For a Few Paintballs More
Encyclopedia
"For a Few Paintballs More" is the 24th episode and part two of the of the two-part finale of the second season
of Community
. The episode originally aired on May 12, 2011 on NBC
. The episode is a continuation of "A Fistful of Paintballs
", and picks up from the middle of the paintball
game that commenced in part one. The study group realize that the game was a scheme by school rivals City College to destroy Greendale's campus. They band together with other Greendale students to face the City College paintball players to try to save their campus and win the $100,000 prize money for the school.
The episode was written by Hilary Winston and directed by Joe Russo
. It was partly inspired by Star Wars
, and transitions from the spaghetti western
theme in part one. It is the third Community episode featuring a campus-wide paintball game, after "Modern Warfare
" and "A Fistful of Paintballs". "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More" collectively are the sequel to "Modern Warfare".
). Pistol Patty is unveiled as Dean Spreck (Jordan Black
), from rival school City College. He reveals to Pelton his plan of disguising as an ice cream company to sponsor the competition, offering a large sum of cash ($100,000) as reward for the winner to entice the entire Greendale student body to wreck the campus in order to win.
Abed (Danny Pudi
) and Troy (Donald Glover
) overhear the conversation. They convince the "surviving" students to form a rebel alliance to defeat Pistol Patty's troopers and win the cash reward to pay for repairing the damage already done to the school. A rivalry grows between Troy and Jeff (Joel McHale
) over who is to be the group's leader. A remote-controlled robot sent by Dean Spreck armed with a paint bomb almost splashes everyone in the room they are gathering in with paint, but Magnitude (Luke Youngblood
) sacrifices himself to save the rest.
The troopers capture Pierce (Chevy Chase
) but he convinces them not to eliminate him by offering information on Jeff. Abed impersonates Han Solo
and flirts with Annie (Alison Brie
), who is attracted to his alternate personality. Jeff and Troy devise separate plans to defeat the troopers. Jeff plans to lead the group to charge en masse to troopers' stronghold, an ice cream truck armed with a paintball Gatling gun
. Troy plans to lure the troopers into the library building before setting off the fire alarm and sprinkling the troopers with paint. The group argues among themselves over which plan is better before Annie convinces everyone that they should proceed with both, using Troy's plan as a distraction to take the stronghold.
Troy, Abed, Annie and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown
) draw some troopers to the library, while Jeff and the rest attack the stronghold. Troy's team fortify themselves in the study room, where they plan to escape through the air vent. However, the vent is blocked by Garrett who was stuck at the opening. They decide to shoot their way out. Troy is eliminated as he tries to storm through the hallway, while Abed and Annie barricade themselves behind some tables. Shirley manages to trigger the fire alarm, which sprinkles everyone in the library with paint, eliminating them. She escapes the building. Abed and Annie kiss as they "die", only for Abed to snap out of his Han Solo impersonation afterwards.
Meanwhile, the ice cream truck's Gatling gun overpowers Jeff's team, and only Britta (Gillian Jacobs
) survives. She is picked up by Shirley in a golf cart, and they seemingly manage to shoot all of the remaining troopers, though Britta gets eliminated along the way. As Shirley celebrates, two troopers emerge from the back of the truck and "kill" her. As the troopers celebrate, Pierce (who escaped from captivity by feigning a heart attack and then shooting the captor who let his guard down), disguised as one of them, shoots them and wins the tournament. He announces that he is donating the prize money to the school, sending everyone into rapturous celebrations.
The study group gathers in the library (without Pierce) for their final meeting of the semester and discuss which class to take together next semester. They agree to "sleep on it." Pierce enters the room to retrieve his address book. They try to convince him to rejoin the group. He reveals that he has been at Greendale for 12 years and has never been friends with anyone for more than a semester. He admits that he acts out on his friends to test their patience. Finally, he rejects their offer to stay in the group and walks away. The group thinks he is acting out again, but he doesn't return and they look on in shock.
In the final scene, Abed, oblivious to the fact that he is talking to the man who will be cleaning up the paintball mess, annoys the janitor by narrating what happened in the competition and asking what his summer plans are.
, his 15th directing credit for the series.
The season finale was planned to air as an hour-long episode on May 12, 2011, but were split into two parts airing May 5 and May 12 respectively. Creator Dan Harmon
explained that the two parts were "designed to exist both as one story" but each had different themes: "second one erupts — the Western motif falls away and an out-and-out war happens. There's a kind of an epic, wartime, band-of-rebels-against-a-larger-force Star Wars
feel to the second one."
The set was "decorated" as a paintball warzone by paintball technician Rainey Sutitanom.
The episode was also a culmination of character Pierce Hawthorne's outcast behavior throughout the season. Again, he was the villain for the most of the two-part series but became the hero at the end by winning the paintball competition. At the end of the episode, he decides to leave the study group after feeling antagonized by the rest of its members throughout the season. Harmon said the stories involving Pierce as a villain were used "to have the group acknowledge" that he has been ignored.
Dan Byrd
and Busy Philipps
from Cougar Town
(mentioned frequently by character Abed Nadir in the series) guest starred as members in a crowd.
. The episode also parodied Star Wars opening crawl
and storm troopers, while the character Abed Nadir did a Han Solo
impression. The title "For a Few Paintballs More" is an allusion to the 1965 Spaghetti western
movie For a Few Dollars More
. The first part of the series was inspired by Spaghetti western films, while the second part transitioned into a Star Wars feel as the ever meta-referencing Abed said in the episode, "This means we've gone from more of a Western motif and entered a Star Wars theme." This is the third paintball-themed episode, after "Modern Warfare
" and "A Fistful of Paintballs" (part one).
The episode also spoofed a number of gun-wielding action movies such as The Wild Bunch
, Mr. & Mrs. Smith
and Wanted.
Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
praised the episode, saying "the season finale made me realize just how big this 'ensemble' has really gotten, just how big the show's heart is, and just how much everybody in the series is a character, not just a plot point." He gave the episode an "A" and the second season an "A" as well. Examiner.com
's Matt Carter described the episode as a "surprising, hilarious, moving, and even action-packed" end to "one of the best seasons we have seen for any sitcom in years." He singled out Chevy Chase's performance in particular, saying it was worthy of an Emmy Award
nomination.
Alan Sepinwall of HitFix
said that the episode was "a lot of fun" but "felt like more of a goof" compared to the first part of the series. Eric Hochberger of TV Fanatic and Eric Koreen of the National Post
also agreed that "For a Few Paintballs More" compared negatively to "A Fistful of Paintballs". Hochberger still gave the episode a rating of 3.5/5. Kelsea Stahler of Hollywood.com said the episode "wasn't mind-blowing, but it was consistently and spastically fun" and "a great send-off". Cory Barker of TV Surveillance said it was "a tremendously fun episode with a number of great gags and lines, but it had less stylistic and narrative depth than last week's first part."
Community (season 2)
The second season of the television comedy series Community premiered on September 23, 2010 and concluded on May 12, 2011, on NBC and aired on Thursdays at 8:00 pm ET as part of Comedy Night Done Right.-Starring:*Joel McHale as Jeff Winger...
of Community
Community (TV series)
Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
. The episode originally aired on May 12, 2011 on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. The episode is a continuation of "A Fistful of Paintballs
A Fistful of Paintballs
"A Fistful of Paintballs" is the 23rd episode and part one of the two-part second season finale of Community. The episode originally premiered on May 5, 2011 on NBC. Acting as a sequel to "Modern Warfare" from the first season, Dean Pelton once again announces plans for a new game of paintball. The...
", and picks up from the middle of the paintball
Paintball
Paintball is a sport in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye and gelatin shell outside propelled from a device called a paintball marker . Paintballs have a non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble...
game that commenced in part one. The study group realize that the game was a scheme by school rivals City College to destroy Greendale's campus. They band together with other Greendale students to face the City College paintball players to try to save their campus and win the $100,000 prize money for the school.
The episode was written by Hilary Winston and directed by Joe Russo
Russo brothers
Anthony and Joe Russo, known together professionally as the Russo brothers, are Emmy Award-winning American film and television directors. The brothers direct most of their work jointly, and they also occasionally work as producers, actors, and editors. The Russos are from Cleveland, Ohio, and were...
. It was partly inspired by Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, and transitions from the spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
theme in part one. It is the third Community episode featuring a campus-wide paintball game, after "Modern Warfare
Modern Warfare (Community)
"Modern Warfare" is the 23rd episode of the first season of Community and originally premiered on May 6, 2010 on NBC. In the episode, after the Dean announces the prize for a friendly game of paintball, Greendale sinks into a state of all-out paintball war, with every student battling for...
" and "A Fistful of Paintballs". "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For a Few Paintballs More" collectively are the sequel to "Modern Warfare".
Plot
Pistol Patty, the mascot of "Pistol Patty's Cowboy Creamery", the company sponsoring Greendale's end-of-year picnic this year, storms into the hallway accompanied by storm trooper-like paintball players and confronts Dean Pelton (Jim RashJim Rash
Jim Rash was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter.His most noticeable appearance was when he portrayed Mr Grayson/Stitches, a sidekick to the supervillain 'Royal Pain' in the 2005 film Sky High and as the recurring characters Fenton on That '70s Show...
). Pistol Patty is unveiled as Dean Spreck (Jordan Black
Jordan Black (actor)
Jordan Black is an American comedy writer and actor.He was born in Kankakee, Illinois. Black has written for Saturday Night Live and starred in the Comedy Central show Halfway Home as Sebastian "C-Bass" Yates, an ex-convict for internet fraud...
), from rival school City College. He reveals to Pelton his plan of disguising as an ice cream company to sponsor the competition, offering a large sum of cash ($100,000) as reward for the winner to entice the entire Greendale student body to wreck the campus in order to win.
Abed (Danny Pudi
Danny Pudi
Danny Pudi is an American actor, best known for his role as Abed Nadir on the NBC comedy series Community.-Early years:Pudi, who is of Indian and Polish descent, was born and raised in Chicago and grew up speaking Polish...
) and Troy (Donald Glover
Donald Glover
Donald McKinley Glover is an American actor, writer, comedian, and musician. Glover first came to attention for his work in the sketch group Derrick Comedy, and is best known for his role as community college student Troy Barnes on the NBC comedy series Community...
) overhear the conversation. They convince the "surviving" students to form a rebel alliance to defeat Pistol Patty's troopers and win the cash reward to pay for repairing the damage already done to the school. A rivalry grows between Troy and Jeff (Joel McHale
Joel McHale
Joel Edward McHale is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, television producer, television personality, and voice artist. He is best known for hosting The Soup and for his role as Jeff Winger on Community....
) over who is to be the group's leader. A remote-controlled robot sent by Dean Spreck armed with a paint bomb almost splashes everyone in the room they are gathering in with paint, but Magnitude (Luke Youngblood
Luke Youngblood
Luke Youngblood is a British actor, who is best known for playing Ben in The Story of Tracy Beaker and for originating the role of Young Simba in The Lion King in which he appeared in several London venues whilst playing the role...
) sacrifices himself to save the rest.
The troopers capture Pierce (Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
) but he convinces them not to eliminate him by offering information on Jeff. Abed impersonates Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
and flirts with Annie (Alison Brie
Alison Brie
-External links:...
), who is attracted to his alternate personality. Jeff and Troy devise separate plans to defeat the troopers. Jeff plans to lead the group to charge en masse to troopers' stronghold, an ice cream truck armed with a paintball Gatling gun
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...
. Troy plans to lure the troopers into the library building before setting off the fire alarm and sprinkling the troopers with paint. The group argues among themselves over which plan is better before Annie convinces everyone that they should proceed with both, using Troy's plan as a distraction to take the stronghold.
Troy, Abed, Annie and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown
Yvette Nicole Brown
Yvette Nicole Brown is an American actress and comedian. Brown has appeared in various commercials, television shows, and films throughout her career...
) draw some troopers to the library, while Jeff and the rest attack the stronghold. Troy's team fortify themselves in the study room, where they plan to escape through the air vent. However, the vent is blocked by Garrett who was stuck at the opening. They decide to shoot their way out. Troy is eliminated as he tries to storm through the hallway, while Abed and Annie barricade themselves behind some tables. Shirley manages to trigger the fire alarm, which sprinkles everyone in the library with paint, eliminating them. She escapes the building. Abed and Annie kiss as they "die", only for Abed to snap out of his Han Solo impersonation afterwards.
Meanwhile, the ice cream truck's Gatling gun overpowers Jeff's team, and only Britta (Gillian Jacobs
Gillian Jacobs
Gillian Jacobs is an American film, theatre and television actress, best known for her role as Britta Perry on the NBC comedy series Community.-Personal life:...
) survives. She is picked up by Shirley in a golf cart, and they seemingly manage to shoot all of the remaining troopers, though Britta gets eliminated along the way. As Shirley celebrates, two troopers emerge from the back of the truck and "kill" her. As the troopers celebrate, Pierce (who escaped from captivity by feigning a heart attack and then shooting the captor who let his guard down), disguised as one of them, shoots them and wins the tournament. He announces that he is donating the prize money to the school, sending everyone into rapturous celebrations.
The study group gathers in the library (without Pierce) for their final meeting of the semester and discuss which class to take together next semester. They agree to "sleep on it." Pierce enters the room to retrieve his address book. They try to convince him to rejoin the group. He reveals that he has been at Greendale for 12 years and has never been friends with anyone for more than a semester. He admits that he acts out on his friends to test their patience. Finally, he rejects their offer to stay in the group and walks away. The group thinks he is acting out again, but he doesn't return and they look on in shock.
In the final scene, Abed, oblivious to the fact that he is talking to the man who will be cleaning up the paintball mess, annoys the janitor by narrating what happened in the competition and asking what his summer plans are.
Production
The episode was written by co-executive producer Hilary Winston, her seventh writing credit of the series. It was directed by executive producer Joe RussoRusso brothers
Anthony and Joe Russo, known together professionally as the Russo brothers, are Emmy Award-winning American film and television directors. The brothers direct most of their work jointly, and they also occasionally work as producers, actors, and editors. The Russos are from Cleveland, Ohio, and were...
, his 15th directing credit for the series.
The season finale was planned to air as an hour-long episode on May 12, 2011, but were split into two parts airing May 5 and May 12 respectively. Creator Dan Harmon
Dan Harmon
Dan Harmon is a writer and performer. He is the creator and an executive producer for the NBC television comedy series Community, and, along with Rob Schrab, a founder of the alternative television network/website Channel 101....
explained that the two parts were "designed to exist both as one story" but each had different themes: "second one erupts — the Western motif falls away and an out-and-out war happens. There's a kind of an epic, wartime, band-of-rebels-against-a-larger-force Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
feel to the second one."
The set was "decorated" as a paintball warzone by paintball technician Rainey Sutitanom.
The episode was also a culmination of character Pierce Hawthorne's outcast behavior throughout the season. Again, he was the villain for the most of the two-part series but became the hero at the end by winning the paintball competition. At the end of the episode, he decides to leave the study group after feeling antagonized by the rest of its members throughout the season. Harmon said the stories involving Pierce as a villain were used "to have the group acknowledge" that he has been ignored.
Dan Byrd
Dan Byrd
Daniel "Dan" Byrd is an American actor. His most prominent roles include the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes, the CW original comedy series Aliens in America, A Cinderella Story alongside Hillary Duff, ABC's Cougar Town, and the 2010 movie Easy A.-Life and career:Byrd was born in Marietta,...
and Busy Philipps
Busy Philipps
Elizabeth Jean Philipps , known professionally as Busy Philipps, is an American film actress, perhaps best known for her supporting roles on the television series Freaks and Geeks and Dawson's Creek...
from Cougar Town
Cougar Town
Cougar Town is an American television sitcom that premiered on ABC on September 23, 2009. The series focuses on a recently divorced woman in her forties facing the often humorous challenges, pitfalls and rewards of life's next chapter, along with her son, ex-husband, and friends who together make...
(mentioned frequently by character Abed Nadir in the series) guest starred as members in a crowd.
Cultural references
The episode's theme of rebels against a larger force was inspired by the original Star Wars filmStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
. The episode also parodied Star Wars opening crawl
Star Wars opening crawl
Each film in the Star Wars series opens with a crawl of text which provides an explanation of the backstory and context of the film...
and storm troopers, while the character Abed Nadir did a Han Solo
Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise played by Harrison Ford. Introduced in the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot, Chewbacca , become involved in the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire...
impression. The title "For a Few Paintballs More" is an allusion to the 1965 Spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
movie For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More
For a Few Dollars More is a 1965 Italian spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain...
. The first part of the series was inspired by Spaghetti western films, while the second part transitioned into a Star Wars feel as the ever meta-referencing Abed said in the episode, "This means we've gone from more of a Western motif and entered a Star Wars theme." This is the third paintball-themed episode, after "Modern Warfare
Modern Warfare (Community)
"Modern Warfare" is the 23rd episode of the first season of Community and originally premiered on May 6, 2010 on NBC. In the episode, after the Dean announces the prize for a friendly game of paintball, Greendale sinks into a state of all-out paintball war, with every student battling for...
" and "A Fistful of Paintballs" (part one).
The episode also spoofed a number of gun-wielding action movies such as The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah about an aging outlaw gang on the Texas-Mexico border, trying to exist in the changing "modern" world of 1913...
, Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005 film)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 2005 American romantic comedy action film directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg. The original music score was composed by John Powell...
and Wanted.
Ratings
In its original American broadcast on May 12, 2011, "For a Few Paintballs More" was viewed by an estimated 3.32 million viewers with a Nielson rating of 1.5 in the 18–49 demographic.Reviews
"For a Few Paintballs More" received positive reviews from critics.Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
praised the episode, saying "the season finale made me realize just how big this 'ensemble' has really gotten, just how big the show's heart is, and just how much everybody in the series is a character, not just a plot point." He gave the episode an "A" and the second season an "A" as well. Examiner.com
Examiner.com
Examiner.com is a media company based in Denver, Colorado, that operates a network of local news websites, allowing "pro–am contributors" to share their city-based knowledge on a blog-like platform, in 238 markets throughout the United States and parts of Canada with two national editions, one for...
's Matt Carter described the episode as a "surprising, hilarious, moving, and even action-packed" end to "one of the best seasons we have seen for any sitcom in years." He singled out Chevy Chase's performance in particular, saying it was worthy of an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination.
Alan Sepinwall of HitFix
HitFix
HitFix, or the HitFix.com is an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information and providing reviews and critiques of film, music and television...
said that the episode was "a lot of fun" but "felt like more of a goof" compared to the first part of the series. Eric Hochberger of TV Fanatic and Eric Koreen of the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
also agreed that "For a Few Paintballs More" compared negatively to "A Fistful of Paintballs". Hochberger still gave the episode a rating of 3.5/5. Kelsea Stahler of Hollywood.com said the episode "wasn't mind-blowing, but it was consistently and spastically fun" and "a great send-off". Cory Barker of TV Surveillance said it was "a tremendously fun episode with a number of great gags and lines, but it had less stylistic and narrative depth than last week's first part."
External links
- "For a Few Paintballs More" at NBC.com
- "For a Few Paintballs More" at TV TropesTV TropesTV Tropes is a wiki which collects and expands on various conventions and devices found within creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has gone from covering only television and film tropes to also covering those in a number of other media such as literature, comics, video-games,...