Recap / Community S 3 E 14 Pillows And Blankets

It was a battle that would forever change the lives of those involved...

"Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force."

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

In 2012, a film-crew went to Greendale Community College to record an attempt to make the world's largest blanket fort. Instead, they recorded something very different; a bitter breakdown in relations between two best friends that would spill out into open hostility and which would divide the campus into two teams of violent enemies, resulting in the largest and longest pillow-fight ever seen at a community college — the conflict between the pillow fortress of Pillowtown, led by Abed Nadir, and the blanket fort of Blanketsburg, led by Troy Barnes. It was a battle that would change the lives of those who fought it while still being just a pillow fight.

The resulting documentary, "Pillows and Blankets", uses the witness testimony, status updates and text messages of those who were there to reconstruct both the conflict, devastation and increasingly hurt feelings on both sides and the difficulties of those split down the middle between the two, from the ministrations of battlefield nurse Annie Edison, to the blurry war photography of Britta Perry, from the divide in loyalties of Pierce Hawthorne and Shirley Bennett to the diplomatic efforts of Jeff Winger, who must decide between helping to patch up the broken friendship between his two friends or seizing an opportunity to avoid having to go to classes.

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Tropes appearing in this episode of Community include:

• Accidental Aiming Skills: Britta finally takes a good picture, and of an important moment no less, the truce between Abed and Troy... by accident. She was actually trying to take a picture of the light coming off a stack of waffles, which came out blurry.
• Action Mom: Shirley is described as "as good in kicking asses as she's in wiping them".
• Actor Allusion: To Keith David. "Hey, were you in The Cape?" "...No." Doubles as a Call-Back.
• Affectionate Parody: Of Ken Burns' documentaries, specifically The Civil War.
• All for Nothing: The Guinness Book of Records executive gets fired before he can come and judge the pillow fort, thus rendering the entire conflict utterly pointless. As soon as they learn this, everyone sheepishly and dispiritedly gives up and goes home except for Troy and Abed.
• Alternate Catchphrase Inflection: Alex's nickname is "Starburns" due to his star-shaped sideburns. He hates the name and will say, "My name is Alex" in an annoyed tone when called that. When the students begin taking sides during an argument between Troy and Abed, the Dean tells Alex to stand down, calling him "Starburns". Alex says angrily, "My... name... is... Alex!".
• Amazing Freaking Grace: Starts off as a piano solo but turns into a duet with fiddle.
• Apocalyptic Log: Many student cellphone footage act as these.
• Armor of Invincibility: Pierce's Doomsday Device. Made out of pillows.
• Asshole Victim: Pierce defeating the Changlorious Basterds with his pillow suit. And the kids defeating him in the finale battle.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Abed's intercepted email suggests that Troy gets distracted easily - including by shiny objects.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Shirley is downright vicious on the battlefield.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Keith David professionally narrates Troy and Abed's initial squabble, wherein Abed says striving for world records is "dumb", a stance Troy finds "lame" and "stupid".
• Bittersweet Ending: Greendale didn't win the Guinness record, but Troy and Abed have their friendship saved thanks to Jeff's mediation at the end, and at least they all got a pretty sweet documentary out of the whole deal.
• Blind Black Guy: One of the talking heads, commenting on Abed and Troy's war.
• Blood Knight: Shirley becomes the pillow-fight equivalent of this trope.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Pierce was sent to a medic after the Battle of Big Bulletin Board, being diagnosed with "broken glasses, a hurt finger, and erectile dysfunction."
• Call-Back:
  • "Daybreak" by Michael Haggins (the song from Abed's story in "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps") is finally played instead of being hummed or vocalized.
  • The Changlorious Basterds, who were first recruited at a bar mitzvah.
  • Jeff's knowledge of The Cape comes from "Paradigms of Human Memory", where one of the unseen episodes apparently ended with everyone becoming fans of it.
  • Jeff's wariness of the film crew stems from his experiences in "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" and "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux."
  • The first pillow fight is referred to as a "kerfuffle".
  • Shirley's childhood nickname, "Big Cheddar" is brought back as she returns to her vicious alter ego in the pillow fight.
  • Jeff's habit of improvising "hot-button patriotic dogma" as a rhetorical technique, including baseless references to 9/11, shows up yet again.
  • A chaotic campus-wide battle ensues as the result of everyone taking a usually innocent leisure activity way too seriously thanks to a promised reward which causes nothing but trouble.
  • Troy knows about "all tomatoes" because Annie gave him and Abed one in "Studies in Modern Movement" regarding the Dreamatorium. One can assume in his burst of maturity, he misheard it.
  • A flier for the Greendale Hat Club is found in Annie's clinic.
• Camera Abuse: Most of the documentary footage is supposed to be from cellphones. But see also Shirley going into battle.
• Captain's Log: Jeff at the end of the episode.
• Casting Gag: The episode is narrated by Keith David, who often narrates the Ken Burns documentaries the episode parodies.
• Childish Pillow Fight: This, no matter how dramatically it is portrayed.
• Child Soldiers: Played for laughs with the Changlorious Basterds, who make necklaces out of mattress tags.
• College Radio: "Fat Neil" is now a campus radio DJ, "Real Neil." He plays "Daybreak" which reminds both Abed and Troy of happier times.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The territories held by the two sides are depicted as blue and red on the map. This then translates to the 'uniforms' the soldiers wear; Abed's troops wear burgundy-red, with pillows for helmets, where Troy's forces wear light blue with bandanas to represent blankets.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Chang likes to play dead and then get up and start whaling on people when they turn their backs. He also hits a guy after the war's over.
  • Shirley explains that while it might be common courtesy to stop hitting enemies who are down, if they get back up, you need to keep hitting them.
• Creator Cameo: Dan Harmon as "English Memorial", the Spanish explorer who discovered Greendale while looking for a fountain that cured syphilis.
• Damsel in Distress: The Dean takes on this role in the Study Room Kerfuffle, screaming for Jeff to "Find me!" as the battle rages around him. Cut to Jeff... disinterestedly ignoring him and playing on his phone.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Britta takes pictures of the war using black and white film but as the narrator points out:
  Narrator: Unfortunately for Britta and millions of photographers like her, just because something is in black and white doesn't mean it's good.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Abed supplies his troops with a Long List of things Troy is easily distracted by, with "boobs" and "shiny objects" among them.
• Doomsday Device: The "unstoppable" plush juggernaut, mentioned by name.
• Don't Explain the Joke: The narrator explains the name behind the Changlorious Basterds. Not even he gets the joke.^note The Basterds were recruited at a bar mitzvah, so they're likely Jewish (as is Chang, possibly), much like the Basterds in the movie.
• The Dreaded: Pierce's head-to-toe pillow suit causes Blanketsburgian soldiers to flee in terror.
• Droste Image: Of Chang doing a "I'm watching you" gesture standing in front of a photo of him doing that very same gesture.
• Dual Wielding: Shirley. With pillows.
• Episode Title Card: The episode starts out with one as part of it being a parody of documentaries.
• Fatal Family Photo: Parodied with a picture of Troy and Abed which has been torn in half.
• Fauxlosophic Narration: Most of the Talking Heads interviews and the Lemony Narrator are full of this trope, with it all obviously being Played for Laughs.
• Felony Misdemeanor: The Changlorious Basterds making necklaces out of mattress tags is treated as if they're making necklaces out of human ears or other grotesque trophies.
  Annie: This is when things get as ugly as they can get! ...While still being a pillow fight.
• Four-Star Badass: Shirley becomes the commanding general of Troy's army while also being one of the top fighters.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Apparently Leonard fought in the Korean War... on the side of the North Koreans.
  • Pierce's schematics have loads of amusing comments highlighted by The Ken Burns Effect.
  • Next to the Human Being poster of legal and illegal places to hit with a pillow, there's a flyer advertising April 19th-23rd as Dean Appreciation Week.
    • There's also a flyer for someone's "Birthday Bash" on [unseen month] 11/12.
  • Pierce's medical report references his broken legs from "Aerodynamics of Gender", as well as his full name, Piercenald Cornelius Hawthorne (though his middle name was Anastasia in "Advanced Gay").
  • There's also an example that actually counts as a blooper: When Chang is standing next to the bulletin board, there is a "Fall 2010 Schedule of Classes" posted using the E Pluribus Anus logo which wasn't invented until after Fall 2010 classes had already started.
• General Ripper: Leonard is Abed's top general and advises him to unleash Pierce's Doomsday Device on the Changlourious Basterds.
• Giftedly Bad: Britta as combat photographer.
• Godzilla Threshold: Abed didn't want to use Pierce's device, but the Changlourious Basterds forced his hand.
• Guinness Episode: The entire war is due to Troy wanting to win the Guinness Record for the largest blanket fort in the world and Abed not wanting to get rid of his own pillow fight for the space.
• Hates Being Nicknamed: Star-Burns doesn't like being called Star-Burns.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Troy, in The Tag.
• Hell Is That Noise: Invoked; At 12:07 A.M., the Pillowtownians are playing Go Fish when Blanketsburg suddenly attacks, howling like banshees. "Did you hear that?" "What the hell is that?!"
• Humans Are Bastards: Discussed and defied (albeit in a very cynical fashion) by Jeff at the end, with him musing that war is ultimately borne from people's love and loyalty to their friends drawing them into making profoundly stupid decisions.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Troy and Abed get into this multiple times thanks to their bitter fighting being tampered by their nature as Manchildren.
    Troy: We're grown-ups now. We have grown-up problems.
    Jeff: [watching Troy and Abed repeatedly hit each other with pillows] ...That's very clear.
  • Shirley claims there were no rules and then describe "common courtesy" rules.
    Shirley: There were no rules in that first battle. You hit someone and they went down and... you stop hitting them. Call that "common courtesy." But then when they get up, you maybe keep hitting them till they learn to stay down. You call that "common sense."
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: When asked about the pillow fight afterwards, Troy would describe it as "It was awesome... but also, it wasn't?"
• Intrepid Reporter: Britta thinks she's this. She's actually terrible at it.
• I Resemble That Remark!:
  • Jeff tries to make the conflict go away by giving Troy and Abed "imaginary friendship hats that automatically make you friends again." Troy solemnly states that things are more serious than that...as Troy and Abed remove the imaginary hats.
  • Also after the war, when Troy insists that he and Abed have genuine grown-up problems to address... while they're hitting each other with pillows.
  • During the war, Jeff would refer to the accusation that he was just improvising fatuous patriotic-sounding dogma as a "Ferris Buellerian" attempt to distract everyone so they'd keep fighting and enable him to avoid schoolwork as "a slanderous betrayal akin to 9/11." After the war, he would describe the same accusations as "essentially accurate."
  • While reading an intercepted email from Abed declaring that Troy cries easily and is ashamed of this fact, Troy starts crying and demands to be left alone.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet:
  Narrator: Midnight comes and the campus holds its breath.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Although he's sarcastic and dismissive about the conflict between Troy and Abed, Jeff isn't entirely wrong to characterise them as "children acting like grown-ups" for how they handle things.
• Jitter Cam: The fight scenes are shot with jittery camera work.
• The Ken Burns Effect: Panning and zooming the camera over still images to provide the illusion of motion is repeatedly utilized, playing into the episode being an Affectionate Parody of the documentaries of Ken Burns (where this technique is frequently used).
• Kick the Dog: Abed and Troy exchange some pretty scathing remarks as the war heats up. Abed outlines Troy's weaknesses to his generals in an attempt to win the war, specifically highlighting his emotional sensitivity and insecurity over his lack of intelligence as vulnerable points of attack. When Troy finds this out, he fires back by claiming he's Abed's first friend, and soon to be only friend, because Troy is "the only person who will ever have patience [with him]". It's this escalation of the conflict from a disagreement into a genuine fight that causes Jeff to step in.
• Lampshade Hanging: The Dean lays a pretty hilarious one concerning Greendale's habit of taking childish games far more seriously then they should.
  Dean: Do people go to classes?!
• Lemony Narrator: Keith David provides the narration for the episode, and he spends most of it as The Comically Serious aside from a few isolated moments of snark (i.e., him mocking Britta's Giftedly Bad photographs).
• Look Behind You: According to Abed's intercepted e-mail, Troy is easily distracted by "anyone saying, 'Look over there.'"
• The Magazine Rule: Friends Weekly, a magazine that Troy and Abed made up.
• Malaproper: Troy's "All tomato" (for ultimatum).
• Male Gaze: As Annie is introduced in the voiceover introduction, the camera shows a photo of just her torso and then pans up to include her face.
• Mattress-Tag Gag: Chang's army of 12-year-olds make necklaces out of them.
• Meaningful Echo: The "imaginary magical friendship hats." The first time Jeff brings them up, he's being snide, dismissive and sarcastic. The second time, he's honestly trying to mend Troy and Abed's friendship.
• The Medic: Annie becomes a combat nurse for both sides becoming "The Angel of the Battlefield." Mostly this involves just feeding soldiers Gatorade and brushing feathers off them.
• Metaphorgotten:
  • The narrator in general enjoys pushing his metaphors past the breaking point:
    Narrator: [Annie's] text messages with Jeff Winger give us a glimpse beneath the cushions of war to the lost pennies and grody q-tips of war's emotional toll.
  • Troy and Abed get in on the act throughout as well:
    Troy: I'm giving you an all-tomato. Meaning that you give me the whole tomato... or else.
    Abed: Blanketsburg has drawn First Blood; Pillowtown will draw First Blood Part II.
• Misplaced-Names Poster: The start of the episode has still images of the main cast along with billing. Most of them are mismatched.
• Mockumentary: The entire episode is done In the Style of a Ken Burns war documentary like The Civil War or The War.
• Mood Whiplash: The final line of an otherwise somber poem about the pillow fight that the female narrator is reciting is "I saw Mommy kissing Exxon-Mobil." It Makes Just as Much Sense in Context.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Facebook status updates, text messages and emails from the conflict are intoned with the same gravitas and meaning as if they were letters from the American Civil War, as in this example:
    Annie: Jeff. Heard from one of Troy's soldiers about a speech you gave to troops at the blanket fort. Wish this war could be over, but proud of you for taking a stance. Text message: Annie Edison
    Jeff: Thank you Annie. Proud of you too, and us all. Also wish the nightmare would end, but using what I'm given to give what I can. Jeff Winger.
    Annie: Jeff, just heard from one of Abed's soldiers that you gave an identical speech to troops at Pillowtown. W-T-F, sad face, special icon of a downward thumb.
    Jeff: Okay, you caught me. I prefer war to homework. How do you do that little thumb icon? I can't find it on my phone. Jeff Winger.
    Annie: Jeff, you're disgusting! Troy and Abed's friendship is at stake. You can buy special icons in packages at the app store. Piece of sushi, birthday cake, stop sign, snowman, umbrella.
  • "Leonard likes this post."
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Shirley is clearly experiencing some regrets post-battle, and admits to camera at one point that she suspects she ended up beating down members of her own team in the chaos and bloodlust she experienced.
  • Jeff is also noticeably uncomfortable when he discusses learning that Abed and Troy's relationship has broken down to the point where they're genuinely hurting each other's feelings; although it's never mentioned, given his role in extending the war so he could avoid schoolwork and his subsequent efforts to mend their friendship it's not hard to imagine this trope was in effect.
• Namesake Gag: Multiple times, combined into one long gag:
  Narrator: "The North Cafeteria, named after Admiral William North, is located in the western portion of East Hall, gateway to the western half of North Hall, which is named not after William North, but for its position above the South Wall. It is the most contested and confusing battle field on Greendale's campus, next to the English Memorial Spanish Center, named after English Memorial, a Portuguese sailor who discovered Greendale while looking for a fountain that cured syphilis."
• New Neo City: New Fluffytown was the original name of the pillow fort formed between Troy and Abed before it split into Blanketsburg & Pillowtown.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jeff's first attempt at a serious summit between Troy and Abed just ends with the two deciding their friendship is done and that once everything's over the loser will have to move out of their apartment before storming off. Jeff is rather nonplussed:
  Jeff: Uhhh... I wanted that to go different.
• Non-Indicative Name:
  • See Namesake Gag. Several buildings on campus have cardinal directions in their names, but the actual basis of these names make little to no sense—for example, being named for people named North or for their relative locations to other buildings as opposed to campus as a whole. Then there's the English Memorial Spanish Center, named for English Memorial, a Portuguese explorer.
    • Surprisingly Truth in Television, to an extent. Harvey Mudd College has dorms named "East" (it's east of the academic buildings), "West" and "North" (which are west and north of East, respectively), and "South" (which is actually the northernmost of the four by a matter of a few feet or so, but the pattern had to continue). They are arranged similar to the four corners of a square so North is east of South, West is south of South, and East is southeast of South. In contrast, Greendale's names seem fairly sensible.
    • This also happens pretty often in real life when new buildings are added to campuses.
  • Despite being called a "republic", the Legit Republic of Blanketsburg is in practice just a military alliance led by Troy and his friends against Abed's United Forts of Pillowtown.
• Odd Name Out: "Pillows and Blankets" breaks from the usual Idiosyncratic Episode Naming, not particularly sounding like the name of a class or lesson. Instead, it's meant to sound akin to a Ken Burns documentary (i.e., his The Civil War documentaries about the American Civil War).
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo:
  • Discussed.
    Abed's Facebook status update: The war won't stop with First Blood Part II; it will escalate to Rambo III. Which should really be called Rambo II: First Blood. Part III. But the Rambo titles never made sense. And neither does war.
  • Also, this episode is a sequel to Digital Exploration of Interior Design, but its title doesn't reflect that.
• Onrushing Army: The Final Battle comes down to both sides charging straight against another in the North Cafeteria.
• One-Federation Limit: The factions are the Legit Republic of Blanketsburg and the United Forts of Pillowtown.
• One-Woman Wail: Heard over the Battle of Greendale.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Jeff seems to be the only one who realizes that for all the drama flying around, the entire situation was a silly pillow fight. He only gets invested into the war in order to ditch class. He eventually gives up this mantle in order to save Troy and Abed's friendship by playing along with their imaginary friendship hats. He even goes so far as to go to Dean's office, picking them up and cleaning them off, despite the fact that nobody was watching.
  • To a lesser extent, the Dean himself also counts, with him getting increasingly exasperated by the pillow fight going on for so long, initially operating the failed peace talks between Troy and Abed along with Jeff at the episode's beginning, and even chewing out the student body at the end for having wasted so many days of class.
    Dean: Do people go to classes?!
• Overly Narrow Superlative: "In 2012, Greendale Community College was the site of the largest and longest pillow fight in community college history."
• Playing Both Sides: Once he gives up on trying to mediate the conflict, Jeff starts giving Rousing Speeches to both sides in order to encourage them to keep on fighting. While the conflict is going on classes are suspended and he does not have to do any school work.
• Powder Keg Crowd: The two factions are on the brink of a riot when Star-Burns who Hates Being Nicknamed lashes out at the opposition and the war is on.
• The Power of Friendship: Deconstructed with Jeff's writing at the end. He muses that although friendship is getting him to stop this war, everyone caring about their friends is probably why wars start.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni ...But reversed as far as the actual color-coding goes. Abed, the calmer, more rational of the pair leads the red side, while Troy, the more emotional and excitable one, heads up the blue forces.
• Rousing Speech: Jeff gives them to both sides just to keep the war going so he can delay class, much to Annie's disgust.
• Running Gag: Britta's impressively bad photography.
  • "Daybreak" appears yet again.
• Sarcasm Mode:
  • Lampshaded and subverted; Troy and Abed reveal they're both aware Jeff's suggestion of 'friendship hats' which would make their problems disappear was intended sarcastically. Jeff turns it around by pointing out that just because he's a sarcastic person doesn't mean that they have to take it in the same spirit.
  • Even the narrator eventually can't restrain his own contempt for Britta's inept photography, although he intones it in the same dramatic tone of voice he uses for the entire documentary ("Yeah, gee, there's a good one.")
• Screaming Warrior: Just about everyone in the Final Battle, especially Shirley.
• Serious Business: Both the participants in the conflict and the documentarians recording it treat the conflict between Blanketsburg and Pillowtown as if it was an undiscovered chapter of the American Civil War. Lampshaded by Annie:
  Annie: The injured said [the Changlorious Basterds] were making necklaces out of mattress tags. This is when things get as ugly as they can get! (Beat; sheepishly) ...While still being a pillow fight.
• Shaped Like Itself:
  • The narrator describes Pierce as "The dried-up heir to a moist towelette empire, who would prove to be the dried-up heir to a moist towelette empire."
  • "Pictured here lying down, Troy does not take Abed's email lying down."
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Spoofed when Shirley acts like following the end of the war, with her even coming across as genuinely haunted during her talking head sessions.
• Ship Tease: Jeff and Annie's text messages, which are presented as if the correspondence was between two lovers torn apart by war, and then, later, Jeff gets a journal after hearing Annie's advice to have a place just for him, to tell the truth. Earlier, when this interaction takes place, he asks, "If I write stuff down in a Hello Kitty book, will you like me again?" indicating how much her opinion means to him.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Hilariously lampshaded; following Troy's "all tomato," the Dean loudly wonders whether any of the students at Greendale actually go to any classes.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jeff deliberately stirring the pot to delay schoolwork is noted as "Ferris Buellerian."
  • The Changlorious Basterds, who taunt others by shouting "You guys like pillows? How do you like these pillows?"
  • Rambo: Abed mentions the phrase Rambo: First Blood Part II in passing, then discusses the series' numbering scheme.
  • Pierce's Doomsday Device pillow-armor looks like a cross between the Iron Man Mark I Armor — with detailed schematics and wielding The Pillow of Thor — and the Michelin Man.
  • Band of Brothers is imitated with the war veterans being interviewed and the iconic red line separating the episode number and title.
  • There's no way that "The Real Neil with Pipes of Steel" isn't some sort of shout out to "The Real Deal with Bill McNeal."
  • Pierce defecting from Troy's army to Abed's after Shirley is promoted over him is a historical reference to Benedict Arnold's actions during The American Revolution. One of Arnold's grievances against Congress which prompted him to defect to the British was that he was passed over for several promotions which he felt he was owed.
• Silly Reason for War: Arguably deconstructed. While the reason for the pillow fight is ultimately pretty silly (whether or not Abed should tear down his pillow fort so Troy's blanket fort can maybe win a Guinness World Record) in the grand scheme of things, it quickly becomes a way for Troy and Abed to vent all of their frustrations regarding each other in their friendship, to the point where it threatens to permanently tear them apart. Or, to put it another way, it's a "Silly Reason for War With Serious Repercussions."
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: After his first, unsuccessful foray into battle, Pierce feels the need to claim that the battle has given him erectile dysfunction, which he's never had before then.
• Telethon: The Tag is a pledge drive for the Greendale campus TV station, with Troy and Abed offering PBS-style rates for DVDs of other documentaries more obscure than Pillows and Blankets (admittedly this would be the only place to get them) and making desperate pleas for funding that get cut off in midsentence.
• That Wasn't a Request: When Troy is giving his "all tomato" to Abed.
  Troy: The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg says Pillowtown has until midnight tonight to surrender its territory.
  Abed: The United Forts of Pillowtown declines the request.
  Troy: It's not a request.
• Title-Only Opening: In Band of Brothers-style, no less.
• Turn Coat: Pierce initially supports Troy but switches sides when Shirley is promoted above him.
• Two-Part Episode: Continuing the plot of "Digital Exploration Of Interior Design".
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Played for laughs; most of what we see of Jeff in stills and documentary footage involves him disinterestedly using his phone while chaotic pillow fights rage around him.
• Violence is the Only Option: Soft, fluffy violence. Subverted when the conflict is resolved by a mix of bureaucratic shenanigans and a peace treaty.
• Visible Silence: Leonard illustrates the sound of crap when it's about to hit the fan with this.
• War Is Hell: Mercilessly parodied from beginning to end. The fact that everyone is treating a campus-wide pillow fight with all of the gravitas of the American Civil War is played for hilarious absurdity and Black Comedy.
• We Used to Be Friends: Troy and Abed make vicious personal attacks on one another based on their intimate knowledge of the other's weaknesses.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Vice-Dean and the Subway sub-plot from the previous episode make no appearance; However, this is justified in the Vice-Dean's case, as it could be argued that, as the head of a shadowy Ancient Conspiracy, he didn't want to get caught on camera advancing his scheme. Likewise, Subway probably didn't want to pick any sides in the event that they supported the losing side and got kicked out of Greendale by the victors.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Annie is very angry when she finds out that Jeff is Playing Both Sides and sends him a text expressing her disgust.
• What You Are in the Dark: In a Friendship Moment, Jeff actually goes to the Dean's office and picks up and dusts off the imaginary friendship hats, despite no one being around to make him.
• Wimp Fight: Played with; when everyone is pillow-fighting, it's no-holds-barred and vicious, such as Shirley sweeping people off their feet while Dual Wielding pillows. When it's just Troy and Abed, however, they just sort of awkwardly slap each other's sides with the pillows. Justified though, as they're obviously not trying to actually hurt each other, and actually want the fight to go on for as long as possible.