Pillows and Blankets

Last updated
"Pillows and Blankets"
Community episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 14
Directed by Tristram Shapeero
Written by Andy Bobrow
Production code314
Original air dateApril 5, 2012 (2012-04-05)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Digital Exploration of Interior Design"		Next →
"Origins of Vampire Mythology"
Community season 3
List of episodes

"Pillows and Blankets" is the fourteenth episode of the third season of the American television series Community . It originally aired on April 5, 2012, on NBC.

Contents

Plot

The episode, framed as a documentary in the style of Ken Burns' The Civil War and narrated by Keith David, details a disagreement about a blanket fort blossoming into an all-out pillow fight on the Greendale campus.

Continuing the plot of the previous episode, Abed's (Danny Pudi) pillow-fort faction (Pillowtown) and Troy's (Donald Glover) blanket-fort faction (Blanketsburg) confront each other in the study hall. A pillow fight breaks out when a pillow carelessly thrown by Star-Burns (Dino Stamatopoulos) collapses part of the Blanketsburg fort. Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) convinces Jeff (Joel McHale) to organize a meeting to reconcile Troy and Abed in order to build a joint blanket-pillow fort worthy of a Guinness world record, but Jeff's dismissive attempt to reconcile the rivals with imaginary "friend hats" fails and Troy demands that Abed demolish his pillow fort to make way for Troy's blanket fort, but Abed declines the ultimatum, and at midnight, members of Blanketsburg attack a fort made by Pillowtown. Troy then declares war on Pillowtown.

Jeff gives inspiring speeches to both sides to avoid classes resuming, upsetting Annie (Alison Brie), who is acting as a battlefield nurse, and she emphasizes to him that Troy and Abed's friendship is at stake.

After a humiliating injury at the hands of Pillowtown soldiers, Pierce (Chevy Chase) gives Abed the blueprints to a "doomsday device"; when Troy finds out about, he attacks Pillowtown with the force of preteen "security interns" Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) previously recruited at a bar mitzvah. After Chang's force starts winning the battle, Abed unleashes the doomsday device: Pierce in a full-body pillow suit. Abed then sends an email to members of Pillowtown outlining Troy's psychological vulnerabilities. Hurt, Troy sends an angry text message to Abed saying that he is Abed's only friend and that no one else will have the patience to deal with Abed's issues. Jeff tries to hold a peace conference, but negotiations fail as Abed and Troy agree that their friendship is over and the loser of the war must move out of their apartment.

The next morning, a massive battle occurs in the cafeteria, but the battle concludes in anticlimax when Dean Pelton announces that the representative for Guinness was fired, causing both factions to lose interest and disperse. Though everyone else has left, Abed and Troy continue fighting, telling Jeff it will be the last thing they will ever do together. Jeff points out that their reluctance to stop the pillow fight indicates that, subconsciously, they don't actually want to part ways. The two agree to make up so long as Jeff gives them the imaginary "friend hats" he had earlier tried to reconcile them, and the duo become friends again. Jeff then reveals to the documentary crew that he actually went to the Dean's office to "retrieve" the friend hats instead of merely standing out of sight for a few minutes, since he does take the relationships of his friends seriously, even if he's not entirely sure why.

Britta (Gillian Jacobs) has bungled her attempts to chronicle the war through photographs, but finally manages to capture Abed and Troy becoming friends again—by accident, as she tries to take an unrelated picture of waffles.

Reception

The episode was watched by 3.00 million American viewers and gained a 1.3 18-49 rating. This was a series low in viewers for the show, although it was NBC's highest rated program of the night. [1]

Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a 10 out of 10, calling it a "stellar episode, twisting a pop culture reference in a way that not only provided laughs but a well-told story with heart." [2] Barry Hertz of the National Post said "in a triumph of editing and plotting, we’re treated to not just a stellar parody of the oft-mocked documentary form, but a revealing and satisfying episode of Community itself, complete with strong characterization, story closure and wild, GIF-ready visuals to keep the Internet masses satiated." [3] Tim Surette of TV.com applauded the characters' roles in the episode, saying "There was enough attention to make sure that every character had a great role in the war even though the bulk of the episode was just presentation. And at the heart of it all, we all wanted Troy and Abed to eventually make amends." [4] Jenn Lee of BuddyTV said "While it wasn't an entirely dramatic episode (the mimicry took care of that), "Pillows and Blankets" didn't carry the same light-hearted tone as a typical Community storyline, which I appreciated, given the subject matter." [5]

Pete Vonder Haar of the Houston Press gave the episode a more mixed review, saying "there were some really great touches this week: 'Nurse' Annie using a lint brush to clean feathers from the 'wounded' and administering IV Gatorade; the use of text messages as a substitute for soldiers' letters home; invisible friendship hats...but every time they returned to the documentary motif, I groaned. And the extensive battle scenes felt like filler more than anything else. There's plenty of fuel for further episodes, but I wasn't as taken with 'Pillows and Blankets' as Harmon and company intended." [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abed Nadir</span> Fictional character in Community

Abed Gubi Nadir is a fictional character on the NBC/Yahoo! Screen sitcom series Community, created by Dan Harmon and portrayed by Danny Pudi.

"Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Community, and the 30th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on NBC on October 21, 2010. The episode's plot surrounds a religious film created by Greendale Community College student Abed Nadir.

"Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Community, and the 34th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on NBC on November 18, 2010.

"Asian Population Studies" is the twelfth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Community, and the 37th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on NBC on January 20, 2011.

"Social Psychology" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Community. It aired in the United States on NBC on October 8, 2009. The episode shows Jeff bonding with Shirley through mockery of Britta's new romantic interest, Vaughn. Annie gets Abed to participate in a psychology experiment organized by Dr Ian Duncan. It received 4.87 million viewers in the United States and mixed critical reviews.

"Home Economics" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Community. It aired in the United States on NBC on November 5, 2009. The episode revolves around Jeff's living situation now that he no longer has the money he earned as a big-shot lawyer and the emotional aftermath of Britta and Vaughn's breakup. It garnered 5.45 million viewers on its premiere and received positive critical reception.

"The Politics of Human Sexuality" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Community. It originally aired in the United States on NBC on December 3, 2009.

"English as a Second Language" is the twenty-fourth and penultimate episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Community. It aired in the United States on NBC on May 13, 2010. In the episode, a revelation from Señor Chang threatens the study group's Spanish credit, and Troy discovers his skill at plumbing. It received generally positive reviews.

"Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy" is the eighteenth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Community, and the 43rd episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on NBC on March 17, 2011. The episode focuses on Shirley's pregnancy, while Abed and Troy make friends with a student from the Balkans.

"Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" is the fifth episode of the third season of the U.S. television series Community. It first aired on October 27, 2011 on NBC and is the series' 2011 Halloween episode.

"Documentary Filmmaking: Redux" is the eighth episode of the third season of the U.S. television series Community. It was originally broadcast on November 17, 2011 on NBC.

"Studies in Modern Movement" is the seventh episode of the third season of the American sitcom Community. It was originally broadcast on November 10, 2011, on NBC.

"Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts" is the eleventh episode of the third season of the American television series Community. It originally aired on March 15, 2012 on NBC, with the series returning after a three-month hiatus. In the episode, Shirley's ex-husband Andre whom she has reconciled with proposes to her again. While planning her wedding, she also considers a business proposition from Pierce. The rest of the study group help Shirley plan the wedding, while Troy and Abed attempt to suppress their weirdness and act normal at the rehearsal to no avail.

"Contemporary Impressionists" is the twelfth episode of the third season of the American television series Community. It originally aired on March 22, 2012 on NBC.

"Digital Exploration of Interior Design" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of the American television series Community. It originally aired on March 29, 2012, on NBC. The episode was written by Chris McKenna and directed by Dan Eckman.

"Origins of Vampire Mythology" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of the American television series Community. It originally aired on April 12, 2012, on NBC. In the episode, Britta must resist the temptation to meet up with her ex-boyfriend Blade, and Jeff tries to figure out how Blade is able to attract women.

"Introduction to Finality" is the twenty-second and final episode of the third season of the American television series Community and the third season finale. It originally aired on May 17, 2012 on NBC. This was the last episode to air with series creator Dan Harmon as showrunner before he was fired, though Harmon would later return as showrunner for the fifth season.

"Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the NBC sitcom Community, which originally aired on March 14, 2013. The episode was written by Hunter Covington, and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. In this episode, Abed makes a documentary about Changnesia in order to receive a research grant, with Jeff attempting to prove Chang is faking his disease.

"Conventions of Space and Time" is the third episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series Community and the seventy-fourth episode overall. It was written by Maggie Bandur and directed by Michael Patrick Jann. It originally aired in the United States on NBC on February 21, 2013.

References

  1. ↑ "Thursday Final Ratings: 'Big Bang Theory', 'American Idol', 'Person of Interest', 'Missing', 'Up All Night' Adjusted Up; 'Scandal' Adjusted Down - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers". TVbytheNumbers. Archived from the original on 2012-04-08. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  2. ↑ "Community: "Pillows and Blankets" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  3. ↑ "The Changlorious Basterds pay a visit to Community in its most genre-busting episode yet". National Post. 2012-04-06. Archived from the original on 2012-04-07. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  4. ↑ Sandoval, Ryan (2012-04-06). "Community: Pillows Are the New Paintballs". TV.com. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  5. ↑ "'Community' Recap: Pillow Warfare Gets Real". Buddytv.com. 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  6. ↑ Vonder, Pete (2012-04-06). "Community: "Pillows and Blankets"". Houston Press. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.