Community 4x02: Paranormal Parentage

Since last week was October 19th, that makes this week Halloween. Vicki's having a big party, and everyone but Pierce is invited, since she hates him for screwing her over during the election for student president back in season two. As such, everyone's in costume. Jeff had planned a couples' costume for himself and Annie, but due to a miscommunication, he's dressed as a boxer, and her ring girl costume is the freaky girl from The Ring.

Shirley's Leia, Abed and Troy are Calvin and Hobbes, and Britta is a ham.

Before they can leave, Troy gets a call from Pierce saying he's locked himself in his panic room and can't get out. Jeff doesn't want to go because he thinks Pierce is lying and just wants attention. However, a visit from the Dean in his ring girl costume is enough to convince him they should avoid going to the party for a while and check in on their friend.

He made the right choice.

Hawthorne Manor is a bit of a tacky mess when they get there. Things haven't been going so well for Pierce since his dad died and he lost his inheritance to his half-brother. Via his panic-room video camera, he tells the gang that he hid in his panic room when he saw the ghost of his father and he can't remember the code. It's written in a red notebook somewhere in his house. Jeff doesn't buy it, but everyone else wants to help, and Annie is his ride, so he can't leave. As the gang disperses to begin their search, a shadowy figure passes in front of the camera.

Dun dun dunnnnnnn.

The group splits up into three teams. Britta and Jeff search Pierce's bedroom. Britta wants to use her psychology powers to help fix Pierce's brain, but Jeff just wants to get out without touching anything. They check out the room, but all they find are Jeff and Pierce's unresolved daddy issues.

Meanwhile, Abed and Annie search some other room. I'm not sure which one, though. The map says they're in the library, but their dialogue indicates that they're somewhere else.

Maps can be confusing, even to the graphics department.

They don't find the notebook, either, but Abed pulls every book and knick-knack in the bookcase, and discovers a secret room, into which he disappears. The loss of her friend freaks Annie out, and she abandons her search for the notebook to look for him, instead. However, all she finds is a mirror, in which she sees the reflection of Pierce's dead father. It's freaky stuff.

The final team consists of Shirley and Troy. They're looking for the library, but Troy can't remember where it is. Instead, he leads them to Pierce's "secret gym" filled with leather collars and other workout gear.

He's not using that swing properly.

Shirley quickly gets them out of there, and they meet up with Annie, who explains how she lost Abed. The three of them head out to look for him, but there's no reason to worry. The room he found was the monitor room for Pierce's security cameras, and Abed's having the time of his life watching them... and Cougartown. He notices the shadowy figure watching over Pierce on some archived footage, but he doesn't notice it standing right behind him.

Elsewhere, while discussing the issues he has with his father, Jeff reveals the fact that he's had his dad's phone number for three weeks. Britta tries to snatch it from him so she can help heal his heart holes, but he flees and locks himself in Cornelius Hawthorne's bedroom. He settles in for a few swigs of the old man's scotch and discovers the notebook with the door code, but then the room starts flipping out, Poltergeist style. As does the wall behind Troy.

I don't see what the big deal is, it just wants to give him a hug.

Everyone behaves rationally and starts freaking out and running away. Jeff implores Pierce to turn off his haunted house, however the video feed shows him lying dead on the floor. But, when they punch in the code and go inside, the room is empty. Pierce quickly pops up behind them for one last jump scare before Abed arrives and pops in a tape he's made with the surveillance gear showing how all the spooky effects were accomplished. His favourite is the shadowy figure who was watching Pierce sleep. Unfortunately, Pierce has no idea who that was.

Pierce quickly reseals the panic room with everyone inside and tries to explain that he doesn't know what's going on, but no one believes him. He tries to keep Jeff from opening the door, but it doesn't matter: Someone starts opening it from the outside. The door slides open and reveals the killer:

Although, I guess he *technically* hasn't killed anyone.

After their dad died, Gilbert inherited all of his properties, including Hawthorne Manor. He dropped by one day to turn the deed over to Pierce, but when he got their, his brother was out, and the place was a mess. So he fixed some things up, and he's been looking after Pierce in secret ever since. Losing Cornelius left a huge hole in Gilbert's life, and taking care of his brother gave his life meaning again. However, now that he's been found out, he has to leave. Pierce says he's been doing fine since their father died, so he doesn't need a caretaker. But, he could use a roommate. The brothers hug and everyone is happy.

Awwwwwww.

Annie, Abed and Shirley go to the party, Britta and Troy go off to watch some Inspector Spacetime, and Jeff goes home to finally call his dad.

What I Liked
-Pierce has a portrait of Ty Webb in his bedroom.

Caddyshack was an awesome movie.

-In his fear, Troy's biggest concern is that he broke the remote for Pierce's panic room video system. He's right to be upset: Finding a remote control for anything from the 1980s is tough.
This week's best line: "Ghosts can't go through doors, stupid. They're not fire."-Pierce

What I Hated
-More hashtags. This week they included #HappyValloween, #GhostDad, and #GilbertRturns. I'm no longer sure whether they're doing it ironically or not. Either way, it's dumb as hell.
-The whole map thing is screwed up. It shows characters in the wrong places, and is always missing icons. It was a cool idea, but I guess they couldn't find a way to execute it properly.
-The tag during the credits with Troy and Abed engaging in secret room hijinks was pretty lame.

Final Thoughts
I got really stuck on the idea that Troy was Tigger, so it took me forever to figure out what Abed's costume was. Calvin and Hobbes has been gone for 17 years now, which means today's young people have never heard of it, and it is, therefore, officially obscure.

The ending was really abrupt and came out of nowhere. Giancarlo Esposito is everywhere, but I honestly didn't expect to see him back on Community again. If they were trying to genuinely surprise the audience, I'd say they did a good job, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea in the first place.

I've watched it a few times and I'm still not sure whether I liked it or hated it, but Annie's creepy Ring girl crawl was creepy.

That part in The Ring where she comes out of the TV legitimately freaked me out the first time I saw it.

Overall, I'd say that this year's Valloween episode was a bit better than last year's, but not nearly as good or memorable as the first two seasons'. It felt like they tried to jam too much into it and they just didn't have the time. Splitting the group into three teams gave everyone a chance to kick in a few jokes, but it also meant that there wasn't really any time to develop anyone's story. That's fine if you're just going for a series of gags, but the writers tried to do some actual character development, and it was far too rushed.

Speaking of character development, I'm no longer sure what the deal is with Jeff and Annie. I was under the impression that they settled things last season when the line "And we're gonna sleep together" from Jeff's fantasy turned out to be completely wrong. However, they planned on wearing matching costumes, and he wanted hers to basically be a bikini. While I do fully appreciate and condone attempting to get Alison Brie to walk around scantily clad, that's not exactly the sort of thing you do with a friend who you have no interest in. The whole "will they-won't they" thing has become tiresome, not only on this show, but in general. Annie is an attractive, young, college-going woman and because the writers need her to have sexual tension with Jeff, she hasn't had a boyfriend or even a date that I can remember since the first season. Far be it from me to decry the lack of realism on Community of all shows, but that's as fantastical as Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas.