Development Arrested

I waited a year-and-a-half after the series finale of Arrested Development premiered to finally watch it. I was in a state of serious denial. I wanted to know that there is always one new episode of AD I haven't seen. Naturally, by the time I reached the acceptance phase of my grief, my expectations were pretty high. I came out of this episode extremely disappointed declaring that not only was this the worst episode of Arrested Development but is not a good episode in general. Having taken a break from the show, I decided to re-access the episode.

First, Mitch Horowitz and crew had to cap off a storyline and mythology that is the comedy equivalent of Lost. And he did the best he can with a story that at times became contradictory and non-sensical (though still surprisingly coherent for its attempt at a complex plot in a sitcom format). In the previous episode, we discover that George Bluth was in fact a "patsy" and was too dumb to realize he was selling homes illegally in Iraq. (A genius bit has a homefill WMD in one of his Iraqi model homes). So the CIA exonerates him since he was a pawn in their spygame. With George Bluth off the hook, the show has gone full circle back to the pilot episode, this time with Michael crying instead of smiling because he was going to have to "spend the rest of his life with these people." Some other revelations made in this episode:

• GOB's other girlfriend he wanted to have a "Holy Trinity" with was in fact Ann. This was hinted to in the previous season's inner-beauty pagent, where as a judge GOB goes for the third place winner because first place winner is usually a snob and second place is usually "something weird like a scientist or Asian"
• We learn that Lucille I was the true mastermind of the Bluth Co.'s illegal dealings.
• Maebe, although being Lindsay's daughter, is not George Michael's cousin because Lindsay was adopted making her really 40 years old. This is referenced in the previous episode where Lucille refers to Lindsay as 40. The older cousin "Nelly" was not Justine Bateman, Franklin's prositute, nor is it Tobias ("isn't it fun to talk like this!") but was Lindsay.
• Annyong's (meaning hello in Korean) real name is "Hello." He obtains his revenge on the Lucille Bluth who years ago stole his father's Banana Stand idea and deported him to the DMZ in Korea where his business suffered.

All in all, not a bad way to rap the series. And best of all "on the epilogue for Arrested Development" the show goes delightfully meta with Ron Howard saying the show's idea would work better as a movie which appears to becoming true.

Despite cramming in a season's worth of plot lines into one episode there are still some endearing gags/jokes:

• Reoccurring gag of Michael waking up to someone in his bed (George Michael, Tobias, Lindsay, George Sr.).
• Buster overcoming his second biggest fear.
• Lucille referring to Switwell's alpecia as "Alpaca." Later we learn his eco-friendly wig is made of Alpaca.
• An incredibly intricate gag involving a scene from the movie Risky Business.

In conclusion, a pretty good episode that ended the greatest. show. ever.