Though Arrested Development is primarily about the Bluth family's business and dysfunctional relationships with one another, it is not without its side plots. One prominent storyline has Michael searching for the woman of his dreams, which turns out to backfire a whole lot. The man who holds the family together has cycled through many girlfriends, including a lawyer, a teacher, and actresses.
We're here to look at every girlfriend Michael has had to determine which ones are better than the rest. Get ready to journey out to Newport Beach and go on a few dates; here is a ranking of Michael's love interests.
Maggie Lizer
Maggie is a lawyer and a liar. In Season 1, she pretends to be blind to gain sympathy during her trials, which is why things get sticky when Michael introduces himself under an alias, and she turns out to be George Bluth’s prosecutor. The pair meet at a bar and have a one night stand that turns into something bigger after Michael feels guilty having learned of her condition. However, he decides to walk her dog who leads him into traffic, which is how he learns that Maggie's pet is blind, and not her.
Maggie returns pregnant in Season 2, which leads Michael to believe that she is pregnant with his child. While he at first vows to help raise the kid, he later learns she is simply a surrogate mother for Officer Carter and Taylor. They have one more wild night together in the hospital, and it’s hinted she then actually becomes pregnant with his baby.
Rita Leeds
Rita is an English woman whom Michael to whom Michael ends up engaged in Season 3. While it appears she is a spy for a long time, it is actually revealed that she is an “MRF,” or “Mentally R------- Female.”
Michael slowly puts the pieces together, realizing that the reason she wanted to have a date at a preschool wasn’t because she was a teacher there, but because she went there. She also ate plastic fruit out of misunderstanding.
However, the rest of the Bluths, having found out how rich Rita’s family was, attempted to throw Michael a surprise wedding and rush him into marriage. This did not work, and he ended things.
Sally Sitwell
Sally is the daughter of the Bluth family's rival, Stan Sitwell. Michael and Sally have known each other since they were kids, but George Bluth continually embarrassed Michael around her, so he never got up the courage to ask her out. In Season 2, as an adult, he wants to prove to Sally he's not a kid anymore, but he continually runs into scenarios that would make her think otherwise.
They eventually date. However, she breaks up with Micahel when he says he needs to find out if Maggie's baby is his. She later dates magician Tony Wonder in Season 4.
Rebel Alley
Rebel Alley is director Ron Howard’s daughter, who shows up in Season 4 and 5. She is an aspiring actress who falls for both Michael and his son George Michael, not realizing they’re related.
Michael runs into Rebel and pretends he is a movie producer, which causes her to invite him to see her band perform. He agrees, not realizing she is the daughter of Ron Howard, whom he is working with, and mistakenly believes she is actually his lover. Unfortunately, their relationship is doomed from the start and gets incredibly messy when George Michael steps in under the alias “George Maharis” who has invented the legendary, non-existent "Fakeblock" software. If Michael's son weren't involved, maybe things would have turned out better.
Jessie Bowers
In Season 1, Jessie agrees to help Michael sort out the family’s PR issues after meeting him at the gym during a spin class. Also being attracted to Michael, she ends up revealing her feelings toward him during a “business” meeting at a restaurant.
Although the two vibe at first, Michael grows concerned that George Michael won’t like the two’s relationship and asks to take things slower. She breaks up with him and drops the family as her client, ultimately getting revenge on Michael and the rest of the Bluths by planting a negative story about them in the newspaper.
Beth Baerly
George Michael is madly in love with his ethics teacher and reveals this to Lindsay. However, she misunderstands and thinks he wants her to become his mother figure. Lindsay tells this to Michael, and after seeing how attractive she is, he decides to pursue her.
After George Michael sees her leaving the house one morning, he reveals to Michael that he likes her and Michael tries to cover up his relationship by claiming Beth and Gob slept together. He breaks up with Beth, but then regrets his mistake and tries to get back with her at the Diversity Dance. This doesn’t work, and George Michael’s classmate Jeremy ends up sweeping her into a dance.
Tracey Bluth
Michael’s wife dies before the series starts, ho ever, she is mentioned throughout the early seasons and eventually appears in a flashback in Season 4. While we don’t know a ton about her, we do know that Lucille liked her, while George did not. It is also hinted that George Michael came about due to an unplanned pregnancy and that Michael married Tracey his sophomore year of college because of this.
Nevertheless, we’re disappointed we didn’t get to see more of her. She seemed pretty great, and, without her, George Michael would have never been birthed into existence.
Marta Estrella
Marta is a Colombian soap opera actress and Gob’s girlfriend. However, Gob is always cheating on her, and being that Marta values family like Michael, he develops a crush on her.
While Michael tries to protect Marta from Gob’s infidelity so that she won’t be hurt, he ends up falsely believing that she is cheating on him with a man called “Hermano” (which actually means “brother” in Spanish). Marta really is planning to reveal her true feelings for Michael, who is always good to her, and after resolving their misunderstanding, Michael vows to tell Gob that he loves her. Unfortunately, when Marta finds Michael and Gob tangled up in a fight, she questions whether Michael really values family and decides to date neither of them. This is unfortunate, being that she is one of the only women who seemed like a worthy fit for Michael.