SPOILERS AHEAD, so study up cautiously, Community buffs…
Season Five, Episode One: “Repilot”
Written by: Dan Harmon & Chris McKenna; Directed by: Tristram Shapeero
Community is back for a fifth season (They just need one more and then a movie, right?). But, you ask, what will the show be since everyone graduated from Greendale? It looks like it could be a legal battle against the school for ruining everyone’s lives — could this be the darkest timeline?
Quick Breakdown
The episode opens with Jeff Winger’s legal ad, depicting him as a superhero with low-grade special effects. The ad, unsurprisingly, did very little for Jeff’s career; and repo men are removing everything from his office. Jeff’s nasty friend Alan (Rob Corddry) shows up with a way to make some money. A Greendale graduate named Humphries is in trouble for the collapse of a bridge he built. Alan wants Jeff to infiltrate Greendale to secure Humphries’ records in order to sue the school for failing him in his education. Jeff seems to have returned to his more evil side.
To get access, Jeff claims he’s starting a Save Greendale Committee to thwart the potential threat from Humphries. The Dean approves and sends him to his old study room, which has been turned into a storage room for the files. He can’t find the records he needs, but Abed does show up. The Dean told him about the Committee and he was eager to join — so was the rest of the gang, who show up shortly thereafter. (Did I just roll my eyes along with Jeff?)
Jeff goes to yell at the Dean and catches him shredding Humphries’ files. Without them, it seems that his and Alan’s case is kaput. Until Jeff realizes that he has five potential clients who could sue Greendale. Since graduation, it seems that everyone’s lives have gone off track. Britta works as a bartender; Annie hocks pens and anti-depressants; Abed is working on a social media app; Troy is trying to ride Abed’s coattails, and Shirley’s husband has left her because she’s been so invested in her sandwich shop. Jeff tries to manipulate them into thinking they should sue Greendale.
That, however, backfires, and they decide they want to enroll in Greendale again. Jeff is unsure of how to twist their minds back to his more devious plan — but Alan shows up and tells the gang that Jeff wants them to sue the school in an attempt to undermine their unwavering faith in Jeff. They’re mad at first, but they quickly relinquish their signatures, putting Greendale’s fate in Jeff’s hands. He feels some remorse for what he’s about to do as he stumbles upon a ghost from seasons past: Pierce.
It’s not quite Pierce (or his ghost) but instead a hologram of Pierce that’s been court ordered to direct people to the Pierce Hawthorne Museum of Gender Sensitivity and Sexual Potency (“some people just can’t take a compliment,” Pierce says derisively). When he’s not giving his museum spiel, he goes off book and talks about how much Greendale really meant to him. It’s a forced sentimental moment that changes Jeff’s mind. He goes to the Dean and lectures him for being so incompetent. Instead of suing the school, Jeff wants to help make it better. There’s a moment where I thought the Dean would abdicate the school and Jeff would take over, but Jeff gets hired on as a teacher (something Abed predicted earlier in the episode).
He finds the gang attempting to burn their study table (because Abed doesn’t want anyone else to use it). He does a dramatic burning of the document as he declares his support for Greendale. The burning document, however, ends up setting the table on fire (but they build a new one later). Jeff then convinces everyone to pursue their true dreams, even if it means going back to school. This was definitely not the darkest timeline but, instead, the truest one.
Rating
A-
With Dan Harmon back, it’s fitting the show gets a little rebooting (or repiloting — did they just make that term up?). But if Harmon had never left, would the show even need it? This episode fully succeeds as repilot, setting up a new situation for the gang that doesn’t feel like arrested development of their character growth. As solid as this episode is, however, I’m glad they aired the next episode right after to give us a true taste of what the season has in store.
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
“I see your value now.” – Abed’s first line to Jeff (a callback to season one) in his brief monologue about callbacks, proving that the show hasn’t lost its self-referential and Meta nature.
Abed compares this episode’s repiloting to Scrubs season nine. Did anyone realize they actually had nine seasons?
“That’s like blaming owls for why I suck at analogies.” – Britta (still being Britta)
“It’s not easy being Dean. It’s my i-dean-tity.” – The Dean
“I don’t believe in evil, but this school clearly had a finger up its butt as a child.” – Britta
Chang is back as well, despite his nefarious villainy these past seasons. I guess some things will never change.
