Jmunney's Blog

“Geothermal Escapism” started out as a paintball episode in every way except paintball.  But “The Floor is Lava” was close enough to paintball anyway, as it also proved to have the capacity to destroy the entire campus, with thanks also once again to a disproportionately enticing prize.  The possibility that something like this could happen on Community was never in doubt.  Of course Abed would want to give Troy an appropriately massive, campus-wide send-off.  And no surprise that it would call back to their past great adventures.  But for the first half of this episode, I was a little wary.  It wasn’t just that Lava was so similar to paintball (the post-apocalyptic angle was new, but really just a subgenre of the action genre so fully covered in “Modern Warfare”), it was that the character stakes didn’t seem that high.  “Modern Warfare” took place in light of Jeff and Britta’s sexual tension boiling over, and the Season 2  2-part finale was precipitated by the possibility of Pierce being kicked out of the group.  It feels like at this point in the show’s run, these people are too comfortable with each other to have conflicts on those scales.

This is why I kept my eye on Britta, who insisted on everyone having a chance to grieve.  This really seemed unnecessary; nobody wanted Troy to go, sure, but not everyone needs to go through the same grieving process when a friend leaves.  Jeff, Shirley, and Annie at least all seemed perfectly capable of seeing Troy off without too much fuss.  But there was somebody missing from that opening study room scene.  Abed’s absence served both a narrative and a thematic purpose, and this was ultimately all brought together by the end.

It wasn’t just that the creators of Community wanted to re-capture the glory of the paintball episodes.  Abed was the one who orchestrated The Floor is Lava.  He was the one who really wanted to go back to those good times.  Britta may have applied her grief psychology too broadly at first, but she was right to have that mindset.  If genre-savvy Abed – who knows to be wary of sequels – was so focused on making something like a sequel (a spinoff, perhaps), then something had to have been be up.  When the game comes down to Troy, Britta, and Abed, everything is brought into perspective.  Abed knows intellectually that Troy won’t be here forever, but his unique emotional state affects his perception so strongly that he can’t help but see the floor as lava.  This episode had to be so similar to what had come before so that the change of the status quo that came at the end could be felt so strongly.

So I had no trouble feeling the ending of this episode, but it took me some mental aerobics that I more or less just explained to really get on the first half’s wavelength.  Ultimately, I do think it succeeded from start to finish.  It helped that the action was so well-directed.  You really got a sense of how painful some of those falls were.  Annie’s drop especially looked like it hurt.  There was also no shortage of laughs, with highlights including Duncan’s complaint that everyone besides the British cheats, Garrett’s storytelling about Shirley Island, “the reverse Danny Thomas” (whatever the hell that is), Gillian Jacobs’ delivery of “I understand. I lived in New York”, and “Cirque Du so long, you high-stepping acro-bastards,” which was perhaps as funny as it was only because Leonard said it.

For Troy’s last episode, “Geothermal Escapism” didn’t focus as much as one might have expected on Mr. Barnes.  But as I talked about in my review of “Cooperative Polygraphy,” Troy has clearly matured enough to take on this next stage of his life.  It wasn’t necessary to show him preparing, as it was clear that it was time for him to move on.  And so this episode focused more on those saying goodbye, particularly Abed, and here was just the latest example of how much of a classic all-time TV character he is.  It has never been confirmed one way or the other that Abed has Asperger syndrome, or something similar, and I think that has been for the best.  He understands his limitations, and he consistently attempts to work around him, so it is fascinating to see him actually debilitated by his condition.  It is a fitting cap to one of the great friendships in TV history to see Abed be able to be so honest with Troy in that moment.

As Troy is about to set sail, he gets the perfect goodbye from each of his friends.  His moment with Britta interestingly – and poignantly – calls back to their relationship from last season.  Annie eloquently expresses her amazement that someone she could barely talk to at first is now the easiest person for her to open up to.  Shirley is rightly denoted as the badass of the group.  Jeff, who in previous seasons looked to have been threatened by Troy’s heroic rise, is now genuinely impressed by how his protégée of sorts is now more awesome than he is.  And Troy and Abed – Clone Troy and Clone Abed, that is – don’t shake hands.  They hug.

“Cooperative Polygraphy” is an epic episode of Community, insofar as it is chock full of references to past episodes.  Many thanks to other Community fans on the Internet for pointing out the ones I did not pick up on right away.  A LOT of people noted that part of the freeze-frame epilogue from “The Art of Discourse” came true, as Britta became the (presumably proud) owner of a used iPod nano.  (Others noted that if this means this episode takes place in 2014, then that 3-year-gap that has been cited existing between Seasons 4 and 5 is making less and less sense.)  The reveal that Annie drugged the whole group in preparation for the Anthropology final is especially hilarious if that is in reference to the final from “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts,” the most farcical moment from a patently farcical class.  Going even deeper, Troy’s attempt to inhale Pierce’s life vapor perhaps fulfills his wish to “eat a ghost,” which he made in “The Psychology of Letting Go” – the episode that introduced the post-death rituals of Pierce’s religion.

But the episodes that “Cooperative Polygraphy” responds to the most are “Cooperative Calligraphy,” “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking,” and “Intro to Felt Surrogacy.”  “Calligraphy” is the obvious antecedent here, what with the rhyming titles and shared study room setting.  But “Polygraphy” is more low-key (or less high-key, as it were).  It doesn’t call attention to itself as a bottle episode, unlike the former “Cooperative” episode.  For my money, a pure bottle episode is one that not only takes place in one location, but also one in which the characters are trapped.  In “Polygraphy,” the study group was bound by circumstance to remain in the study room, but not to the degree that they were in “Calligraphy” – one character leaves and then comes back, after all.  The tensions do run high in “Polygraphy” (as they typically do typical Community), but not to the ripping-off-clothes degree of “Calligraphy,” perhaps the most tension-filled episode of the series.

“Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking” is the closest narrative parallel, as that Season 2 classic also saw Pierce playing head games with the specter of his death hanging over.  Between these two, there is a clear progression of significant difference.  Pierce’s premature bequeathals were mostly meant to punish his friends.  His actual bequeathals were genuine and thoughtful, though preceded by head games that he still could not resist.  Pierce never became the kindest friend to any of these people, but he did become a friend whose friendship ultimately could never be in doubt.

The closest thematic parallel is “Intro to Felt Surrogacy,” an episode I enjoyed more than most fans; I even declared it the best of the season – though I have since backed off that opinion.  The major problem with “Felt Surrogacy” was its sense of incompleteness.  Because the study group’s secrets from that episode were all revealed in the final act, there was no chance to resolve the problems presented by them or come to terms with them in any meaningful way.  It feels like Dan Harmon had a similar reaction upon watching this Season 4 episode.

I do not know what Harmon’s exact thought process about Season 4 has been, but I know he has not dismissed it outright, and watching “Cooperative Polygraphy” makes me feel like I kind of do know what he was thinking in this case, because it episode basically directly solves the problem of “Felt Surrogacy.”  The revelation of secrets is the whole narrative thrust of “Polygraphy.”  Community demonstrates the wisdom of caution by showing friends that even when they are perfectly comfortable in their friendship, it is important to consider that there still might be secrets lurking that could deeply hurt their friends.  This is not to say that they might as well end their friendships, but rather, something along the lines of, perfect is the enemy of the good.  That is, if you have already accepted your friends with all their imperfections, you should be able to also accept any previously unknown imperfections.

And oh my God, Troy is leaving.  The circumstances that are drawing him away are random, but also ultimately perfectly appropriate.  Once again, I must extend credit to the rest of the Community fandom for providing examples of how Troy does indeed have the heart of a hero: he was the one who took charge in “For a Few Paintballs More,” and he risked his life by going back among the infected in “Epidemiology.”  Troy’s life did not look as bad as everyone else’s in “Repilot,” so he would be spinning his wheels more than anyone else if he were to remain at Greendale.  No doubt there will be something missing in the heart of the show after the next episode, but at least there will be a way to check up on him occasionally, now that we know about Abed’s tracking devices.