Space Race (Archer)
In the installment, Commander Anthony Drake (Bryan Cranston) urges the field agents of ISIS to travel onto the spacecraft Horizon to aid in ceasing any attacks.
After entering and defeating the resistant "mutineers", the field agents are eventually kidnapped by Drake and his aggregation, whose real objective is to colonize and populate the humans on Mars.
Although it acquired positive critiques from commentators, the humor and general execution of "Space Race: Part II" was deemed inferior to its predecessor.
Indeed, stun mode can potentially initiate cardiac arrest, as proven when Archer accidentally shoots Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell), who is later revived after defibrillation.
The trajectory of the shuttle is off course from Horizon, which is later found to be caused by Cheryl Tunt (Judy Greer) and Pam Poovey (Amber Nash), who are being harbored in cargo.
As the group nears the airstrip, Archer, who wishes to take credit for the landing, messes with the steering shift, causing the spacecraft to crash.
Afterwards, every ISIS agent except for Archer is shown to be injured as a result, especially Ray, who is now paralyzed from the waist down (which he ironically had pretended to be earlier in the season).
The episode title gives homage to the synonymously named era of space exploration between the Soviet Union and the United States, which coincided during the Cold War.
[6] To Jesse Carp of Cinema Blend, the characters "drops weird name references" to figures such as American eugenist Charles Davenport and Grace O'Malley.
[6] As the second part of "Space Race" commenced, Carp asserted that Drake's opening dialogue was nostalgic of a villainous character from the James Bond film series, particularly Hugo Drax.
[5] "'SR:P2' tried to clear up this flimsy plot point from 'P1' during the opening 'Bond villain' like speech from Drake," the Cinema Blend writer iterated, "where he proclaims in a Thank You For Smoking–esque throwaway line that Lana was the perfect and only candidate for the project.
"[5] In one of Barry's first appearances on the space station, he is taunting "Archer, come out to play", while banging beer bottles together, directly referencing David Patrick Kelly's Luthor in The Warriors.
There are so many jokes that come just from the characters hanging out in anti-gravity, for God's sake, including a ping pong paddle strategically covering Pam's breasts.
[11] Although Marcos Canales of Screen Invasion opined that "Space Race: Part I" contained far too many one-liners and jokes, he praised the storyline and was keen to the character progression of Lana.
"Usually, she’s the best agent ISIS has and can do pretty much anything," explained Canales, "so putting her in a situation where she was not a bad ass gave the character some added depth which is something most animated shows don’t prioritize.
"[7] Analogous sentiments were echoed by Blair Marnell of CraveOnline, who concluded: "The space adventure had some fun moments, but it seemed to lack the punch provided by the two episodes that proceeded it.
[14] While deeming the episode as a hilarious finale, TV Overmind writer Kevin Fitzpatrick claimed that "Space Race: Part II" left many unanswered questions to the audience.
Even prior to the airing of the episode, James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly suggested that the actor's voice would be perfect for an animated television series.
"[5] In addressing "Part II", Carp concluded that "as early as the stunning end of the world sequence, the actor plants the hint of suppressed craziness in Spaceman Drake and it was soon obvious that the just crew would not only be manning a mission to help him combat the mutineers but probably get wrapped up in this nut's dream to terra form Mars.
