Pier Pressure (Arrested Development)

"Pier Pressure" is the tenth episode of the first season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It was written by consulting producer Jim Vallely and series creator Mitchell Hurwitz, and directed by producer Joe Russo. It originally aired on Fox on January 11, 2004. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.

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 thinks George Michael has started using marijuana, but Buster asked George Michael for it to treat Lucille Austero's vertigo. Maeby spends time with grandmother Lucille, but Lindsay resents their bond.

Plot
Michael (Jason Bateman) is disappointed with George Michael (Michael Cera)'s latest test grade, while Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) is impressed with Maeby (Alia Shawkat)'s C-minus because she didn't even study. Michael and Lindsay remember how George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) used a one-armed former employee named J. Walter Weatherman (Steve Ryan) to scare his children into learning life lessons. Lucille (Jessica Walter) asks Michael and Lindsay to help her doctor receipts before handing them in to the SEC, to which they both decline, with Maeby being forced to help as punishment. Michael overhears George Michael berate himself as he struggles with a math problem and tells him to take some time off. At the banana stand, Buster (Tony Hale) tells George Michael that Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli)'s vertigo is acting up, and asks to obtain some marijuana for her. Michael finds his son working and chides him for not taking time off and gives him $20 to spend on himself. Buster then gives George Michael $225 to buy the marijuana.

Lucille gives a brooch that Lindsay always wanted to Maeby, who is excited to make her mother jealous, but is bothered by a remark Lucille makes about her freckles. George Michael doesn't find Gob (Will Arnett) on the yacht, and leaves a note asking if he can buy him some marijuana. Gob does, but tells Michael, who quizzes George Michael. Michael visits George Sr. to get the contact information of J. Walter Weatherman to teach George Michael a lesson, but George Sr. tells Michael he should just talk to his son. With Gob's help, Michael hires some "Hot Cops" (strippers in policeman costumes) to stage a fake drug bust. Lindsay finds out that her daughter got the brooch she always wanted, but when Lucille begins to criticize Maeby, she decides she's spent enough time with her grandmother.

George Michael heads for the yacht to pick up the marijuana, and Gob flashes the lights, leading two men to appear with a bag of marijuana and George Michael reluctantly completing the deal. The "Hot Cops" appear but start dancing around, and Michael appears and tells George Michael a lesson has been instilled. Buster comes forward and admits that the marijuana was for him, not George Michael. Two real drug dealers, having seen Gob's light flashing, come forward with a supply of marijuana. Before Gob can explain, a police boat appears and the dealers, thinking they were set up, pull out their guns, and Michael and Gob become trapped in a gun battle. One of the dealers loses an arm, and they look up to see the face of J. Walter Weatherman. Michael realizes that his father had taught him an elaborate lesson: not to teach lessons. Maeby gives Lindsay the brooch, and Michael encourages George Michael to be honest with him. George Michael admits that he has a crush on Maeby, but Michael thinks he's joking.

Production
"Pier Pressure" was directed by producer Joe Russo and written by consulting producer Jim Vallely and series creator Mitchell Hurwitz. It was Russo's fourth directing credit, Vallely's first writing credit and Hurwitz's fourth writing credit. It was the ninth episode of the ordered season to be filmed after the pilot.

Reception
The episode garnered positive reviews. In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked "Pier Pressure" as the best episode out of the whole series. In 2015, The A.V. Club ranked it as the fifth best episode of all time from any sitcom since 1990. The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, saying "Arrested Development kicked off 2004 in impressive fashion with “Storming The Castle,” and then cemented its place as the best sitcom on the air with ["Pier Pressure"]." In 2015, Megan Walsh from Screen Rant ranked the episode as the seventh best in the series. In the United States, the episode was watched by 7.21 million viewers on its original broadcast, an increase of over 1 million viewers from the previous episode.