What Happened, Yo!:
-The Dean has been given $2000 dollars to update the 16-year-old Greendale Commercial and has cast the study group, because they are "Greendale's brightest and coincidentally, most diverse (Hispanics notwithstanding) study group".
-Abed is filming this as a documentary because he believes the Dean will lose his sanity doing this commercial and wants to follow that, Hearts of Darkness style.
-Pierce is outraged to learn the shoot won't be catered and refuses to leave his trailer. When he learns he doesn't have a trailer, he rents one and refuses to leave until he gets a trailer he can refuse to leave
-Troy and Britta have to hug, which they really enjoy.
-Jeff has to play the Dean in the commercial and plans to use this opportunity to mock the Dean, but the Dean sees Jeff's performance as gold.
-All is fine and the commercial is almost done until the Dean learns that Greendales one famous alumni, Luis Guzman wants to appear in the commercial. This causes the Dean to want the commercial to be better than what they have, and he goes to re-write everyone's parts. Except for Jeff.
-By the next day they are 6,000 dollars over budget and everyone has been drawn into the commercial, with all classes being cancelled.
-The Dean slowly becomes crazier and crazier, rewriting things as they go, and demanding that Troy and Britta hug so many times to get that missing something, the two have emotional breakdowns.
-Jeff has kept on the bald cap for days and slowly finds himself incredibly attached to it.
-The board of directors tell the Dean that he'll be fired if the commercial isn't good enough, since this thing is taking so long.
-Annie, who is the script supervisor begins to believe that the Dean really is a genius in a case of Stockholm Syndrome
-Pierce takes over the trailer they've gotten for Luis Guzman
-On Day 12, they finally get to Jeff's scene, but when the Dean decides he wants Jeff's character to have hair, Jeff won't take off the bald cap, leading to him being replaced with his self-proclaimed understudy Ben Chang. This leads Annie to finally realize the Dean is insane and Britta to call the whole production a violation of human rights. The Dean says everyone who wants to leave can leave so everyone leaves.
-Luis Guzman shows up to a mostly empty school. The Dean (who now has an possum in his office) shows him his rough draft of his commercial, which is a big mess. Luis Guzman decides he can't do the commercial and advises Abed to help the Dean.
-The Dean freaks out when he sees Luis doing Abed's documentary (He's already got rid of the trailer with Pierce still inside). Luis tells him he thought the old script was good and the Dean says that's because Luis went to Greendale.
-Luis tells the Dean that the Dean is ashamed of Greendale, that Greendale is a special place and the Dean doesn't deserve to be there.
-The Dean gets Abed to film him confessing that he failed the school because he thought he was better than it. And the only thing wrong with the school is that it's run by an insecure wreck who thinks it's not good enough. But he goes on to call Greendale the best school in the entire world, burns his university diploma, stips down, and covers himself in the ashes.
-When the Dean goes to show the representatives from the board his confession, he finds that Abed has put together footage from the first day of shooting with footage from his documentary and made it into a good enough commercial.
-Abed has realized that documentarians influence the story because they decide to tell the story and decide how it ends.
-The study group forgives the Dean after seeing the footage of his breakdown and hug. Troy and Britta remain in their hug longer than anyone else.
-In the tag, we see Pierce has been towed all the way to Hollywood, where he stumbles out declaring to be a star.
I Liked This:
This episode was a spotlight on Dean Pelton, and it was probably Jim Rash's best performance yet. I liked how the episode humanized the Dean, especially after showing him go over-the-top insane. I also liked how the documentary format the episode used wound up being relevant to the story in a much more profound way than the last time they used it (Though that was still a great episode). As much as it was the Dean's story, it was also a story for Abed too, and it was nice to see him decide to ultimately step in and save the Dean. And of course, the episode was really, really, really funny. After Remedial Chaos Theory, this was probably the next best episode of season 3 so far. And I'm sure there'll be plenty of more classics to come this season.
But...:
This episode was so good (though not perfect), it just made me more upset that NBC is "benching" Community for the time being come mid-season. Curses, NBC! At least let them get to season 4!
The Bottom Line: Documentary Filmmaking: Redux was a great episode, with a good spotlight on the Dean as a character. If only more people watched this show.
Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)
Memorable Moments
-Abed: “As a student of character I have a feeling that making this commercial may cost the Dean his sanity. And my camera follows the fire, not the smoke. Ever seen Hearts of Darkness? Way better than Apocalypse Now.”
-Dean: “This isn’t Hollywood, Pierce. If it were, my glasses would be tinted and I’d be friends with Stevie Nicks.”
-The Dean can't think of the word he wants Shirley to be more of. Shirley: "The word he's looking for his sassy. He better pray he don't find it."
-The Dean gets fed up with Troy and Britta not being able to deliver the performance he wants. “Okay, you get it wrong one more time, I’m segregating the school.”
-Chang: "Jeff thinks he has it bad? As Jeff's understudy, I have to wear a Jeff wig on top of my Chang hair and then my bald cap on top of that!"
-Jeff: “I’ve become a stranger to myself. I’m bald now. I’ve always been bald. I only dreamt of having hair. And now the bald man is awake.”
-The Commercial ultimately went $16,000 over budget.
-Abed: "Some flys are too awesome for the wall."
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