Archer recently closed out its eleventh season, and it looks like it won't be its last. Lasting over a decade, Archer has been one of the standard bearers for adult animation within the modern age and has helped define FX's comedy slate since its inception. Over the years, the eclectic comedy has seen quite a few changes, but the spirit of the series has always been true to form: toxic people with guns.
While fans will have to wait quite a bit for Season 12, there's no better chance than after the time skip to revisit the series' pilot and reflect on how much the trials and tribulations of the spy industry have changed.
10 Cheryl/Carol's Mental And Emotional Instability Became More Prevalent
When Cheryl Tunt first premiered, she was simply the office secretary who'd get roped into some of Sterling Archer's misadventures. Her main plot thread early on was a misguided mission to try and win Archer back while he was trying to win Lana Kane back. However, as the series went on, Cheryl began to lose her identity in more ways than one.
For starters, Judy Greer's character keeps changing names. After Archer keeps forgetting it, she eventually embraces how volatile her name is and begins going by a variety of names: Carol, Cristal, Cherlene, etc. It wouldn't be until the series was in the thick of it that Archer and co. would realize that Cheryl Tunt was actually emotionally disturbed, enjoying all manner of sadism, masochism, and drugs available.
9 Pam Becomes A Heavy Drinking Badass
Pamela Poovy started the series as the sensitive yet reliable HR representative of Mallory Archer's firm. However, as the series stands now, she does anything but represent the human interests of her job. As she began to befriend Cheryl and fall into Archer's various schemes, Pam began to become just as drunken and violent as Archer is, if not more so.
Today, Pam stands as one of the agency's toughest agents, always reliable for a good fight and to bring common sense to even Archer himself. There's no better example of how this change manifested itself than the fact that she's become Archer's best friend.
8 Cyril Becomes More Depraved
Cyril Figgis was originally just meant to be the moral and tonal opposite to Sterling Archer. He was the spy agency's timid accountant who began dating Lana Kane when she desperately needed an emotional vacation from Archer. As soft as he was at the beginning of the series, his time around Archer, Cheryl, and Pam have certainly hardened him time and again (as well as broken him time and again).
Since he started spending some serious time with this group, Cyril has developed a variety of addictions and unhealthy habits. A lot of this has to do with the fact that his own break up with Lana Kane drove him to insecurity. It certainly doesn't help that Archer's constant berating have made him feel inferior, and Cheryl/Carol's own emotional manipulation always making him do the wrong thing.
7 Cyril Becomes A Field Agent
While Cyril's time with the company has made him less and less of a Figgis, it's also made him less and less of an accountant. With the series where it is now, Cyril is no longer a humble accountant meant to just crunch the numbers and help people with their taxes.
As the series went on, Cyril was involved with more field agent duties and learned to fend for himself in a variety of ways. Even during Archer's absence, Cyril would rise through the ranks of Mallory's firm to become her #1 agent. Now that's character progression.
6 Ray Becomes Part Robot
Though Archer goes over the clandestine activities of spy work, an arguably grounded and visceral line of work, it has dipped into science fiction territory a few times. One of its strangest world-building elements being the rising influence of cyborgs, a la characters like Barry and Katya. However, within ISIS's own ranks, Ray Gillette has also started a slow descent into metalhood.
Though he initially faked an injury to get out of work, Ray would actually get a serious injury (seemingly) at the hands of Archer. Such an injury would have Krieger give Ray robotic prosthetics, making Ray an active cyborg within ISIS's ranks.
5 The Company Pivots Direction
When Season 11 premiered, many were surprised to find that ISIS was once again a spy company. Though that was the initial premise, the series did go through several pivots throughout the series. The group has become drug dealers, CIA agents, and even private detectives.
During the coma years, Sterling Archer helped make the group into neo noir characters, adventurers, and even a space crew. The return to the world of espionage may be a return to the form, but the Archer fanbase probably could have had a couple of more seasons dedicated to genre parodies and pop culture references.
4 Archer Gets A Few Kids
Given how promiscuous Sterling Archer can be, it shouldn't be a surprise that he's had a few kids over the course of the series. His first kid technically wasn't his own— when Archer's favorite "lady of the night," Trinette McGoon, reveals that she had a baby, Archer attempts to sabotage the DNA test to make himself the father even though he wasn't.
Unfortunately, he switches the DNA sample with that of Cyril's, only to discover that Cyril was the actual father. Given the results of the DNA test that he personally tampered with, Archer is now legally the father of one Seamus McGoon (though Seamus has rarely been mentioned in the series as of late). His latest child, though, is truly his own after Lana Kane's baby craziness drives her to actually steal Archer's DNA to start a family of her own.
3 Archer And Lana Get Back Together A Few Times
The driving force of a lot of the Archer background was the "will they/won't they" romantic tension between Sterling Archer and Lana Kane. While the two share plenty of interests, Archer's immaturity and Lana's drive for commitment kept the two apart. However, that didn't stop a few instances across the series where the two actually got back together.
Though there were some temptations, Archer trying to stay loyal to Lana has been an interesting tight rope act for the series, and his new family with Lana brought in even more interesting plot threads. Though they're separated once again after the time skip, the two's romantic journey still continues.
2 Archer Is No Longer A Velociraptor
This may very well have been a joke; but considering that the creators have yet to confirm anything, "Archersaurus" may very well be the original pilot for the series. The episode plays out very similarly as the actual first episode of the series, "Mole Hunt," except Sterling Archer is a velociraptor that just speaks in velociraptor screams.
While this is likely just a big joke from the creators, as it's known now, Archer's character was originally velociraptor, and the fact that he's just a guy now has to be one of the biggest changes from a rewrite.
1 Woodhouse Passes Away
Arthur Henry Woodhouse was Archer's loyal and often abused butler. He was an old companion of Mallory Archer who was given the responsibility of looking after Archer. Though Archer mistreated Woodhouse in a variety of ways (including everything between verbal abuse to taking away his shoes), he still had strong feelings for the man that was essentially his closest family.
Woodhouse's original voice actor, George Coe, unfortunately died after his Season 4, leaving Tom Kane to takeover in Season 5. Since Season 6, Woodhouse's character was kept off-screen, and Archer himself implied that he had went missing. It wouldn't be until Archer Dreamland (and technically Season 11) that the series would fully acknowledge Woodhouse's death. As far as animated butlers go, Woodhouse was one of the best.