ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

2X01 - THE ONE WHERE MICHAEL LEAVES (2)

Original Airdate on FOX: 11/07/04


Written by Mitchell Hurwitz & Richard Rosenstock

Directed by Lee Shallat-Chemel


Transcribed by Diego B. for TWIZ TV.com - TWIZ TV.COM

PLEASE do not use/post this transcript anywhere without permission


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DISCLAIMER:

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"Arrested Development" and other related entities are owned, (TM) and © by The Hurtwitz Company and Imagine Entertainment in association with 20th Century Fox Television. All Rights Reserved. This transcript is posted here without their permission, approval, authorization or endorsement. Any reproduction, duplication, distribution or display of this material in any form or by any means is expressly prohibited. It is absolutely forbidden to use it for commercial gain.

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Narrator: Now the story of the family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. It’s Arrested Development.



Michael & George Michael travel in a car along a highway.

Narrator: This is Michael Bluth. Right now he is taking his son, George Michael, to start a new life in Arizona.

Michael: Phoenix, Arizona. Huh? This is it, boy. We are free. Follow our dreams, you know? And the best part of it? Not working for the family anymore.

George Michael: Yeah, but don’t-­­­­­ don’t you always say “family first”?

Michael: Yes, I do, but that is not a family, okay? They’re a bunch of greedy, selfish people who have our nose. And Aunt Lindsay.

George Michael: (surprised) She’s not my real aunt?

Michael: Not a real nose. Got a picture of her when she’s fourteen, in a swimming cap. She looks like a falcon. Spend an entire year living in that stupid model home with those people, and all they did was lie to us.

Flashback.

The whole family is reunited at the hospital waitiing for news on George, Sr.’s condition.

Narrator: The most recent lie was that Michael’s father had had a heart attack while in prison.

Doctor #3: (approaches) We lost him.

They are all shocked.

Cut to the whole family going into George Sr.’s room and findong his bed empty and his window open.

Narrator: What the doctor meant to say was that George, Sr. had escaped.

Cut to footage of George, Sr. escaping through the window, sliding down the stairs of the stairway vehicle. At the bottom of the screen it reads:
ATM footage courtesy of Orange Coast Bank

Narrator: A feat he’d accomplished by using the family’s portable stairway vehicle.

Cut to a photo of George, Sr. at the wheel of the stairway vehicle. At the bottom of the screen it reads:
Traffic light photo courtesy of the Newport Beach Police Department

Cut back to the present and Michael & George Michael on the road.

Michael: (smiling) I’d like to see the look on their faces right now. (imitating) “Where’d he go?”

George Michael: Or they’d think we just headed home. Actually, you know, that’s kind of what I thought until I heard about all that Phoenix stuff.

Michael smiles fades.

Narrator: Michael was concerned that the full impact of his departure might have been lost on his family.

So he calls them.

Lucille: (answering the phone in her apartment) Hello, who is this?

The screen splits in two. Lucille to the left, Michael to the right.

Michael: (in a deep voice) Yes, this is Doctor Blumen. I’m calling regarding Michael Bluth.

Lucille: (calls out) Michael! Phone!

The screen goes back to normal.

Michael: (hanging up) They think we’re still there. We’re going back.

Cut to later. Michael and George Michael enter Lucille’s apartment. The whole family is there. The off-hook signal can be heard from the phone.

Michael: Hello, mom. (gets the phone and hangs it up) Any messages?

Lucille: (walking right past them) None.

Michael: (follows her into the kitchen) No.
There was a message, it was about my health. But, doesn’t matter. My son and I...

A loud horn blows. Buster has blown it.

Lucille: Buster, what are you doing with mother’s rape horn?! (off Michael’s look) Yes, I have a rape horn, Michael. Because you took away my mace.

Buster: Yeah, like anyone would want to “R” her.

Lucille: This is what I’m talking about, Michael. Now that your father has deserted us, Buster has become impossible to control. Suddenly he’s too much of a big-shot to brush mother’s hair.

Michael: Well, I’m not h... (looks at Buster as the full impact of Lucille’s words hit him. Still, he refrains to say anything about it) I’m not helping you with Buster anymore. I’m not helping anyone with anything. I came here to tell you that my son and I...

Lucille starts the blender. The noise is very loud. Lucille and Michael look at each other but keep silent.


Cut to the dining room. George Michael & Annyong are there.

Narrator: George Michael, meanwhile, was approached by his cousin Maeby.

Maeby: (approaches) So, you’re really leaving, huh? Have you told your girlfriend Bland? I mean, Ann.

George Michael: She’s not my girlfriend. And she’s not bland.

Maeby: Really? Because, I mean, under her school picture, it said: “Not pictured.”

George Michael: Okay, they printed a retraction in the spring supplement. And yeah, she was really looking forward to seeing me in my Uncle Sam outfit (Annyong’s eyes narrow) in the get-out-to-vote assembly tomorrow.

Maeby: Wasn’t that supposed to be before the election?

George Michael: Yeah, they had to postpone it when that foreign exchange student parked too close to the gym.

Annyong: I do it. I play Uncle Sam. Better than the part I have now: Guy who order strike on Pearl Harbor. (demonstrates)

Cut to Michael following Lucille back into the living-room.

Michael: I don’t know why you’re not taking this “I’m out of here” seriously, but I am out of here, seriously.

G.O.B.: Let’s face it, Michael: you’ve made this threat before.

Michael: Tell me, when?

Flashback.

On-screen title:
family dinner mishap



The family is having dinner in Lucille’s apartment. Lucille is standing shaking her hand and Tobias, kneeling on the floor, seems to have a cut in his. Lindsay stands, shocked, as Lucille sits back down. Michael stands.

Michael: That’s it, I’m out of here. (leaves as George Michael starts to follow him)

Cut to another flashback.

On-screen title: christmas magic show fiasco

A locksmith is opening G.O.B.’s magic chest at a party, apparently at the Bluth Company. When the chest is opened, Michael comes out of it.

G.O.B.: Ta da!

Michael: I’m out of here. (leaves and George Michael follows)

Cut to yet another flashback.

On-screen title: “monkey freedom rally” setback

Lindsay, holding a sign which reads:
FREE THIS ORANGUTAN, stages a monkey freedom rally by locking herself in a cage with a monkey. Unfortunately, the monkey has to be shot to save her.

Michael: (outside the cage with the shooters and George Michael, says to him) I’m out of this family. Seriously. (leaves)

Cut back to the present at Lucille’s apartment.

Michael: This time we’re going to be so far away, you’re never be able to find us.

George Michael: (smiling) We’re going to Phoenix.

Michael: (whispering) Don’t tell them where.

George Michael: I just thought...

Michael: Doesn’t matter what.

Lindsay: Michael, maybe the reason why you always come back is that you need us more than we need you.

George Michael stares at Lindsay’s nose. She notices and gets unconfortable, touches it and quickly gets away.


Michael: Hmmm. Oh, that’s rich. Huh. I

need you. Alright, I’ll tell you what: Mom, you’re always asking me to help you look after Buster? You can find somebody else. (to Buster) I hope she doesn’t kill you.

Buster: I’ll kill her first!

Michael: (to his mother) And good luck trying to find someone else to run the business, by the way. G.O.B., instead of always coming to me looking for money, saying: “I’ve made a huge mistake,” you can bail yourself out next time.

G.O.B.: (smiling and looking to the others trying to cover) I’ve never admitted to a mistake. What would I have made a mistake about?

Michael: Lindsay, instead of sleeping in twin beds, why don’t you and your husband take the master bedroom. It’s not like you’ve never come to me with your marital problems saying: “Oh, help me, Michael. I think my husband might be a ho...”

Tobias sets off the air horn.


Tobias: Oh, God! Wow!

Michael: (to George Michael, as he leaves) Here we go.

Cut back to the car and the highway.

Narrator: And so, once again, the guys were on their way to Phoenix, never to look back.

George Michael: (in a deep voice, into the car phone) This is just the lab calling. We’ll give him the bad news in Phoenix. (hangs up. To Michael) They know we’re gone.

Michael: Great. You did say “Phoenix” again, but what do we care.

George Michael: (quickly) Sorry.

Michael: Now, do you want to steer, or are you too old to sit on your pop’s lap and drive?

There’s a pause as George Michael thinks about it.

George Michael: I think I might be.

Michael: (beat) Okay.

Cut to a short time later.

On screen title: a short time later...


A police siren is heard and a Sheriff and a cop get out of a police car and approach our guys’ car... which is stopped at the side of the road with George Michael seated on his dad’s lap. Michael gives a little smile at the Sheriff.

Cut to a short time later.

Michael walks with the Sheriff towards the police car, where George Michael sits at the back.

Sheriff: The car’s registered to George Bluth, so we had to check. He’s been caught, so you’re free to go.

Michael: He’s been caught?

Narrator: Michael knew if he went back to see his father he’d only end up saying something hurtful.

Michael: (to George Michael) We’re going back.

Short flash of the previously shown Traffic light photo courtesy of the Newport Beach Police Department

Narrator: In fact, the police only thought they’d arrested George, Sr....

Flashback to the arrest. Oscar is at a coffee stand in a park.

Oscar: (to the lady at the stand) Do you have any cookies with no preservatives?

Two policemen grab Oscar and violently push him to the ground. Then a straggler policeman arrives and brains Oscar with his nightstick.

Straggler cop: Yeah!



Narrator: ...but had gotten his twin brother Oscar instead.

[I think the lady at the stand says something O.S. to Oscar, but I couldn't quite catch it. :-( ]

Back to the present.

At the police station, Lucille enters as Oscar is signing his release.

Lucille: Oh, good grief. It’s Oscar.

Oscar: Oh, thank God you’ve come. (hugs her and caresses her arms)

Narrator: Lucille had a relationship with Oscar years earlier, which she was not eager to rekindle.

Oscar gets horny and hugs Lucille again and tries to kiss her, but she resists.

Lucille: What is wrong with you? The boy is here!

Buster is entering the police station.

Buster: Oh! (Oscar releases Lucille) They said my father was here.

Oscar: Did they?

A significant music sounds. Buster nods repeatedly.

Lucille: (to Buster) Let’s get out of here.

Buster: Wh-what about Oscar?

Oscar: Yes. They impounded my- my humble trailer.

Buster: You’ll stay with us!

Lucille: No, he won’t.

Buster: (standing beside Oscar) You’re the one who says I need a father figure.

Oscar: (to Lucille) Yes, (pointedly) a father figure.

Again, the significant music sounds.

Lucille: Fine, but you’re not sleeping in my bed.

Oscar: Okay.

Buster: Okay. (a little weirded out, he shares a look with Oscar)

Cut to the police station a while later. Michael & George Michael enter.

Narrator: Soon, Michael arrived to claim his father and was met by the family attorney, Barry Zuckerkorn.

Michael and Barry shake hands.

Michael: (looking at a zit in Barry’s forehead) Mmm.

Barry: (touching the zit) No, I know, I know. Everybody says: “Leave it alone. Leave it alone.” (looking at his fingers) Does this look contagious to you? (patting George Michael’s belly) Hey, kiddo! (to Michael, as George Michaels brushes his shirt with his hands) All right, it wasn’t your father. It was your uncle. I ran into them as they were leaving.

Flashback.

On-screen title: moments earlier...

Lucille & Buster talk to Barry outside the police station. But just as Oscar is coming out, a group of cops fall over him again and reduce him just as they did before. Nightstick to the head included.

Straggler cop: Yeah!

Lucille: Oh, for God’s sake.

Back to the present at the police station.

Michael: Well, I only came back to tell them that I was leaving, so I guess it’s time to go, son.

Barry: Where are you going?

George Michael: We can’t tell you.

Michael: No, no. We can tell Barry. (to Barry) We’re going to Phoenix.

Barry: Oh, I wish you hadn’t said that. As your lawyer, I have to inform you: you cannot leave the state. I mean, with your father gone, they want to hold you.

Michael: M- me?

Barry: They’re going to indict you tomorrow. All you have to do is come up with the bail. (whispering) Take it out of the business!

Michael: But I can’t. I quit. I don’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps.

Barry: Then you might wind up on his cot.

(Michael and his son look at each other) Oh, man, I wish you hadn’t said Phoenix.

Michael is speechless.

Commercials.

Cut to Michael and George Michael entering the model house.


Narrator: Michael had just found out that he couldn’t leave the state, unless he came up with bail.

Michael: Okay, listen: I’m going to get the company checkbook, and don’t tell the family. We can’t give them the satisfaction of telling them that I need money, okay? Do you remember what we say about the family?

George Michael: (smiling) It’s not Aunt Lindsay’s nose.

Michael: Yes, but no.

George Michael: (unsure) Don’t- don’t tell them we were going to Ph...?

Michael: (cuts him off) We say that we don’t need them.

George Michael: Oh!

Michael: Hmmm? (smiles at him and leaves)

George Michael: (smiles) Yeah, okay. The new one.

Michael walks into the living room. Lidsay is there, sitting in front of the TV, “exercising” to a tape where a woman sits too.

Woman on tape: It comes from knowing you are toned and fit. Together, two, three, four. Release, two, three, four.



Michael: What are you doing?

Lindsay: I’m exercising, Michael.

Michael: I see you’ve found an exercise tape made for people as lazy as you are.

Lindsay: I do have a love life.

Woman on tape: Tighten, one, two, three, four.



Michael: Okay, this is going off. (turns the TV/VCR off) One night in the master bedroom and you’ve got yourself a love life again?

Lindsay: Well, I’ll be honest. At first, it was awkward.

Flashback.

On-screen title: one day earlier...

Lindsay walks into the master bedroom where Tobias is sitting in front of the TV, “exercising” to the tape.


O.S. Woman on tape: Together, two, three, four. Release, two, three, four.



Tobias: Oh, Linsday. (turns the TV off. Stands) Well. (gesturing to the bed) This is exciting.

Lindsay: Finally, we can be a normal couple...

Tobias: Nice to be back in a queen.

There’s an awkward silence and then they turn away from each other.

Tobias: It’s too much pressure.

Lindsay: I can’t do this.

Cut to a little later. Tobias and Lindsay talk at the feet of the bed.

Narrator: So, Lindsay and Tobias finally took a hard look at their relationship.

Tobias: You know, Lindsay, as a therapist, I have advised (moving to sit beside her, he falls to the floor. Then he stands and accomplishes his goal) a number of couples to explore an open relationship where the couple remains emotionally committed, but free to explore extra-marital encounters.

Lindsay: Well, did it work for those people?

Tobias: (cuckles) No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but.... But it might work for us...

Lindsay: Well, we could give it a shot.

Tobias: Great. We’ll hammer out the details later. Right now, we’ve got a daughter to tell. (runs out of the room) Maeby, we’re having a family meeting!

Cut to Lindsay coming down the stairs. There’s a man coming up. They stop.

Narrator: On her way to the family meeting, Lindsay had an unexpected encounter.

Lindsay: (very friendly) Hello.

James: Hi. G.O.B. told me to come by.

Lindsay: Well, I don’t think he’s here.

James: Well, tell him I like what I see.

Lindsay smiles, flattered.

Cut to the kitchen. Tobias is talking to Maybe there.

On-screen title: seconds later... (family meeting)

Tobias: ...and we probably won’t even act on it. (Maeby rolls her eyes) We’re not gonna get a divorce. If anything, it’ll bring mommy and daddy closer toge...

Lindsay enters, happy as a puppy, and cuts him off.

Lindsay: I met someone. I got a date. I’m dating someone!

Jaded, Maeby flips the page of her magazine.

Tobias: Well, let the great experiment begin!

Back to the present.

Michael: (rummaging through a desk) You’re not using my master bedroom for that.

Lindsay: I believe you left. Or did you realize how much you need us after all?

Michael: Actually, I came back because I need something. Some things. Like the checkbook. Where’s the corporate checkbook?

Lindsay: G.O.B. must’ve taken it to the office. Mom put him in charge. (off his look, smiling) That’s right, Michael. He’s got your old job.

Michael: Well, I better get over there before he brings the whole company down. (leaves)

Lindsay: It’s only been three hours. How much damage could he really do? (finishing her Kegel exercise) And release.

For some reason Michael stops in his tracks as he hears that.


Cut to the Bluth Company. G.O.B. is playing pool in a very small room with several holes in the wall. There’s another man in the room too.

Narrator: In three hours, G.O.B. had done $45,000 in damage.

G.O.B. pulls his cue stick back to make a shot and it hits the wall behind him.

G.O.B.: (to the other man, tiredly) In there, please.

The man takes a sledgehammer and repeatedly hits the wall with it, making a brand new hole.

Michael: (enters) Hey, where’s my desk?

G.O.B.: Oh, I think it’s the massage table in the break room now.

G.O.B. tries another shot but his cue stick hits the window.

G.O.B.: (to the sledgehammer man) Take the window.

Michael: (stops the man) No, hold it! G.O.B., Mom may think that she’s given you my job, but the board still has to approve that decision.

G.O.B.: Actually, they already have.

Flashback.

Board meeting.

Board Member #3: Why should we believe in you?

G.O.B.: For the same reason you should believe a hundred dollar bill (shows it to them) is no more than a hundred pennies.

He magically makes the hundred dollar bill transform into a hundred pennies that fall all over the table, and all the amazed board members dive over them.

Back to the present.

G.O.B.: They approved me unanimously.

Michael: Why wouldn’t they? You’ve only lost them 99 dollars so far.

G.O.B.: Well, I’ve already been pretty successful. Showing the model house again. Sent a realtor over there yesterday.

Flashback to the Lindsay/James, the realtor, encounter at the stairs.

Narrator: It was this realtor who’d run into Lindsay, thinking she was looking for a home.

James: I have an open thing going on too. (Lindsay smiles) I’ll give you the address and you can come by. And I think you’ll really like the neighbors.

Lindsay: (a little taken aback, but what the heck) Okay...

Back to the present.

G.O.B.: So what brings you here, Michael? I hope it’s not for a handout. I run a pretty tight ship around here.

Michael: With a pool table?

G.O.B.: It’s a gaming ship.

Michael: I’m here because I thought you might need me.

G.O.B.: I need you?

Michael: That’s right.

G.O.B.: Oh, boy, that’s good. Can’t wait to call the guys in to hear this one! (picks up the phone) How do you intercom on this?

Michael: Star 2.

G.O.B.: At the same time?

Michael: Hit... no, just the star. In the corner.

G.O.B.: So if I do it like that...

Michael: No, turn your hand the other way. (pressing the buttom) Star...

G.O.B.: Oh, that’s star.

Michael: 2. Alright, let’s just hang it up. (G.O.B. hangs up) There we go. I thought that you might need me to help you with the books. You know, the corporate checkbook. Where is it?

G.O.B.: Actually, Mom’s got it. She was uncomfortable with me... (makes some hand gesture)

Michael just can’t believe it.

Narrator: Michael now had the distasteful choice of either asking his mother for money or going to jail.

Michael: (leaving) Maybe Buster killed her already.

Cut to Tobias walking on some walkboard. He passes a gay couple, then comes up to a billboard where he finds a flyer that reads: Feeling Blue?
across the top, and is for THE BLUE MAN GROUP.

Narrator: Tobias was also having a bad day. Lindsay had met someone and he hadn’t. And that’s when he found what he thought was a support group for depressed men.

Cut to Lucille’s apartment. Michael enters.

Lucille: Well, if it isn’t the boy who cried “Phoenix.”

Michael: Ho-ho. No, I was just- just worried about Buster. I thought maybe I should give him a little guidance. (Lucille takes a brush and brushes her hair) Write him a check, be a role model. Where is the company checkbook?

Buster: I already have a new role model, Michael.

Lucille: His uncle Oscar is living here now.

Michael: Wow! You guys have accomplished a lot in the last three hours. Where is he?

Lucille: I sent him out for a new airhorn.

Cut to footage from the Elevator security cam C. The clock to the left reads: 17:15.

Oscar is there as the police arrives and proceeds to capture him again in their usual way. And he gets his usual nightstick to the head too, just as he blows the airhorn.

Straggler cop: Yeah!

Cut back to Lucille’s apartment.

Lucille: We’ve got it all under control.

Michael: (smiling widely) Great!

But his mother isn’t buying it and she just looks at him knowingly. Michael smiles fades.

Michael: I’m just worried that it’s only going to be a matter of time before the media starts putting together all the pieces of this Iraq story.

Flashback.

On-screen title: one day earlier...



Michael watches TV at the model home.

Narrator: Michael had recently found out that the model home he and his son currently lived in...

Shot of the model home.

On-screen title: current home of Michael Bluth and family


Narrator: ...was very similar to some his father may have illegally been building in Iraq.

Cut back to Michael watching TV (FOX 6), where is a shot of another house, the spitting image of the model home, but in Irak.

On-screen title: former home of Chemical and Mrs. Ali

Back to the present.

Lucille: They haven’t yet. And frankly, it’s a very difficult charge to prove.

She gives him her trademark creepy wink. Michael turns his head but Lucille moves, finds his eyes and winks at him again.

Michael: Man, that jury’s going to fall in love with you.

Lucille: What do you need, Michael?

Michael: I don’t need anything. I’m great. Because everyone else is great. I can’t tell you how nice it is to not be needed anymore. (leaves)

Annyong: (O.S.) I want you!

Hearing this, Michael comes back, only to see Annyong, dressed up like Uncle Sam, practicing in from of a mirror.

Michael: Okay, the jury might actually like that. (turns and leaves again)

Cut to the Bluth Company. G.O.B. is in the process of hanging a picture of himself holding a frozen banana.



Narrator: It was at that moment that G.O.B. found something the jury might not like...

G.O.B: Hammer...

G.O.B. takes the sledgehammer to the wall and opens a hole in it where he finds a metalic briefcase. He opens it and sees the contract signed by his G. Bluth and S. Hussein.

Cut to Lindsay entering some house.

Narrator: ...and Lindsay arrived at what she thought was a date.

James: Hey. You found it. So, should we start in the kitchen?

Lindsay: I thought... the bedroom.

James: Sure, I’ll meet you up there. I’ve got to make this place smell like cookies. And you should know I am anticipating multiples on this.

Lindsay: (smiling) Well, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think that was a possibility. (James doesn’t quite get it)



Cut to James in the kitchen spraying some cookie smell from a can. The screen splits in two and we can see Lindsay heading up. Then it goes back to normal and Lindsay is in the bathroom, taking a shower.

Narrator: Lindsay was nervous, and took a shower to relax.

Lindsay: I can’t do this. I’m not ready for this.

She comes out of the shower to find a whole family of four in the bathroom. Lindsay screams and goes back into the shower.

Prospective Buyer: (leaving the bathroom) Come on kids, we- we’ll go downstairs and have so- some cookies. (gives Lindsay a last look as he leaves)

Narrator: The kids were in for some bad news too.

Cut to Tobias at the theater watching The Blue Man Group’s performance.

Narrator: Tobias, meanwhile, discovered that what he thought was a support group turned out to be a team of bald men painted blue.

Tobias looks like his having a great time, though.

Cut to Lucille’s apartment. Oscar, Buster and Lucille are sitting in the living-room. Buster is combing Oscar’s long grey hair as he checks himself in the mirror.

Narrator: Even Lucille was about to find herself in trouble.

Oscar: (to Buster) Oh, you’ve done this before. (they both laugh) You know, you should let your hair grow long.

Buster: Well, I’ve thought about it. I guess I’d look like you.

Lucille turns his head at them and finds Oscar’s gaze.

Oscar: (to Buster, but looking at Lucille) More than you’ll ever know.

The significant music sounds, but Lucille just rolls her eyes and turns the TV on. On the screen, John Beard presents the news.

John Beard: Are you living in one of Saddam’s many palaces? They may have been built by the same developer. And a seal attack. Meet one surprised bather, coming up.

Worried, Lucille looks back at Oscar and Buster, who has lean on Oscar’s back, put his long, grey hair over his head, and is looking at the result in the hand mirror. He laughs stupidly.

Cut to G.O.B. sitting frozen at the Bluth Company.

Narrator: Seven minutes had passed since G.O.B. had discovered the documents.

Assistant: (on the intercom) G.O.B., your mother on line 1.

G.O.B. picks it up without a word...

Lucille: (on the phone) I’m coming over. Don’t talk to anyone.

...and hangs up in the same way.

Cut to Lucille and Buster walking down the street.

Narrator: It was at that moment that Lucille was stopped by a documentary filmmaker.

Documentary filmmaker: (Michael Moore look alike) Alright, your company is being accused of profiting off of the buildling of houses in Iraq.

Lucille: That’s crazy, we’re all loyal Americans.

Documentary filmmaker: Oh, yeah? Would you enlist your son or daughter in the Army?

There’s a pause as Lucille looks at Buster. Then...

Lucille: Yes.

Buster looks at his mother in shock.

Commercials.

Michael enters the model home, hammer in hand. The walls and the door are a little smeared in blue paint. He gets it on his hands so he goes to wash in the kitchen sink.

Narrator: Michael was out of options. And knowing that his father had a penchant for hiding valuable things in walls, considered one last desperate gambit.

Cut to Michael about to hit a wall with his hammer. But he stops to reflect.

Michael: This is crazy. What am I doing? (goes O.S...) Using a hammer to try to...? (...only to return to hit the wall with full force with a sledgehammer) Ahhhhhh!

Tobias: (O.S.) Ahhhhh!

And Michael gets his hole in the wall. As he peers through it, a blue Tobias peers back at him. He’s in the bathroom. They talk through the hole.

Tobias: Are you crazy?

Michael: Are you blue?

Tobias: (smiling) Only in color, Michael. Only in color.

He comes out of the bathroom. He’s in his cut-offs, flip-flops and glasses, and his back and “love-handles” are not completely covered in the blue paint.

Tobias: It seems like I might have stumbled upon an acting opportunity.

Michael: As a member of the Blue Man Group?

Tobias: Oh, no, you’re thinking of the support group. (Michael just blinks) I made that same mistake myself. They’re called: The Blue Man Group. (Michael just stares at him) But it’s funny, if I hadn’t sought out a support group, I never would have gotten this gig as an understudy for a performance art group. You know, the universe works in mysterious ways, Michael. You never know where help is going to come from, until you look for it.

Michael: Why does everyone think that I need help?

Tobias: Michael, look at you. (puts his hands on Michael’s shoulders and smears blue paint on his shirt) I mean, you’re holding a sledgehammer, your shirt is covered... (realizes) Oh, I did that. Here, let me...

Tobias tries to clean Michael’s shirt with a rag, but gets nowhere and the men just stare at each other.

Narrator: And Michael realized that he, too, had been too proud.

Michael: I need money.

Tobias: I can’t help you.

Michael: I know. (taking off his shirt) It did bother me that they did so well without me. But I do have to ask them for help.

Tobias: And I have to ask for an audition.

Michael: You haven’t auditioned yet?

Tobias: Oh, no, no. I’m not in the group yet. No, I’m afraid I just blue myself.

Michael: (beat as he looks at Tobias) There’s gotta be a better way to say that.

Cut to Tobias walking briskly down the street.

Narrator: Tobias rushed to the theater hoping to be seen. Unfortunately, it was dusk, and he couldn’t be seen.

As Tobias crosses a street, Barry -who drives looking at his zit in the rear view mirror- runs him over with his car.

Barry: What the hell was that? (keeps looking at his zit. Doesn’t seem his gonna stop)

Cut to the hospital. The whole family is there again as Michael and George Michael enter.

Narrator: And so, for the second time in two days, the family gathered at the hospital.

Michael: (hugging Lindsay) Everything’s going to be okay. I’m sure he’s going to be fine. I’m so sorry that this happened. (notices and touches Lindsay’s wet hair but says nothing about it. Instead, he holds her hands) I spoke to him just before he left the house.

Lindsay: (quickly) Oh, really? What did he say? What was the last thing he said?

Flashback as Michael remembers.

Tobias: I just blue myself.

Back to the present.

Michael: (beat) He said some wonderful things. Including the fact that sometimes people are too proud to ask for help when they need it.

And so they all start asking Michael’s help...

G.O.B.: (holding the metalic briefcase to his chest) Oh, God! Okay, fine: I need you!

Lucille: I need you. Okay, Michael?

Michael: No, no. I didn’t mean for you...

Lindsay: It was a realtor, Michael. Now my husband’s in the hospital. (turns away guiltily)

Buster: Mom volunteered me for the Army. Just because the fat man dared her to.

Lucille: We can’t let them take Buster.

Annyong: I lost my wig. My Uncle Sam wig.

G.O.B.: (still holding the case tightly) Michael, I am sitting on some very hot information here. I know too much. I’ve got the thingie. Half in English, half in squibbly.

Lucille: Michael, please, we need you!

There’s a beat as Michael makes his dramatic pause. Then...

Michael: Well, I hate to cancel my medical follow-up in Phoenix, but you give me the corporate checkbook, and I’ll see what I can do.

Doctor #3: (approaches from behind the group) Excuse me, Mrs. Fünke.

Everybody turns to look at him.

Lucille: Oh, this guy again.

Michael: How is he, doctor.

Doctor #3: It looks like he’s dead.

Everyone is shocked.

Lucille: Oh, my god!

G.O.B.: Oh, little guy. The tears aren’t coming. The tears just aren’t coming. (Oscar hugs him and surreptitiously takes the briefcase)

Michael: Just to be clear: looks like he’s dead or he is dead?

Doctor #3: It just looks like he’s dead. He’s got like blue paint on him or something. (the family is shoked again) But he’s going to be fine.

G.O.B.: What is wrong with you?!

Maeby: This (bleep)ing doctor!

Doctor #3: I’ll let you celebrate privately. (leaves)

Lucille: (at the doctor’s back) Hey, we want this comped!

Lindsay throws something at the doctor’s back, though it doesn’t seem to hit him.

Oscar: Well, I’m gonna, I’m just gonna head out. You don’t need some piece of (bleep) uncle hanging around...

As he starts leaving, the police arrives and subdues him once again.

Michael: (to the policemen) Hey, hey, that’s not my dad. That’s not the guy you want. If you want anyone, it’s me.

G.O.B.: Michael...?

Lucille: What?

Michael: Yeah, I’ve got to turn myself in or make bail, maybe by like eight o’clock... (to the Straggler Policeman who’s arrived and is hiting Oscar in the head with his nightstick) Hey, hey, hey! That’s enough. (to Oscar, who’s getting up with one hand on his head and the other still holding the briefcase) Oh, hey, You might want to have that looked at.

Oscar: Thanks, Mikey. (kisses Michael as he flinches, then leaves, briefcase in hand)

Michael: (to the rest of the family) Yeah, they think that I’m involved in this Iraq thing, and I can’t prove that I’m not with dad not around, so I need your help or I’m going to go to jail.

G.O.B.: We’ve got the proof, Michael: Dad’s signed contract with Saddam.

Buster: (approaches Michael and whispers to his ear) Hussein...

Michael looks at his mother. She nods.

Lucille: Use it. If it makes your father look bad, then so be it. He’s long gone now.

G.O.B.: (looking around) Hey, uh, where’s the briefcase?

George Michael: Oscar has it.

Just then Oscar arrives, and not from where he’s left before. Also, he’s wearing different clothes.

Oscar: Hey, I’m awfully sorry I’m late. I got here as fast as I... (off the family’s looks) Oh, how is he?

Lucille: Did you just change your clothes?

Annyong: (approaches, waving his Uncle Sam hat) Hey, look what I found on window sill. Just hat. Someone take wig.

Michael processes that.

Cut to George, Sr. on the run. He steps onto the stairs of the portable stairway vehicle...

Narrator: In fact, it was George, Sr. who took wig,...

George Sr: (bangs the side if the stairs a couple of times) Hit it!

...and it takes off, making George Sr.’s wig fly off his head.

Narrator: ...and was fleeing the country with the evidence Michael so badly needed.

Cut back to the hospital. Michael looks shocked. G.O.B. puts a hand over Michael’s shoulder and Michael turns his head towards him.

G.O.B.: (looking at Michael straight in the eye) You’ve made a huge mistake.

Michael blinks as someone puts their hand over his other shoulder.

Fade to white.

Narrator: On the next Arrested Development...

Cut to Tobias’ hospital room. Lindsay is sitting beside him on the bed as Doctor #3 enters and takes Tobias’ pulse.

Narrator: Lindsay almost stumbles upon a dating opportunity...

Doctor: (looking at Lindsay) You look really hot!

Lindsay smiles broadly.

Narrator: ...but instead is admitted to the hospital with a fever of 104.

Cut to Lindsay in a hospital bed, right beside Tobias’.

Cut to Michael at the Bluth Company. He opens the checkbook but all he finds is a slip of paper left.

Narrator: Michael finally gets the corporate checkbook... only to find that the family has gotten to it first.

Cut to the O.C. prison. Michael is visiting Barry there.

Narrator: And Barry lands in jail.

Michael: You’re glad Tobias is pressing charges?

Barry: I am having the time of my life!

Another inmate passes by and shakes hands with Barry...

Doctor Hate: Hey.

Barry: Hey, Doctor Hate. (holds onto Dr. Hate’s hand for as long as he can)

Guard: No touching!

Barry exhales deeply, a big smile on his face. Michael just stares at him speechless.