"Recurring Dreams" was the tenth episode of chronological re-cut of Arrested Development's fourth season. It premiered on Netflix on May 4, 2018.

George Michael attempts to follow his musical dreams. G.O.B. tries to keep his new friends. Tobias passes up a job, then lands in a rocky situation.

Synopsis

George Michael is in senior year of college and is trying to form a band. However, because George Michael's instrument is the woodblock, he cannot be heard although he still hopes to make a demo tape to send to Juilliard. It turns out that George Michael has a perfect internal clock, which helps his woodblock playing, because George Sr. placed a Babytock! in his crib as a baby.

Meanwhile, G.O.B. is still partying with Mark Cherry's entourage. He has started to take Forget-Me-Nows to help forget the shame of his nights out. However, he took one too late to erase a memory and is now in a "roofie circle", where he repeatedly takes Forget-Me-Nows because he has forgotten taking them but not forgotten the bad memory. Eventually, he must be taken to hospital with stage-four syphilis.

Back at the college, P-Hound and George Michael talk about making a woodblock app so it can be louder in the band. P-Hound buys the 3 available apps but they are unimpressed by the competition. Maeby, despite being the same age as George Michael, is in her senior year of high school for the fourth time. Her father Tobias hasn't noticed and is still pursuing an acting career with DeBrie Bardeaux. He also saved Lucille 2 from an ostrich at Balboa Towers by rushing her to the hospital. Out of gratitude, she offers him a job at her rehab center Austerity but he turns it down, wanting to focus on his acting.

G.O.B. returns to his partying lifestyle but Mark Cherry is beginning to get annoyed with him. Meanwhile, George Michael tries to buy a name for the woodblock and eventually buys the name "Fakeblock". To make sure he has enough money, George Michael gets a job as a tutor and decides to tutor Maeby in math. He pretends that he didn't know it was Maeby, as seen in "One Degree of Separation". George Michael wants to impress/seduce Maeby but her lack of math skills distracts him. Michael arrives at the dorm room and George Michael tells them about Fakeblock, although he pretends it is actually privacy software and not a woodblock app. This seeming success depresses Maeby and she goes to a bar to commiserate. While she's there, she offers the model home to the makers of To Entrap a Local Predator and also finds out that Perfecto is a cop. George Michael hopes ot make his software real because he is still embarrassed about his Star Wars Kid video, which a heavily pregnant Rosalita is also watching in Spain.

Mark Cherry writes the song "Getaway" because he wants G.O.B. to leave his entourage although G.O.B. doesn't notice. George Michael and P-Hound also want someone to leave, specifically Michael, and think about doing a roommate vote to kick him out. Michael also suggests such a vote to George Michael to get rid of P-Hound. However, Michael gets voted out and must leave. G.O.B. also finds the entourage trying to leave without him. He decides to drive them to a club to pick up some women, although his limo truck is also full of his sick bees which have been kicked out of Johnny Bark's Bee Company. One of the women he picks up is DeBrie, who has just fallen out with Tobias when she finds out he turned down the job at Austerity.

Tobias drives back to the model home, hoping to meet Maeby. Unfortunately, the house has been rented out to John Beard's To Entrap a Local Predator so Tobias is mistaken for predator due to the misleading way he talks.

On the next Arrested Development: Fateful Consequences... Mark Cherry asks G.O.B. to close the partition in the limo. This proves to be a problem as G.O.B. cannot warn DeBrie when she tries to open the trunk and accidentally releases the sick bees. Meanwhile, Tobias talks with John Beard whose team beats Tobias up, mistaking him for a predator.

Appearances

Main Cast (in order of appearance)

• Michael Cera as George Michael Bluth
• Will Arnett as G.O.B.
• Alia Shawkat as Maeby Fünke
• Portia de Rossi as Lindsay Bluth Fünke
• David Cross as Tobias Fünke
• Jason Bateman as Michael Bluth

Recurring

• Seth Rogen as Young George Bluth
• Maria Thayer as Tracey B.
• Kristen Wiig as Young Lucille Bluth
• Nadine Velazquez as Rosalita
• Ben Schwartz as John Beard Jr.
• Andy Richter as Donny Richter
• Judy Greer as Kitty Sanchez
• Chris Diamantopoulos as Marky Bark
• Maria Bamford as DeBrie Bardeaux
• John Beard as Himself
• Liza Minnelli as Lucille Austero

Guest

• Dan Zott as Guitarist
• Richard Jin Namkung as Paul 'P-Hound' Huan
• Daniel Amerman as Mark Cherry
• Asif Ali as Trout
• George Watsky as Chris Kazmierczak
• Wyatt Russell as Oakwood
• Pedro Lopez as Mercado Salesman
• Eli Vargas as Perfecto Telles
• J.K. Baker as Billy Crystal Meth
• Lauren Weedman as Twink
• Tara Copeland as Deann
• Jordan Black as Bartender
• Jay Johnston as Officer Taylor
• Jerry Minor as Officer Carter
• Clint Howard as Johnny Bark
• Debra Mooney as Joan Bark
• Kyle Bornheimer as Shannon Ryan
• Regi Davis as Officer Threé

Recurring themes

References

• Driving Miss Daisy - G.O.B. mimics the film while driving the limo.
• Galaxy of Terror - Johnny Bark is selling copies of this 1981 sci-fi film at his bee colony.
• Memento - G.O.B. takes Forget-Me-Nows in front of the medicine chest mirror on the bathroom, on which a woman has written a message to him that he never erases. Leonard Shelby, the lead character from Memento who suffers from amnesia, tries to remember things while looking at himself in the medicine chest mirror.
• To Catch a Predator - The NBC reality show is parodied in John Beard's To Entrap a Local Predator: Orange County Edition: Super Creep

Callbacks/Running Jokes

• Bluth abortions - Rosalita is presumably pregnant from her affair with George Michael.  It may be because Rosalita is Catholic that she has kept the baby.  As G.O.B. said in "The Immaculate Election", when you get a religious girl pregnant, she "stays pregnant."
• Chicken Dance - George Michael very briefly does a chicken dance after P-Hound suggests the name "Block Block" for their woodblock app.
• The Cornballer - The Babytock device that taught George Michael his perfect sense of rhythm was a way of repackaging the timers from the otherwise unsalable Cornballers.
• Forget-Me-Now (pill) - G.O.B. enters a roofie circle by taking so many Forget-Me-Nows, first seen in "Forget-Me-Now". He gets a prescription filled. Also, Maeby's fourth senior year quote is "Life is a roofie circle."
• Her? - George Michael says not to "put all your Anns in one basket", a reference to the running gag where Ann is referred to as anything but her own name. This is a play on the saying 'To put all your eggs in one basket', as Ann was once referred to as "Egg" by Michael.
• I've made a huge mistake - John Beard Jr. says "I've made a big mistake".
• John Beard's shows - John Beard appears in yet another TV show, John Beard's To Entrap a Local Predator: Orange County Edition: Super Creep.
• Klimpy's Express - Tobias brings a bag of food from the fast food restaurant to the model home.
• Lemonade - John Beard offers Tobias some lemonade. Oscar sells lemonade from his lemon grove in "Whistler's Mother" and George squeezes CEOs for thousands of dollars for lemonade in "Just Deserters". Michael and G.O.B. share John Beard's Mike's Hard Lemonade in "Locked and Loaded".
• Maeby has poor literacy skills - Maeby pronounces the "h" in the word "heiress."
• Maeby's schooling - The woman who gives George Michael the list of students in need of tutoring says that Maeby's last grade is just shown as an Elvis Presley head, a callback to the progressive school she was said to have attended in "Pier Pressure".
• Medical emergencies - Tobias has his head smahed through a model home back door by police officers. G.O.B. ends up in hospital with stage four syphilis.
• Ostrich - Lucille Austero is attacked by Marky Bark's ostrich, but is protected due to her several layers of makeup.
• Spanish - George Michael tells P-Hound about his idea to vote Michael out of their room and says "It's ciao Fathero." This is a callback to the fact that the Bluths still have a poor grasp on the Spanish language (Hermano etc...) This is also a reference in relation to Michael saying "It's adios brothiero." This is also a background joke to the fact that George Michael spent a year studying abroad in Spain and still can't speak Spanish.

Hidden/Background Jokes

• Convenience Store - The Take-Out Deli where G.O.B. buys his Forget-Me-Now has a sign on the right "Vendemos Olvidame-Ahorita" (We Sell Forget-Me-Now) and sign on the left "Libros Adultos" (Adult Books), referencing George's purchase there.
• Joe Withabee - On G.O.B.'s mirror, a girl wrote his name as "Joe Withabee."
• Music - The band George Michael plays woodblock with are playing "Balls in the Air".
• Officer Threé - A police officer at the filming of John Beard's To Entrap a Local Predator: Orange County Edition: Super Creep named named Officer Threé, a joke about character names. Tobias had auditioned by Frightened Inmate Number Two and Confidence Man Number Two.

Foreshadowing/Future References

• Austerity - Lucille 2 mentions the Austerity clinic and her brother Argyle Austero.
• When Maeby mispronounces "heiress" it sounds a lot like, "I'm Maharis."
• In an early scene, after George Michael's band walks out on him, and the chalkboard in the classroom is displayed. It shows three lines of music on the left side and only one line of music on the right, with multiple empty lines between the third line and where the fourth line of music starts again. This is referencing the shows cancellation after the first three years, and then beginning again years later after the "the dark period." After the fourth line of music there are a few empty lines again, this could be saying that there won't be another season for a few more years, or that it is a stand-alone season.

In Comparison to the Original Cut

This episode is made up from 4 episodes of the original cut of Season 4. Because the re-cut is chronological and combines the characters' stories into one narrative, new narration was recorded and there is even some additonal dialogue. These changes, as well as which scenes appear in which original episode, are listed below:

• George Michael and the band at college, babytock flashback, new dialogue in italics (4x13 It Gets Better)
  • Band: (singing) How hard can it be?
  • The flashback to Spain is new as is the caption “Semester abroad, Spain”
• G.O.B. parties with the entourage, is stuck in a roofie circle (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • Narrator: Ironically, George Michael’s Uncle G.O.B. was at that very moment living the dream of a young, successful musician. He felt as if he were in the centre of an entourage, even though he was three away from the center at the closest and was 20 years older than the young musician Mark Cherry whose dream it actually was.
  • The picture of the Practice Kisses CD cover is new.
  • G.O.B.: Do you remember me?
• George Michael, P-Hound and the woodblock app (4x13 It Gets Better)
• Maeby getting the check (4x12 Senoritis)
  • Narrator: In fact, it [babytock] had only been used on one other child, and its claims of creating math prowess were undermined by her own performance in the field…
• Flashback to Tobias and DeBrie (4x5 A New Start)
  • Narrator: The dream of a successful acting career that Tobias shared with his girlfriend DeBrie wasn’t panning out. Something he was forced to admit when the depths of DeBrie’s desperation for money became almost clear to him.
• Tobias and Lucille 2 at the hospital (4x5 A New Start)
  • Lucille: What do you say?
  • The narrator's line "Tobias, whose girlfriend had nearly sold her body for money in front of him, knew that everyone at some time had to face reality" has become "Tobias, whose girlfriend had nearly sold her body for money in front of him, knew that everyone at some time has to give up an old dream."
• G.O.B., a woman, and a photo of Mark Cherry (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • Narrator: G.O.B. had a dream, too. Of partying and picking up girls. But that was old too. Or at least, it had become old to the man who’d made it possible.
• George Michael gets the name Fakeblock (4x13 It Gets Better)
  • Man on phone: Unavailable.
  • Man on phone: Also unavailable.
  • Man on phone: Fakeblock is available. Would you like to take it?
  • Man on phone: That will be $5000.
• George Michael becomes a tutor (4x13 It Gets Better)
  • Woman: Don't be afraid to crack the whip.
• George Michael prepares to meet Maeby (4x13 It Gets Better)
  • Narrator: George Michael’s new dream had been replaced with an old one.
• George Michael, Maeby, and Michael (4x13 It Gets Better)
  • George Michael: Oh, an “heiress”.
  • Narrator: It seemed George Michael wasn’t the only deceitful one in the double castle.
  • George Michael: So you don't even really know the basic, the basics of algebra, right? Let me just show you. I’ll just show you some…
• Maeby at the bar (4x12 Senoritis)
  • Narrator: It’s worth noting that Maeby wasn’t impressed with the software George Michael had lied about. She was depressed.
• George Michael, P-Hound, and Michael at the computer lab (4x13 It Gets Better)
  • George Michael: It’s a fake profile that leads hackers away from your actual data.
  • The flashback to Spain with a pregnant Rosalita is no longer subtitled.
• Roomate vote (4x13 It Gets Better)
• The entourage wants to get away from G.O.B. (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • Mark Cherry: Whoa! I can’t be near bees. I wrote a whole [bleep] song about it.
  • Narrator: It seems that Malibu wasn’t the only colony that was collapsing on G.O.B.
• Flashback to Johnny Bark's bee colony (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • The caption "earlier that day" is new.
  • The bee colony has a sign saying “Johnny Bark / Bee Colony / King of the Bees” and “Also, Galaxy of Terror DVDs $3.99”.
  • This exchange is new:
    • Johnny Bark: You’re late to the party again!
    • G.O.B.: Well, what am I supposed to do with a bunch of sick bees?
    • Johnny Bark: You know, I don’t really care. I got problems of my own.
    • Joan Bark: I saw you pointing.
    • Johnny Bark: Yeah, you saw that. But you didn’t see the tumor on my neck six months ago, did you?
    • G.O.B.: Your venomous hatred has killed my bees.
• Entourage in the limo (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • John Beard Jr.: I made a big mistake.
  • The narrator’s line “In an effort to remain popular with the gang” becomes “In an effort to prove he provided a valuable service”
  • G.O.B.: Oh ladies, is that… [inaudible under narration]
• Tobias and DeBrie argue (4x5 A New Start), the limo picks up DeBrie (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • The caption “moments earlier” is new.
  • Narrator: And that’s how G.O.B. kept his old dream alive after all. But a dream can also be a trap. [cut to Entrap a Local Predator]
• John Beard at the model home (4x5 A New Start)
  • Narrator: Yes, Tobias had hit rock bottom and was finally ready to reconnect with his family. And Tobias’ dream of finally getting to be in a TV show was finally coming true.
• On the next... The bees attack people in the limo (4x7 Colony Collapse)
  • Narrator: G.O.B.’s dream becomes a trap too.
  • The song Practice Kisses now plays over this scene.
  • Mark Cherry: It’d be like, a, like a joke, like you’re our limo driver and we don’t want to talk to you.
  • Narrator: And excluding G.O.B. allows this to happen.
• On the next... Tobias talks to John Beard (4x5 A New Start)

Notes

• Tony Hale as Buster, Jessica Walter as Lucille Bluth, and Jeffrey Tambor as George Bluth don't appear in this episode.
• The title of this episode is a reference to the fact that the Bluths keep returning to their old dreams instead of pursuing new ones. G.O.B. is stuck in a partying and roofie circle, Tobias is still trying to be an actor, and George Michael's dream of being a woodblock musician reverts back to his old dream of dating Maeby. The narrator repeatedly mentions dreams throughout this episode:
  • Narrator: Ironically, George Michael’s Uncle G.O.B. was at that very moment living the dream of a young, successful musician. He felt as if he were in the centre of an entourage, even though he was three away from the center at the closest and was 20 years older than the young musician Mark Cherry whose dream it actually was.
  • Narrator: The dream of a successful acting career that Tobias shared with his girlfriend DeBrie wasn’t panning out.
  • Narrator: Tobias, whose girlfriend had nearly sold her body for money in front of him, knew that everyone at some time has to give up an old dream. But this wasn’t the time. G.O.B. had a dream, too. Of partying and picking up girls. But that was old too. Or at least, it had become old to the man who’d made it possible.
  • Narrator: George Michael’s new dream had been replaced with an old one.
  • Narrator: And that’s how G.O.B. kept his old dream alive after all. But a dream can also be a trap. [Tobias is about to become entrapped too, by John Beard]
  • Narrator: And Tobias’ dream of finally getting to be in a TV show was finally coming true.
  • Narrator: G.O.B.’s dream becomes a trap too [when the bees are released in the limo].
• During the Season 4 remix, the narrator often draws parallels between the Bluths' lives being similar despite being separated.
  • Narrator: Maeby would have to live off her royalty checks until she graduated, which is why she was soon forced to sneak into the penthouse apartment without her mother knowing. Although, it’s worth noting that her mother had also previously snuck into the penthouse apartment without her mother knowing.
  • Narrator: Tobias, however, would shortly be sneaking into the same penthouse that his daughter, Maeby, had moments earlier snuck out of.
  • Narrator: There was someone he needed to get away. His father. Mark Cherry also had someone he needed to get away.
  • Narrator: G.O.B. was about to be betrayed as well [as Michael], for that night, Mark Cherry and his entourage were quickly going out for the evening.
  • Narrator: G.O.B. stopped in front of a club to pick up some women where, moments earlier, Tobias shared with DeBrie that Lucille Two had offered him a valuable job.