Marta Complex

"Marta Complex" is the twelfth episode of the first season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It was written by co-executive producer John Levenstein and consulting producer Jim Vallely, and directed by producer Joe Russo. It originally aired on Fox on February 8, 2004.

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, his twin-sister Lindsay, his older brother Gob, his younger brother Buster, their mother Lucille and father George Sr., as well as Michael's son George Michael, and Lindsay and her husband Tobias' daughter Maeby. In the episode, on Valentine's Day, Marta begins to fall for Michael, to his and Gob's misunderstanding. George Michael investigates his cousin's parentage for validation of his crush. Buster moves out of his mother's apartment. Lindsay wants a divorce from Tobias.

Plot
Michael (Jason Bateman) convinces Lucille (Jessica Walter) to throw what she thinks is a Valentine's Day party, but is in fact, an anniversary party for Tobias (David Cross) and Lindsay (Portia de Rossi). Marta (Patricia Velásquez) is impressed by the romantic side of Michael when she finds out he's responsible for the party. George Michael (Michael Cera) searches for a sign using the messages stamped on candy hearts for his crush on Maeby (Alia Shawkat), finding one that reads "Maybe Tonight" and considers that a sign. Lucille, still trying to break up the relationship between Buster (Tony Hale) and Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), sets Austero up with Carl Weathers, Tobias' acting coach, on a night Buster has class. Michael gives a toast to love in general, and Marta realizes that Michael is the one she should be with, not Gob. The next morning, Lindsay decides she needs to divorce Tobias, whose never-nude affliction is too much for her.

Meanwhile, Gob (Will Arnett) thinks Marta is cheating on him with a man named Hermano after overhearing her on the phone talking to her mother, but hermano is Spanish for "brother" as she was talking about Michael. Neither Michael nor Gob realize this, and they agree to work together to find Hermano. Lindsay decides she and George Michael will switch roommates, and he'll bunk with Tobias now, and she with Maeby, leading George Michael to fear that Tobias saw the "Maybe Tonight" candy heart and figured out his crush. Buster, fed up with his mother's interference, decides to move out and live with Lucille Austero, but she doesn't want to be his substitute mother and doesn't allow him to move in, while Lucille Bluth refuses to let him move back in. Michael follows Marta around all day in an effort to track down the mysterious "Hermano." Lucille visits George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) in prison for advice for being nervous about living alone for the first time.

Buster arrives at the model home where Tobias is excited about an upcoming audition for the role of "Frightened Inmate #2". Marta drops by, and Buster immediately falls in love with her. Michael, who had been following Marta, arrives shortly after, and is surprised to see both Buster and Marta, and he agrees to let Buster stay with him for a while. Marta asks Michael if they can go out to dinner to have a talk, and Lindsay confesses to Maeby that she and Tobias are having trouble. In the next room, Tobias confesses to George Michael that he hasn't made love to Lindsay in years, and also mentions that they couldn't conceive, which makes George Michael wonder if Maeby isn't a blood relative. Michael and Marta have dinner at her house, where she alludes to her attraction to Michael, while he implies that he "knows" she's cheating on Gob. Michael, still believing that Marta is having an affair with someone named Hermano, calls out Marta for her affair, and she asks him to leave. Then he notices a gift and note addressed to him, and asks Marta's son what "hermano" means, and finally realizes that she was referring to him.

On the next Arrested Development...
George Michael plucks one of Maeby's hairs to get a DNA test done, Tobias realizes he has to do a nude scene as Frightened Inmate #2 and Buster continues to have a crush on Marta.

Production
"Marta Complex" was directed by producer Joe Russo, and written by co-executive producer John Levenstein and consulting producer Jim Vallely. It was Russo's fifth directing credit, Levenstein's third writing credit and Vallely's second writing credit. It was the eleventh episode of the ordered season to be filmed after the pilot.

Reception
The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray called the episode "a fine starting-point for an Arrested Development, but “Marta Complex” doesn’t click as well as the four episodes that precede it, largely because of its rickety A-story, involving Michael’s efforts to find out whether Marta has been cheating on [Gob]." In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode 56th out of the whole series, saying it "always felt a bit beneath Arrested Development". In the United States, the episode was watched by 4.89 million viewers on its original broadcast, a decrease of almost 1.5 million viewers from the previous episode.