In my earlier review for the last Arrested Development episode, "My Mother, the Car," I mentioned the episode is a more tight, focused episode compared to other episodes. This episode, "In God We Trust" really revs up the engine. There is so much going on with characters, set locations, and plot. Everything is so big, and it pays off in a handsome way. The episode also has many firsts: the first Christmas episode, the first episode written by Abraham Higginbotham who wrote many of the better episode of the series, we finally learn the reasoning behind Tobias's cutoff shorts, George Sr escapes for the first time, and we meet two lawyers who would have recurring moments over the course of the series: Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) and Wayne Jarvis (John Michael Higgins).
Let's discuss these two lawyers because of their importance to the show. It helps that they are two of my favorite guest characters. Henry Winkler is a damn fine actor, and he should have won an Emmy for his portrayal as Barry. Simply put, Barry is a terrible lawyer and a terrible person. He is everything you don't want in a lawyer; homophobic, wastes (and steals) money and time, lies often, and generally very incompetent. Meanwhile, Wayne is a professional-maybe too much of a professional. He values the time of his clients so much that he refuses small talk. He once sued Barry himself for calling his secretary a homo-so yes, these two lawyers do their jobs in completely different ways.
Let's get to the nitty and gritty of the plot as there is much to discuss. Every Christmas, the Bluth family hold a pageant named The Creation of Adam. Barry says he is able to get George Sr out on a bond so he can play God. Buster, who plays Adam, does not want to play Adam anymore, so Tobias decides to step in but is blocked by George-Michael. George-Michael likes how the muscular bodysuit of Adam's looks on him, and decides to use it to impress Maeby. Lindsay and Michael gets along (for once) and Lindsay admits to Michael that Tobias has a psychological condition of refusing to get naked explaining the need of his cutoff shorts, and Michael admits to Lindsay that he loves Marta, GOB's girlfriend. Lucille is jealous that her son and daughter are being nice to each other, so she plans to work each side against each other. Finally, the relationship between Buster and Lucille Austero continues to progress.
Ah, many things happened here and I really liked what I saw. Despite the "big" feel of the episode, I was laughing often. The script and the jokes remain very clever, and I loved the addition of the two lawyers. This might be my favorite episode to this point of the season.
My Grade: A
