‘Arrested Development’: Where Did We Leave Everyone After Season 4?

The Bluths are finally back. After a five year hiatus, Netflix is bringing everyone’s favorite dysfunctional, vodka-swigging, never nude family back for a fifth season. It’s an exciting moment, even if you don’t believe the Bluths deserve the Family of the Year award. But before you jump into Arrested Development Season 5, where did we leave everyone in Season 4?

To say that Season 4 of Arrested Development was divisive is a bit of an understatement. Netflix’s first season of the show, which moved away from the show’s typical ensemble format and devoted singular episodes to every character, is widely considered to be its worst season. Even if you’re a diehard devotee to banana stands, there’s a good chance you’re a little fuzzy about what happened in Season 4. That’s where we come in. Ahead of the premiere of Arrested Development’s fifth season, consider this your guide to where we left each Bluth (and Fünke) and what new demons they’re grappling with in this new season. As Tobias’ license plate once said, it’s time for “anus tart” (pronounced “a new start”).

 

Michael Bluth

Played by: Jason Bateman

Season 4 wasn’t particularly kind to any member of this family, but it was especially cruel to Michael. After vowing to leave his family, Michael tried to make his own housing development called Sudden Valley, saw his housing development turn into a safe space for sex offenders, moved into his son’s college dorm, was voted out of her son’s dorm, and unsuccessfully tried to make a movie about his family. Most of Season 4 followed Michael as he attempted to woo Ron Howard and begged the Bluths to join his movie before shouting that they were out of the movie. But what you really need to know about Michael before diving into Season 5 is his relationships with his son, George Michael, and Bluth family friend, Lucille Austero.

Throughout Season 4 Michael dates a woman named Rebel Alley (Isla Fisher), Ron Howard’s illegitimate daughter and an actress with a wild side. However, Rebel is also seeing another man on the side, a start up bro named George Maharis (who is actually George Michael). Michael knows that he and his son have been dating the same woman, but he pretends like he doesn’t know. This eventually leads to George Michael punching Michael in the face outside of Rebel’s apartment.

Michael also borrows a lot of money from Lucille Austero to pay for Sudden Valley. Desperate to pay her back, Michael offers to prostitute himself to Lucille 2 on Cinco de Quatro. However, after GOB slips him a Forget-Me-Now pill, also known as a roofie, Michael forgets that he’s already tried to bribe Lucille 2 with sex.

 

George Michael Bluth

Played by: Michael Cera

Poor George Michael. He just wanted to play the wood block and become a man. Season 4 saw George Michael coming into his own through one of the most uncomfortable and awkward college stories brought to television. At one point he decides to build an app with his roommate P-Hound (Richard Jin) called Fakeblock, a music app that keeps perfect rhythm. But while he’s trying to show off in front of his longtime crush and cousin Maeby, he lies about Fakeblock, claiming that it actually erases people’s online footprint. Maeby runs with this idea and sets out to make the fake Fakeblock Silicon Valley’s next big thing.

George Michael, wanting to distance himself from his family and through a series of misunderstandings, starts to be known as George Maharis. It’s George Maharis who starts dating Rebel Alley. So long story short, the end of Season 4 sees George Michael as the fake CEO of a fake tech company and dating the same woman as his father.

 

George Bluth Sr.

Played by: Jeffrey Tambor

Last season George Sr.’s twin Oscar started a commune in the desert. George Sr. sees a scam and turned this community into a sweat lodge for CEOs. But as this scam continues and while Lucille is in prison, George Sr. starts to lose his confidence. Oscar, fed up with being the heel in all of his brother’s plans, eventually stands up for himself and takes George Sr.’s place as leader of the sweat lodge. He also starts to see Lucille, who thinks he’s her husband.

On Lucille’s orders, George Sr. is supposed to buy land on the U.S. and Mexico border so they can sell it back to the political candidate Herbert Love (Terry Crews) and charge the Love campaign to build a wall on the property. Land is bought, but it’s not the right piece of land. Because they were using one of Buster’s maps as a reference point, George Sr. buys land in the middle of Mexico. Season 4 ends with George Sr. defeated, back at the ruined penthouse, and more comfortable dressing like a woman than acting like his old self.

 

Lucille Bluth

Played by: Jessica Walter

After stealing another boat, Lucille is forced to do jail time at a luxury prison. Once there she ignores Buster, joins a Mahjong gang, and orchestrates the Bluth family buying land on the U.S. / Mexico border. She’s eventually granted house arrest and is all but forced to return to her penthouse with Buster. Later she’s moved to a rehabilitation facility run by Lucille 2’s brother.

Lucille has always been the mastermind behind this family, and Season 4 finally lets her flex a little. However because she spends most of the season either waiting for her trial or plotting in prison, it’s a sadly light season for the Bluth matriarch. Just know that Lucille is still scheming.

 

Buster Bluth

Played by: Tony Hale

After Lucille goes to prison, Buster has a predictable breakdown a la Norman Bates. Most of Season 4 saw Buster creepily sewing mother dolls, begging his mom to pay him attention, or calling his girlfriend Lucille 2 “Lucille.” This full mother breakdown led to Buster rejoining the army. Once there, Buster killed dozens of innocent people in a drone module he believed was a simulation, leading him to scream “I’m a monster!” and for the army to give him a big hand… literally.

Once released by army, Buster is adopted by Herbert Love’s family, who affectionately calls him “The Blindside Monster.” He then starts a relationship with Love’s wife Ophelia Love which is both maternal and romantic. The Loves kick him out, and Buster goes to find Lucille 2 on Cinco de Quarto. He’s one of the last people who sees Lucille alive on Cinco, and at one point he attempts to erase the incriminating footage from a hard drive using the fake Fakeblock.

 

GOB Bluth

Played by: Will Arnett

GOB had a lot of reckoning to do in Season 4. First he tried to rebrand himself the Christian magician while marrying George Michael’s old girlfriend Anne (Mae Whitman). But before the ceremony, GOB hid himself in a trick which was supposed to see him rise from the grave. GOB never re-appeared. Instead, he temporarily became the getaway driver for a boy band group, had a catchy pop song written about him, and briefly reunited with his son Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade). But it’s GOB’s relationship with Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller) that deserves the most attention.

While trying to expose Tony Wonder’s claims of being the gay magician, GOB slept with him. The two started a confusing romance that was made even more complicated by GOB’s constant use of Forget-Me-Now pills.

 

Lindsay Fünke

Played by: Portia de Rossi

Sick of her husband and forgetting her daughter, Lindsay traveled to India to seek some guidance. Once there, a guru who was really her daughter in disguise told her that she was forgetting something important back home. She and Tobias finally break things off for good, and Lindsay starts seeing Marky Bark (Chris Diamantopoulos), an activist with face blindness. Together they moved into Lucille and George Sr.’s old penthouse and plotted to overthrow the Love campaign.

But being away from nice things was too hard for Lindsay. She began to visit Lucille 2 more and more, and she eventually started a romance with Hebert Love. But unbeknownst to Lindsay, she was really Love’s prostitute and her own daughter was her pimp. Season 4 ends with Lindsay onstage at Cinco, rallying about all the things she claims she was opposed to.

Tobias Fünke

Played by: David Cross

Tobias also travels to India to escape his family, who are in India at the same time as him. Once he returns, he leaves Lindsay and starts to see a woman named Debris (Maria Bamford). Though he thinks they met at a Method 1 acting class, they really met at a methadone clinic.

Together Tobias and Debris dress as Fantastic Four characters, try to scam tourists, and go to rehab together. Once at a rehab facility run by Lucille 2’s brother, Debris tries to get help but is constantly undermined by Lucille Bluth. Meanwhile, Tobias starts to use his therapy license again but quickly stops being productive, instead using the rehab facility to make a Fantastic Four musical. The musical performs on Cinco de Quatro, the same day Lucille 2 goes missing.

Maeby Fünke

Played by: Alia Shawkat

Maeby has always been the queen of scams but Season 4 pushed her lying expertise to its limits. Maeby’s Hollywood dreams come to an end once the industry pushes her out by awarding her a Lifetime Achievement Award. While this is happening, Maeby is still in high school in a desperate plan to get her parents to notice her. She also starts to round up money for George Michael’s Fakeblock, blackmails the family lawyer Barry (Henry Winkler), and becomes her mom’s pimp.

The end of Season 4 sees a lot of failures for Maeby. Her high school deception has led to her sleeping with a minor; her mom cuts things off with Love; George Michael fires her; and Hollywood wants her out. But this is Maeby we’re talking about. She always lands on her feet, so she should pull it all together in Season 5.

Lucille Astero

Played by: Liza Minnelli

After being supportive to the Bluths for years, becoming a lover to Buster, acting like a mother to Lindsay, and helping Michael, Lucille 2 meets a grim ending. On Cinco de Quatro, her body is found laying motionless on the Bluth stair car. Her body then goes missing.

What does this mean? Is she alive? Dead? Did the Bluths do something to hurt her? Probably, but we’ll have to watch Season 5 to be sure.

Stream Arrested Development on Netflix