Cyril Figgis is a comptroller and recently promoted field agent in the TV show Archer. He is passive, bookish, and is frequently bullied by Archer, largely due to his relationship with Lana Kane. Due to Cyril's sexual addiction, he cheated on Lana several times and is no longer with her because of it. He is also extremely incompetent with guns.
Background
Cyril's exact age is unknown, but judging by his dress style and the grey streaks in his hair, he is roughly in his mid to late 40's. As a child, he lost his mother in a fire and seems to have been raised entirely by his father who was extremely strict and demanding. It has been stated numerous times that his father constantly pressured him and showed complete disappointment in his son no matter what Cyril did or how hard he tried to please him.
According to Cyril, the peak of his Father's disappointment was during the regional spelling bee in the episode "Tragical History", whereby Cyril urinates on his trousers as he is asked to spell onomatopoeia.
His childhood has given Cyril a deepseated insecurity in his masculinity that has led to extreme amount of emotional dysfunction throughout the series. Bookish, awkward and lacking self-confidence, he is jealous of Sterling's career, charisma and provocative lifestyle because deep down Archer is everything Cyril wishes he could be. Cyril was dating ISIS agent Lana Kane after she broke up with Archer acting as Lana's rebound boyfriend. They soon had a "falling out" after she walked in on him having sex with Framboise and subsequently discovered he was cheating on her as much as Archer ever did. Weirdly, Cyril cheated on Lana with several of the women Archer had sex with such as ,Cheryl, Trinette, and Framboise, who Archer had sex with merely minutes earlier in the same exact building with Lana several floors above him! It has been implied that he is extremely well-endowed, with Cyril going so far as to attempt to get his medical plan to cover a "penis ensmallment" as discovered by Cheryl and Pam in "Training Day". His lack of confidence stems from his inability to please his father. During "Tragical History" Cyril recalls a particularly painful memory of wetting his pants during a spelling bee when he attempted to spell the word "onomatopoeia" in front of his father, resulting in his father's apparent disappointment of him for the rest of his life.
Cyril is the unwitting father of the wee baby Seamus. When Trinette McGoon slept with both Cyril and Archer, they both used a chocolate bar wrapper to imply they were using a condom (as Trinette assumed the candy bar wrapper was a condom wrapper). Cyril's parentage of Seamus was verified when his blood was switched for Archer's in "Blood Test", which tested positive in the paternity test.
As the series has progressed the distance between Cyril and his ultimate rival Archer has closed somewhat though their is still a vast expanse between the two. Cyril has become an agent of ISIS, gone on missions, fought other spies, used fire arms (though laughably poorly), and traveled the world. He has slowly become trim and physically fit able to keep up with the other agents on their missions and even able to positively contribute to the team. At one time he was responsible for saving Archers life when Archer was bitten by a snake and Ray was disabled lifting a jeep. He drove the car and aquired the medicine showing a genuine care for Archer rarely seen.
To a small degree he has achieved the life he dreamed of when he first began working for ISIS. He is still demeaned and poked fun at by the other ISIS members even having Archer point out that in a way his entire life has been as farcical as his own. Through dint of sheer hard work he has gained the respect of the others at ISIS and even Archer to a small degree as an agent having at times prevented the failure of missions and even saving all of their lives by flying the space shuttle. Over time his envy and hatred of Archer has faded a little since he has become an agent and has adventures on missions with Archer. His fear of Archers temper has also faded as he has started standing up to Archers bullying him even punching archer in the face when Archer continued to shove him though he immediately payed dearly for that decision. He has at times even yelled at Archer for endangering Lana whom he still loves. When Archer threatens Lanas life with his idiocy or blindness to danger Cyril has stopped Archer and brought him back to reason. He has to a point become the man he wanted to be and has gained more confidence as an agent. He now views Archer similarly to the other members of ISIS as a fool and the awkward gawkiness has been replaced by the confidence of a real man.
The other agents of ISIS still view him as the lowest man on the totem pole, but still rush to his rescue when he is in danger even Archer has saved his life many times though he continually mocks him for it. His hatred and thirst to murder Archer is no longer as prominent though he still desperately wants Lana back and shames himself relentlessly with his half handed efforts at wooing her which embarrasses and lowers him in the eyes of his fellow employees who view his efforts as idiotic and disdainful which says a lot. In a way he is a farcical copy of Archer and this is often mockingly showed in the series numerous times..
Personality
Cyril Figgis is a timid man that lacks in self-confidence. It has been shown an uncountable number of times where he is scared and unconfident. He also appears to be neurotic in some occasions as well as disconcerted by small things much of which is attributed to his childhood by not being able to make his father proud.
Conversly, Cyril is one of the only individuals in the group to show character development. Even though he is still picked on, we have seen his confidence increase tenfold and he is often not given credit where it is due. Despite his father thinking him a disappointment, Cyril actually turned out much better than he did. Cyril was an ISIS comptroller, he worked under the C.I.A. as a private contractor, practiced law as a defense attourney and now has his own private investigator firm, The Figgis Agency. In addition to this, Cyril is a very intelligent and educated man. He most likely has an Accounting and Mathematics / Finance (BSc) degree. He also took and passed the Bar examination [1]which made him elegible to gain a Criminal Law degree, possibly Criminal Law- LLB (Hons), and practice law as a defense attourney. Whereas, his father is only a superintendent with only about 830 students in the entire county, kindergarten through to grade 12.[2]
We have seen Cyril's intelligence at play a multitude of times. Whilst briefly the president of San Marcos, Cyril pushes the rebels back and he is seen planning a counter-attack in which the Colonel seems to be fascinated and in high regards of it[3]. In his first mission as a field agent in "El Contador", Cyril's cleverness, effeciency and improvisation skills are shown to be better than that of Archer's and Lana's. Archer, despite claiming he is the best in the world at it, is not really good at improvisation and covert mannerisms, apart from a few lucky occasions. This goes double for Lana as well, they have both been caught multiple times due to overtness and unprofessionalism. [4][5][6][7]
Sexual Addiction
Cyril claims to suffer from sexual addiction and has attended a rehabilitation center for it in upstate New York.[8] Lana, including the Pyschiatrists at Cyril's rehabilitation center, think that sexual addiction, officially known as hypersexual disorder, is "not a real thing". Lana possibly thinks Cyril just uses it as an excuse for him being unfaithful. Although Lana may be justified in thinking so, Cyril may very well be suffering from it. For instance, we see him in "Blood Test" very easily succumbing to the temptation of masturbating by the means of verbal incititation by Archer. Again he is shown having a weakness for masturbation in "Vision Quest", where he blatantly masturbates in the elevator infront of everyone.To support this, hypersexual disorder, though excluded in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, revision 5), does actually exist and is considered to be a legitimate diagnosis according to many pyschiatrists. In addition, the American Psychiatric Association, publishers of the DSM, will not be able to exclude hypersexual disorder for much longer. It is probably up to the viewer as to whether he suffers from it or not.We also learn that Cheryl was not the only woman he cheated on Lana with and that, despite feeling guilty for it and him being easily the smartest individual of the group, he still falls for the classic 'Honeypot' as Cheryl threatens to tell Lana about the first time they copulated to get him to have sex with her again [9], which is very odd.
Whilst in the undisclosed rehabilitation center, Cyril begins suffering from some delusional-related disorder as he is depicted in "Swiss Miss" talking to seemingly nobody by a vending machine, and also hears a Coyote.
Seamus McGoon Theory
Seamus McGoon is implicitly depicted as being Cyril's child. In "Blood Test", Archer is accused of being the wee baby Seamus' father by the escort Trinette.To prove this, a DNA test was in order with ODIN providing security to ensure the integrity of the DNA test's results. Archer was drained a litre of his blood, which was kept inside a vault within First Saving Bank under ODIN gaurd pending the DNA test's date which was to be administered infront of both parties. During the eve of the DNA test, Archer had Cyril incapacitated and subsequently drained a litre of his blood. Archer then proceeded to breaking into First Savings Bank and replacing his blood with Cyril's. The DNA test indicated a positive match. It was later revealed Cyril had sex with Trinette as well indicating the child is actually his. All of this is very strange and suspicious and there are very many variables and considerations to be taken into account before concluding the child is Cyril's.
Number one, it is unclear as to how many times he solicited sex from Trinette, and is very unlikely to impregnate her from having sex once, even if it was a candy bar wrapper that was used as a stand-in condom. In addition, you would believe that Trinette, in her line of work, would take extensive measures to prevent a pregnancy from ever occuring.
Trinette did also mention that she was retired and all this is such convenient timing because what better way to retire than having the benefit of receiving child support payments. So it is possible Trinette solicited the help of Barry Dylan from ODIN to make Archer appear to be the father of Seamus, in order for him to be obliged to make child support payments to Trinette. There is some logic behind this. For one, ODIN is secret intelligence agency, why would it provide security to ensure the integrity of a DNA test for paternity? In addition, ODIN's headquarters are in Paris, what was Trinette's incentive to contact them and hire them?
Secondly, Archer having a child with a prostitute is a win-win for rival Barry, giving him incentive for participation. Thirdly, Trinette has been to Archer's apartment, which is a very upscale apartment that most likely costs a fortune in rent considering it is right in Manhattan, New York. So it makes sense for her to deduce that Archer is rich, because the higher the income the bigger the child support check, it is all relative. Though Malory stated that the rent was covered by ISIS[10]. Nevertheless, this would make Archer one of Trinette's high profile targets. Therefore, it would not really matter whose blood Archer replaced his with, the results of the test would still indicate a positive DNA match as a result of tampering from ODIN, so there is a chance Seamus is not Cyril's child after all.
Thirdly, the way the test was carried out was rather foolish. They had a machine in their possession that is able to perform a DNA test and give results in a very short period of time. There was no logic in draining Archer of his blood prior to the DNA test's date. All they needed to do was take DNA swabs or blood from both Archer and Seamus, with both parties present, and test it right there and then. That would ensure integrity, considering that is what ODIN was hired for. Or perhaps it was made foolish in a deliberate way, that is, in order to tamper with said results somehow.
To belabor the point, Archer said he has a suit-maker for his tailored suits and a shoe maker for his shoes[11], and wears expensive suits and shirts[12][13]. So he is not exactly lacking in financial access. In "Jeu Monegasque" Archer is shown to have $480,810 in his 401(k). Whilst assuming ISIS did run for a long time, we can estimate it to be anywhere between 3 –10 years of operation, also taking into consideration the effeciency of the U.S. Government's law enforcement agencies to detect and hinder any threats to national security in the Archer Universe, and having a spy agency operate under the false pretense of the U.S. government is a major one. In "A going concern" Cyril, without going into any detail, stated that ISIS is indeed owned by the U.S. government but Malory can sell it. We need the creators to comment on this.
Circling back, considering Archer's 401(k) status and assuming a reasonable short time of operation by ISIS, we can estimate Archer's income to be anywhere from $80,000 - $250,000 annually. In conclusion, according to child support laws in the State of New York, Archer is obliged to send child support payments to Trinette that should amount to $20,000 - $60,000 annually, and thus you can see incentive for Trinette.
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