Plot synopsis from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Phoenix_(Arrested_Development
Featured Character: Michael
Thirty years ago, in retaliation for their maid taking a day off for Cinco de Mayo, Lucille (Kristen Wiig) and George Bluth, Sr. (Seth Rogen) started “Cinco de Cuatro”, to take place on the eve of Cinco de Mayo in order to deplete stocks used for celebrations. In the present day, Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) finds himself at his lowest point at Cinco de Cuatro. Drunk and heavily indebted to Lucille “Two” Austero (Liza Minnelli), who is appearing at the event to promote her political campaign for a congress seat, he offers to have sex with her in a desperate bid to have his debt remitted. Unsuccessful, he returns to the model home in Sudden Valley, where he runs into his brother, Gob (Will Arnett), and reacts with shock when he sees that Gob had sex with a person whose identity is deliberately not revealed to the viewer. Gob panics, overpowers Michael, and forces him to take a “forget-me-now” (a rohypnol pill).
Five years ago, after the disastrous boat party, Michael returned to the family following his mother’s arrest, but when he that learned his parents had received economic stimulus money, and once again embezzled them instead of investing them in the Bluth Company, he got tired of their dishonesty and finally disassociated himself from the family by selling his stock to Lucille Two and decided to build houses at Sudden Valley under his own company, Michael B., despite the lack of roads leading into the complex. Having no immediate buyers, Michael again went to Lucille Two to secure a loan of $700,000 until residents moved in. But due to the 2007 housing bubble all chances of getting any houses sold evaporated and Michael wound up living in a ghost town. When the mailman, Pete, his only link to the outside world, died from a heart attack one morning, Michael moved in with his son, George Michael (Michael Cera), at UC Irvine.
As George Michael is currently occupied with the development of “Fakeblock”, a piece of privacy-enforcing and anti-piracy software, along with his roommate, Paul “P-Hound” Huan (Richard Jin Namkung) and generally trying to carve his own path in the world, he is uncomfortable with the presence of his father, and his loss of privacy, and he repeatedly to imply to his father that he should move out. Mistakenly, Michael thought that George Michael was trying to get rid of P-Hound, and arranged a four-person silent vote between George Michael, a visiting Maeby (Alia Shawkat), P-Hound, and himself. But Michael was shocked to discover that he was unanimously voted out (as he voted for himself as part of a failed ploy).
Crushed by his son’s rejection, Michael tried to take solace in his being featured in an issue of Altitude, Outwest Airline’s in-flight magazine. The staff at the counter (Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, and Anders Holm of Workaholics) refused to give him a copy of the magazine, as they were reserved for passengers. Michael had to purchase a plane ticket and when the cheapest option was to Pittsburgh, he instead opted for the second cheapest: Phoenix, Arizona. Michael finally read the article aboard the plane and, much to his dismay, discovered that it portrayed him as a failed businessman.
Discuss.