Top Banana

"Top Banana" is the second episode aired of the TV comedy series Arrested Development. The Banana Stand is burned down, the episode takes place a week before it was burned down. George Sr. attempts to control the Bluth company from prison using his cellmate T-Bone.

Plot

The local news station reports that the Bluth Banana Stand burned down. To reveal how it happened, we flashback to a week earlier. Michael visits his father at prison to ask for some papers from him so he can free some money for the family. George explains that "there's always money in the Banana Stand" and introduces his cellmate, T-Bone, asking Michael to give him a job since he's getting out that day. Frustrated by his father's noncooperation, Michael declines. George Michael is still having trouble forgetting his crush on his cousin, Maeby, so he asks for more hours at the Banana Stand in the hopes of spending more time away from her. Michael responds by promoting George Michael to manager and gives him the green light to hire an employee. Seeing Tobias, Lindsay and Gob still lazing on the couch, Michael asks whether they are attempting to find work. Lindsay says her job is supporting her husband, so Michael, wanting to set an example, has his son hire Maeby as his Banana Stand employee. Maeby spends her first day taking money from the register and, after George Michael explains that the cash in the register must match the number of bananas, throwing out bananas so the numbers will match. Meanwhile, Michael drops in on Lucille in his quest to locate the flight records he needed from George Sr. She knows they're in a storage unit, but keeps quiet about any other details. She does, however, ask if Michael can give his brother, Gob a job to make him feel important.

The next day, Tobias, motivated by Michael's call to action, looks for acting work without much luck. Michael sees him despondent that he can't find work, and points out a flyer advertising open auditions. Tobias snatches it and Michael spots another flyer that gives him an idea. He calls his mother and says the SEC wants to drop by and check if she recently bought any big ticket items with company money. He then follows Luz, the maid, as she is sent to hide the evidence in the storage unit. Meanwhile, Tobias has arranged an audition for a local commercial and Lindsay goes along for support. But when Roger Danish, the casting director, spots Lindsay, whom he knows from high school, she gets the role. At the same time, Michael arrives at the storage unit only to find it in flames.

At home, Lindsay giddily informs Michael of her new acting role and Tobias tries to put on a brave face, then excuses himself to cry in the shower. Michael confides to Lindsay that he thinks George Sr. is trying to run the company from prison, so he's heading off to confront him. On the way out, he gives Gob a very important job: mailing a letter to the insurance company. Michael tells a dubious Gob that it's so important, he can't trust a mailman with it. Feeling spurned, Gob defiantly hurls the letter into the sea. Michael then confronts George Sr. about the burned down storage unit, telling him that he's not giving T-Bone a job and he won't let his father run the company from prison. His father brushes him off, saying again that there's always money in the banana stand. Michael informs him George Michael is running the banana stand and T-Bone goes to work with George Michael and Maeby at the stand. Maeby seizes this opportunity to sneak off with George Michael for dinner, where he begins to add up the numbers and panics when he realizes his dad will obviously know they've been stealing money. Maeby tells him to relax and just figure out what George Sr. would do in this situation.

Michael drops by the Banana Stand and sees T-Bone at the helm. Michael asks T-Bone if he burned down the storage unit and T-Bone replies "Most definitely." Frustrated, Michael heads to the beach to think; Gob confronts him about being treated like a "goofball", Michael commiserates with Gob, telling him that George Sr. still treats him like an employee. At that moment, Maeby calls Michael to inform him George Michael is about to do something irresponsible. Michael arrives at the Banana Stand to find his son crumpling up newspaper around the stand to use as kindling. George Michael admits that he screwed up the Banana Stand and apologizes, but thinking of an opportunity to take back some control, Michael tells him to light it up anyway. Later, at prison, Michael gloats that he torched the Banana Stand and George should remember who's in charge now. Irate, George Sr. tells his son that the walls of the stand were lined with $250,000 in cash, and demands to know how much more clearly he could have told him that "there's always money in the Banana Stand."

Episode notes

• Buster does not make an appearance during the episode.
• This episode is well-regarded among fans, and rivals Bringing Up Buster as the favorite among early episodes.
• The ending of this episode marked the first time that an episode revealed a major twist in the plot that changed the meaning of the episode upon another viewing. This is a trait that later became a hallmark of the show.
• The title refers to George Sr's position within the family, as well as to the banana stand.
• This is the first time the theme song is heard, though it sounds slightly different in this episode from later ones because volume levels on certain instruments hadn't fully been worked out. In this episode, an electric guitar is prominent in the theme song.

References

• Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne - Tobias says that with Lindsay working as an actor as well, they're like "the Lunts", referring to the legendary theatrical husband-and-wife duo of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
• Steve Martin - Tobias says "Excuse Me" in a way imitating Steve Martin's trademark catchphrase, but his motions actually emulate Martin's character from the Fenstruck Brothers (a.k.a "The Wild and Crazy Guys") sketches with Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live.

Callbacks/Running Jokes

• Dove - This is the first of many instances of Gob keeping a dove inside his suit jacket for use in a trick, and unfortunately also the first of many instances of accidentally causing its demise.
• Fireball - Gob's fireball trick screws up in this episode, something which later became a running gag in Burning Love, Sword of Destiny and The Ocean Walker. When the lighter fluid is detected he always replies with "But where did the lighter fluid come from?", which becomes a running gag along with the failure of the trick.
• "From whence you came" - Gob says this phrase while throwing the frozen dove into the ocean, a phrase he would later repeat in Charity Drive and Out on a Limb.
• Hiding in the walls - George Sr. has a propensity for hiding valuable secrets in walls, a fact revisited in The One Where Michael Leaves.
• Ice cream sandwich - George Sr. first mentions his love affair with ice cream sandwiches here, one that is revisited in later seasons.
• In the banana stand - George Sr. hides $250,000 in the banana stand, a fact that is mirrored in Spring Breakout.
• Missed phone call - Tobias is offered his first big break in the commercial for South Coast Boutique, but misses the phone call. In Afternoon Delight, he misses a call for his next big break, the Blue Man Group's call to perform with them.
• Trick v. Illusion - Gob refers to the fireball as his "least consistent trick." However, in the Pilot, Gob corrects Michael's calling the Aztec Tomb his "trick", rather than his "illusion." Gob is inconsistent about this throughout the series, illustrating Gob's short attention span and hypocrisy.
• Gangy - The scene between George-Michael and Maeby in the restaurant is the first time we hear the name Lucille's grandchildren use to refer to her, Gangy.
• "No Touching" - This line is repeated many times later in the series.

Hidden/Background Jokes

• Bad hair - In the yearbook, Lindsay is named Best Hair, while Michael is named Most Likely To Succeed. However, we see from his picture that his title essentially carried Worst Hair along with it.
• When Maeby decides to work at the banana stand against Lindsay's will, Lindsay remarks, "...If I know my daughter, that banana stand won't be there in a week!" foreshadowing the fact that the banana stand, in fact, is not there in a week.
• During Tobias's audition scene, Lindsay and Roger Danish mention how ridiculous their hair was back in high school, which is amusing, as they are both still sporting ridiculous hair styles now.
• Lindsay orders Bananas Foster, a flaming dessert, foreshadowing the banana stand being burned down at the end of the episode.

Character Cameos

• This is arguably the second time we see the character T-Bone, but the first time we see him portrayed by Patrice Oneal. In the Pilot, he is played by another, uncredited, actor.
• This is the only time we see Luz as Lucille's housekeeper. By Charity Drive, she had been replaced by Lupe.
• The uncredited guard at the prison who yells "No touching!" in this episode appears several more times, most notably in Visiting Ours and Not Without My Daughter.

Foreshadowing/Future References

• Light treason - Although the reason George Sr. wants to burn the evidence of the flight records (and Lucille tries to keep it from Michael) is never officially explained in this episode, we later learn in Let 'em Eat Cake about George Sr. committing "light treason" overseas. This is the first subtle hint towards it.
• Never-nude - Tobias is wearing cutoffs while in the shower, a first clue to his condition as a never-nude.

Goofs

• At the beginning of the episode, as Michael is talking to his father in prison, the couple in the background sit down at a table and start having a conversation. In the next shot, the same couple arrive at the table and sit down.
• In the scene after Lindsay gets the role in the commercial and she and Michael are in the kitchen, the scene opens up with Lindsay taking flowers out of a bag and arranging them in a vase. The camera cuts to Michael and then back to Lindsay where the flowers are back in the bag.

External links

• The-OP.com
• FOX
• Quotes for this episode on WikiQuote
• Top Banana at the Internet Movie Database