The One Where Michael Leaves

"The One Where Michael Leaves" is the first episode of the second season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It is the 23rd overall episode of the series, and 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 November 7, 2004. The title is a reference to the sitcom Friends, which had finished airing six months earlier.

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 Michael leave for Phoenix but go back to ensure the family misses them. Lindsay's desire for an open marriage causes Tobias to try to join the Blue Man Group, because he thinks they are a support group for depressed men. Lucille signs Buster up for the Army after being goaded by a Michael Moore lookalike, and Gob becomes president of the Bluth company.

Plot
Michael (Jason Bateman) takes George Michael (Michael Cera) to start a new life in Phoenix, Arizona, without saying goodbye to the family. When he realizes that the impact of his departure might have been lost on them, he returns to inform them that he is leaving. Gob (Will Arnett) and Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) speculate that Michael needs them more than they need him. Michael is frustrated that no one is taking his "I'm out of here" seriously, and while on the road once again, Michael gets pulled over, and the police inform him that George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) has been caught. Michael decides to return a second time, to tell his father he is leaving.

The police have actually arrested George Sr.'s twin brother, Oscar (Tambor), and Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler) tells Michael he can't leave the state without paying bail, so Michael goes looking for the company checkbook. At the office, Gob is redecorating, and Michael learns from him that Lucille has the checkbook. After Michael leaves, Gob starts making holes in the drywall with a sledgehammer, and finds a briefcase containing a contract between George Sr. and Saddam Hussein. Lindsay and Tobias (David Cross) decide to try an "open marriage", and Lindsay immediately makes what she thinks is a date, but it's actually an appointment with a realtor (Ed Helms). Tobias spots a flyer and attends what he thinks is a support group for depressed men, but is actually a performance of the Blue Man Group, and decides to audition.

Lucille is questioned by a Michael Moore-type documentary filmmaker, who inquires about the family's patriotism, asking whether she'd ever enlist her son or daughter in the army, and immediately signs Buster up. Michael realizes he must ask the family for the bail money, while Tobias leaves for the theater painted blue to audition for the Blue Man Group, but is run over by Barry Zuckercorn. At the hospital for the second time in two days, the family pours out their troubles and begs Michael for help. Dr. Fishman (Ian Roberts) makes another confusing announcement, saying Tobias "looks dead" but is actually alive. The police try to arrest Oscar, thinking he is George Sr. Michael explains the mixup, and "Oscar" leaves. Then, the real Oscar walks in, revealing the other one was George Sr. in a wig, and has stolen the briefcase containing the Saddam Hussein contract.

On the next Arrested Development...
Dr. Fishman admits Lindsay to the hospital with a fever of 104 degrees, Michael gets to the corporate checkbook, which is empty, and Barry goes to jail for running over Tobias.

Production
"The One Where Michael Leaves" was directed by Lee Shallat Chemel, and written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and co-executive producer Richard Rosenstock. It was Shallat Chemel's fourth directing credit, Hurwitz's ninth writing credit and Rosenstock's sixth writing credit. It was the first episode of the season to be filmed.

Reception
The episode garnered positive reviews. In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode as the second best of the whole series. The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray praised the episode, but comments on how it "in essence ... just repeats the pilot". In the United States, the episode was watched by 6.61 million viewers on its original broadcast.