I finally had time to catch up on Community. It took me about two days to watch the second season and that’s only because I had to worry about going back to work. The season as a whole was quite good with a lot of homages to various movies and shows. But, if you ask me, it truly shined in the last two episodes.

In the first season, the students at Greendale played a game of paintball for the prize of priority registration and it led to the greatest episode of the first season. I highly doubted that it would ever be out done. There were great lines, my favorite being, “Jeff Winger, you son of a bitch. I thought you were dead.” and there were great shots like when two paintballs collided in midair. It was an episode of struggle and humor and all for the reward of having a six day weekend if you scheduled your classed right using your priority registration. How could it be outdone?

With another paintball episode, that’s how. Or rather, two.

Again, as an end of the year school party, the dean offers to continue the tradition of a free-for-all paintball match for a prize assuming the prize won’t cause a fiasco like the previous year had. He was wrong when the ice-cream company sponsor offered a prize of $100,000. The students made a mad dash for the western themed six-shooter paintball guns. And the games began.

The first of the two paintball episodes was western themed and the second was Star Wars themed but I have to admit, even given the huge Star Wars fan that I am, I preferred the western theme. I think the execution was more spot on for the western than for the Star Wars.

I also enjoyed a cameo appearance from Josh Holloway as the Dark Rider.

The episodes are more than just a paintball fight. They are meant to give us some resolution to the rift that seems to have formed between Pierce and the rest of the group. Early on Pierce breaks off from the group and finds himself hiding in the men’s bathroom. It’s there he starts his safe-haven town built in the cafeteria. It’s there that the resolution begins as he hatches a plan to outgun the rest of the school with the help of the rest of the group.

The second episode starts the Star Wars motif for reasons which I won’t mention due to plot spoilers. Abed quickly makes a grab for the Han Solo character before it falls into Jeff’s lap. Smart move, Abed. Smart move.

The episode leans towards splitting the group as Jeff assumes command because he claims it thrust upon him whereas Troy voluntarily takes command because no one else is stepping up. They each come up with separate plans which Annie suggest should both be put into play in case one fails.

So many important things happen in the end of the episode that cannot be revealed because of spoilers. But I was surprised on almost all accounts.

I fully recommend watching the two-part season two finale of Community. I can only wonder how next season’s paintball match will play out.