Community

Community

Episode 13: Digital Exploration of Interior Design

Episode 14: Pillows and Blankets

By: Carlos Uribe

Community is a show about a group of friends attending community college.

Spoilers Ahoy!

This is a special review-reviewing the episode that aired on Thursday and the episode that aired on the previous Thursday!

It's completely by accident that the two episodes that I am reviewing this week happened to complement each other. There was a part of me that knew that episode 13 was a Part 1 and episode 14 was a Part 2. That's not why I chose to combine the reviews. I just thought it would be easier to catch up if I combined the two reviews. The first half of this 2-parter was a great episode on it's own right. The main plot had to do with Troy and Abed. The two are homeless as their apartment is infested with locusts. They are building a pillow fort where they will live in and are bribing the Dean with coupons. The Dean is perfectly fine with them building a fort because he wants Greendale to make it to the Guinness World Records book. The problem is that the pillow fort can't be done in time for when the Guinness representative happens to come by. Troy wants to build a blanket fort, but Abed disagrees with him. Troy is manipulated by Vice Dean Laybourne to build a separate blanket fort to try and meet the record. When the blanket fort comes short of meeting the world record due to the pillow fort, the Dean wants the pillow fort to self-destruct. Vice Dean Laybourne convinces Abed to keep up the pillow fort. This leads to a huge rift between the two friends, a rift that the Vice Dean is hoping will lead Troy straight into the AC repair school. The episode ends with a promise of a war between Troy's blanket fort and Abed's pillow fort.

The episode also has some good sub-plots. The first sub-plot has to do with the Subway store that just opened. It turns out that the Greendale Code requires all on-campus businesses to be owned at least 51% by a student. This rule makes no sense, but it does require Subway to send a student to Greendale. A student that is named Subway and is essentially someone who gave up his identity to become a corpohuman. It sounds exactly what it is. Shirley and Pierce want to bring down Subway because this was supposed to be Shirley's subway restaurant. They use Britta to try and seduce Subway to bring him in violation of his contract. Britta and Subway actually do fall in love but Pierce manages to catch them having sex on a lipstick microphone. The Subway that Britta fell in love with is replaced by another human and the love story ends. Jeff spends the episode trying to apologize someone for being a dick, with Annie's help. The sub-plots both were funny, especially Jeff never really being able to remember who the person he was trying to apologize to was.

So how does Part Two of the episode hold up? IT WAS AMAZING! It was way better than Part One. The episode essentially changed the very style of the show to become a mockumentary. I don't mean like Modern Family or the Office, but like an actual Ken Burns documentary with narration and voice-overs and such. It told the story of the war that the previous episode had promised. It primarily followed two narratives. The first narrative was the actual war and what happened. It told you what each cast member was doing and provided interviews of the action. It made fun of war photography and patriotic speeches. It revealed how Chang's pre-teen security force would join Troy's force and Pierce's massive weapon. It was an epic pillow fight, one which was made even more epic by the somewhat serious narration. While it was presented in a completely serious manner, it never lost sight of just how ridiculous it was.

The second narration that the episode followed was what was really behind the war: Troy and Abed's friendship. The two really like each other but the two now have a wedge driven between them. A wedge that has existed for a while now as the season has been building it. The pillow war was merely an extension of that wedge. The fact that Abed sent out an e-mail exposing Troy's weaknesses and then Troy's attack that Abed can only ever have Troy as a friend was very personal. The episode might have ended with the two becoming friends again but in reality the wedge is still there. The two are going to have to come to terms that their life is starting to go in separate directions and try and find a way to remain friends. This emotional core helped ground this episode, which would have been funny and good regardless but helped make this episode great.

I think this is now my new favorite Community episode. It used to be the Dungeons & Dragons episode, but I think I now like this second half of the two-parter better. The first half was great and amazing television, but the second-half was simply in a class of it's own. If you've never seen Community and are wondering what the fuss is all about, I recommend watching these two episodes. You should be able to figure out who everyone is in the first half, and you'll get a great taste of just why this ambitious television show constantly reaches for greatness...and so often manages to actually reach it.