Community: Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism

What Happened, Yo!:

-It's the weekend and Troy and Abed are planning to watch The Dark Knight Extended Extended Edition, which cost them a few hundred dollars. Abed is naturally very protective of it.
-While dusting the TV, Annie accidentally steps on the DVD and breaks it. Troy finds out and they both panic. Annie wants to replace the DVD, but Troy points out that that would be impossible, due to the rarity of the disc and Abed's familiarity with the "Try to replace a broken object" sitcom trope.
-Annie wrecks the apartment to make it look like someone broke in and stole the DVD (and a fictitious piece of jewelry she supposedly owns.).
-Abed determines that their landlord stole his DVD and dresses up in his Batman outfit, while Annie stands by. When Abed intends to go after the landlord, Annie tries to come clean, but Abed doesn't believe her, because he thinks she would've come forward before this point.
-Abed descends down the apartment to the landlords window, where it turns out that he's been stealing women's footwear. Annie claims that the DVD is also in there and is broken.
-After the landlord and Annie and Co. agree to no longer go into each others apartments, Abed figures out that Annie had broken it accidentally and hadn't told him because of how severe he can be. They make amends, while Abed is in the Batman suit.
-Meanwhile, Jeff is getting annoyed by a group of Europeans who have taken over the Foosball table. He attempts to get them to leave, but they'll only do it if he can score a point on them. Which he can't.
-Shirley sees Jeff practicing and tries to get him to leave it, but Jeff reveals that as a boy, he used to love Foosball until a gang of bullies, similar to the Europeans drove him to quit.
-Shirley says that Foosball is an evil game that brings out the worst in people, but turns out to be quite good at it. So Jeff convinces her to train him.
-The next day, as they're practicing, they encounter the Europeans again and challenge them to a game Monday, with the losers never playing on those tables again.
-Shirley and Jeff bond while training, and become closer.
-Later, they go to Dinner, where Shirley reveals she used to be really good as a kid. But one day, she humiliated a skinny white boy (guess where this is going) and made him pee his pants, and felt so bad about it, she never played again. Jeff realizes that he is the skinny white boy in Shirley's story and she is the one who drove him to quit the game.
-The two have a falling out and wind up playing a game of Foosball, which is stylized and presented like Anime.
-As Jeff and Shirley clash, they soon get the ball to a spot that their players can't reach. As they argue over who should get the ball, they point out that they each think the other is a good person. They soon settle the feud between the two of them
-At the Foosball game with the Euros, Jeff and Shirley get the ball into the spot none of the players can reach and simply leave the Euros to argue about who should get the ball, while they go see a movie. The rest of the group wonders how those two became so close.

I Like This: Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism was yet another very strong episode of Community. It gave Shirley her strongest storyline of the season and also gave us the Jeff/Shirley pairing, which isn't used very often (The last major plot I remember Jeff and Shirley having was in Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy, and even that was more about Chang), but hopefully that'll change, because these two characters are good together. I liked the fact that they share a common origin and that one incident between them was a big part of how they became the people they are (and it is plausible in the world of the show that they knew each other as kids, because the season 1 DVD lists them as having the same home town.). I liked how the anime sequence comes out of nowhere, and amplifies the climax, without completely taking over the episode. As far as the other story goes, Troy/Abed/Annie isn't as uncommon to see as Jeff/Shirley, but it was effective, and I liked their twist on an old sitcom convention. And anytime Abed gets to imitate Christian Bale is a good time.

But...: As enjoyable as it was, the Annie/Abed/Troy story got maybe a bit too goofy in places.

The Bottom Line: Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism is another great episode of this great show. With next week's episode being the last one for the foreseeable future, I'm expecting great things.

Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)

Memorable Moments

-Lots of references to past episodes this week. From Jeff remembering the time he and Shirley gossiped about Vaughn to Troy humming the tune from Abed's Halloween story, to the police officer recalling teaching Annie a lesson to of course, Abed's Batman costume. Good stuff.
-Cracking a mystery: So if Shirley is only two years older than Jeff, and Jeff was 19 in 1997 (as established in Intro to Political Science) that makes Jeff 33 and Shirley 35. And the flashback took place in 1988.
-Britta: "I'm volunteering at the animal hospital." Troy (excitedly): Animal Hospital?! Abed: "The animals are the patients". Troy (much less excited now): "That makes sense".
-The Dark Knight Extended Extended Edition contains a personalized message from the man himself. Annie reads it aloud: "Abed is Batman now." Abed: "It's official" Troy: "From the man himself."
-Foosball player: "I wish there was some word I could use to describe my pleasure at your misfortune".
-Annie's Christian Bale impression when thinking about replacing the special commentary was also classic.
-Shirley: "Shut up Leonard! I found your Youtube page. What's the point in reviewing frozen pizza?" Leonard: "You're talking about it." Shirley: "..Well that is true."
-Jeff is surprised that the Euros were carrying around a soccer ball to do one lame Foosball bit. "That's like a 25 dollar bit! And it's not even that good!"
-Abed: “Men like Rick operate above the law. But there’s something else above the law: bats…and me.”
-Troy: "Maybe we should all take a step back and- aww, is that the grappling hook I got you for Christmas?" 
-Troy (referring to Annie): "You moving here was supposed to tone us down!"
-Shirley: "Once you make a boy pee his pants, you think about where you're life is headed".
-Jeff: "You were Big Cheddar?" Shirley: "Who told you tha- Oh good lord! You're Tinkletown? Jeff: "Don't call me that!"
-I wish there actually was a Youtube channel of Leonard reviewing Frozen Pizza.