WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Archer's Season 12 finale, "Mission: Difficult," which aired 10/6 on FXX.
Archer reaches a crossroads in the final episode of Season 12. The Agency faces off with the IIA and its leader Fabian -- played by What We Do In The Shadows star Kayvan Novak -- who intends to use Archer and the rest of the team for his villainous goals. Lana and Robert hit a road bump in their relationship, which surprisingly leads her to Archer for some somber support. And finally, Mallory -- Archer's mother and direct superior for almost his entire adult life -- decides it's time to leave the spy game once and for all, an outcome that coincides with the final performance that Jessica Walter gifted the show before her passing in March 2021.
Ahead of the Season 12 finale, "Mission: Difficult," CBR spoke with Lucky Yates in an exclusive interview about the major changes to the status quo that occur in the episode. Yates shared what elements he's most excited to see the show tackle in its upcoming Season 13, and reflected on what it was like to see Mallory's final sequence in the series.
CBR: So, starting off, the season finale definitely shakes things up. The Agency has been bought by IIA and now season villain Fabian is going to effectively become Archer's new boss. What was your reaction to seeing that shift?
Lucky Yates: It's going to be great. He's going to be the villain, but also their boss at the same time. It's so perfect for Archer, to just be like, "Our group is going to be the rebel inside, the victim of the very structure." We've seen how Archer's return after a coma affected the groups who were functioning better without him. Now let's plug the whole group, newly infected with the Archer Virus, and put that into the IIA structure. Archer Worldwide.
That's either going to go great or terribly for the world at large, isn't it?
I don't see it ever going really well... Oh my God, [Kavian Novak] is so amazing, man. He's so damn hilarious. What an honor to be in a cast with him. Everybody that was in this season... Stephen Tobolowsky as Robert, for like two seasons, has just this beautiful voice of reason, like an angel, that everybody of course just shits on and ignores. Our guest stars are always just the best. I don't know how we keep scoring them.
This episode also dealt with Lana and Robert's relationship seemingly hitting a major and potentially final roadblock, leading Lana to go straight to Archer for support.
Oh my God. Like, is it insider trading if we suggest people get a box of Kleenex right now? I think this episode is going to jerk some tears. This episode is so full of feels. So many feelings. It's great. All heart. Heart and shenanigans all the way through. The best.
And there's the poor fate of Colt, Krieger's new best friend Colt, played by Eric Andre.
Oh, man. How bummed am I? There goes my spinoff. I emailed the show's executive producer, Casey Willis after I watched this episode, and I said, "Please, will you let Krieger make good on his promise to dying Colt? Weird, fucked-up-shit science, please?" If Krieger has access to a fifth of the IIA resources, oh my GOD, it's just going to be the best. That's what I'm saying. This show can only get more fantastic, and just weirder. It's going to be great. I think the 13th season's going to be great.
When Krieger is around, I think you can always expect more. But you know, I'd say, there goes my spinoff idea of the Krieger/Colt variety hour. But we've seen Krieger work with corpses before. Nothing is impossible.
This episode did really feature the whole cast firing on all cylinders, getting to contribute to the overall plot. Even Cheryl got to help save the day!
Yeah, it's impressive that everybody gets to play to their super strength in the season finale. All season long, I feel like everybody's been at their most. It's so great. Everybody shines on the episode, and everybody gets good moments. Everybody gets to act a little. Man, been a lot of acting going on by our desks in the episode. Even me. I had to act. Weird that I got to tap into my theater degree.
This episode also obviously features the goodbye for Jessica Walter and Mallory. And it's quietly perfect: she gets to snark, she gets to fight some goons, she gets to get off the board on her own terms, and the show ends with her reunited with Ron -- who was voiced by Jessica's husband Ron Leibman before his death in 2019. It's just so sweet, and it hits like a freight train.
Of course, they're together. Jess and Ron are together again, just as Mallory and Ron are together again. It's perfect. Yeah, really, really just a top-notch send-off for our girl. It 100% is the way that Mallory would tap out. She would just split. And yeah, she gets one more awesome spy moment, just going in and kicking all the ass. And then boink, yeah, that's it. I'm sure she owns whatever Island they're on, that she has probably paid some shady dictator somewhere, sometime, in her history. You know she owns that off-grid island.
Going into Season 13, what elements are you most excited to see further explored?
Well, I think [Archer and Lana] are going to have to be the mom and dad of the group, right? Now, especially, even though they do have a boss, he's not going to be ever-present like Mallory was, I assume. Then, yeah, for their little squad, they're going to have to sort of be mom and dad to them. That'll be a big step for their relationship, to truly have to run the team together.
Where are they going to put Cheryl? That's what I want to know. What will they do with her? Demolitions expert, maybe... I'm excited to see it. Fabian is an outright villain. He wanted to kill them and when it turned out he couldn't, he decided to own them. It's such a great villain place to be. I think I'm most excited to see the rebellion against the top.