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Recap / Community S 6 E 11 Modern Espionage

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A paintball game started in Greendale, leading Frankie to ban paintball, and expelling all students (and firing all staff members) caught playing in order to keep Greendale clean. After discovering City College is involved, the Study Group decides to take part to the game in order to investigate.


The Community episode Modern Espionage provides examples of:

  • Action Prologue: The shootout between Star-Burns and Todd.
  • Actor Allusion: Abed is assumed to be Indian by a character played by the Pakistani-American Kumail Nanjiani. Abed clarifies he is Arab, but his actor Danny Pudi actually is Indian.
  • Affectionate Parody: Of Spy Fiction, particularly Mission: Impossible, with some James Bond thrown in for good measure.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: Annie and Abed during the gala incursion.
  • Big "NO!": Annie and Abed when they both get shot.
  • Black-Tie Infiltration: The study group during the gala.
  • Blatant Lies: Britta claims to have won previous paintball matches. The actual winners are Jeff, Pierce, and (apparently) Abed.
    • Elroy continues to ask what paintball is even after shooting Chang.
  • Bling-Bling-BANG!: Todd's paintball gun is painted with a flame motif. Chang whips out a golden pistol when he's about to suddenly and inevitably betray the committee again. Then there's Silver Ballz and his ... silver (paint) balls.
  • Book Ends: The episode opens and closes with a Greendale theatre performance.
  • Break Them by Talking: Lapari manages to get the Dean to turn on Jeff by pointing out that Frankie's making Greendale a better place means that it may no longer have room for screw-ups and down-and-out folks like, well, most of the cast.
    Dean Pelton: He's right, Jeffrey! A "cleaner" Greendale? It's like a healthier cigarette!
  • Bulletproof Human Shield: Elroy uses a cook as a shield.
  • Call-Back:
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end, Frankie makes everyone else in the gang dress up in baby clothes and say typical childish things for a week, to highlight how immaturely she thinks they acted.
  • Description Cut: Jeff gives a speech about the days of paintball-related mayhem being in the past while at the same time a paintball fight ensues in the kitchen.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The backroom business between Koogler and Abed plays out like a drug deal.
  • Elevator Action Sequence: The Dean somehow manages to fight off five guys with guns in a cramped elevator after one mook presses the elevator stop button.
    • Took a Level in Badass: He was completely useless in the previous paintball episodes (although, to be fair, he wasn't exactly participating back then, but still). This time he "survives" until the end along with Jeff.
  • Excessive Steam Syndrome: Invoked. The Museum of Custodial Arts has an exhibit of pipes that can spew steam on command. Lapari uses them to annoy Jeff and the Dean, though he acknowledges that the steam can't stop them, since it'd be a lousy museum exhibit if it prevented people from moving past.
  • Enemy Rising Behind: One mook gets up behind the Dean in the elevator but the latter got the memo.
  • Everyone Is Armed: When Chang attempts to betray and shoot the rest of the committee, everyone in the study room suddenly pulls their own paintball guns out and lights him up. Except for Jeff.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: Everyone participating in the paintball game is "killed" by the end.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Garrett starts to roast Vicki badly, even when saying her mother died. Then he and Vicki reveal it was part of an act; he wouldn't hurt someone's feelings for real!
  • Faceā€“Heel Turn: The Dean switches sides during the final confrontation. Jeff calls him out for it.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Lapari is so caught up in his monologue that he walks right by Jeff and the Dean, mistaking them for two of his mannequins.
  • Failed Attempt at Drama: The Dean stumbling over the janitor wagon after catching the group doing research on Silver Ballz.
  • Forced Friendly Fire: During a Gun Struggle, Jeff turns an opponent's weapon against himself.
  • Foreshadowing: If you listen carefully enough to the intro where Starburns gets taken out, the off-screen person who says the Pre-Mortem One-Liner is obviously Lapari; Kumail Nanjiani's distinctive voice is a dead giveaway.
  • Hall of Mirrors: The shootout in a hall of mannequins.
  • Hidden Depths: Vicki is shown to be hosting a one-woman show that has an audience mostly paying attention. We also see that Garrett is decent at standup when he has a target.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Lapari sets up a bunch of mannequins as decoys, which backfires when he mistakes Jeff and the Dean for them.
  • Hypocrite: Lapari complains at the start about how he's suffered nothing but pain from having to clean up the paintball, and yet he's behind this episode's game.
  • Immediate Self-Contradiction: Jeff urges Kilmer and Clooney to act quietly and calmly, only to freak out loudly when Frankie creeps up from behind.
  • Interchangeable Asian Cultures: The typical India/Middle East confusion occurs when Lapari objects to being heckled by an "Indian guy". Abed remarks that he's Arabic - which is true of the character, although Danny Pudi is half-Indian in real life. Lapari is skeptical about this. (For bonus points, Kumail Nanjiani, the actor playing Lapari, is from Pakistan.)
  • Interscene Diegetic: The song from Vicki's one-woman show continues to play over the paintball fight between Todd and Starburns.
  • Mandatory Twist Ending: Vice-Custodian Lapari predicts that the Dean's accusations won't hold up like all of M. Night Shyamalan's stories.
  • Mexican Standoff: Jeff, the Dean, and Lapari end up in one at the end of the episode.
  • Motive Rant: Lapari starts monologuing about why he organized the paintball game during his showdown with Jeff and the Dean: he thinks that Frankie is actually ruining Greendale by making it better, because it's a place where people can come when they've somehow screwed up their lives and need somewhere that makes them feel better about themselves.
  • Ms. Fanservice: All of the leading ladies look great in their special formal outfits.
  • Multiple Gunshot Death: The chef gets riddled by bullets from Britta and Elroy.
  • Mutual Kill: In the end Jeff, the Dean and Lapari end up shooting each other at the same time with none of them winning.note 
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Elroy pretends not to even know what paintball is. He briefly keeps this up after shooting Chang while currently pointing a paintball gun.
  • Obligatory Earpiece Touch: All group members touch their earpieces more than necessary while communicating with each other.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Frankie bans paintball on campus because of how destructive it has been in the past, expels any students that participate and threatens to fire any staff members who get involved in it. In the end she rescinds that policy because it would be impractical to fire everyone involved.
    • This is once again subverted with Jeff who tries to stay away but gets sucked into the insanity anyway.
  • Orphaned Punchline:
    Abed: And the pope looks at the giraffe and says "I'm in the room!" Sorry I can't remember the whole joke.
    Jeff: That's okay, it sounds very funny based on the last line.
  • Outfit Decoy: In the Action Prologue, Star-Burns tricks Todd with his hat on a pole.
  • Paintball Episode: This time In the Style of a Mission: Impossible espionage.
  • Playing Nice for Now: When Frankie storms into the study room to ask if the group is playing paintball, she finds them apparently engaged in a friendly game of The Ears Have It, only for them to immediately draw their weapons on each other once she's left the room.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Lapari gives one to Starburns after the fight with Todd, as he thinks he could actually win this year.
    Lapari: Actually, you'll be settling for silver!
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: The scene where Jeff is scanning everyone at the gala looking for an assassin is set to Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Frankie proves to be this; she takes a hardline approach to paintball because it's bad for insurance premiums and turns the school into a dystopian wasteland every time. In fact, Jeff points out to the Dean and Lapari that Frankie wants a better school and they have to stop fighting her by undermining her authority. Frankie overhears and is touched; she rescinds the expulsion and firing order, but as punishment makes the Save Greendale Committee dress up as babies during meetings for a week because the few hours of humiliation will have a bigger impact on them.
  • Running Gagged: One major plot point of the episode is that Greendale will no longer tolerate paintball within the campus (although Frankie rescinds the expulsion and firing of those she caught playing in the end). Also the meta detail that this is one of the last three episodes of the series.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Annie and Abed hang out a lot in this episode, and have incredible fighting chemistry. Not to mention they hold each other as they "die".
    • Frankie/Jeff also gets a nudge with Jeff saying he "likes her" at the end.
    • Platonic Life-Partners: It also continues the new dynamic of "Annie is Abed's new Troy" as she steps into the shoes of Abed's partner in hi-jinks.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The study group use Batman actors as codenames, and use "Belfry" to refer talk to everyone at once (as in the phrase "bats in the belfry").
    • The first rule of Club Club is that it's not a Fight Club.
    • Vice-Custodian Lapari's Museum of Custodial Arts borrows a lot from Scaramanga's labyrinth. Likewise, Chang is brandishing a golden gun when he tries to shoot the rest of the committee.
    • The opening sequence with Starburns and Todd in the parking garage is very similar to the opening scenes of Highlander, right down to Todd's sunglasses.
    • The episode homages Captain America: The Winter Soldier: the plot hinges on the theme of enemy within, as well as Lapari's climactic speech with Jeff mirroring Pierce/Fury, Frankie's initial outfits and makeup bearing a close resemblance to Maria Hill, and Abed's IP investigation being framed and shot the same way as Pudi's appearance as a tech operator in TWS. Dean Pelton's Elevator Action Sequence homages Captain America's. In a way, it comes full circle as The Russo Brothers got the gig for Winter Soldier because of their work on the Season 2 paintball finale of this show.
    • The shot of Silver Ballz's paintball gun firing at the beginning is lifted directly from Kill Bill.
  • Sinister Shades: Todd's mirrored aviators, especially when coupled with his unnatural monotone and off-putting smile.
  • Slow-Loading Internet Image: Parodied. When Elroy brings up a photo of Lapari on his computer screen, it loads slowly. The Dean immediately asks if Elroy has problems with his internet connection. Elroy then presses a key and the image loads instantly. Turns out Elroy deliberately programmed his computer to display images slowly. The Dean comments that it is very dorky of him.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Todd and Star-Burns have an epic battle in the parking lot to the tune of Vicki's insipid theatrical performance.
  • Special Edition Title: The opening credits are done In the Style of the end credits from Iron Man.
  • Stage Whisper: Played for laughs; the Greendale gang are all rather un-subtle with their use of makeshift earpieces to communicate with each other. Of course it's Britta who gets overheard by her target, and has to make up a lame story involving a dinner order with "guns" as a menu item to cover for it.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: The Dean suddenly appears in the room with Elroy and Britta.
  • Troll: Garrett's stand-up act in The Tag is revealed to be this when Vicki, who he spent most of his act mercilessly mocking, turns out to be in on it, and the supposedly dead mother she used to get a sentimental response from the audience turns out to be alive. The audience boos, which Garrett claims is exactly what he wanted, but he's still painfully aware that their gambit has backfired.
  • Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Precedes the aforementioned Elevator Action Sequence, with "Daybreak" subbing in for the usual soundtrack.
  • Unnecessary Combat Roll: Todd does a totally awesome and unnecessary spinning flip-jump off a car hood when he thinks he's got the drop on Starburns.
  • Wham Line: The Dean's "This isn't a closet."
  • The Worf Effect: Todd is a decorated war veteran who has good aim. That Silver Ballz took him out easily shows how dangerous he is. Of course, Todd had also just been outsmarted by Starburns, of all people...

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