Archer Season 2 Episode 10

When a Stranger Calls
Malory: (As the "ransom" call is traced to ISIS) My god, he was calling from this floor!
This refers to a c urban legend which dates back at least to the 1960s. The original story is that a babysitter receives threatening calls, and calls the police, who trace the call to an upstairs line in the same house. This storyline has been used in many shows and films, the most famous being the 1979 filmWhen a Stranger Calls.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Ray: Yeah, little Miss Cry-wolf here handcuffed herself to a radiator.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, a collection of stories with moral messages, written in ancient Greece. In this story, a boy constantly lies that there is a wolf attacking his sheep, and when there is finally a real wolf, no one believes him.

Trainspotting
Lana: Hey, Trainspotting, can you dial that modulator down a skosh?
Trainspotting is a 1996 film based on a 1993 novel about a group of heroin addicts in the 1980s. The actors speak mostly in Scottish slang and with thick accents, so it can be difficult for Americans to understand what is being said.

Asimov's Laws of Robotics
Kidnapper: (On phone, voice disguised with a modulator) About five seconds away from shooting your friend Pam in her rock-like face.
Lana: Well, we obviously don't want you to...
Archer: Violate the First Law of Robotics.
Archer believes the kidnappers are cyborgs, and follow Asimov's laws of robotics. In Isaac Asimov's science-fiction novels (one of the most famous being I, Robot), robots have three rules that govern their behavior.

The Andy Griffith Show
Lana: Safety's off, Barn.
This is a reference to The Andy Griffith Show from the 1960s. Griffith is the sheriff, and Barney (nicknamed Barn) is his inept deputy who always causes trouble.

The Lindbergh Kidnapping
Malory: Kidnapped?
Cheryl: Like a huge, sweatery Lindbergh baby.
The Lindbergh baby was famously kidnapped in 1932. The investigation was highly publicized, and when the toddler ended up dead, Congress passed new legislation making it a federal crime to transport a kidnapping victim over state lines.

The Destruction of Sennacherib
Tattooed on Pam's back are the lines:
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
This is the third stanza from Lord Byron's 1815 poem "The Destruction of Sennacherib," which is about a Biblical attack on Jerusalem by the Assyrian king.