Greetings again from the Brightest Timeline where NBC’s Community was never canceled, and its sixth season is currently airing. We’ve turned the office conference room into our own Dreamatorium to travel between worlds and bring you recaps of the season that might have been. This week, we finally get a group episode in “Repetitive Music Theory.”
So far this season, Dan Harmon has chosen to focus on individual or small groups of the Study Group, but one of the things we really love about Community is, well, the community. This week brings everyone together in one of the strangest episodes they’ve ever done, and we may never get “Ants Marching” out of our head.
As we saw in the Season 5 finale, Harmon apparently has a weird thing for “Ants Marching” by the Dave Matthews Band. This week that weird thing gets even weirder. Here, you’ll need this for the full effect:
The episode starts with Abed walking to class humming the catchy tune to “Ants Marching.” As he gets closer to the library, we start hearing the actual song. At first we just assumed it was a music cue, but once Abed walks inside it becomes clear that the song isn’t just in his head. It’s being played over the PA system. People in the library are acting like it’s torture.
Abed looks around confused and heads to the study room. The group is all there except for Hickey, and Britta and Jeff are fighting over whether or not the group needs to disband because they’ve already saved Greendale. Abed asks what’s happening. Britta tries to explain why Jeff is being a jerk, but Abed stops her and asks about why “Ants Marching” is playing. They tell him it’s been playing all morning on repeat. No one knows why, and they can’t find Dean Pelton. His office is locked so they can’t get in to turn it off.
Hickey walks in and Abed asks him if knows how to pick a lock because of his background as a cop, but Hickey ignores him. Jeff chimes in, but Hickey ignores him too. Everyone shouts Hickey’s name in unison and he looks up.
Hickey’s had earplugs in the whole time. He takes them out and the group asks if he can break into the Dean’s office.
He tells them he does it all the time.
The group starts walking to the office, and sees madness setting in with all the other students. Garrett is dancing and screams that he can’t stop himself. Starburns is slumped on the floor lip syncing while staring off into space. It’s bonkers.
They break into the office, but they see that the PA has been smashed and realize the source has to be coming from somewhere else. Troy asks who would ever use Dave Matthews for evil, and then we cut to Chang full-on breakdancing on the roof of the library, laughing maniacally.
Say what you will about commercials, but they’re a welcome interruption from the constant loop of “Ants Marching” in this episode. Imagine our surprise when it showed up in one of the commercials. Harmon has to have been behind that somehow. You insane genius.
After the break, we’re back to Chang on the roof. He takes a call from Dean Spreck at City College for an expository discussion of their plan. The scene would be incredibly boring if not for Chang’s not-stop and surprisingly sweet dance moves. It turns out Chang has wired the PA system to play “Ants Marching” on a loop to break Greendale’s spirit so they’ll agree to sell to City College. Looks like the School Board hasn’t given up on trying to shut the place down. Spreck asks Chang about Dean Pelton, and Chang tells him he’s been “taken care of.”
That sounds ominous, considering Chang literally kidnapped the Dean and replaced him with a Deanleganger for almost an entire season. We cut to the Dean pulling up to an abandoned warehouse. He’s holding a flyer that says “Costume Sale! Everything Must Go!” He gets out and goes into the warehouse, which is empty.
There’s something really unsettling about this scene. At first we thought it was because they don’t do a lot of off-campus location stuff on the show, but that doesn’t seem to be it. Something’s weird.
The Dean takes out his phone, and turns it on. He has 50 new texts from Jeff, and his face is washed over with basically every emotion in a matter of seconds. Jim Rash is a national treasure. He starts to look at the messages and they all say to call Jeff immediately, so he does. When Jeff answers, we realize what’s weird about the scene—the music wasn’t playing. Now it’s back through the phone and the cuts between the Dean and Jeff.
Jeff asks the Dead where else the music could be coming from, and he tells him there are other PA access points throughout the college. Jeff demands he come back immediately, but the Dean says he’s hours away. Jeff says, “Then speed,” and hangs up the phone.
Silently, the Dean gets back in his car. He slowly puts on his seat belt, adjusts the mirrors, and puts the key in the ignition. Why do we need to seeing any of this. It’s like the kind of build up right before someone in a movie get’s blown up by a car bomb, but they wouldn’t do that… right?
Pelton turns the key and BOOM “Ants Marching” starts playing loudly through his car stereo.
HAARMMOOOOOONNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!
The Dean quickly shuts off the stereo. He sits for a second and then turns it back on and begins rocking out and singing along to the song as he drives away.
Meanwhile, back at Greendale Jeff is organizing the group to break up into pairs to go to the other access points on campus the Dean mentioned. He pairs up Troy with Abed and puts Hickey with Shirley, leaving Annie and Britta. Jeff looks at the two of them for a second before saying he picks Annie. He tells Britta to stay behind and care for the other students, who are continuing to lose their minds. Each group takes a walkie talkie from Hickey.
Shirley and Hickey talk about most of the same stuff from last week’s episode. He tells her he’s supposed to meet with the mysterious caller who wanted to buy his cartoon next week, so at least for now he still doesn’t know it’s really Chang.
Troy and Abed talk about friendship and how Abed’s transition into adulthood is going. He says it’s fine, but would probably go more smoothly if he didn’t have to go through stuff like this every week.
Annie starts talking about all the internship opportunities she’s found and how she might have to change schools. It’s obvious Jeff is getting upset, and it’s obvious that that’s the reason she’s doing it. He finally snaps and tells her to stop talking about it. She snaps back and demands that Jeff admit why he has such a problem with her leaving. He won’t, because he’s Jeff. She presses, but slips up and admits that she really doesn’t want to leave Jeff. She tries to correct herself and say she doesn’t want to leave Greendale, but it’s already out. They look at each for a second before Annie grabs Jeff’s stupid face and kisses him.
Troy calls to Jeff on the walkie talkie and says he thinks he found the other PA access point. Then there’s another commercial, and I don’t even care how many times I have to listen to “Ants Marching,” Harmon, get back to the good stuff!
Back to the show, and Troy is repeating to Jeff that they’ve found the access point and nothing’s there. Hickey chimes in that they’ve found theirs as well and there’s also nothing, so it must be at the one Jeff and Annie are going to. Jeff hastily answers that they’re almost there. Then he tells Annie they should go. They’re both stunned, but agree and keep going.
When they get to the end of a dark hallway, they find the PA terminal with an iPod plugged into it. Jeff goes to grab it, but Annie stops him. She wants to talk about the kiss and their feelings, but Jeff wants to deal with the song first. They argue about it, but eventually both admit how they feel, but they’re not sure what’s next. Jeff goes to turn off the iPod, but Annie stops him again. He asks her why and she says it’s their song now. The episode ends just as the song does, and Annie kisses Jeff again.
(images via Community)
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