TV Review: Community 3.13, ‘Digital Exploration of Interior Design (Part 1)’
Jeff is annoyed that someone died hating him whilst Britta continues to rage against the machine, then has sex with it.
rating: 3
The great divide between Troy & Abed continues as they build competing forts out of pillows and blankets, Jeff is annoyed that someone died hating him whilst Britta continues to rage against the machine, then has sex with it. Following on from a previous episode, Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts, Dean Pelton opens up a new branch of Subway in the cafeteria. This is much to the annoyance of Shirley and Pierce who originally pitched the idea for Shirleys Sandwiches. Pierce is intent on sabotage and finds a Greendale bylaw stating that 51% of the shop must be owned by a Greendale student. Enter Greendales newest student; Subway (guest star Travis Schuldt Keith from Scrubs), part of a new programme called corpo-humanisation to give the company a friendly face. He spends the episode sweeping a conflicted Britta off of her feet whilst promising Shirley and Pierce to help sabotage Subway (the man and the sandwich shop). Annie gives a trademark Awww when finding out he cant vote because hes technically only a week old. Elsewhere, Troy, Abed and Annie are currently homeless as their building is checked for termites, leading Troy & Abed to build a pillow fort in the school. Britta reminds them; Another pillow fort? Kind of repeating yourselves, arent you? However this wasnt the storyline the episode needed to worry about repeating itself. Jeffs storyline this week may be the weakest the show has done in a while, it felt too familiar, and got worse as it went on. Jeff, along with Annie (who also had nothing to do this week), attempt to track down a girl called Kim who left Jeff a hate letter a few years back. When someone informs Jeff that Kim had recently died, he cant accept that she died thinking he was a dick, more for Jeffs sake than the girl that died, which is fitting for his character. The payoff was weak and uninspired, Annie speaks for the viewer when she says What the hell is this crap? Pierce and Shirley team up for some Corporate espionage to bring down Subway, Britta is reluctant at first to help. Subways charm, love of Orwell and humanitarianism is everything Britta loves, but hes also the walking embodiment of a multi-million dollar corporation. Pierce gets excited at the prospect of using gadgets, and keeps mistaking fountain pens as tiny hip flasks, repeatedly downing cartridges of ink. It may have been the funniest running gag of the episode, especially seeing the inside of his mouth caked in ink. After a few secret encounters, Britta and Subway hook up in the pillow fort and are caught by Pierces microphone hidden inside a lipstick, luckily not the other way around. A Subway spokesman assesses the audio and decides to fire Rick, it was fun to see him battling his identity My name is Subway Not anymore. After an order of The bread is stale, Subway is then taken away by two men in suits, presumably to Room 101 or wherever the leftover Subway bread goes, as Britta declares her love for him. It could have worked out for those guys but she Brittad it. Last weeks episode set up the divide in Troy & Abeds friendship, which was exacerbated by the return of John Goodmans Vice Dean Laybourne. As the momentum builds for the pillow fort, Dean Pelton tells Troy & Abed that theyre in the running for the worlds largest pillow fort. This causes the two to make competing forts as Troy believes theyll have a better chance using blankets. Dean Laybourne, now sporting a goatee and pony tail, acts as the devil on Troy & Abeds shoulders turning them both against each other, with his intent still to enlist Troy in the air conditioner repair team. Laybourne has done his research though, using comparisons from their favourite show, Inspector Spacetime, to pit them against each other. Seeing John Goodman in a big red onesie was a treat. The episode ends with the Dean judging a heated debate between the two armies over which fort will be taken down so the other fort can continue to grow and attempt the world record. Great to see the return of Derrick Comedys Dominic Dierkes and DC Pierson. The first pillow fight begins as Star Burns, I mean Alex, inadvertently collapses the blanket fort. Cue epic music and slow motion shots as Troy & Abed share a moment together. Both armies retreat to their forts with Abed telling Troy To be continued. Lets hope so, because that ending was a bit of an anti-climax. Overall it was sadly a fairly average episode, mainly down to Jeffs plotline being boring and another underuse of Annie. Were only treated a glimpse into the epicness of the blanket fort wars so lets hope they jump straight into it next week. Chang was also absent, maybe hes off training his army. Community returns next Thursday on NBC with Pillows and Blankets (Part 2)