Queen for a Day

"Queen for a Day"
Directors: Andrew Fleming — Writer: Brad Copeland — Aired: January 23, 2005 — ◄ ►

"Queen for a Day" is the eighth episode of Arrested Development's second season.

Michael sells a portion of his stock in the Bluth Company to buy a car, and Lucille 2 returns, only to discover that Buster is dating the company secretary Starla.

Synopsis[]

As George Michael is getting ready for school he comes across a box of love letters he'd written but never sent to Maeby. Michael comes in to offer George Michael a ride to school, causing George Michael to lay over the spread out love letters to hide them. George Michael tells Michael he's getting a ride in with the Veals and goes to hide the love letters in the attic. Maeby meanwhile is at the studio when Mort Meyers he asks if she'd read the pile of scripts he'd sent her and that he's expecting her notes on them. Maeby uses her "Marry me" deflection to get out of this. Back at the house Buster comes in because he's on furlough and everyone is out dancing with their girl and he's at home sitting around with Lucille. Michael mentions that Buster should go out and meet women who haven't given birth to him. Buster asks Michael to go out with him but he says his schedule is too busy, Tobias offers to be Buster's wingman even if it means him having to take a chubby. G.O.B. comes home because he was fired from Sitwell Enterprises because he kept pushing his Single City idea which became Swing City which became F**k City. G.O.B. wants his old job back at the Bluth company but says that he wants a company car since he had one at Sitwell. G.O.B. also mentions that George Sr. gave him a company car, Michael goes upstairs to the attic to confront his father about this. While upstairs George Sr. tells Michael how bored he is in the attic and asks for some reading material.

At the office G.O.B. tries to convince Michael to give him his old job back and says he will prove to Michael that he deserves it... and then promptly leaves. Barry is waiting for Michael in his office and tells Michael that the company stock is unfrozen. Michael asks if he could sell enough to buy a car, Barry says as long as everyone doesn't sell it would be fine because otherwise they could lose control of the company. Back at the house in the attic Maeby is reading her scripts and gets a paper cut from one of them and calls it quits. George Sr. is only too happy to have something to read and he begins to make notes on them. Michael goes to the car salesman to buy a modest economical car and ends up buying an expensive sports car. Tobias brings Buster to the Queen Mary where he meets Lucille 2, she just got back from a month long stay at the Plumb Clinic, a clinic specializing in the treatment of vertigo.

Michael is called to Lucille's apartment where he learns that Buster is back with Lucille 2. Thinking that something urgent had come up Michael had asked Starla to bring some documents over to the apartment. Michael introduces Starla and Buster who have the same interests as each other (they both love their mothers). Michael discovers that Lucille has had some work done in the bathroom, a larger tub has been installed. Lucille was supposed to let some workers into Lucille 2's apartment but instead had them do work on her bathroom and had them move the wall a couple inches into Lucille 2's apartment, she paid for it with her portion of the unfrozen stock. Michael returns home to make sure the others have not spent their unfrozen stock. He learns that G.O.B. is planning on buying a yacht, Lindsay promised her share to the country club, and Tobias had already bought the Queen Mary.

Michael is in the office asking Barry about the company stocks, he learns that they're 2000 shares short of being the majority stock holders the current majority stock holder is a company called Standpoor, which Michael assumes is Sitwell since it's the opposite. Lucille calls wondering if the Bluths had really lost control of the company, Michael mentions Standpoor and Lucille tells him that it's Lucille 2, Standpoor because she can't stand up without falling down. Lucille says that Lucille 2 is trying to get back at her for the wall moving. Michael and Lucille decide to give Lucille 2 Buster, taking him away from Starla. Meanwhile Tobias is in front of his newly purchased club, the Queen Mary, discussing a mistake the sign maker made, writing "Tobias is Queen Mary" instead of "Tobias's Queen Mary." When he is confronted by a group of roughnecks, really the Hot Cops hired by Lindsay to scare Tobias into selling the club, Tobias ends up recruiting the gang as dancers. At the office Buster breaks up with Starla, once Michael learns of this and the fact that Buster didn't sell his stock as to not hurt the family Michael tells Buster to stick with Starla and says he'll take care of Lucille 2. Michael brings Lucille 2 for a ride in his new car, which retriggers her vertigo. That night Tobias takes his gang on the street where they meet a real gang which they try to turn to good. They are subsequently beaten and one of the Hot Cops is shot.

Back at the Tobias is Queen Mary, Michael apologizes to Lucille 2 and confesses that the only reason Buster had asked her out that night was because they wanted to get control of the company again. Lucille 2 says that she loves the Bluths and that she's always had an order to buy all outstanding Bluth Company stock. Lucille 2 agrees to give Michael the stocks necessary for him to regain control of the company. The next day G.O.B. comes into Michael's office and says that he's fixed all the company's problems. We find out that G.O.B. [bleep]'ed Lucille 2 and that she's going to make him president of the company again. As president G.O.B. mentions that he's going to need the company car. In the "On the next. .." we see Tobias selling the Queen Mary to Barry.

Appearances[]

Recurring

Guest

R.F. Daley as Country Club Manager
Tom Virtue as Kell

Recurring Themes[]

References[]

Ask Jeeves Barry gets his knowledge about private stocks and their acquisition from Ask Jeeves.
Card Sharks - Michael thinks that G.O.B. won the Camaro he had been driving on the game show Card Sharks.
Corvette - Michael buys a Corvette as the company car.
LA Kings - Barry mentions that his lawsuit against the LA Kings is moving forward.
"New York, New York" - When Tobias sings "New York, New York", Lucille 2 says, "Everyone thinks they're Frank Sinatra." Liza Minnelli (who plays Lucille 2) sang the song as the theme for the film New York, New York in 1977, before Frank Sinatra performed it in the early 1980s.
Quincy Jones - Starla says that her mother and Quincy Jones are the two most important people to her.
Soapdish - At the prison, Soapdish was shown on movie night and there was a knife fight.

Callbacks/running jokes[]

Ann Hog - Michael may be calling Ann a pig or pig-like again when he says that George Michael doesn't need to be "all penned up" with the veals in their car driving to school. (Like a pig-pen)
Barry's Sexuality - Barry buys the Queen Mary from Tobias, and asks if it still has the "dungeon area."
Incest - When George Michael is getting ready for school he comes across a box of love letters he'd written but never sent to Maeby.
"Marry me"
- Maeby uses this deflection when Mort Meyers asks Maeby if she'd gotten the scripts he'd sent her because he needs her notes on them.
Is Tobias gay?
- When Buster comes to the house because he's on furlough and everyone is out dancing with their girl, Tobias mentions "My schedule is as open as my relationship with my wife. So why don't we pair up?"
- In the same scene Tobias mentions that he could be Buster's wingman and continues to say, "Even if it means me taking a chubby, I will suck it up."
- Tobias brings Buster to a drag bar saying "This place is exactly what I'd hoped for."
- Tobias was dancing with "what turned out to be" the Queen Mary's owner at the club. In his defense he says "Oh, he really, really did look like a woman."
- The sign on the Queen Mary is changed to "Tobias is Queen Mary" after Tobias assumes ownership. This is a mistake as it should read "Tobias's Queen Mary", although instead of seeing this as the error, he mentions that it's not too bad, and he could just paint over "Mary." The sign would then read "Tobias is Queen."
Bleeps
- When G.O.B. keeps pushing his single population housing development the name evolves from Single City to Swing City to [Bleep] City.
- When G.O.B. tries to convince Michael to hire him back he says "I'm an ideas man, I think I proved that with [bleep] Mountain.
- When Maeby is reading scripts in the attic she gets a paper cut from one of them and says "Ow, back to film school [bleep]."
- While describing how G.O.B. tried to fix the company's stock problem the narrator says "So G.O.B. [bleep] Lucille 2."
Hop-ons
- When Michael confronts his father about him giving everyone a company car but him, he says that he is driving a staircase and that it smells like gas and he gets hop-ons. George Sr. says, "Well of course you're going to get hop-ons."
- When Michael is at the car lot the salesman said that Michael took down their banner with the stair car he replies, "Yeah. Sorry. I got a hop-on. I got distracted."
Ann is unattractive/unmemorable - When Michael tells his father that George Michael doesn't like to be seen in the stair-car his father replies "But he likes being seen with that girl." Michael says "It makes no sense. I know."
Banner
- George Michael is embarrassed to be seen in the staircar since it took down the homecoming banner
- Michael took down the car sales lots banner with the staircar.
"Come on" - When Michael asks G.O.B. if he had sold his stock, G.O.B. replies, "What? No. I'm trying to get a job from you. Mikey. Come on."
Wink
- When Barry explains why he's wearing an eye patch he says "You can't see it. I just winked." and Michael winks back.
- When Maeby goes to thank George Michael for annotating the scripts, she thanks George Michael for his "notes" and tells him not to tell anyone, afterward she gives him a wink.
Sitwell's Hair
- G.O.B. steals Sitwell's dress eyebrows when he gets fired.
- In the office G.O.B. is wearing Sitwell's eyebrows saying that "They make me feel dressier."
Blue dot - The blue dot makes an appearance when George Sr. gets up from a bean bag chair wearing a bathrobe.
Hot Cops - The hot cops are hired by Lindsey to scare Tobias into getting rid of The Queen Mary, Tobias recruits them as his personal gang of dancers.
Vertigo - Lucille 2's vertigo is cured and subsequently retriggered in this episode.
Graham Cracker - Lucille baits Buster with a graham cracker on the balcony and locks him out, denying having done it when Michael questions her.

Hidden/Background Jokes[]

Man with "Freedom" sign - The "Freedom" sign carrying guy is in the Queen Mary when Tobias and Buster go visit. The "Free at Last" music is played as well.
Klimpy's - Buster and Starla go to Klimpy's, the restaurant first introduced in Season 1.
Parking in Rear - There is a "Parking in Rear" sign at the Queen Mary.
The C-Word - The scene where Michael signs the papers for his Corvette mirrors the scene where G.O.B. signed papers for the The C-Word (formerly The Seaward) in "The One Where They Build a House".
A sign outside the Queen Mary shows pictures of Queen (band).
Driving Lucille II to the Queen Mary in the convertible causes Michael's hair to be blown into a style similar to Lucille II's. They're both wearing red jackets and a bug flies into Michael's face, mirroring the beauty mark on Liza Minnelli's face.

Foreshadowing/Future References[]

In an attempt to fix up Buster and Lucille 2, Michael asks Buster if he thinks he should be in a Lucille (loose seal). This is a foreshadowing that Buster's hand will, in fact, end up in a loose seal.
A seal's jaw can be seen in Buster's room, foreshadowing Buster's seal attack.

Quotes[]

→ See more quotes from "Queen for a Day" at Transcript of Queen for a Day.

Notes[]

Goofs[]

Lucille couldn’t have expanded her bathroom into Lucille 2’s kitchen since their apartments are across the hall.
When Michael tells Buster that he'll take care of Lucille 2 for him, his lips do not move. The line was probably edited in afterward.
When Michael brings Lucille 2 to the club, he fixes his upturned collar. For the rest of the scene, shots from different takes show the collar alternately up and down.
The Narrator says Michael dropped off Lucille 2; however, in the scene prior, Michael had agreed to call her a cab.

Images[]

→ See 70 pictures from Queen for a Day at Images from Queen for a Day.

SEASON TWO EPISODES
1. "The One Where Michael Leaves" 2. "The One Where They Build a House" 3. "¡Amigos!" 4. "Good Grief" 5. "Sad Sack" 6. "Afternoon Delight"	7. "Switch Hitter" 8. "Queen for a Day" 9. "Burning Love" 10. "Ready, Aim, Marry Me" 11. "Out on a Limb" 12. "Hand to God"	13. "Motherboy XXX" 14. "The Immaculate Election" 15. "Sword of Destiny" 16. "Meat the Veals" 17. "Spring Breakout" 18. "Righteous Brothers"
Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five