Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design

"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.

Plot

Dean Pelton confronts Jeff in the study lounge, accusing him of creating both a fake independent study on conspiracy theories and an imaginary teacher, "Professor Professorson." Jeff, however, offers to take the Dean to where he meets Professorson, and Annie, who has been working on a diorama for a class, comes along. Jeff opens the door of the supposed meeting room to reveal a supply closet, and starts to explain this must be a test when a man (Kevin Corrigan) exits from a nearby room and introduces himself as Professor Professorson, showing his official ID to prove it and saying Dean Pelton has never met him because he teaches night school. He congratulates Jeff on passing the test and leaves. The Dean is satisfied, but when Annie goes to apologize for doubting Jeff, Jeff admits that he did indeed invent the class, and has never met or seen "Professorson" before.

Later in the study lounge, Annie is telling Jeff that she's discovered Professorson's real name is Professor Woolley when Jeff receives a threatening call, warning him and Annie to stop investigating. When Annie's diorama's model car won't start, he tackles her just before the car lets out a minor, harmless explosion of sparks. Even more determined now, the two stay late to explore the night school, which turns out to be a sham, with courses like "History of Something" and "Studyology." When they spot Woolley he runs away, but after chasing him through the dorm-wide blanket fort that Troy and Abed have started, they catch him and he takes them to a room where a number of computers and printers have been set up. He tells them he once faked a night school course for credit, like Jeff, but then to maintain the charade he had to create the illusion of an entire night school at the college. Jeff becomes suspicious and realizes that Dean Pelton staged the whole thing to teach him a lesson. He also recognizes Woolley as Professor Sean Garrity, the drama teacher, and asks whether the theater department has prop guns.

Back in the library with Garrity, Jeff and Annie call in the Dean, pretending to have exposed "Woolley"'s sham. Annie "shoots" Garrity, saying that he broke the rules, causing the Dean to pull out his own gun and shoot Annie, which makes Jeff shoot the Dean. Annie sits up and tries to explain to Jeff that she and the Dean set this up to teach Jeff a lesson about lying, but then the Dean sits up and Jeff reveals that they were working together to teach Annie a lesson about friendship. Annie becomes bitter towards Jeff, upset at being "buried like a shameful secret" after their kiss, and pulls out a second gun and shoots Jeff, scaring the Dean. Annie and Jeff, who is fine as it was another prop gun, point out that the Dean is quick to switch alliances, revealing that the entire ploy was a setup for him. Now that all the conspiracies have run their course Garrity starts to leave, but a security officer enters and shoots and kills him, horrifying the other three until they realize it was yet another prop gun. The officer says he wanted them to learn a lesson about the misuse of prop guns.

Later, the group is gathered in the blanket fort when Abed and Troy discover that news of the fort has been printed in Greendale's paper, making it "mainstream." With that, they collapse the entire fort. Killing Jeff and Annie who are deeply in love.

Troy and Abed sign off by playing a word game making fun of pretty much every action movie ever made. Of course this makes Troy think they should write a screenplay together.^[1]

Production

The episode was written by Chris McKenna, his fourth writing credit on the series. It was directed by Adam Davidson, his fourth time directing the series. He has previously directed episodes for series like Big Love, Fringe and United States of Tara.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "Conspiracy Theories And Interior Design" reached approximately 4.4 million households with a 1.9 rating/6% share in the 18–49 demographic.^[2]

The episode received positive reviews from the critics. Cory Barker, of TV Surveillance, said, "good lord [it] is hilariously funny and flat-out fun" and ""Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" is simply an amazingly fun episode of the best comedy on television at the height of its powers."^[3]

Furthermore, Kelsea Stahler, of hollywood.com, said "The "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" episode is a departure from the outlandish, grand zombie- space-simulator-Betty White fueled romps and a return to the formula that the show perfected back in season one. The show also keeps the childish wonder and the ensuing hilarity that Donald Glover's Troy brings to it with a subplot in which he and Abed create a blanket-fort city that takes over an entire dorm. Say what you will about relying on formula, but Community's formula is 100 percent its own and when it comes to this stuff, nobody does it better."^[1]

References

External links

• "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" at NBC.com
• "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" at TV.com
• "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" at TV Tropes