6. Spaced 1.4 Battles
What a back to back pair of episodes, no? Battles was a more streamlined affair and was maybe the first time the series got into a serious flow throughout the entire episode. Tim battled his fear of dogs (in hilarious flashbacks) and Daisy battled her sense of loneliness by adopting a dog. The majority of the episode took place on the paintball field as Tim and Mike attempted to have a day of violent, innocent fun. All of that changed when Tim's arch nemesis, Duane, shows up to play. Duane is the man who "stole" Tim's girlfriend and revels in rubbing Tim's nose in all that he can. What ensues is an all out action movie love-fest and some seriously funny one liners. Like when Mike claims to have seen combat most recently on television or when Tim is proud of himself for not setting Duane on fire but admits he will still set Duane on fire at his first opportunity. The final few minutes have everything a giggling action fan could want. Two fisted gun play? check. A final standoff with a double cross? check. Someone saving the day by diving in front of a bullet? oh yeah. It's not hard to see this episode was most likely at least part of the inspiration for Hot Fuzz considering Nick Frost executes the same exact move to save Simon Pegg in both this episode and the film. And, this is hard to type because I'm laughing so hard, but why the hell did Mike eat that paintball?