Archer

Malory: (as the "ransom" call is traced to ISIS) My god, he was calling from this floor! This refers to a classic 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, some of the earliest being the 1974 film Black Christmas and 1979 film When A Stranger Calls.

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.

Lana: Hey, Trainspotting, can you dial that modulator down a skosh? Trainspotting is a 1996 film/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.

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 first is that they cannot injure humans, or allow humans to come to harm.

Cyril: No, trouble is what the IRS will do to me if I don't pay back that loan. Cheryl: The IRS? Jesus, how many Irish gangs are there? Cheryl is still thinking about the Real IRA Irish paramilitary group, but this time Cyril is talking about the IRS, the government bureau responsible for tax collection.

Cyril: Well, whatever, I borrowed it from my IRA and if I don't pay it back... Cheryl: What're they gonna do, kneecap you? Cyril: Wha... Not the IRA, my IRA! Cheryl thinks they are talking about the Real IRA, a paramilitary group in Ireland, designated a terrorist organization by the UK and USA. Cyril is talking about an IRA, a type of retirement plan.

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.

Archer: Okay, but on the way we gotta stop at a toy store and at least get him a stuffed animal. Something. It's like Meow-schwitz in there. Archer is making a pun on the Auschwitz concentration camp which was used by the Nazis in Poland in WWII.

Cheryl's family history is a reference to the wealthy Vanderbilt family, known for building America's railroads. Cheryl's great-grandfather Cornelius Tunt is a reference to Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt patriarch. Similarly, George Washington Tunt refers to George Washington Vanderbilt, and the Tuntmore House refers to the Biltmore Estate.

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.

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.