BWW Recap: 'Basic Email Security' is an Issue on COMMUNITY

On this week's episode of Community, Greendale gets hacked! A group of hackers break into Greendale's database and leak the lunch ladies' rather raunchy emails. The hackers promise to leak the Activities Board's emails next--aka the Study Group--if the school doesn't cancel the performance of Gupta Goopi Gupta, a racist comedian.

The Dean is ready to cancel the event, but Britta points out that they can't let their free speech be barred by a group of hackers. Britta gets the group to join in with her and they all accept that their emails will get hacked. They promise each other not to read the emails when it happens, but of course no one can keep that promise--except Abed that is. The result is an all out fighting match where everyone accuses each other of the things they've sent in emails, from Chang rating Annie and Britta, Elroy making models of the girls bodies, Jeff emailing astronauts, and Abed talking to his girlfriend about how Annie doesn't get Donnie Darko.

As Abed puts it, is episode is the final installment of the "Secrets Laid Bare" trilogy, with "Cooperative Calligraphy" and "Cooperative Polygraphy" being the first two. In all three of these episodes, the characters expose secrets and end up fighting over the things that come out. Whether it be a pen, a polygraph test, or email hacks, whenever secrets come out in the group, chaos ensues.

This installment isn't my favorite of the three, but it was needed since we have a very new dynamic in the group. Within the secrets that come out, we find out Frankie emails her dead sister as a journaling exercise (how sad) and Elroy is so lonely he's continued to correspond with a family who thinks he's their cousin. Frankie's sexuality is also a cause for conversation, when she finds out that the group was placing bets on what she is. Though they do not tell us, I don't doubt this is a topic that will be coming up again.

The episode also comments on privacy and free speech and what rights we are afforded this day in age. The group discusses whether we even own emails once their online, and all of the other issues that come with the Internet age. It is a very gray area, as we see in our daily life with whistleblowers and hackers becoming a norm in our society. The show always does a great job with commenting on society and the issues we face in real life.

As always, there were a lot of great little moments in this episode, from Neil's reappearance--with a beard and all!--to Frankie bringing up how Troy is still lost at sea. I also really enjoyed the moments when Frankie and Elroy find out stuff about the groups past, like how Britta and Jeff dated, how they used to be a study group, and how Chang used to be their teacher. Chang saying, "...and frankly, haven't been well utilized since," is a wonderfully meta line that points out his role in the show. Oh, and who doesn't love child hackers and cyber-crime officers. Also, did anyone catch that Britta uses a flip phone?! The little moments in Community are what makes the show that much more hilarious, in my eyes.

Favorite Lines from The Episode

-Jeff: "We prefer to be called people without color or vaginas."

-Chang: "I kind of zoned out and I assumed we're standing because we're going to see Avengers."

-Elroy: "Anyway, there's coffee and scotch in the corner, screw hackers, and long live Greendale!"

-Jeff: "They're national heroes!" Elroy: "Yeah, but leave them alone!"

-Elroy: "Riselle is like a daughter to me!"

-Britta: "Chang, go talk to yourself in the corner!"

-Jeff: "I feel more desensitized to jokes about Jews and blacks, is that good?"

-Frankie: "A free government terrorized privacy...that's all four bitches."

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Make sure to leave your comments/favorite moments below, or tweet me at @k8linmilligan! I'll see you next Tuesday as I recap the newest episode of COMMUNITY, only on Yahoo! Screen!

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