Comic-Con, executive producer Casey Willis explained the plot that didn't make it to TV, and it has everything to do with that Danger Island baby monkey.
As viewers may remember, there was a certain scene in Danger Island that saw a baby monkey crying over the body of his mother after she was killed by the Nazis concocted by Archer's mind. It was a tragic sight as reminiscent of Bambi and his mom in Bambi as to a couple of the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi. The glimpse of the mourning baby monkey was the first and last we saw of him, meaning that he was a very unfunny part of what is usually a very funny show. If everything had gone according to plan, the baby monkey would have had his revenge. Unfortunately, the show simply ran out of time to tell the baby monkey's story in Danger Island.
The Archer panel did reveal what would have happen if there had been enough time for the orphaned monkey to have his story brought full circle. Here's what Casey Willis says would have happened in a perfect world:
The baby monkey cries over her body. So we didn't want to leave it at that. We thought of ways to integrate the monkey's revenge into the episode. One idea was in the seventh episode, where it's kind of like The Seventh Samurai episode where the Nazis are attacking the village, to have that little monkey put on a little red bandana and get his revenge. But it can never happen.
The baby monkey could have exacted his revenge if not for the fact that there was already too much going on that couldn't be cut. As of now, the death of the mother monkey goes unavenged, and it's not like a future season of Archer can really take the gang back to the island. The entire season took place in comatose Archer's mind, so there's no fixing the great injustice done to the young monkey. We'll never get to see the monkey grow from the baby mourning his mother to a wrathful creature ready to kick ass and take names.
The good news is that Archer does still have more stories to tell. The show already has another season in the works, and it will take the whole team to space. The new season will also run for only eight episodes, so we have to hope that the Archer team manages to fit everything they want into what will be available to them. There probably won't be any more monkey tragedies in space, but we should never rule anything out when it comes to Archer. That said, there's no guarantee that Archer will last beyond Season 10 on FXX, so we'll have to try and enjoy everything that comes our way.
If you want to relive some of the Archer days before the trip to Danger Island, you can find the first eight seasons streaming on Hulu now. The show was previously available on Netflix, but it left the streaming service back in March. If you want some current streaming options, swing by our Netflix premiere schedule and our Amazon Prime guide. If streaming isn't always your style, take a look at our summer TV schedule.
