Here’s Archer season 7 episode 10’s Sterlingbot explained. Archer is the brainchild of Sealab 2021’s co-creator Adam Reed and follows a vain, alcoholic spy cut from a similiar cloth as the 1960s to 70s era James Bond. While the show occasionally sends Archer on dangerous missions to exotic locales, the bulk of it is really a sitcom centered around his interactions with his misfit teammates and mother Mallory, who is also his boss. The series became famous for its acidic wit and oddly likable collection of dysfunctional characters.
Archer has also played around it with its own formula over the years, with the fifth season Archer Vice seeing the crew trying – and mostly failing miserably – to make a big score selling drugs. Archer season 8 to 10 would prove somewhat divisive, with each taking place inside a coma dream within Archer’s fragmented mind. This allowed it to parody genres like film noir or sci-fi, but many viewers missed the show’s familiar formula. It was actually Archer season 7 episode 10 that placed the titular spy in the aforementioned coma, after being shot by actress Veronica Deane.
The previous episode saw the agency hired to work as bodyguards for Deane on her new movie, with the episode ending with director/Deane’s ex-husband Ellis Crane murdered. Archer season 7 episode 10 “Deadly Velvet: Part II” reveals Deane killed Crane and planned to frame Lana while fleeing to Mexico with Archer. To get Deane to confess, Archer makes Krieger loan out Sterlingbot, a robotic copy the good doctor made for reasons unknown.
The Sterlingbot was introduced in season 7’s “Liquid Lunch,” which featured a subplot where Dr. Krieger made a bet he could hypnotize the entire office. Mallory proved particularly resistant to his attempts, so to win the bet he used a robotic copy of her to fool the others. The episode ends with the reveal he made copies of the entire office; Sterlingbot included. The latter half of Archer season 7 episode 10 sees Sterling and his bot double – who obviously get along very well – work out a plan to make Deane confess.
This doesn’t go well as Deane shoots Archer three times and he falls into a pool – only for him to emerge from the bushes to confront her. Not learning any lessons, Deane also shoots this Archer before fleeing. Archer season 7 episode 10 ends with everyone gathered at the poolside as the wounded Archer explained what happens and clears Lana of Crane’s murder, but as he kneels to propose, it’s revealed he’s the Sterlingbot. His declaration of love makes him short out, which is the same defect as all of Kreiger’s robot creations. Of course, this also means the Archer laying facedown in the pool with three bullet holes is the real one, and the groundwork for the next three seasons was laid.
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