Archer and the Ocelot

In S03E6 of Archer, the ISIS crew gets on a train to turn in a Canadian terrorist.  I really hope that they will get enough money to stop being bounty hunters, as they have been since the last episode (which was a good one).  Cyril is still lacking as a field agent and unsurprisingly lets their criminal get away.  I'm not sure what was going on with the whole George thing and all the implications that Archer and Malory are racists (I'm not debating that), but I didn't see it (or I wasn't paying attention enough).  For the episode being on a train, I thought it might be a little more interesting.  It wasn't. 

The only thing that saved the episode for me was that Carol had some private cars attached to the train, and there was an ocelot in one of them.  I vaguely remember this animal, but I can't recall where and why it was part of the story.  I loved that Archer completely ignores the mission and heads to hang out with it, later happily announcing to Lana that the creature remembered him.  I don't care much for animals, but for someone as selfish as Archer to care about something else is entertaining to me.  It reminds me of his relationship with his "son" Seamus (which is adorable).  I loved him walking around the cars with a steak for the little guy.

The Mounties' Mexican stand-off was pretty lame.  As usual, Archer's seemingly wild guess was right; the terrorist backup crew posed as Mounties so they could board the train without being detected.  But in the end Archer just gets them out of the situation using a grenade (the ocelot helps out a bit to distract the two Mountie groups).  And things eventually progress that Archer and the terrorist face off on the top of the moving train.

I liked that this episode showed some of the realities of fighting on top of a train, like dust hitting you in the eye and the extreme wind you would have to endure.  It wasn't much of a fight and somehow the ocelot got up there again (luckily wasn't harmed).  It all ended when Lana pulled the emergency brake or something.

So I would have said this was a pretty boring episode, but when they showed Archer sitting in a Mountie car after being arrested for bringing in an exotic animal, I had my only laughs. The ocelot was in there too, and they were talking to each other.  Archer kept yelling at the poor little guy.  I loved it.  I mean, it is funny when Archer just does whatever the hell he wants and ends up on top somehow, but I also enjoy seeing his softer side because it so rarely comes out.  I could watch a whole episode about him and his ocelot pal. 

So, the episode wasn't a complete waste, but it could have been better.  I really, really hope that they will not be chasing after some other criminal for money in the next episode and have a more spy-like mission.