ALL IN THE FAMILY-Gloria and the Riddle, The Threat

 

ALL IN THE FAMILY-Gloria and the Riddle, The Threat

 

“Well, maybe they have female surgeons but naw, not around here, it’s in them there Oriental countries there, where they have that there Chink-u-puncture there.”

 

RIDDLE is a classic episode. Gloria’s women’s lib comes to the fore and Mike comes off, again, as a jerk, demanding she fix his button. Edith comes off as the smartest, figuring out the riddle that has as it’s solving a woman being the mother of the son she can’t operate on. I also think it’s funny that Archie tries to get the answer to the riddle from Gloria’s friend who made up the riddle and from the guys at Kelcy’s.

 

THE THREAT is one of those episodes that NEVER works. Having established Archie and Edith over the past season and a quarter or so, I never believe that Archie would be infatuated with another woman…at all. This doesn’t work as he seems to be flirting with her but her character is, to me, unlikable from the start, dressing the way she does and acting the way she does. Her kiss of Archie is just all wrong no matter how the show tries to present it as perhaps Archie’s fault. I loathe this episode and I loathe that character. There will be more of this nonsense in equally unfunny episodes where Archie fully DOES cheat on Edith with his “little thing.” Though it will not be the same actress or character, Archie will have a three part story about him having a fling with someone named Denise and it works even less than this one does.

 

From the wiki: “According to Edith, Bobbie Jo's visit will mark the "first time in twenty four years that Archie and Edith will not be sleeping in the same bed together." She seemed to have forgotten when Cousin Maude visited in a previous episode, Edith slept in the bedroom and Archie slept on the couch and when Edith had jury duty in a previous episode, she slept in a hotel without Archie and in a future episode (Archie The Gambler), she said that after a fight with Archie, she took Gloria when she was a little kid and left Archie and stayed at her mother's home. Not to mention the many times Archie stayed overnight at hotels during various conventions.”