Untitled Arrested Development Fic Notes
Jun. 19th, 2018 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aftanithStory Outline
One
1. Introduce OFC, GOB/Ann hookup >> breakup, George Michael/Maeby fallout + "Welcome to the OC"
2. Charity Bachelorette Auction, Michael and GOB fight over Liv, Lindsay gets involved in something whacky that leaves her looking like a mess for the auction and also discourages Tobias from bidding on her, and Liv pity-bids on Lindsay (which Tobias witnesses)
3. GOB/Liv get together & Liv is entirely oblivious to Michael's attraction to her (maybe Michael backed off because he thought she was gay? maybe she used her participation in the charity auction to protest their discrimination policies a la the men on the boat in "Pilot"?)
4. Christmas / New Year's Eve, Liv meets the Bluths, GOB has second thoughts about their relationship, and George Michael/Maeby gets more serious (plus, Liv learns of Buster's existence after Milford seen/heard shenanigans)
5.
6. Polyamory v. Open Relationships #1: Lindsay/Tobias Polyamory
7. Polyamory v. Open Relationships #2: Liv/GOB open relationship, plus it's Valentine's Day
8.
9. Lindsay is adopted & Liv is Oscar's bastard, plus Opal's introduction
10. Liv bonds with Buster, maybe?
11.
12. Liv is *not* Oscar's daughter.
13.
14. Lindsay/Michael >> OFC/Michael + "Like Brother and Sister"
15. Reveal OFC's bio father + "What Happens in the Cabin" + After the joke re: Liv thinking GOB lives at the model home, Liv convinces the Bluths to move the cabin to some Carroway property for free, so they can actually use it. Liv and the various Bluths squabble over who gets to stay there and when, which involves various antics. Toward the end, Opal visits while Liv and Michael are there. She finds the cabin really familiar, then remembers why and drops a bombshell: she and George Bluth Senior conceived Liv in that cabin. Liv and Michael are horrified.
Liv and the Bluth Boys
Liv is in love with Gob, who has something resembling feelings and commitment toward her. She also harbors some degree of attraction toward Michael, toward whom Gob is uncomfortably physically affectionate; it is at first implied and later confirmed that Gob's desire for Michael's approval and craving for physical affection have morphed into him being physically attracted to Michael, too.
Then there's Buster. At first, it's a running gag that Liv doesn't even know he exists; later, she lets him put her in the role of replacement mother, which is a decision that proves not to be as harmless as she expected. He develops his own Oedipal feelings toward her, and she's eventually forced to acknowledge that she's kinda attracted to him, too (and it's implied that she probably would've pursued him sexually if she hadn't hooked up with Gob first).
I think Liv's fatal flaw might actually be that she is vehement about making sure that the people she loves get what they want while at the same time utterly failing to recognize whether or not what they want is something that's actually good for them to have. She encourages George Michael and Maeby's relationship despite the considerable issues it will inevitably cause them; she identifies and indulges Gob's feelings for Michael despite knowing those feelings could ruin his life if made public; she mothers Buster even though it worsens his already significant confusion about what exactly normal adult relationships are supposed to be in the first place; and, of course, she continues her romantic/sexual relationship(s) with Gob and Michael even after finding out that she's their half-sister. In other words, she puts family first, even when that's a dangerously dumbass thing to do.
Misc. Notes and Potential Ideas
Liv is cast as the voice actress for "Mrs. Bananagrabber".
Liv is photographed for "Ladies of Literacy" when the calendar decides to skew younger.
The fact that any Bluth/Liv relationship is incest should be foreshadowed with Liv using the "I like the way they think" quip about a (fictional) French film called "Trois Amoureux" ("Three Lovers").
Gob is seen either cheating or attempting polyamory in all his relationships; Liv specifically agrees to an open relationship in order to indulge Gob's hypersexuality while demanding emotional fidelity. He tries to keep his "affairs" secret from her until he realizes that she genuinely isn't jealous; after that, he starts sleeping with random people specifically because he hopes to make her jealous.
Liv is hired as the spokeswoman for Cloudmir Vodka.
Liv and Lindsay restart "Guys with Low Self-Esteem". When that turns out to be a commercial failure, Liv creates "Girls with High Self-Esteem", a series of softcore femdom/malesub porn.
The photo album that reveals Liv's parentage is found in the walls of the cabin.
With Tobias' "blue myself" running gag, how about an "eating out"/"eat me" running gag re: Liv?
The "What's wrong with [him/her]" gag should make a reappearance re: someone that one of the family is dating, but... I dunno if it makes sense in reference to Liv?
Michael is repeatedly mistaken for a murderer and/or accused of murder. (Not!Lupe thinks he's planning to kill her; the police bluffed that he was a suspect in Kitty's nonexistent murder; there's a minor joke about him "putting people in the trunk", which seems to freak Lupe out; he's a one of the best suspects in Lucille 2's murder.)
Misc. Notes
• If OFC (Olive "Liv" Faye Carroway) is 21 in 2006, she was born circa 1985. Her legal father is a famous movie star who happens to be homosexual-biromantic and in a loving but nonsexual open relationship with OFC's mother, Opal Felicity. Opal has two children, Olive Faye and Owen Matthew (known only as "O", even to his sister), neither of whom start out knowing the identities of their biodads. (Liv's is eventually revealed: George Bluth.)
• OFC is introduced as GOB's new love interest. Presumably, it's first implied to be creepy because she's about Steve's age. And then, after everyone's gotten past the age difference, it comes out that she's Oscar's bastard, making her GOB's cousin and renewing the squick. (Cue George Michael/Maeby parallels.) Then they think they're in the clear when Oscar denies ever sleeping with OFC's mother... only for it to turn out that George Bluth is actually her bio dad, making GOB, Michael, Lindsay, Buster*, and OFC half-siblings (*cousin, probably actually)--which takes the relationship from "subjectively creepy" to "secretly illegal".
• Lindsay & Tobias being attracted to the same men should serve as a parallel for GOB, Michael, and to a lesser extent Buster being attracted to the same women. OFC (indirectly?) prompts a realization for the Funkes, leading them to try polyamory instead of an open relationship (cue wacky antics trying to get a third?). This should imply a GOB/OFC/Michael resolution that may or may not come about. (Given the show's GOB/Michael subtext, it's no huge stretch.)
• While I want this to branch off before the finale (possibly before the Hussein episode), Lindsay should still be revealed as adopted. She should also still proposition Michael and get hit on by GOB. Eventually, the Lindsay/Michael subtext reaches the point at which they nearly sleep together, only to change their minds at the last minute (not wanting to sleep with someone who's legally their sibling). Instead, Michael ends up sleeping with OFC (who is presumably "off again" with GOB... or maybe they're trying an open relationship, possibly prompted by Tobias and/or Lindsay?)... who is very quickly afterward revealed to be George Senior's bastard.
• In a callback to the "hermano" mixup, at some point in #2, GOB begins to suspect OFC is cheating. He enlists Michael's help, who explicitly reminds him of the "hermano" incident but helps anyway. They eventually discover that the man OFC is "cheating" with is her maternal half-brother (another O name). She's outraged at the intrusion and about to launch into a cliche speech about how it's a misunderstanding and they're disgusting for thinking she's sleeping with a man who's clearly her brother... only to remember who she's dating. (Title could be "My Mano, Hermano" and have some kind of subplot about Buster's hand.)
• After OFC learns that George Senior is her bio dad, she, GOB, and Michael try to keep anyone else from finding out, lest it create more scandal for the Bluths (and, you know, potentially lead to imprisonment). But as usual, Kitty is privy to George Senior's dirty little secrets, and once she figures out that Olive is his daughter, she's got a great new opportunity for blackmail. (Perhaps George Senior himself is the one who convinces her to back off?)
Minor Jokes to Use
• OFC shows up wearing "mood contacts", which she claims make her eyes change color with her mood. They don't actually work. (There's some "blind with 'em" jokes in there.)
• OFC is the OFC's actual initials (and her mother's initials!). How about Olive "Liv" Faye Carroway? (There's some "alive"/"live"--as in, "IT'S ALIVE" and "Liv and let Liv"--jokes in there, plus some GoT references re: Olly? Maybe a"June snow" joke to go with the Olly joke, which could get involved because her brother mocks her by calling her Olly? Oh, and there's some "the OC" jokes in there, too.)
• The mother can be named Opal. (There's an "Opie" joke in there.) And the brother can be... something else with an O. (Maybe he's just referred to as "O" and refuses to give his full name... or doesn't have one. That leaves room for Oedipus jokes, Orpheus jokes, etc.)
• In a continuation of the joke about no one knowing where GOB lives, OFC genuinely thinks he lives at the model home. Cue a joke in which she and Michael simultaneously discover OFC and GOB have been having sex in Michael's bed.
• Either there's a threesome mixup in which GOB thinks OFC is proposing a tryst with a female friend of hers, only to discover said friend is male *or* GOB tries to negotiate a MFF threesome, but OFC will only agree if they also have a MMF threesome. (Cue "holy trinity" v. "unholy trinity" jokes.) How exactly this plays out will depend on how open I decide to make Gob about his bisexuality. Presumably, he's in some kind of pseudo-closet where he's a straight-identifying bisexual who hasn't bothered to "come out" to friends and family. On the other hand, Michael's reaction to seeing Tony was "I knew it!" So, while he was presumably closeted, he wasn't exactly subtle. If it happens at a point when Gob is more comfortable with his sexuality, the misunderstanding might be from Michael's point of view instead. • OFC is an author, with a running gag being that her books genuinely suck and only got published because of her famous father? Later, parodying Twilight, she writes a crappy but very successful YA PNR series with a familiar and rather creepy love triangle that gets turned into a series of explosively popular but artistically subpar movies with a notoriously dull cast who all hate the franchise.
• "This is my brother, O." / "I believe it's pronounced brothéro."
• Presumably, Liv participates in the yearly charity auction.
• "Wait, that's Kitty? Repulsive Kitty? She's cute!" / "You haven't seen her off/down." / "...I don't even what to know what that means."
• Lucille knows about the Forget Me Nows, so Gob's finding it much harder to get one in her. When he eventually feels he must because of x shenanigans, he attempts to do so by spiking her drink. Meanwhile, however, Liv is spending time with Buster at the penthouse for whatever reason, and it's they instead of Lucille who come across the spiked booze. Cue a seemingly unexplainable blackout, followed by the panic of "what the hell did we do last night?". Eventually, the prison's cameras should reveal that literally nothing happened: Liv and Buster got crazy drunk and tore the place apart, but that's it.
• The Gob/Liv couple could be played as a deliberate parallel to Lindsay/Tobias. Gob and Tobias are both straight-identifying queer men (Gob is a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey scale, and Tobias is... an eternal mystery.), and presumably the first installment deals with both couples coming to terms with that. But more importantly, Lindsay/Tobias is a couple that is incredibly undersexed, while Gob/Liv are incredibly oversexed; and while Lindsay/Tobias keep trying to get a divorce before chickening out, perhaps Gob/Liv keep trying to get engaged or married but keep chickening out?
Misc. Series Observations
• Tobias wants to be an actor, and just about everything he says is (usually homoerotic) innuendo.
• Lindsay/Tobias bounce between trying to make their sexless marriage work and trying to get a divorce.
• The pilot says Maeby's real name is "Mae", with "Maeby" just a nickname.
• Buster used his wealth to just study various bullshit, which is awesome.
• They're not tricks, they're "illusions". Not that GOB's dialogue always adheres to this.
• Lucille's first choice to run the company after George's arrest is Buster. (He fails miserably.) At the end of Season Four, she chooses GOB instead.
• "There's always money in the banana stand." Later, after the thing has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, it's still secretly storing a cooler of George Senior's sperm. (!?)
• "Bringing Up Buster" states that he usually only spends all his time with Lucille during "summer vacation". He normally goes back to his "studies" during the fall. And Lucille initially gets sick of him once this changes. Though he's participating in an archaeological dig just three episodes later.
• Buster and Oscar both have a weird thing about massaging people's shoulders. They even try to do it to each other at the same time. (?)
• Tobias calls Steve Holt "Steven", so perhaps Steve is a nickname. (Or Tobias is an idiot, which is certainly true in general.)
• According to Maeby, Tobias "thinks everyone's gay".
• Lucille seems to think Buster, Lindsay, and Maeby are all fat.
• In "Storming the Castle", GOB wins Marta over by parroting Michael's praise of her.
• Buster is apparently such a perfect "Milford man" that he can completely disappear by being quite effectively "neither seen nor heard". (There's a joke in there about OFC not realizing he exists for an unreasonable length of time.)
• In "Not Without My Daughter", George Michael is pleased to hang out with GOB and says he feels more comfortable talking to him about girls than to Michael. (This is pre-Ann.)
• When Lucille Austero is dating GOB, she wants to break up because he's too needy, which is startling because she previously dated Buster.
• George Senior seems to genuinely believe he sired Buster, but Lucille seems to be sure that Oscar is Buster's real father. (And the narrator confirms it.)
• When Lucille thinks Buster might be dying or dead after the seal attack, she declares George Michael the "baby" of the family and immediately begins smothering him.
• GOB seems to be having some kind of off-screen friendship (?) with Gary (the Bluth company "poof" introduced in "Good Grief" and later seen with GOB at Sitwell's company in "Switch Hitter" and working for GOB in "The Immaculate Election").
• Maeby implies Steve is in AA.
• Buster decries his girlfriend Starla as a "whore" who's "more experienced than a *normal* girl", so I doubt he'd be comfortable with OFC's sexual personality. (And then there's the time he shocked his siblings with his profane diatribe against their mother, in which he called her an "old horny slut".)
• Lucille heavily implied that she caught Buster masturbating with the teddy bear cam she was using to spy on him. Hopefully, this happened when he was a child.
• GOB claims Lindsay is jealous of the "girls with low self-esteem" because she's "a surfboard" who "should get implants". Nevertheless, his IMMEDIATE reaction upon learning she was adopted is to proposition her.
• Tobias thinks it's a wonderful "parody" when Lindsay proposes "men with low self-esteem". Even Buster thinks "he just wants to see boys' linuses".
• In "Spring Breakout", Kitty says George Senior claimed he "doesn't cheat on his wife anymore".
• Kitty gets George Senior's sperm in "Spring Break", but shows up sober, content, and showing no hints of pregnancy in the subsequent episode, "Righteous Brothers". Though her sudden sobriety could be in preparation for the baby. (!)
• GOB catches George Michael and Maeby making out in "Righteous Brothers", but neither remarks upon it in the moment nor tells the rest of the family.
• Despite George Senior promising to take Michael to the family cabin (and always failing to keep his word), GOB claims no one even told him they owned a cabin. Meanwhile, Michael had never been to the cabin until "The Cabin Show".
• Michael jokes that the cabin is "for cheating on Gangie".
• Twice, GOB attempts to drug Michael with a "Forget Me Now" (succeeding the second time) after shenanigans lead him to believe Michael is upset with him. (The first time with a, "Take this and love us again.")
• When Michael is planning his wedding to Rita, GOB says he's "going to get [Michael] the single healthiest call girl that his town has ever seen" and he's "not going to spend this kind of money and not watch". ...then he spanks him. The subtext is getting kind of heavy this season. (Then there's the "if you feel something moving down there, it's just the bird" incident in "Making a Stand".)
• After discovering his (presumed) true paternity, Buster takes to calling Oscar "Uncle-Father Oscar" and George "Father-Uncle Dad".
• GOB apparently dated Ann for quite a while as he tried to persuade her to sleep with him.
• Despite his Franklin routine, GOB seems genuinely uncomfortable to hear the old woman's racist remarks in "S.O.B.s (Save Our Bluths)".
• GOB used to be a male stripper, and "S.O.B.s (Save Our Bluths)" implies he's dabbled in prostitution? It's kind of vague. But "Family Ties" reveals that he is definitely a pimp.
• George Michael and Maeby get accidentally married in "Fakin' It", which shouldn't be legal as they're both minors, but the state government seems to recognize it as legit.
• GOB appears horrified for all of a split second to learn that Michael thinks Nellie is actually their sister. He even lies about having "done things" with her a moment later (which the narrator confirms false).
• The CIA agrees to drop the treason charges in "Exit Strategy".
• "Development Arrested" reveals that no one know where GOB lives. Tobias apparently "pictures him in a lighthouse".
• George Michael finally tells Michael about his feelings for Maeby in "Development Arrested". Distressed by this, he tries to set George Michael back up with Ann. But doing so upsets him enough (it's a compromise of his morals, apparently) that he can't sleep that night, so he must *really* not like Ann... but has an even harder time tolerating GM/M. (When he tries to discourage it later without the benefit of the blood relation, he essentially gives him a familial version of a "you don't want to ruin the friendship" speech".)
• Stan Sitwell is the one who tells Lindsay she was adopted (he wanted to adopt her). He claims he thought she knew, and he reveals that she's actually turning forty in a week.
• Upon discovering that "[she's] not a Bluth", Lindsay attempts to seduce Michael and announces her intent to marry him. If she doesn't get divorced and remarried within he next month, she threatens, she'll sell her Bluth shares and "cash out".
• As of "Development Arrested", Ann and GOB moved in together on a boat GOB planned to pay for by selling his stock.
• After losing faith in Michael during "Development Arrested", Lucille immediately begins bargaining to sell the company to Sitwell.
• For unclear reasons, George Senior sends Oscar to Michael's party in "Development Arrested" and stows away on the C-Word instead with Michael and George Michael.
• GOB's conversation in "Not Without My Daughter" all but explicitly states (he tells GM about it, but only vaguely) he's had a MMF threesome (in which he apparently disappointed the other man).
• In the very first episode, George Senior was retiring, and season four implies it was genuine (i.e., not jut a continuation of the "can't arrest a husband and wife for the same crime misunderstanding).
• There's a fic on AO3 that describes the other three Bluth siblings as "one without a brain, one without a heart, and one without a hand". That's actually a good idea; how about a Wizard of Oz allegory in which GOB = Scarecrow, Lindsay = Tin Man, and Buster = Cowardly Lion. (Either OFC or Michael = Dorothy, and perhaps Lucille = Wicked Witch?)
• Lucille claims she sent Annyong to that academy that forces children to be "neither seen nor heard". He's got to be their best student ever, since he lived in the walls of Lucille's penthouse for who knows how long, and the school never even reported him missing.
• Lucille's children are, in order from favorite to least favorite: Buster, Lindsay, Michael, Gob. (Annyong had not yet been adopted when this was stated.)
• Gob heavily implies in "A New Attitude" that he watches the "Straight Bait" porn series (and asks Ann if she does, too).
• In "Storming the Castle", Lucille claims she actually liked Tracey.
• Lucille is apparently moved by "how happy Marta made GOB" to the point of (briefly, at least) approving of Buster's relationship with Buster and Lucille Austero.
• Gob and Tobias seem genuinely ready to go into business together in "Whistler's Mother".
One
1. Introduce OFC, GOB/Ann hookup >> breakup, George Michael/Maeby fallout + "Welcome to the OC"
2. Charity Bachelorette Auction, Michael and GOB fight over Liv, Lindsay gets involved in something whacky that leaves her looking like a mess for the auction and also discourages Tobias from bidding on her, and Liv pity-bids on Lindsay (which Tobias witnesses)
3. GOB/Liv get together & Liv is entirely oblivious to Michael's attraction to her (maybe Michael backed off because he thought she was gay? maybe she used her participation in the charity auction to protest their discrimination policies a la the men on the boat in "Pilot"?)
4. Christmas / New Year's Eve, Liv meets the Bluths, GOB has second thoughts about their relationship, and George Michael/Maeby gets more serious (plus, Liv learns of Buster's existence after Milford seen/heard shenanigans)
5.
6. Polyamory v. Open Relationships #1: Lindsay/Tobias Polyamory
7. Polyamory v. Open Relationships #2: Liv/GOB open relationship, plus it's Valentine's Day
8.
9. Lindsay is adopted & Liv is Oscar's bastard, plus Opal's introduction
10. Liv bonds with Buster, maybe?
11.
12. Liv is *not* Oscar's daughter.
13.
14. Lindsay/Michael >> OFC/Michael + "Like Brother and Sister"
15. Reveal OFC's bio father + "What Happens in the Cabin" + After the joke re: Liv thinking GOB lives at the model home, Liv convinces the Bluths to move the cabin to some Carroway property for free, so they can actually use it. Liv and the various Bluths squabble over who gets to stay there and when, which involves various antics. Toward the end, Opal visits while Liv and Michael are there. She finds the cabin really familiar, then remembers why and drops a bombshell: she and George Bluth Senior conceived Liv in that cabin. Liv and Michael are horrified.
Liv and the Bluth Boys
Liv is in love with Gob, who has something resembling feelings and commitment toward her. She also harbors some degree of attraction toward Michael, toward whom Gob is uncomfortably physically affectionate; it is at first implied and later confirmed that Gob's desire for Michael's approval and craving for physical affection have morphed into him being physically attracted to Michael, too.
Then there's Buster. At first, it's a running gag that Liv doesn't even know he exists; later, she lets him put her in the role of replacement mother, which is a decision that proves not to be as harmless as she expected. He develops his own Oedipal feelings toward her, and she's eventually forced to acknowledge that she's kinda attracted to him, too (and it's implied that she probably would've pursued him sexually if she hadn't hooked up with Gob first).
I think Liv's fatal flaw might actually be that she is vehement about making sure that the people she loves get what they want while at the same time utterly failing to recognize whether or not what they want is something that's actually good for them to have. She encourages George Michael and Maeby's relationship despite the considerable issues it will inevitably cause them; she identifies and indulges Gob's feelings for Michael despite knowing those feelings could ruin his life if made public; she mothers Buster even though it worsens his already significant confusion about what exactly normal adult relationships are supposed to be in the first place; and, of course, she continues her romantic/sexual relationship(s) with Gob and Michael even after finding out that she's their half-sister. In other words, she puts family first, even when that's a dangerously dumbass thing to do.
Misc. Notes and Potential Ideas
Liv is cast as the voice actress for "Mrs. Bananagrabber".
Liv is photographed for "Ladies of Literacy" when the calendar decides to skew younger.
The fact that any Bluth/Liv relationship is incest should be foreshadowed with Liv using the "I like the way they think" quip about a (fictional) French film called "Trois Amoureux" ("Three Lovers").
Gob is seen either cheating or attempting polyamory in all his relationships; Liv specifically agrees to an open relationship in order to indulge Gob's hypersexuality while demanding emotional fidelity. He tries to keep his "affairs" secret from her until he realizes that she genuinely isn't jealous; after that, he starts sleeping with random people specifically because he hopes to make her jealous.
Liv is hired as the spokeswoman for Cloudmir Vodka.
Liv and Lindsay restart "Guys with Low Self-Esteem". When that turns out to be a commercial failure, Liv creates "Girls with High Self-Esteem", a series of softcore femdom/malesub porn.
The photo album that reveals Liv's parentage is found in the walls of the cabin.
With Tobias' "blue myself" running gag, how about an "eating out"/"eat me" running gag re: Liv?
The "What's wrong with [him/her]" gag should make a reappearance re: someone that one of the family is dating, but... I dunno if it makes sense in reference to Liv?
Michael is repeatedly mistaken for a murderer and/or accused of murder. (Not!Lupe thinks he's planning to kill her; the police bluffed that he was a suspect in Kitty's nonexistent murder; there's a minor joke about him "putting people in the trunk", which seems to freak Lupe out; he's a one of the best suspects in Lucille 2's murder.)
Misc. Notes
• If OFC (Olive "Liv" Faye Carroway) is 21 in 2006, she was born circa 1985. Her legal father is a famous movie star who happens to be homosexual-biromantic and in a loving but nonsexual open relationship with OFC's mother, Opal Felicity. Opal has two children, Olive Faye and Owen Matthew (known only as "O", even to his sister), neither of whom start out knowing the identities of their biodads. (Liv's is eventually revealed: George Bluth.)
• OFC is introduced as GOB's new love interest. Presumably, it's first implied to be creepy because she's about Steve's age. And then, after everyone's gotten past the age difference, it comes out that she's Oscar's bastard, making her GOB's cousin and renewing the squick. (Cue George Michael/Maeby parallels.) Then they think they're in the clear when Oscar denies ever sleeping with OFC's mother... only for it to turn out that George Bluth is actually her bio dad, making GOB, Michael, Lindsay, Buster*, and OFC half-siblings (*cousin, probably actually)--which takes the relationship from "subjectively creepy" to "secretly illegal".
• Lindsay & Tobias being attracted to the same men should serve as a parallel for GOB, Michael, and to a lesser extent Buster being attracted to the same women. OFC (indirectly?) prompts a realization for the Funkes, leading them to try polyamory instead of an open relationship (cue wacky antics trying to get a third?). This should imply a GOB/OFC/Michael resolution that may or may not come about. (Given the show's GOB/Michael subtext, it's no huge stretch.)
• While I want this to branch off before the finale (possibly before the Hussein episode), Lindsay should still be revealed as adopted. She should also still proposition Michael and get hit on by GOB. Eventually, the Lindsay/Michael subtext reaches the point at which they nearly sleep together, only to change their minds at the last minute (not wanting to sleep with someone who's legally their sibling). Instead, Michael ends up sleeping with OFC (who is presumably "off again" with GOB... or maybe they're trying an open relationship, possibly prompted by Tobias and/or Lindsay?)... who is very quickly afterward revealed to be George Senior's bastard.
• In a callback to the "hermano" mixup, at some point in #2, GOB begins to suspect OFC is cheating. He enlists Michael's help, who explicitly reminds him of the "hermano" incident but helps anyway. They eventually discover that the man OFC is "cheating" with is her maternal half-brother (another O name). She's outraged at the intrusion and about to launch into a cliche speech about how it's a misunderstanding and they're disgusting for thinking she's sleeping with a man who's clearly her brother... only to remember who she's dating. (Title could be "My Mano, Hermano" and have some kind of subplot about Buster's hand.)
• After OFC learns that George Senior is her bio dad, she, GOB, and Michael try to keep anyone else from finding out, lest it create more scandal for the Bluths (and, you know, potentially lead to imprisonment). But as usual, Kitty is privy to George Senior's dirty little secrets, and once she figures out that Olive is his daughter, she's got a great new opportunity for blackmail. (Perhaps George Senior himself is the one who convinces her to back off?)
Minor Jokes to Use
• OFC shows up wearing "mood contacts", which she claims make her eyes change color with her mood. They don't actually work. (There's some "blind with 'em" jokes in there.)
• OFC is the OFC's actual initials (and her mother's initials!). How about Olive "Liv" Faye Carroway? (There's some "alive"/"live"--as in, "IT'S ALIVE" and "Liv and let Liv"--jokes in there, plus some GoT references re: Olly? Maybe a"June snow" joke to go with the Olly joke, which could get involved because her brother mocks her by calling her Olly? Oh, and there's some "the OC" jokes in there, too.)
• The mother can be named Opal. (There's an "Opie" joke in there.) And the brother can be... something else with an O. (Maybe he's just referred to as "O" and refuses to give his full name... or doesn't have one. That leaves room for Oedipus jokes, Orpheus jokes, etc.)
• In a continuation of the joke about no one knowing where GOB lives, OFC genuinely thinks he lives at the model home. Cue a joke in which she and Michael simultaneously discover OFC and GOB have been having sex in Michael's bed.
• Either there's a threesome mixup in which GOB thinks OFC is proposing a tryst with a female friend of hers, only to discover said friend is male *or* GOB tries to negotiate a MFF threesome, but OFC will only agree if they also have a MMF threesome. (Cue "holy trinity" v. "unholy trinity" jokes.) How exactly this plays out will depend on how open I decide to make Gob about his bisexuality. Presumably, he's in some kind of pseudo-closet where he's a straight-identifying bisexual who hasn't bothered to "come out" to friends and family. On the other hand, Michael's reaction to seeing Tony was "I knew it!" So, while he was presumably closeted, he wasn't exactly subtle. If it happens at a point when Gob is more comfortable with his sexuality, the misunderstanding might be from Michael's point of view instead. • OFC is an author, with a running gag being that her books genuinely suck and only got published because of her famous father? Later, parodying Twilight, she writes a crappy but very successful YA PNR series with a familiar and rather creepy love triangle that gets turned into a series of explosively popular but artistically subpar movies with a notoriously dull cast who all hate the franchise.
• "This is my brother, O." / "I believe it's pronounced brothéro."
• Presumably, Liv participates in the yearly charity auction.
• "Wait, that's Kitty? Repulsive Kitty? She's cute!" / "You haven't seen her off/down." / "...I don't even what to know what that means."
• Lucille knows about the Forget Me Nows, so Gob's finding it much harder to get one in her. When he eventually feels he must because of x shenanigans, he attempts to do so by spiking her drink. Meanwhile, however, Liv is spending time with Buster at the penthouse for whatever reason, and it's they instead of Lucille who come across the spiked booze. Cue a seemingly unexplainable blackout, followed by the panic of "what the hell did we do last night?". Eventually, the prison's cameras should reveal that literally nothing happened: Liv and Buster got crazy drunk and tore the place apart, but that's it.
• The Gob/Liv couple could be played as a deliberate parallel to Lindsay/Tobias. Gob and Tobias are both straight-identifying queer men (Gob is a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey scale, and Tobias is... an eternal mystery.), and presumably the first installment deals with both couples coming to terms with that. But more importantly, Lindsay/Tobias is a couple that is incredibly undersexed, while Gob/Liv are incredibly oversexed; and while Lindsay/Tobias keep trying to get a divorce before chickening out, perhaps Gob/Liv keep trying to get engaged or married but keep chickening out?
Misc. Series Observations
• Tobias wants to be an actor, and just about everything he says is (usually homoerotic) innuendo.
• Lindsay/Tobias bounce between trying to make their sexless marriage work and trying to get a divorce.
• The pilot says Maeby's real name is "Mae", with "Maeby" just a nickname.
• Buster used his wealth to just study various bullshit, which is awesome.
• They're not tricks, they're "illusions". Not that GOB's dialogue always adheres to this.
• Lucille's first choice to run the company after George's arrest is Buster. (He fails miserably.) At the end of Season Four, she chooses GOB instead.
• "There's always money in the banana stand." Later, after the thing has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, it's still secretly storing a cooler of George Senior's sperm. (!?)
• "Bringing Up Buster" states that he usually only spends all his time with Lucille during "summer vacation". He normally goes back to his "studies" during the fall. And Lucille initially gets sick of him once this changes. Though he's participating in an archaeological dig just three episodes later.
• Buster and Oscar both have a weird thing about massaging people's shoulders. They even try to do it to each other at the same time. (?)
• Tobias calls Steve Holt "Steven", so perhaps Steve is a nickname. (Or Tobias is an idiot, which is certainly true in general.)
• According to Maeby, Tobias "thinks everyone's gay".
• Lucille seems to think Buster, Lindsay, and Maeby are all fat.
• In "Storming the Castle", GOB wins Marta over by parroting Michael's praise of her.
• Buster is apparently such a perfect "Milford man" that he can completely disappear by being quite effectively "neither seen nor heard". (There's a joke in there about OFC not realizing he exists for an unreasonable length of time.)
• In "Not Without My Daughter", George Michael is pleased to hang out with GOB and says he feels more comfortable talking to him about girls than to Michael. (This is pre-Ann.)
• When Lucille Austero is dating GOB, she wants to break up because he's too needy, which is startling because she previously dated Buster.
• George Senior seems to genuinely believe he sired Buster, but Lucille seems to be sure that Oscar is Buster's real father. (And the narrator confirms it.)
• When Lucille thinks Buster might be dying or dead after the seal attack, she declares George Michael the "baby" of the family and immediately begins smothering him.
• GOB seems to be having some kind of off-screen friendship (?) with Gary (the Bluth company "poof" introduced in "Good Grief" and later seen with GOB at Sitwell's company in "Switch Hitter" and working for GOB in "The Immaculate Election").
• Maeby implies Steve is in AA.
• Buster decries his girlfriend Starla as a "whore" who's "more experienced than a *normal* girl", so I doubt he'd be comfortable with OFC's sexual personality. (And then there's the time he shocked his siblings with his profane diatribe against their mother, in which he called her an "old horny slut".)
• Lucille heavily implied that she caught Buster masturbating with the teddy bear cam she was using to spy on him. Hopefully, this happened when he was a child.
• GOB claims Lindsay is jealous of the "girls with low self-esteem" because she's "a surfboard" who "should get implants". Nevertheless, his IMMEDIATE reaction upon learning she was adopted is to proposition her.
• Tobias thinks it's a wonderful "parody" when Lindsay proposes "men with low self-esteem". Even Buster thinks "he just wants to see boys' linuses".
• In "Spring Breakout", Kitty says George Senior claimed he "doesn't cheat on his wife anymore".
• Kitty gets George Senior's sperm in "Spring Break", but shows up sober, content, and showing no hints of pregnancy in the subsequent episode, "Righteous Brothers". Though her sudden sobriety could be in preparation for the baby. (!)
• GOB catches George Michael and Maeby making out in "Righteous Brothers", but neither remarks upon it in the moment nor tells the rest of the family.
• Despite George Senior promising to take Michael to the family cabin (and always failing to keep his word), GOB claims no one even told him they owned a cabin. Meanwhile, Michael had never been to the cabin until "The Cabin Show".
• Michael jokes that the cabin is "for cheating on Gangie".
• Twice, GOB attempts to drug Michael with a "Forget Me Now" (succeeding the second time) after shenanigans lead him to believe Michael is upset with him. (The first time with a, "Take this and love us again.")
• When Michael is planning his wedding to Rita, GOB says he's "going to get [Michael] the single healthiest call girl that his town has ever seen" and he's "not going to spend this kind of money and not watch". ...then he spanks him. The subtext is getting kind of heavy this season. (Then there's the "if you feel something moving down there, it's just the bird" incident in "Making a Stand".)
• After discovering his (presumed) true paternity, Buster takes to calling Oscar "Uncle-Father Oscar" and George "Father-Uncle Dad".
• GOB apparently dated Ann for quite a while as he tried to persuade her to sleep with him.
• Despite his Franklin routine, GOB seems genuinely uncomfortable to hear the old woman's racist remarks in "S.O.B.s (Save Our Bluths)".
• GOB used to be a male stripper, and "S.O.B.s (Save Our Bluths)" implies he's dabbled in prostitution? It's kind of vague. But "Family Ties" reveals that he is definitely a pimp.
• George Michael and Maeby get accidentally married in "Fakin' It", which shouldn't be legal as they're both minors, but the state government seems to recognize it as legit.
• GOB appears horrified for all of a split second to learn that Michael thinks Nellie is actually their sister. He even lies about having "done things" with her a moment later (which the narrator confirms false).
• The CIA agrees to drop the treason charges in "Exit Strategy".
• "Development Arrested" reveals that no one know where GOB lives. Tobias apparently "pictures him in a lighthouse".
• George Michael finally tells Michael about his feelings for Maeby in "Development Arrested". Distressed by this, he tries to set George Michael back up with Ann. But doing so upsets him enough (it's a compromise of his morals, apparently) that he can't sleep that night, so he must *really* not like Ann... but has an even harder time tolerating GM/M. (When he tries to discourage it later without the benefit of the blood relation, he essentially gives him a familial version of a "you don't want to ruin the friendship" speech".)
• Stan Sitwell is the one who tells Lindsay she was adopted (he wanted to adopt her). He claims he thought she knew, and he reveals that she's actually turning forty in a week.
• Upon discovering that "[she's] not a Bluth", Lindsay attempts to seduce Michael and announces her intent to marry him. If she doesn't get divorced and remarried within he next month, she threatens, she'll sell her Bluth shares and "cash out".
• As of "Development Arrested", Ann and GOB moved in together on a boat GOB planned to pay for by selling his stock.
• After losing faith in Michael during "Development Arrested", Lucille immediately begins bargaining to sell the company to Sitwell.
• For unclear reasons, George Senior sends Oscar to Michael's party in "Development Arrested" and stows away on the C-Word instead with Michael and George Michael.
• GOB's conversation in "Not Without My Daughter" all but explicitly states (he tells GM about it, but only vaguely) he's had a MMF threesome (in which he apparently disappointed the other man).
• In the very first episode, George Senior was retiring, and season four implies it was genuine (i.e., not jut a continuation of the "can't arrest a husband and wife for the same crime misunderstanding).
• There's a fic on AO3 that describes the other three Bluth siblings as "one without a brain, one without a heart, and one without a hand". That's actually a good idea; how about a Wizard of Oz allegory in which GOB = Scarecrow, Lindsay = Tin Man, and Buster = Cowardly Lion. (Either OFC or Michael = Dorothy, and perhaps Lucille = Wicked Witch?)
• Lucille claims she sent Annyong to that academy that forces children to be "neither seen nor heard". He's got to be their best student ever, since he lived in the walls of Lucille's penthouse for who knows how long, and the school never even reported him missing.
• Lucille's children are, in order from favorite to least favorite: Buster, Lindsay, Michael, Gob. (Annyong had not yet been adopted when this was stated.)
• Gob heavily implies in "A New Attitude" that he watches the "Straight Bait" porn series (and asks Ann if she does, too).
• In "Storming the Castle", Lucille claims she actually liked Tracey.
• Lucille is apparently moved by "how happy Marta made GOB" to the point of (briefly, at least) approving of Buster's relationship with Buster and Lucille Austero.
• Gob and Tobias seem genuinely ready to go into business together in "Whistler's Mother".
