Not Without My Daughter (Arrested Development)

"Not Without My Daughter" is the twenty-first 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 Richard Rosenstock, and directed by Lee Shallat Chemel. It originally aired on Fox on April 25, 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 breaks with tradition and takes his niece Maeby to Take Your Daughter to Work Day, but he partly regrets this when he's questioned by police investigating Kitty's disappearance. Lindsay, embarrassed to be working at a clothing store, claims that she's shoplifting. This becomes a personal challenge for magician Gob.

Plot
As Michael (Jason Bateman) heads off to work, George Michael (Michael Cera), reminds him it is "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," as long ago, Michael brought George Michael as a joke, and has done so every year since, but now he wants the tradition to end. Maeby (Alia Shawkat) plans to join Tobias (David Cross) in watching entertainment news, and Gob (Will Arnett) comes in with the new Girls with Low Self-Esteem tape, filmed when he made the family yacht disappear. Michael comments on a new outfit Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) says she stole, but she actually works at the shop and is too embarrassed to admit it. Michael takes Maeby to work that day to show her a good role model. Lucille (Jessica Walter) gets Oscar (Jeffrey Tambor) to pretend to be George Sr. (Tambor) at Annyong (Justin Lee)’s soccer game.

George Michael is upset about Maeby taking his place, Gob is insecure at Lindsay apparently being better at sleight-of-hand than he is, and Tobias wants to find a job that will prove he is a man and impress his daughter, so the three decide to head to the mall. Michael challenges Maeby to go one day without telling a lie, which she agrees to for $50, and Michael's promise to do the same. Just then, two police officers arrive, investigating the disappearance of Kitty (Judy Greer), who was last seen flashing Michael at a restaurant, but on a Girls with Low Self-Esteem tape, Kitty is seen on the yacht that Gob blew up. Tobias gets a job as a security guard at the mall while Gob and George Michael purchase mice at the pet store. Buster (Tony Hale) visits George Sr. in prison, and tells him that Oscar escorted Lucille to the soccer game, and George Sr. makes him promise to get rid of Oscar. Michael and Maeby go to the police station to answer questions about Kitty, where they meet with Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler), and he suggests Michael lie about the tape showing Kitty on the yacht.

Lindsay calls to check on Maeby as Gob arrives with George Michael with the box of mice. He knocks the box onto the floor, releasing the mice, and starts stuffing shirts into George Michael’s pants to shoplift. Lindsay, on the phone with Michael, loudly proclaims that she is a shoplifter, and Tobias tackles Lindsay, and Gob and George Michael are caught by the daughter of the head of security. Buster goes to the Oscar's camper where he tells Oscar he is not wanted there. At the police station, Michael is questioned, where the detectives know Kitty had evidence against George Sr. Michael gets a call from George Michael, telling him there is an emergency at the mall. After being hit in the head by a soccer ball, Buster runs through the crowd of players, knocking them all over before firing the ball directly at Annyong. Michael arrives at the mall, where Lindsay admits that she worked there, but had just been fired because they thought she was helping Gob shoplift, and George Michael is still upset that Michael spent time with Maeby instead of him. Michael remembers that Maeby, still committed to truth-telling, is at the police station, where she has seen Kitty alive and the police were bluffing.

On the next Arrested Development...
Tobias loses his security job by shooting at Gob's mice, Lindsay shoplifts clothes, and Annyong attacks Buster as revenge.

Production
"Not Without My Daughter" was directed by Lee Shallat Chemel, and written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and co-executive producer Richard Rosenstock. It was Shallat Chemel's third directing credit, Hurwitz's seventh writing credit and Rosenstock's fifth writing credit. It was the twentieth and penultimate episode of the season to be filmed after the pilot, and the eighth of Fox's second episode order for the season.

Reception
The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, saying "Arrested Development makes the most of a largely forgotten and meaningless feel-good event [of Take Your Daughter To Work Day]". In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode 69th out of the whole series, calling it "The most forgettable episode of the first season" and is "the rare early episode that feels like it’s merely treading water, perhaps saving the good stuff for the season finale." In the United States, the episode was watched by 5.66 million viewers on its original broadcast.