# ¡Amigos!

"¡Amigos!" is the third episode of the second season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It is the 25th overall episode of the series, and was written by producer Brad Copeland and directed by Lee Shallat Chemel. It originally aired on Fox on November 21, 2004.
The series, narrated by Ron Howard, follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family, who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of Michael, his twin sister Lindsay, his older brother Gob, his younger brother Buster, their mother Lucille and father George Sr., as well as Michael's son George Michael, and Lindsay and her husband Tobias' daughter Maeby. In the episode, Lucille hires a detective who locates George Sr. in Mexico. Michael goes to collect his father, accompanied by George Michael and his girlfriend Ann. Gob hires a bounty hunter named Ice to keep tabs on Michael.

## Plot

Michael (Jason Bateman) tells Gob (Will Arnett) of his plans to take George Michael (Michael Cera) to Legoland for the weekend. Gob says he plans to hang out with some of his friends, though Michael doubts that he has any. Lucille (Jessica Walter) informs Michael that her private detective, Gene Parmesan (Martin Mull), has found the stair-car and George Sr. in Encanta, Mexico, and Michael says he'll go to Mexico. Gob partially overhears, thinking Michael is ditching the business and escaping to a foreign country, so he hires a bounty hunter, Ice (Malik Yoba).
Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) and Maeby (Alia Shawkat) join the Mexico trip, as does George Michael and his girlfriend Ann (Mae Whitman). Buster does not wish to follow through joining the army, so he hides in Michael's trunk. Instead of getting out in Mexico, he gets out in Santa Ana, California, where Lucille's housekeeper Lupe (B.W. Gonzalez) lives. Meanwhile, Ice follows Michael's car. Lucille distrusts Gob, so she has Gene follow him.
Michael and company find the stair-car and meet up with Ice, whom Michael hires to look for George Sr., and don't realize that George Sr.'s funeral is underway in a nearby church, with Kitty (Judy Greer) in attendance. They all depart for home, leaving Ann behind, and when Michael realizes this, he and George Michael race back to Mexico. Gob, Ice, and Gene all meet up with Michael in Mexico and work things out. Michael pays Ice and Gene to be Gob's friends for a week.

### On the next Arrested Development...

Buster brings a chair shaped like a hand back from Lupe's house into his room, but soon finds Lucille and Oscar making out. Gene informs Lucille, Lindsay, and Maeby that Tobias is suffering from internal bleeding.

## Production

"¡Amigos!" was directed by Lee Shallat Chemel and written by producer Brad Copeland. It was Shallat Chemel's fifth and final directing credit and Copeland's fourth writing credit. It was the third episode of the season to be filmed.

## Reception
### Viewers

In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.89 million viewers on its original broadcast, a decrease of over 1 million viewers from the previous episode, "The One Where They Build a House".

### Critical reception

The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, calling it "noteworthy as the Arrested Development [episode] with the greatest and strongest variety of “bland Ann” jokes." In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode as the 14th best of the whole series, calling it a "very funny episode". In 2015, Megan Walsh from Screen Rant ranked the episode as one of the top ten best of the series.