Missing Kitty

"Missing Kitty" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It was written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and co-executive producer John Levenstein, and directed by producer Joe Russo. It originally aired on Fox on March 28, 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, Michael and George Sr. argue over the firing of Kitty, Michael's assistant and George's mistress. Gob announces his intentions to sink the company yacht in a magic act on the beach, inspiring George Michael's admiration.

Plot
While on spring break, Gob (Will Arnett) teaches George Michael (Michael Cera) some unsuccessful magic tricks, and tells Michael (Jason Bateman) that he plans to make the family yacht disappear with George Michael's help. Michael and Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) discuss the office secretary, Kitty (Judy Greer), who's been on sick leave. Lindsay wonders why she hasn't gotten Maeby (Alia Shawkat)'s annual birthday check from Nana, Lucille (Jessica Walter)'s mother, so she and Maeby go to Nana's home, but it takes them a while before they realize the woman who lives there is not Nana. Meanwhile, Tobias (David Cross), still researching his role of Frightened Inmate #2, has been traded by George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) to White Power Bill (David Reynolds) for a pack of cigarettes. Michael arrives at work to find that Kitty has gotten breast implants, and she says she's taking a vacation week, but Michael says she can't, and then fires her when she starts to walk out anyway.

George Sr. tells Michael that he can't fire Kitty, and Michael realizes that George Sr. paid for Kitty's new breasts. Kitty, who was sleeping with George Sr., has access to a lot of information, so George Sr. pleads with Michael to hire her back. Lucille has decided to use Annyong as her purse, and Lindsay consults her mother about Nana, to which Lucille says she's on a cruise. In fact, Lucille's mother had been dead for six months, and Lucille fears that the family will come after the inheritance when they find out. Gob performs magic on the yacht with George Michael, and Michael, looking for Kitty, suggest that George Michael work for him at the office, then tells Gob to leave his son alone. At the prison, Tobias plays therapist to White Power Bill, and gets Bill to realize that he hates himself, leading Bill to commit suicide. The other inmates hail Tobias as "Dorothy," who killed the Wicked Witch, and Michael tries to re-hire Kitty, but ends up re-firing her instead.

George Michael starts filling in for Kitty, and Lindsay discusses Nana with Michael, fearing that Lucille has sent her to a retirement home. Maeby convinces George Michael to find out how Gob makes the yacht disappear, but Gob sends him away. Tobias, now in a position of power at the prison as the head of the gang "Friends of Dorothy", confronts George Sr. about his hatred for him. On the beach, Gob makes the yacht disappear, but tells the family that he sank it, and now they can collect the insurance. Lucille, seeing a chance, suddenly announces Nana was on the yacht, but Lindsay says that she has found out about Nana's death and Lucille's attempts to hide it. Lucille reveals that the inheritance money from Nana has been put in a trust fund for Annyong. For a minute, everyone thinks George Michael had been on the yacht, but it turns out he returned to the office to work as Michael suggested. Kitty, however, was on the yacht, trying to recover blackmail material, and the episode ends with her floating in the sea, clutching a cooler of evidence.

On the next Arrested Development...
Annyong is revealed to be 18 years old, and Michael is questioned by the police for Kitty's disappearance.

Production
"Missing Kitty" was directed by producer Joe Russo, and written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and co-executive producer John Levenstein. It was Russo's seventh directing credit, Hurwitz's fifth writing credit and Levenstein's fourth writing credit. It was the fifteenth episode of the season to be filmed after the pilot, and the third of Fox's second episode order for the season.

Reception
The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, saying "“Missing Kitty” seems snappier than “Staff Infection” to me, though it’s not as tightly woven." In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode as the ninth best of the whole series. In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.51 million viewers on its original broadcast, a decrease of over 1.5 million viewers from the previously aired episode, "Justice Is Blind".