Director: Tristram Shapeero — Writer: Dan Harmon and Chris McKenna — Aired: January 2, 2014 —Season: Five — Number: One Summary: Jeff returns to Greendale for a lawsuit and is unexpectedly reunited with the study group.
I never lied to you. I showed you the right truth.
— Jeff
After graduating from Greendale, Jeff returned to practicing law but his efforts as a crusading attorney failed. As his law firm shuts down he gets a proposition from his old colleague Alan Connor. A client of his named Marvin Humphries is an architect who graduated from Greendale Community College. He recently designed a bridge that collapsed and is suing the school for giving him a degree he wasn't qualified for. Alan asks Jeff to use his connections to obtain Humphries school records before it is destroyed. He compares Greendale's culpability with Humphries' actions and Jeff's own situation. Jeff reluctantly agrees partly to prove Greendale would not stoop to getting rid of evidence.
As long as I have scotch...
The next day, Jeff returns to the Greendale campus but is unable to charm the office staff to get Humphries records. When he runs into Dean Craig Pelton he tries another tactic. He offers to create a "Save Greendale Committee" to help the school through the bridge collapse scandal. Pelton allows him access to the school files which are located in the the study room. His search is interrupted by Abed who learned about the committee from Dean Pelton. He in turn alerted the rest of the study group who arrive shortly. Everyone falls back into their old routine and Jeff has a change of heart. He goes to warn Pelton about the lawsuit only to find the Dean shredding the very documents he was looking for.
Goodbye, records!
A furious Jeff calls up Alan with a new plan to get the study group to sue the school. He returns to his friends and suggests that to save the school they have to hurt it first. He encourages everyone to share how Greendale's shoddy education damaged their lives. Annie is working for a pharmaceutical company instead of hospital administration. Britta is a bartender unable to find employment as a therapist. Abed is a programmer hoping to create the next big social media app instead of being a director. Troy plans to sue Abed when his social media product becomes successful. Shirley reveals she expanded her sandwich restaurant too soon and it went out of business.
Isn't Jeff going to heal us?
Shirley spent so much time with her business that Andre left her again, this time taking their sons with him. Jeff tells them all these stories could be used to make a claim against Greendale. He excuses himself to meet with Alan and makes it clear he’s in charge of this new potential lawsuit. Back in the study room, the group decides to re-enroll at Greendale rather than sue the school. Chang reveals he was sleeping in a stack of boxes and tells them that he is living at the school. He is also has a job at Greendale as a math teacher after going to jail for his past crimes. Jeff uses Chang's employment as further evidence that the school needs the shock of a class action lawsuit to become a better institution.
Chang makes a surprise appearance.
Alan shows up and exposes Jeff's plan as nothing more than revenge. However, Jeff counters this by reminding them of Greendale's negative impact on their lives. He then presents a document to sign a class action suit against the school. Troy laments that if Jeff hasn't changed from his amoral beginnings, then they all might as well sign. The rest of the group follows suit and Jeff leaves with the document. Abed suggests they burn the study table as a requiem for their time together. Meanwhile, Jeff runs into a familiar face outside the library. when he is about to leave the campus. It is a recorded hologram of Pierce installed as part of a settlement to a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Jeff suggests everyone file a class action lawsuit against Greendale.
The hologram describes Greendale as a place crappy people can sort themselves out. This inspires Jeff to change his mind again and he goes to Dean Pelton demanding he do a better job. Pelton invites to join the faculty to help improve the school. Jeff later finds the group in the parking lot about to set the the study table on fire. Jeff convinces them to drop the lawsuit and re-enroll but is unable to prevent the table from being destroyed. Over the next few days the study group return to academia and also build a new study table so they can recommence their meetings. Jeff also settles into his new job as the Law professor with the help of Dean Pelton.
Abed plays a re-edited version of Jeff's lawyer commercial on his laptop. In the new edit, Abed inserts himself as the super hero and recasts Jeff as the super villain. The climax of a battle between the two super beings has "Super Abed" using his shrink ray vision to miniaturize "Super Jeff." "Super Abed" then swallows "Super Jeff" and expels him from his body using flatulence. As Abed laughs at his video, he turns and sees Jeff behind him looking unamused.
Recurring or debuting plot points in this episode:
A nice gesture: Troy and Abed do their handshake after Abed says he'll help Troy figure out who he is.
And we're back!: This episode is a return on several levels. The study group returns for another year at Greendale along with Jeff who graduated last year. This also marks the return of both creator Dan Harmon as show runner, after having been fired and replaced in Season Four, and writer Chris McKenna, after a stint on the Fox sitcom "The Mindy Project".
Express tuition aisle: Actually taken seriously in this episode: an improperly educated engineer built a bridge that ended up collapsing. His thesis? A Lego bridge that breaks apart when Jeff touches it.
Googly Eyes: Jeff takes a moment to smile fondly at the debate trophy he and Annie won together.
Middle Eastern Magic 8 Ball: In the Season Two episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking," Pierce unintentionally foreshadowed his return in this episode. While pretending to be on his death bed he told Jeff he always imagined when he was dying he'd be a hologram and Jeff would be in bed.
Previously:
Jeff notices that the once empty trophy case now has a trophy from his victory with Annie in "Debate 109".
In "Virtual Systems Analysis," Abed imitates Troy and says he finds Clive Owen attractive. In this episode, Troy says he has a Clive Owen Tumblr.
Jeff finds a file labelled "Herpes, Water Fountains," which could refer to the incident in "Herstory of Dance," where the water fountains were confiscated by the CDC.
Replay: Many scenes in this episode echo scenes from the "Pilot".
The outside crane shot of the campus quad at the start of the episode is the same shot used in the pilot.
The indoor panning shot of the cafeteria at the start of the episode is the same shot used in the pilot.
Abed says "I see your value now," a callback to when Jeff said that to him in the pilot.
The reformation of the study group. Jeff creates a fake group and Abed ends up inviting the rest of the members.
Jeff repeatedly leaves the study room to work out a secret plan behind the scenes.
Instead of complimenting the group members to end an argument, Jeff tells them how bad their lives have become to get them to sue Greendale.
Pierce claims that he has been banned from the school because some women can't take a compliment, a phrase he used when Annie objected to his phrase "crafty Jew brain."
Jeff's direction takes a major turn after an encounter with Pierce outside the library. According to Dan Harmon, this last point was a deliberate homage to the original pilot.
Winger speech: Jeff gives several Winger speeches of varying length and inspirational content. He cuts one short because Alan doesn't deserve the full speech.
Recurring or debuting running gags in this episode:
Awww!: Annie and Shirley react upon finding the study room table is buried under many boxes.
Attention students!: The Dean makes an announcement welcoming everyone back for another year.
Come sail away!: Troy struggles to find a suitable reason for tearing up.
Deanotation: Pelton says to Jeff his job isn't easy and that it's his whole "I-Dean-tity." He acknowledges the deanotation to reinforce how true it is.
It's a mixer, it's a mixer!: Abed says he's been spending so much time with computers, the group's tears are just ones and zeroes to him.
Mancrush: Dean Pelton is happy to see Jeff return to Greendale, musing that maybe Jeff returned to Greendale for him, and then hugs him a little too tightly.
Nice outfit: Jeff wears a super hero costume in a television commercial for his law firm. Abed later wears a super hero costume himself in a video he made which spoofs Jeff's commercial.
Abed compares their return to Greendale to the sitcom Scrubs.
Shirley bemoans her inability to watch the episodes of Bones on the DVR Andre took.
Use your allusion:
The title of the episode "Repilot" refers to a practice in the television industry where a concept episode of a potential TV show, called a "pilot," is created by a studio in order to sell it as a series to a network. The name suggests that this is a second pilot where a new premise and direction for the show will be presented.
Troy's post graduation plan has been to sue Abed when he makes the next lucrative social media app, a clear reference to Facebook and The Social Network.
IRL, Everyone's a critic: Troy expresses anger at Zach Braff for only doing 6 episodes of Scrubs in Season 9 of the show before leaving. This is a thinly veiled reference to Donald Glover departing Community and only appearing in 5 episodes of Season Five. Troy's outburst mimics the response some fans had to his own departure.
Everyone's a critic: Jeff addresses the Flanderization of the characters: "Britta, when we met, you were an eclectic anarchist. How did you become the group's airhead? [...] Troy, your entire identity has been consumed by your relationship with another man. [...] We went in one end as real people and out the other end as mixed-up cartoons."
Up against the wall:
Abed objects that the phone number for Jeff's law practice (303-555-HERO) began with "555," calling it derivative and fake. Phone numbers in TV shows and films almost always begin with 555 as a block of 555-prefixed numbers have been set aside for this purpose.
Troy asks the others if they "feel weird about doing this without..." and pauses while looking at Pierce's vacant spot before finishing "Magnitude?"
Annie and Abed blame their odd behavior last year on a gas leak. Community creator Dan Harmon was fired after Season Three. Harmon was rehired for Season Five and the gas leak is a reference to the differences during its fourth season when Harmon was not running the show.
Pierce shows up as a hologram because he has been banned by the school. Chevy Chase left the show near the end of the fourth season and was permanently banned from the set. Harmon devised the hologram scene so he could film Chase in another location without violating the terms of the ban.
Production[]
Episode premiere date and title[]
Script cover for Episode #501.
On August 16, 2013, Dan Harmon tweeted a photo of the script covering up the season premiere's name. On October 18, Deadline reported that NBC would air "Community" starting on January 2, 2014 as a mid-season replacement. On November 4, the title was later revealed to be "Repiloting" by actress Gillian Jacobs on a podcast interview of "Bullseye with Jesse Thorn." Production for this episode used the title "The Notorious H.A.T." on its clapperboard. This follows the the theme of hat-based puns throughout Season Five's production titles.
We actually kept it a secret from as much of the crew as possible, other than there were some people we needed to shoot Chevy, but we didn't tell anybody that we didn't have to tell. At the table read for the episode, we wrote a fake scene where Jeff is turned by Star-Burns. [Laughs] That's actually, unfortunately, a really funny scene that the actors got really excited about, because it's the reveal that Star-Burns is alive and that he'd been hiding on campus and faking his death to avoid death charges. The question is, why would he pick the campus to hide on? It's the dumbest hiding place in the world, and he doesn't know why, there's just something special about the campus, like it was home or something. And that's what turns Jeff.
”
Pierce returns as a hologram.
Harmon further discusses the mechanics of Chase's cameo in a TV Guide Interview. He states that part of Chase's exit agreement included him being banned from the set, so an alternative had to be devised in order to film the scene.
“
I started with that image in my head of a blue Obi-Wan ghost of Chevy Chase. Why would that happen? How is that possible? And then you realize that Pierce is a millionaire, and he has a history with the campus. So we thought, 'Maybe this is a way around this contract thing, the terms of his departure with the studio. Maybe we can get around that by shooting him separately in a goliath stage with Chevy-proof walls.
”
Production card[]
This episode features the first use of the "Harmonious Claptrap" vanity card at the end of the episode. Originally, 14 rotating vanity cards with variations on the "A Dan Harmon/Russo Brothers" title were seen between Seasons 1-3. The new card features a statuette of creator Dan Harmon sitting on a couch with his fiancé Erin McGathy.
Latest vanity card.
Trivia[]
In addition to removing Chevy Chase's name from the Paper fortune teller credit sequence, the final screen has also been altered from what it used to be in the first four seasons.
Original "Created by" title card.
The pencil is now broken and taped together, as a possible reference to the pilot episode, and the glasses (presumably Pierce's) are gone.
New "Created by" title card.
In this episode, Jeff writes with his right hand as Dean Pelton attends to his future class. In all other episodes, Jeff is left-handed.
This is the last episode to feature all seven members of The Study Group.
Quotes[]
“After you and your friends left, it was closed for sentimental reasons. And asbestos reasons but it's clean as a whistle now.”— Dean Pelton
“I can't stop thinking the school might be in trouble because of this bridge-collapsing guy.”— Jeff
“He's the one making bad bridges, that's like me blaming owls for how much I suck at analogies.”— Britta
“Relaxabrex doesn't make you give up on your dreams, that's a side effect. At least the drugs I sell don't get slurped out of my belly button.”— Annie
“That's only on Tummy Tuesdays!”— Britta
“They seriously rehired a teacher they fired for trying to burn down the school?”— Troy
“After being rehired as a security guard after being fired for impersonating a teacher?”— Shirley
“That's insane. And I'm Abed.”— Abed
“If we sue Greendale, can I be a surprise witness? Wait, don't tell me.”— Troy
