Recap / Community S 5 E 05 Geothermal Escapism

Troy and Abed, Intimidation Stance.

Britta: Doesn't it seem like everyone is taking this game way too seriously?
Jeff: Seems normal enough for a school that's on 911's blocked caller list.

As Troy prepares to leave Greendale, Abed plans an epic going-away party; subsequently a game of "The Floor is Lava" transforms into a high-stakes Thunderdome-esque competition.

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The Community episode "Geothermal Escapism" provides examples of:

• Action Dad: Hickey gets invested in the game because he wants the prize money to pay for his son's wedding. He's consistently the most dangerous player throughout the episode and only loses because Britta backstabs him during the climax.
• Adrenaline Makeover: Britta, after she's Left for Dead by the main cast and joins up with Hickey's group.
• Affectionate Parody: Of post-apocalypse movies like Mad Max and Waterworld.
• All There in the Manual: The group (well, half the group) already played "The Floor is Lava" before in one of the Study Break mini-episodes. That one was much more subdued while in this episode, Abed cranks it up to eleven.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Hickey is the main antagonist for the study group. Even after learning about Abed's hallucination, he's still determined to make them lose. But for him, it was all merely a game that would help him pay for his son's wedding. His continued antagonism after Troy reveals that Abed is actually seeing lava is also explained by the fact that, having only known Abed a few weeks by this point, Hickey has less experience with Abed's condition and various other breakdowns than the rest of the study group.
  • Also Britta. She's definitely the killjoy of the group, trying to spoil the fun everyone's having with the game, but she's only doing so because she doesn't want them to waste their final hours with Troy and is concerned about Abed's mental state. While she does join Hickey in leading the assault against Shirley Island, she's only doing so because Troy and Abed abandoned her for "dead".
    Britta: You can't outrun your emotions! I will force you two to grieve properly, even if it KILLS US ALL!
• The Apunkalypse: What Greendale becomes when a children's game is given high stakes.
• Badass Boast/"Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Parodied, when Shirley sacrifices herself to give Troy and Abed the Orb:
  Shirley: You tell Buzz Hickey that Shirley Bennet said... well, I don't wanna waste your time. Just think of something cool and give me the credit.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Annie and Abed wear bandanas during the game.
• Battle Cry: The Chair Walkers' "Ah-OOOOH!!!"
• Big Bad:
  • Buzz Hickey is the group's biggest enemy in the Lava Game, complete with Bald of Evil and Beard of Evil.
  • Britta becomes The Dragon for Hickey after getting abandoned by Troy and Abed. She does a Heel–Face Turn after learning from Troy that Abed is seeing actual lava.
• Big Damn Heroes: Notice the swelling of the music:
  • Jeff disabling Duncan when the latter goes after Britta.
  • Troy and Abed showing up when Chang and his men start looting Britta, Jeff and Annie.
• Bond One-Liner: Britta, after she knocks Jeff onto the ground:
  "Who's there, bitch? Floor! FLOOOOOORR!"
• Bookshelf Dominoes: When shelves in the basement topple over one after the other.
• Bring It: Hickey gives Troy and Abed a wordless "come get some" hand gesture.
• Call-Back:
  • "The Floor is Lava" degenerates into a quasi-apocalyptic war across the Greendale campus, much like their paintball games tend to.
  • This isn't the first time Abed's had a huge emotional crisis and saw hallucinations because of it. But this time, he's aware that the lava was fake from the start and really wants to stop seeing it. Unfortunately, he can't.
  • Along that same line, it's not the first time Abed has struggled to accept being separated from Troy and suffered a breakdown because of it. The major differences are that Abed convinced himself that becoming Evil!Abed from the Darkest Timeline was the best option, here he actively realizes he's having a breakdown; and that whilst Britta went along with the Evil!Abed delusion and wound up emotionally distraught over it, this time she tries to get Abed to face the reality of Troy leaving. On top of that, whilst Abed thanked Britta for her efforts and making him realize he does need help, here she actively helps Abed face up to Troy's departure.
  • The photo of Britta that is posted on the wall of the "fallen" at Shirley Island shows her wearing her Tranny Queen Sash.
  • Shirley creates Shirley Island, a safe zone in the cafeteria, much like Pierce's Fort Hawthorne in "A Fistful of Paintballs."
  • This isn't the first time Troy and Abed have retreated into the basement to escape from outside forces trying to take them down (although Jeff isn't with them this time).
  • Again, the Dean is forced to watch as a friendly game is turned into a campus-wide obsession thanks to someone offering a massive cash prize- Abed in this episode, Dean Spreck in "A Fistful of Paintballs."
  • Abed once again leaves Britta for "dead" in a setting he created after she tries to get him to face his emotional pain.
  • When Troy sees that LeVar Burton is the man accompanying him on his worldwide voyage, he briefly adopts the facial expression he made when first meeting him in "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking". Burton himself expresses concern for Troy's Heroic BSoD that he suffered when first meeting him, only for Troy to brush it off by saying that he's a clone of the original Troy, and so doesn't have to worry about it happening again.
  • Troy's final farewell provides a callback to this season 1 moment:
    Troy: Why am I crying? Did I accidentally listen to "Come Sail Away" by Styx again?
• The Cameo: LeVar Burton reappears, having been assigned to accompany Troy on his voyage to ensure he doesn't cheat.
• Celebrity Paradox: Chang's same-sex celebrity crush is Nathan Fillion, who guest stars in the next episode of the season.
• Cerebus Retcon: It was obvious from the start that the Lava game was designed to deal with Abed's emotional turmoil. But it takes on a whole new level of meaning when it's revealed that Abed ACTUALLY sees lava on the ground and wanted everyone to play so that they could see what he sees.
• Character Development:
  • Instead of being initially reluctant to join the school's hijinks as usual, Jeff gave up his Only Sane Man position as he fully got into the Lava game and not just for greed. He happily jumped into it even before the cash prize was announced. He also thought it was a cool way of Abed sending Troy off.
  • When Troy told Jeff he was the coolest person he knew, Jeff confessed to him that he never left Colorado and remarked that Troy would be much cooler than him after his worldwide voyage. Looks like he learned something about honesty after Pierce's round of questioning.
  • A subtle one with Abed. Once again, he was hallucinating when facing an emotional crisis. But this time, he knew it was fake right off the bat and tried his best to reject it. And when he can't, he still decides by himself that he needs to let go.
  • Troy is now able to converse with Levar Burton, after spending their last meeting frozen in wide-eyed shock.
  • Britta, while still a bit incompetent, is a lot more effective and insightful as a psychologist than she's previously been. She also manages to help Abed on his terms by using her imagination and embracing, at least partially, his way of looking at the world. She also manages to verbally outwit Jeff when he attempts to mock her with a 'knock-knock' joke about her ending up on the floor.
• Clone Degeneration:
  • Abed's "clone" does not share the original's wild emotionality, which enables him to let go of Troy.
  • And Troy's "clone" has some homing pigeon DNA... which will manifest as a compulsion to return home.

• A Day in the Limelight: An odd case. Britta has the lion's share of the screentime among the main cast for most of the episode, but the primary focus here is on Abed and Troy's relationship — that is, its breakdown as a result of Troy leaving Greendale.
• Didn't Think This Through: LeVar Burton notes in The Tag that starting a sailing trip from land-locked Colorado wasn't the best idea. They spend hours with the boat on the back of a truck stuck in traffic before they even reach a river, much less the ocean.
• Dumbass Has a Point: One of the few times Britta's psych evaluations are right, when she deduces that the group (and particularly Abed) are using giddiness and the game to distract themselves from the sorrow of Troy leaving.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Hickey helps Britta stay in the game after Troy and Abed abandon her to be eliminated, purely because he wasn't pleased with the boys doing so.
  • Jeff, Annie and Shirley aren't exactly impressed when they find out about it, partially because Abed lied about leaving Britta behind. It's underplayed, due to Hickey and Britta leading a force in the destruction of Shirley Island.
• Evil Costume Switch: Britta adopts a different hairstyle and black leather outfit when she joins forces with Hickey.
• Fake American: In-universe: It turns out Magnitude is one.
  Magnitude: [in an upper-class English accent] I'm actually British!
• Fantasy Pantheon: Played for Laughs. As part of the ridiculous Apunkalypse, the players have begun developing new religions.
  Troy: You used that bench to upset the balance. By the vapors of Magmarath, we will restore it.
  Britta: You have GODS?
• Foreshadowing: Abed sitting on top of the table while making his announcement showed that he was ready to start playing the Lava Game from the get-go. But it also hints that he's been seeing lava before the game ever started.
• From Cataclysm to Myth: Garrett's story in Shirley Island refers to the "Now-Now Time" following the arrival of the "Burny-Touch", with everyone gasping in amazement. For perspective, this is a few hours into a children's game about imaginary lava covering the floor we're talking about here.
• Future Slang: Lampshaded by Britta, who refuses to learn the new names of anything.
• Gilligan Cut: Britta refused to learn any new words when joining Jeff and Annie. Cut to Annie commenting on "centipeding" not being the fastest form of travel.
• The Ground Is Lava: Abed calls a school-wide game of "hot lava" as a going-away gift for Troy. It evolves into an all-out war, with the study group centipeding by putting chairs in front of each other, Chang leading the "Locker Boys" who spring out from lockers, and the students' only safe space being "Shirley Island", a massive clump of furniture within the cafeteria.
• Heroic BSoD: The whole game is Abed's attempt to avoid this.
• Holier Than Thou: While posting up photos of the "dead" on Shirley Island, Shirley makes a point of dividing them into "Christian" and "Secular" groups.
• Hypocritical Humour:
  • For all of Britta's asserting that "the adults are here," the force she leads with Hickey is still actively playing the game.
    Britta: The adults are here and we're going to tear down your fort! Chair Walkers, attack! (Battle Cry)
  • Annie scoffs at Britta's initial refusal to immerse herself in the game along with everyone else and announces that she's perfectly willing to force Britta out of the game because of it ("You wanna join this alliance or do you wanna join the lava?"). She then protests when Britta ends up embracing the game and knocks her out of it.
    Annie: Britta, I'm your friend.
    Britta: I can't hear dead people, Annie, I'm in a world of imagination.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Chang asserts that everyone has a same-sex celebrity crush. For him, it's Nathan Fillion.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • For a given value of jerkass; everyone in the study group assumes Britta is just being a humorless killjoy and ignores her when she protests about playing the lava game, but she's really only doing so because she doesn't want them to waste their last hours with Troy in childish denial over his leaving without admitting how much he means to them and is concerned about Abed's mental state.
  • Again with Britta, she becomes The Dragon to Hickey, leads his forces against Shirley's Island with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how they're all in childish denial, and gets pretty much all of her friends knocked out of the game. But considering that Troy and Abed abandoned her for dead and everyone else has been treating her and her insights about Abed and the game with dismissive sneering, they all arguably had it coming to some degree or other.
• Lame Comeback: Jeff and Britta trade a whole load of these as they each attempt to get in a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner.
• Large Ham: When Britta gives up and finally decides to embrace the game to deal with Abed on his terms, she really gets into it. Buzz Hickey also counts, as he introduces himself having built a massive contraption capable of knocking over most players, all as he's laughing maniacally.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Troy and Abed abandon Britta for 'dead'. In return, Britta joins up with Professor Hickey and his 'chair walkers' and they attack Shirley's Island with Troy and Abed inside.
• Lava Adds Awesome: Even imaginary lava is enough to turn Greendale into a post-apocalyptic hellscape.
• Left for Dead: Britta's fate before being picked up by Hickey.
  Troy: [guilty] ... We kind of... l-left her?
  Annie: Left her for dead?!
  Abed: It sounds bad when you put it that way. Can you put it in a way that sounds good?
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: The fact that Jeff's lack of emotional connection makes him bad at sex gets brought up again. Britta confirms that Troy (the nicest of the study group) was better.
  Troy: I'm better at sex than Jeff, right?
  Britta: I've yet to have anyone worse.
• Lured into a Trap: Jeff, Britta and Annie were lured by Chang's Locker Boys using a stack of chairs.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After Abed abandons Britta, she joins Hickey and lays siege on Shirley Island.
• Nonindicative Title: While they're waiting to reach the ocean, Troy takes the opportunity to question Levar Burton about why Star Trek wasn't called 'Planet Trek':
  Troy: You never went to a star. Not one episode. ^note In fact, many episodes involve the crew visiting, studying and interacting with stars, and at least one episode has The Enterprise physically entering a star's corona.
• Not So Above It All: Britta as regards the hot lava game. It's for the best, really. She's the one who has the idea of cloning Abed.
• Not So Stoic: Despite Abed trying to keep a straight face and continue having fun with Troy while trying to come to terms with his best friend's departure, his emotions briefly crack through at times as he admits that while he wants to accept what's happening, he's still breaking down over the idea of losing Troy for good.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Both Britta and Troy, no doubt remembering back to "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", have this reaction when they learn that Abed actually is seeing lava on the floor, and they immediately drop their involvement in the game out of concern for him (while still abiding by the rules).
  • Shirley when she realizes that Hickey brought Chair Walkers.
  • Troy and Abed were clearly not expecting Hickey to take pity on Britta, and are clearly aware that they're in trouble when Britta reveals that she's still 'alive'.
• Oil Slick: The Shirley Island defenders put liquid butter on the floor to bring down the Chair Walkers.
• One-Woman Wail: Downplayed example. There is a female voice singing in the scene where Abed drops into the lava.
• Only in It for the Money: Hickey freely admits that he's only playing the game to win the prize so he can help pay for his son's gay wedding, although he does seem to get plenty of enjoyment out of being a Mad Max-style villain as well.
• Only Sane Man: Britta is the only one who points out how stupid the whole thing is, mainly because of the absurd lengths everyone's going to embrace The Apunkalypse fantasy rather than actually confront the fact that they're upset that Troy's leaving. Eventually she reveals herself to be Not So Above It All, when Abed abandons her to her "death" she decides to really confront him about his abandonment issues, by going as crazy as everyone else.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • When Jeff and Annie pull out the rolling chairs against the Chair-Walkers.
    Jeff: Hey, seat-feet! Chair to dance?
  • Jeff tries to pull this on Britta with a knock-knock joke, but she refuses to play along. Their back-and-forth argument about the subject ends up getting him so riled up that she's able to knock him onto the floor... and to add insult to injury, she then delivers the same putdown he was going to deliver to her as a Bond One-Liner.
• Put on a Bus: Troy leaves Greendale to fulfill the stipulations stated in Pierce's will to gain his bequeathal.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Britta delivers one to the study group, along with the rest of the inhabitants of Shirley Island, after joining forces with Hickey:
  Britta: I wanna say some things to you guys about mental health. You do realize that this isn't just a pile of chairs, right? This is a crib. And you're curled up inside there, sucking your thumbs, because you're too scared to say goodbye. Well, it's time to grow up. The adults are here and we're gonna tear down your fort.
• Replacement Goldfish Britta and Troy clone Abed after his death. Also Abed suggests cloning Troy and sending his clone away.
• Restrained Revenge: After Britta shoves Professor Hickey to the floor, he vows to shove her back... after the game's over.
• Scared of What's Behind You: Abed and Troy believe Chang's men are retreating because of them but it's actually Professor Hickey arriving in his truck behind them that makes the gang lose their shit.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Abed and Troy ditch Britta when they see Hickey's steampunk tractor-thing (and because Abed doesn't like the fact that Britta's pegged his abandonment issues and is trying to make him confront them, and Troy is too weak-willed to challenge Abed). Hickey's not pleased and picks Britta up to join him.
• Series Continuity Error: When Jeff is saying goodbye to Troy, he claims that he's never set foot outside of Colorado. In "Communication Studies", though, he told Britta that he once went to Disney World on a company retreat and got into a drunken fight with the animatronic Ben Franklin in the Hall of Presidents.
• Serious Business: Abed intentionally turns "The Floor is Lava" into this by offering a comic book worth $50,000 as the prize. This being Greendale, of course it ends up with everyone acting like it's The Apunkalypse.
• Ship Tease: Jeff and Annie partner up in the Lava War, and this is meaningful especially considering how the Dean called them on it in a previous episode since they use things like this to "get close to each other and hold hands in the dark" as a way of "addressing their urges." At one point Annie uses Jeff's binoculars while he's still wearing them in a transparent attempt to get closer; they didn't even need to use the binoculars at all.
• Shout-Out:
  • The stance Jeff and Annie took when challenging Britta to a Lava Joust is similar to the Fire Nation stance.
  • Abed falling into lava and being resurrected by cloning is a nod to Alien³ and Alien: Resurrection.
  • Hickey's desk-tank would not be entirely out of place among the other cobbled-together vehicles in Mad Max.
  • "Lava World" for Water World, continuing The Apunkalypse theme. Shirley Island resembles the Atoll, and if you gave Professor Hickey an eye patch he'd almost be a match for the villain of that movie, played by Dennis Hopper.
  • When Shirley says the Orb is Shirley Island, Abed asks if it's in a cool way like Keyser Soze or a lame way like The Jewel of the Nile.
• Special Edition Title
• Starter Villain: Duncan antagonizes Britta for all of 20 seconds at the start of the episode proper, before getting taken out by Jeff and Annie.
• Stealth Pun: Early in the episode, Britta's status as the group's resident buzzkill is restated, and in the end she figuratively kills Professor Buzz Hickey.
• Steampunk: Hickey's bulldozer emits excessive steam.
• Stiff Upper Lip: Averted with Duncan, who when he loses the game whines that this is why the British always lose at sports — because everyone else cheats. He then runs out of the room, practically in tears.
• Techno Babble: When Britta comes up with sci-fi buzzwords to describe Abed's cloning process.
  "Okay, I'm placing this cellular regeneration sequencer on the spot where he died. This is a laser guidance system that keeps the regeneration sequence from, um... jib-jabbing."
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Britta, knocking Jeff into the "lava" after he repeatedly tries to bait her into a "Knock Knock" Joke while they're fighting:
  Britta: Who's there, bitch?! Floor! FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!
• Verber Creature: The game has Floor Striders and Chair Walkers.
• War Memorial: Shirley Island has a wall with photos of the fallen.
• Wasteland Elder: Shirley.
• Wham Line:
  • Abed, over the loudspeaker, announcing the rules of the game.
    Abed: Oh, and because the not-awesome often need incentive to do awesome stuff, the final survivor will win my near-mint-condition #1 Issue of Space Clone. Valued by the comics authority at $50,000.
  • Also:
    Abed: It's Not a Game for me, Troy.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • We never see Dean Pelton following the countdown to the start of the game, so we never learn how or if he gets "killed".
  • We never hear of the prize money again that Britta obviously won.
    • It's a good guess Britta gave the comic back to Abed. That likely would have been the result for any member of the committee winning (except maybe Hickey).
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Britta to Abed after he gets Troy to leave her to "die".
  • Jeff, Shirley and Annie to Troy and Abed upon learning that they abandoned Britta.
  • Annie to Britta after she laughs at Annie's elimination from the game due to her chair tripping over some rope.
  • Hickey to Britta after she eliminates him from the game.
  • Troy gives a mild, gentle one to Abed when he starts getting confrontational with Shirley about "The Orb", pointing out that since they already abandoned Britta he really doesn't want his last day at Greendale to end up with everyone hating him.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  Duncan: I'm not afraid to push a girl into make-believe lava! In fact, it's been my primary strategy.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: At one point, Star-Burns is seen making his way through the corridors, and upon getting no response to his cries of "Hello?" comes to believe he has won the game. He takes a moment to joyfully celebrate winning $50,000 ("That's fifty-thousand lottery tickets!"). Then he gets knocked down and run over by Troy and Abed while they're in a large plastic bubble.
• You Are Already Dead: Hickey holds up his knife with which he slit Troy and Abed's airball during their combat scene. Then we hear a hissing sound.

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