Plot
 City College is trying to destroy Greendale and they are an unstoppable juggleknob- juggernaut. Which means if we're going to fight them, we have to form a school wide alliance of rebels.
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| — Troy |
| Troy and Abed go to Dean Pelton's office looking for answers about the mysteries surrounding this year's paintball contest. They find both Eric and the Dean there, but before they can question him any further, Pistol Patty and the City College Storm Troopers arrive. Troy and Abed hide as Eric and Pelton are shot repeatedly by the invaders. Pistol Patty reveals herself to be Dean Spreck from City College. He tells Pelton he orchestrated the entire thing in order to get the Greendale students to destroy their own school. The troopers then notice Troy and Abed eavesdropping and chase them off.
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| In the Anthropology class, the remaining students gather as Troy and Abed explain the situation to them. Troy proposes that they form an alliance to stop the invasion and win the prize money, so they can repair the damage done to the school. Sensing a shift from the western motif to a Star Wars theme, Abed decides to assume a Han Solo persona. He starts to flirt with Annie whom he now considers his Princess Leia. As Jeff mocks Troy's attempts at trying to be a leader, a modified radio controlled car rigged with a paintball grenade slips into the room. Garrett spots it, causing everyone to immediately take cover. Magnitude throws himself onto it before it explodes, sacrificing himself for the group.
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| Spreck is in Dean Pelton's office, monitoring the situation through the drone. Jeff notices the camera as he inspects the device, prompting Spreck to reply over the school's P.A system. He defends his actions as being well within the rules of the paintball contest. Jeff vows that they will beat him and make him pay for what he's done. The paintball troopers enter the office with a prisoner, Pierce. He offers to tell Spreck everything he wants to know about Jeff. Back at the Anthropology room, Jeff and Troy rally the Greendale students while simultaneously bickering over the leadership position.
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| Dean Spreck starts to taunt the Greendale students over the P.A. as his troopers continue to rampage across the campus. After eliminating two of the City College's commandos, Annie, Abed, and Shirley manage to recover a large cache of paint. They bring it back to the alliance headquarters where Jeff and Troy butt heads over which of their strategies to carry out. Troy wants to set up a trap: he intends to lure the troopers into the library and rig the sprinkler system there to spray them all with paint. Jeff instead wants to launch a massive assault on the ice cream truck and capture the paintball machine gun.
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| Backed up by Abed, Annie suggests a compromise between the two strategies. She advises that they split up their forces and carry out both plans simultaneously. Troy's team will act as bait and carry out raids to engage as many of the City College invaders as they can; this will force the enemy to split up their numbers as well in order to deal with them. After leading them into the library for the trap, it will leave fewer troops guarding the machine gun and hopefully make it easier for Jeff's team to take it down. The two accept Annie's proposal and begin their individual missions.
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| Troy's team, which includes Abed, Annie, Garrett, and Shirley, successfully diverts some of the ground forces away from the ice cream truck. As planned, they lead the troopers into the library, but things start to unravel when Garrett accidentally sabotages their escape route. They end up trapped in the study room and surrounded by the enemy. They have no choice but to fight their way out of the library before Shirley can set off the sprinklers. Jeff and his team launch their offensive, but despite gaining some ground, they become pinned down by the machine gun and are unable to advance any further.
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| With Annie and Abed's help, Troy tries to escape but ends up running into a squad of paintball troopers and is shot and eliminated. The Greendale alliance begins to suffer many casualties on both fronts. Abed contacts Shirley over her comm headset and tells her to activate the trap as no one from their team is going to make it out in time. She activates the fire alarm, narrowly escaping the downpour of paint from the sprinkler system as well as a group of invaders chasing after her. Orange rains down, eliminating everyone left inside the building. As City College troopers close in on them, Annie and Abed share a prolonged kiss, losing themselves in their roles as Han Solo and Princess Leia.
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| Stay on target!]]Meanwhile, Jeff's group is faring no better as they cannot safely approach the enemy base. As Jeff and Quendra are taking cover, he tries to motivate her with an inspirational speech. He makes an attempt to get his team to continue the assault but ends up getting shot. Britta watches in horror as the other students are quickly taken out as well including Quendra. She notices a large crowd of eliminated players on the sidelines cheering her on. She freezes as it suddenly occurs to her that she may be the last member of the alliance left. The sudden and unexpected arrival of the campus security patrol cart raises her spirits.
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| Shirley is at the wheel and asks Britta to help her end this. Relieved, Britta quickly climbs on board, and they carry on with the mission. As they near the enemy target, the cart's windshield gets splattered continually with paint. After defeating the few remaining guards surrounding the ice cream truck, they finally make it to the machine gun. Britta manages to shoot its operator but gets shot herself by another hidden trooper. Shirley retaliates, taking him out as well. The Greendale students celebrate, thinking that the contest is over. However, two more invaders exit a nearby van and shoot Shirley in the back.
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| A third paintball trooper shows up to congratulate them; he then promptly shoots them both. Revealing himself to be Pierce in disguise, he addresses Dean Spreck who was there to witness the final battle. He tells him to pay up the prize money and to make the check out to Greendale College. The students rejoice as they erupt in a chant of "Human Beings!". Afterwards, the study group assembles for the final meeting of the semester. They all have to decide which course they will take together next year. Jeff compliments Troy for his ideas during the paintball contest and asks his opinion on the matter.
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| Troy accepts the praise and decides they should all just sleep on it. Pierce walks into the study room at that point, looking for his day planner. Jeff attempts to make peace with Pierce and extends an offer on behalf of the study group for him to rejoin them. Pierce refuses, saying he's done with the group for good. He leaves, but Jeff smugly predicts that he will return soon. The study group waits, but it soon becomes apparent that he's not coming back...
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End tag
Abed is talking to Jerry the Janitor about the paintball competition and is totally oblivious to Jerry's obvious anger at having to clean up the mess.
Recurring themes
Continuity:
- And we're back: This episode is an immediate continuation of the previous episode.
- Returning students: This episode sees the return of a number of Greendale students: Eric, Vicky, Magnitude, Garrett, Leonard, Star-Burns and Quendra.
- Familiar faces: Dean Spreck returns revealing himself to be "Pistol Patty". He was last seen in "Basic Rocket Science". Jerry the janitor returns in the episode end tag.
- Previously: A poster in Dean Pelton's office promotes the "Annual Adventure Rafting Trip". Short clips from this trip were seen in Paradigms of Human Memory.
- Mad skillz: Troy's "super plumbing skills" return, first shown in "English as a Second Language".
- A sweet ride: Shirley uses the campus security golf cart from the Season One episode "The Science of Illusion" to help with the assault on the ice cream truck.
- A nice gesture: Troy and Abed do their signature handshake.
- School supplies: Chang's paintball gun makes its third appearance on the show; this time, it is used by Jeff in his assault on City College's machine gun. The school flag with the new logo is briefly replaced by City College's flag. Luis Guzman statue is pulled down by City College Storm Troopers.
- Cliffhanger: Pierce apparently quits the study group for good; this will be dealt with in the Season Three premiere episode "Biology 101".
- Googly eyes: More hints about the relationship between Dean Spreck and Dean Pelton. Abed kisses Annie while role playing as Han Solo.
- This must be the place: Various locations on the Greendale campus are featured: administration office, Dean Pelton's office, the Anthroplogy classroom, the student lounge, the cafeteria, the library, the quad, and Group Study Room F are all shown.
Running gags:
- Bag-ul: Troy mispronounces the word juggernaut saying "juggle-knob" instead.
- You're the worst!: Vicki calls Britta this although Britta claims she did it just to fit in.
- Raging against the machine: For some reason, Britta objects to surrendering her individuality to form a faceless regime.
- Come sail away!: Troy cries after Magnitude's sacrifice.
- Attention students!: Dean Spreck takes over the school's P.A. system and taunts the remaining Greendale students.
- I'm Batman!: Abed takes on a Han Solo persona and flirts with and ends up kissing Annie whom he has cast as Princess Lea.
- Catch phrases: Magnitude: "Pop! Pop!", Abed: "Cool. Cool, cool, cool."
Meta references:
This episode is a direct homage to Star Wars and has very obvious references to it. Examples include:
- Dean Spreck and his paintball troopers walk down the hallway, mirroring Darth Vader's first appearance in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'.
- The text crawl used in the opening
- Abed taking on the Han Solo persona and convincing Annie to play the role of his Princess Leia
- The paintball troops pull down the statue of Luis Guzman just like citizens of Coruscant pulled down Emperor Palpatine's statue in 'Return of the Jedi".
- A scene where a paintball RC drone races through the hallway of Greendale followed by paintball troopers mimics a similar shot in Star Wars involving a droid and two stormtroopers in the hallway of the Death Star.
- Jeff's plan to assault the ice cream truck is similar to the assault on the Death Star.
- Jeff tells Leonard, "I'll see you in hell.", a line said by Han Solo in Star Wars Episode V:"The Empire Strikes Back".
- Pierce disguising himself as a paintball trooper is reminiscent of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo disguising themselves as stormtroopers.
Non-Star Wars related references include:
- Dean Spreck talking on the P.A. system is a nod to the DJ character in the 1970's gang war movie "The Warriors".
- Upon ambushing two of the City College students, Abed mentions that "[They're] already dead", a commonly used line in the animated series Fist of the North Star.
- Vicki valiantly charges head first into the enemy while screaming her name, a reference to Leeroy Jenkins.
- Troy collapsing to his knees and screams to the Heavens is a reference to The Shawshank Redemption and Platoon.
Pop culture references:
- TV: Jeff mentions "The Little Rascals" when he mocks Troy's plan.
- Product placement: "Denny's" is mentioned a number of times in this episode.
Gallery
Promotional photos
Quotes
- “Greendale students, I understand you've unified and intend to draw this game out. Well, if it's a war you want, it's a war you will lose. City College is stronger, faster, our sperm counts are higher-even in our women. Resistance is as pointless as your degrees. Honestly, ask yourselves-what does Liberal Arts even mean?”— Dean Spreck
- “Everyone look alive. Leonard, good enough. Greendale, it's been a pleasure fighting with you. Some of us won't make it, but there is a place where we will all see each other again, and that place is Denny's.”— Jeff
- “Which Denny's? If it's the one near the 15th exit, I'm banned.”— Leonard
- “Then I'll see you in hell!”— Jeff
- “Well, I'm out. We lost.”— Jeff
- “See you at Denny's?”— Britta
- “Denny's is for winners.”— Jeff
- “I've been in a few real wars, and this is a lot more terrifying.”— Leonard
- “You know, I've been coming to this school for twelve years? I've never been friends with anyone here for more than a semester...probably for the same reason I've been married seven times. I guess I assume eventually I'll be rejected, so I push people, test them until they prove me right. It's a sickness, I admit it... but this place has always accepted me, sickness and all. This place accepted all of you, sickness and all. It's worth thinking about.”— Pierce
Trivia
| In " Critical Film Studies" Abed tells Jeff that he had a cameo in his favorite sitcom "Cougar Town". Two of the shows stars, Busy Phillips and Dan Byrd, appear prominently in the crowd of Greendale Students celebrating their victory over City College. Danny Pudi would later return the favor by appearing in a cameo on "Cougar Town".
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DVD extras
Deleted scenes:
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| Season Two Episodes | ||
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1. "Anthropology 101" |
13. "Celebrity Pharmacology 212" |
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| Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six | ||
