[rating=6.00]
It finally happened. The highly anticipated Community paintball episode hit Yahoo, and it was fun…ish. The start of the episode was great, a parking lot stand-off scene between Starburns and Todd set the tone for “Modern Espionage.” The two masterfully duke it out, superimposed over the sounds of Vicki’s one woman musical. It’s almost like a scene from an HBO drama, but with a poor soundtrack and a low rent cast. As the song reaches its crescendo, Starburns comes out on top. But before he can finish his poorly thought out quip, another player enters the game. A mysterious paint-baller, shooting with silver ammo. What follows is the Community take on a spy thriller opening, and it’s pretty fantastic; almost like a Marvel take on the James Bond franchise.
This year, the paintball game has been forced to go underground as Frankie is threatening to expel anyone that plays. She is determined to get Greendale on the right track, and random/expensive games of paintball jeopardize her overall vision. After his epic loss, Starburns is interrogated by an irate Frankie who demands names. At first denying the game’s existence, the threat of expulsion changes his tune. He drops hints about the mysterious silver ball player, “I’d call him Silver Ghost, but that name is probably already taken by an indie comic book or terrible tequila.” On point, Starburns.
Obviously, as with every year, the custodians who have to clean up the mess are less than happy. Silicon Valley‘s Kumail Nanjiani guest stars as Custodian Lapari, and Frankie has decided to throw him an award ceremony for all of his fine work at the school. Jeff is enlisted to help quell the masses, as the “defacto” leader on campus. Understandably neither Frankie nor Lapari truly trust Jeff; he’s a loose cannon, after all.
As Jeff does his best to keep the right path he enlists the help of the group to keep the paintball thing from blowing up. They all agree, they’ve moved past these silly games and need to keep the peace for Frankie’s sake. Unfortunately at the slightest provocation, the group all draws on one another. Everyone is in on it except for Jeff. As they stand off they are attacked by lesser groups, drawing Jeff into action to save his friends. Or, rather, to have a moment of badass-ness. As one of Jeff’s victims runs away whimpering he passes Frankie, “Jeff Winger shot me”. This makes her suspicious. When she shows up to the library the group has already called a truce. They are “inconspicuously” playing the “What ears do I have?” game. She accepts their innocence, and the charade continues.
This is usually the point in a paintball episode where things get mysterious and complicated. Which, for all intents and purposes, it does. After calling a truce, the group gets together to suss out the identity of the mysterious “Silver Balls” character. Elroy checks records on the wire. Sure enough it is City College funding the game (and ultimately Silver Balls). The mystery begins to unwind. In a great Dean entrance, Dean Pelton enlists the help of the group in solving the paintball crises, “Desperate Deans call for Deansperate measures.” Frankie has essentially taken over cleaning up the school, leaving Dean Pelton in the dark. Dean dubs them “The Dean Force” or “Dean Force 1” and the ball gets rolling.
Abed goes undercover into “Club Club” (a club dedicated to partying) where he begins alluding back to previous paintball episodes, but is immediately brought back by Jeff, “No references, no callbacks.” At this point we get the triumphant return of Mitchell Hurwitz (Arrested Development) as Koogler or “Cool Dad.” Koogler has been supplying the paint to everyone on campus, and is the only one who knows how to get in touch with “Silver Balls.” Koogler smells a rat, and bails, only to be confronted by a pissed off Annie. Koogler is shot out, but Abed and Annie recover his thumb drive with names.
After pouring over the drive, they find out that the custodial staff is somehow connected to the paintball game. They’ll have to attend the Custodial Gala. This is of course a key moment in most spy and action movies. Think Mission Impossible, The Avengers, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Batman, etc. The formal wear and setting act as the perfect set up for the apex of the story. The scene is pretty amazing. The group uses Batman codenames during the Gala to communicate, Pelton has a Winter Soldier moment in the elevator, and the usual “the bad guy is a double agent” tropes are present. Yes, turns out “Silver Balls” is Lapiri. The disgruntled custodian is working for the cash prize as he feels he deserves money after all these years of cleaning up after Winger and co. In the most anti-climactic “we got em” moment in series history, Lapiri gives in right away. Jeff, the Dean, and Lapiri all give in to Frankie, who shows up out of nowhere to ruin the moment.
And that’s it. After talk of the third part in the paintball trilogy came for years, nothing really happened. Of course City College is trying to sabotage Greendale, that’s what it does. Of course Lapiri is pissed, he cleans up after all their stupid messes. But where’s the twist? The moment of sabotage we didn’t actually see coming? Surely all the work-up with the smart spy action plot was leading up to something bigger? The sudden appearance of Frankie during the stand-off, and the way she has been taking over all things Greendale so quickly maybe suggests an over-all story arc of Frankie being evil. The running Frankie joke is the question of her sexuality. This leans towards the idea that no one really knows anything about her. The possible story line is a reminder that sometimes Community gets it right.
Then again, this is all speculation, so most likely we’ll be going down the path of Community continuing to blow it until it fizzles out completely. Overall the episode wasn’t terrible. The jokes were funny, the bits well done. For this reason, the episode deserves a 7. But it’s still hard not to be disappointed by the lack of a plot, which honestly almost earned “Modern Espionage” a 5. Instead, I split the difference. What was meant to be the ultimate comeback point was just another moment in Community: Season of the Suck and Same.
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