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{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox television episode
| series = [[Arrested Development]]
| image =
| caption =
| season = 2
| episode = 17
| director = [[Russo brothers|Anthony Russo]]
| writer =
* Barbie Adler
* [[Abraham Higginbotham]]
| photographer = Greg Harrington
| editor = Richard Candib
| production = 2AJD16
| airdate = {{Start date|2005|04|10}}
| length = 22 minutes
| guests =
* [[Zach Braff]] as [[List of Arrested Development characters#Phillip Litt|Phillip Litt]]
* [[Dick Van Patten]] as Cal Cullen
* [[Jeff Garlin]] as [[List of Arrested Development characters#Mort Meyers|Mort Meyers]]
* [[Judy Greer]] as [[List of Arrested Development characters#Kitty Sanchez|Kitty Sanchez]]
| prev = [[Meat the Veals]]
| next = [[Righteous Brothers (Arrested Development)|Righteous Brothers]]
| season_article = Arrested Development season 2
| episode_list = List of Arrested Development episodes
}}
"'''Spring Breakout'''" is the seventeenth episode of the [[Arrested Development season 2|second season]] of the American television [[Satire|satirical]] [[sitcom]] ''[[Arrested Development]]''. It is the 38th overall episode of the series, and was written by supervising producer Barbie Adler and executive story editor [[Abraham Higginbotham]], and directed by [[Russo brothers|Anthony Russo]]. It originally aired on [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] on April 10, 2005.

The series, narrated by [[Ron Howard]], follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, [[dysfunctional family]], who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of [[Michael Bluth|Michael]], his twin sister [[List of Arrested Development characters#Lindsay Bluth-Fünke|Lindsay]], his older brother [[List of Arrested Development characters#Gob Bluth|Gob]], his younger brother [[List of Arrested Development characters#Buster Bluth|Buster]], their mother [[Lucille Bluth|Lucille]] and father [[List of Arrested Development characters#George Bluth Sr.|George Sr.]], as well as Michael's son [[List of Arrested Development characters#George Michael Bluth|George Michael]], and Lindsay and her husband [[List of Arrested Development characters#Tobias Fünke|Tobias]]' daughter [[List of Arrested Development characters#Maeby Fünke|Maeby]]. In the episode, Michael checks Lucille into rehab, but she challenges Kitty to a drinking contest with George Sr. as the prize.

== Plot ==
[[Michael Bluth|Michael]] ([[Jason Bateman]]) is leading the company's meeting with landowner Cal Cullen ([[Dick Van Patten]]) when [[Lucille Bluth|Lucille]] ([[Jessica Walter]]) walks in drunk, having taken [[Byron "Buster" Bluth|Buster]]'s ([[Tony Hale]]) pain medication for a hangover and then misreading an alcohol warning as an alcohol suggestion. Cullen refuses to do business with the Bluths, so Michael suggests to [[Lindsay Fünke|Lindsay]] ([[Portia de Rossi]]) that they hold an [[Intervention (counseling)|intervention]] for Lucille, but [[Gob Bluth|Gob]] suggests [[Drug rehabilitation|rehab]] instead. [[List of Arrested Development characters#Tobias Fünke|Tobias]] ([[David Cross]]) shows up to complain about being panned for his performance as George Sr in ''Scandalmakers'', while at the movie studio, [[Maeby Fünke|Maeby]] ([[Alia Shawkat]]) is ordered to find out how teenagers actually talk. Knowing that Lucille won't go to rehab willingly, Michael offers her a trip to a spa, but upon arriving, Lucille realizes that she is actually at a rehab facility and tries to flee, only to be subdued by the guards. [[Kitty Sanchez]] ([[Judy Greer]]) finds [[George Bluth Sr.|George Sr.]] ([[Jeffrey Tambor]]) in the attic and kidnaps him.

Kitty takes George Sr. to a [[motel]] and screams that he owes her a child, while Buster, unable to sleep, begins to drink from a large box of wine, mistaking it for a giant juicebox. Michael meets with Cal Cullen again and wins him over, but Kitty interrupts, threatening to bring the company down unless Lucille meets her in a bar. Gob uses [[Oscar Bluth|Oscar]] (Tambor) to distract the guards so that they can abduct Lucille. Kitty offers to trade her evidence for a sperm sample from George Sr., and Lucille puts it up to a drinking contest. Gob finds a cooler in the banana stand freezer that looks exactly like the evidence cooler, and he and Michael plan to switch it. Maeby is frustrated by the immaturity of the teenagers at the banana stand, while [[List of Arrested Development characters#Phillip Litt|Phillip Litt]] ([[Zach Braff]]), creator of ''Girls With Low Self-Esteem'', accuses Lindsay of being ashamed of her body, so Tobias pulls down Litt's pants, exposing him as a [[Gymnophobia|never nude]].

Gob, excited at the thought of spring break, performs a wolf call in the hotel hallway, which inadvertently sets off a response by George Sr., allowing them to find his room. Gob tries to vomit up the handcuff key, while Michael forges the signature of [[Saddam Hussein]] on the decoy cooler, promising to turn it in to the police. George Sr. tells Michael to turn it in, saying that the evidence exonerates him. George Michael finds Maeby talking to a vapid boy, saying that she is like a "delicate flower" and that he doesn't "want her to be plucked by someone who doesn't even care that [she is] blossoming." Maeby says that this is just what she wanted to hear (as dialogue for her movie) and kisses George Michael on the cheek. Unbeknownst to her, this reignites George Michael's feelings for her and he calls up [[Ann Veal|Ann]] ([[Mae Whitman]]), intending to dump her. Lucille wins the drinking contest despite drinking extra between rounds, and Gob regains his self-confidence after the successful rescue of George Sr., but then falls into the pool while holding the cooler, destroying the exonerating evidence.

=== On the next ''Arrested Development''... ===
When Michael gets home, he finds out from Lucille that the decoy cooler that they left in Kitty's motel room contained a sperm sample from George Sr.

== Production ==
"Spring Breakout" was directed by [[Russo brothers|Anthony Russo]], and written by supervising producer Barbie Adler and executive story editor [[Abraham Higginbotham]]. It was Russo's fifth and final directing credit, Alder's seventh and final writing credit and Higginbotham's fifth and final writing credit.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arrested Development |url=https://directories.wga.org/project/192692/arrested-development/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=directories.wga.org}}</ref> It was the fifteenth episode of the [[Arrested Development season 2|season]] to be filmed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 30, 2011 |title=20th Century Fox - Fox In Flight |url=http://www.foxinflight.com/tv/8/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030035137/http://www.foxinflight.com/tv/8/ |archive-date=October 30, 2011 }}</ref>

== Reception ==

=== Viewers ===
In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.19 million viewers on its original broadcast.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 21, 2008 |title=ABC Medianet |url=http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=041205_05 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221203540/http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=041205_05 |archive-date=December 21, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Critical reception ===
''[[The A.V. Club]]'' writer Noel Murray commented how the episode "continues the meta moves of "[[Sword of Destiny (Arrested Development)|Sword Of Destiny]]"".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arrested Development: "Spring Breakout"/"Righteous Brothers" |url=https://www.avclub.com/arrested-development-spring-breakout-righteous-brot-1798173947 |access-date=July 21, 2024 |website=AV Club |language=en-US}}</ref> Brian Tallerico from ''[[Vulture (website)|Vulture]]'' ranked the episode 41st out of the whole series, calling it "a funny episode, but a lot of the jokes feel like echoes of funnier ones from a classic season-one installment."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tallerico |first=Brian |date=March 18, 2019 |title=Every Episode of Arrested Development, Ranked |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/arrested-development-every-episode-ranked-worst-to-best.html |access-date=July 7, 2024 |website=Vulture |language=en}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb episode|0515245}}

{{Arrested Development}}

[[Category:2005 American television episodes]]
[[Category:Arrested Development season 2 episodes]]
[[Category:Television episodes written by Abraham Higginbotham]]
[[Category:Television episodes directed by Anthony and Joe Russo]]

Spring Breakout - Revision history

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