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Plot[]

“
And Jesus wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer!
”
— Dean Pelton
In the study room, Frankie, Jeff, and Chang see Annie tending to an injured Abed. He hurt himself when their future new roommate Britta was trying introduce them to her pet cat. It scratched Abed and then hid under the couch, where Britta is trying to retrieve it. Chang volunteers to get the cat but his hand ends up severely injured. The group then starts their meeting when Dean Pelton interrupts. He shows off his latest purchase for Greendale, a virtual reality machine. Jeff volunteers to help him set it up in order to get out of helping Britta move into Abed and Annie's apartment. Frankie joins them in Dean Pelton's office where he giddily tests the device and is awestruck by the virtual environment he enters. In the real world, Frankie and Jeff watch on with a mix of amusement and disgust.



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The Dean loves his new virtual reality machine.
Meanwhile, Annie and Abed welcome Britta to their place where they present a brand new sofa bed they purportedly bought for her use. Britta asks about the delivery tag which has her last name on it and is suspicious when Annie and Abed change the subject. Back at Pelton's office, Frankie tries to get the serial number located in the VR realm to return the machine, but Pelton figures this out and deletes the information. Over at Annie and Abed's apartment, Britta secretly phones the furniture store the new sofa came from and learns it was actually paid for by her parents. She confronts her friends and Annie admits they've met her parents, who have been covertly supporting her financially. Britta angrily storms out of the apartment just as a Chang arrives with a now swollen hand.



Abed annie
Abed and Annie try and conceal the truth.
In the Dean's office, Pelton continues to immerse himself into the VR world and Frankie sends Jeff out to track down the machine's inventor to get the school's money back. On his way out, he runs into Britta, who tells him how Annie and Abed had conspired with her parents. Jeff admits he's been colluding with them too for the last several years and scolds her for having treated her parents so horribly. Britta is stunned by the revelation and walks off just as a confused Chang shows off his worsening condition. Later, Jeff manages to find the VR company's headquarters in a parked RV camper and meets the owner Elroy Patashnik. The meeting goes poorly when Jeff levels Elroy harsh criticisms on Elroy and his inventions. Jeff leaves, but not before advising Elroy to stop lying to himself.



7
Meet the Perrys.


Meanwhile, a furious Britta goes to her parents' house to confront them. They tell her they only did it to be a part of her life again. Britta is further angered after figuring out Annie and Abed are hiding in the house. She berates everyone for conspiring against her and runs outside. When her car will not start, she steals a child's mini bike in order to leave. Back at Pelton's office, Frankie goes home after Jeff tells her he couldn't get the refund. Jeff attempts to physically remove Pelton from the device but is stopped by the arrival of Elroy. He apologizes for selling the school his invention and gives Jeff the money back. He then dons some paraphernalia he brought with him to coax Pelton out of the virtual world.



COMMUNITY 601 20141120-TP 0183
"She's growing up."
In the school's parking lot, Frankie enters her car only to awaken Britta who was sleeping in the backseat. Frankie demands an explanation and Britta puts the blame on family drama with her parents. Although she has legitimate reasons to hate her parents for how they mistreated her in the past, they've changed for the better since. Despite this, she can't bring herself to forgive them and her problem is compounded by all her friends adoring them. Frankie offers her sympathies and asks what she can do to help. Back at the Dean's office, Elroy inserts himself into the VR simulation and uses a giant-sized avatar to overpower Pelton. In the real world, Jeff removes the distracted Dean from the VR gear. Over at Deb and George Perry's home, Britta and Frankie interrupt her parents' game night with Annie and Abed.



Community-lawnmower-maintenance-and-postnatal-care-4
Elroy rescues the Dean.


Britta tells them she decided to stop her repeating cycle of running away from her problems. Frankie helped her realize the inevitability of death makes her resentments ultimately meaningless and allows her parents back into her life. Chang then unexpectedly shows up and horrifies everyone with his freakishly swollen hand. Back at school, Jeff and the Dean walk Elroy back to his RV and thank him for his help. Having given up his invention, Elroy is unsure of what to do now and Pelton suggests he enroll at Greendale to find a new purpose. Meanwhile at Annie and Abed's apartment they tuck in their new roommate Britta who is sound asleep. The next day, Jeff takes Elroy to Greendale Student Health Center where the rest of the committee is visiting Chang. While introductions are made, Pelton is in his office trying to create his own VR device.



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"I got bit by a cat."

End tag[]

A fake trailer for the Portuguese Gremlins movie "Joelho-Alto Prejuizo Moral," a literal and incorrect translation of "Knee-high mischief". It is a Martelo Estrada Filme (literally: "Hammer Road movie") production, in cooperation with Portugal Criação de Filmes, but the characters presented all speak Brazillian Portuguese. The rules of caring for a mischief creature include not putting them in heat (it makes them evil), not letting them touch a rainbow (it makes them even more evil), and not giving them salt (it makes them multiply). They can be restored to good by throwing holy water on them. They are also attracted to love and dislike Christmas. Their only weakness is the old shop owner (who has been detailing these rules via voice over), who is seen dressed as a matador shotgunning the "mischiefs" in the trailer's climax.

Recurring themes[]

Continuity[]

Continuity lists
Narrative
Recurring or debuting plot points in this episode:
  • Previously:
    • It was shown in the previous episode "Ladders" that Britta was homeless and living in a pup tent on the campus quad.
    • In "English as a Second Language" Annie says to Britta that it's obvious from her name that her parents smoked pot. Britta's parents confess that they don't remember much of her childhood but do remember Woodstock, greatly implying that Annie was right.
    • Jeff says he's forty years old; he turned forty in "G.I. Jeff."
  • History lesson: Britta finally learns that her parents have been supporting her financially through her friends for the last several years. It's also revealed that even Chang had met her parents before.
  • A nice gesture: Abed attempts his and Troy's handshake with Britta, which fails miserably.
People
Recurring or debuting characters in this episode:
  • First appearance: Elroy Patashnik and Britta's parents, Deb Perry and George Perry, debut in this episode. The Perry residence is also known as '4352 Wisteria Lane' on Desperate Housewives, and was originally built for the 1996 Leave It To Beaver movie. It's Colonial Street House C14, at Universal Studios.
  • Returning faculty: Dean Pelton's assistant Rhonda returns.
Places
Recurring or debuting places in this episode:
Things
Recurring or debuting items in this episode:

Elroy's RV makes its first appearance.

Running gags[]

List of Running gags
Recurring or debuting running gags in this episode:
  • A dollop of whipped irony: "You're being dramatic." / "Oh yeah? That's what people say when they take your soul, and they rip it out of your chest and then shove it in your mouth."
  • Deanotation: Pelton mentions he's taking a step in the third "Dean"-mension before using the virtual reality machine.
  • Like an evil genie: Right after Jeff tells Britta there are people in the world with real problems, Chang appears behind him, still with a swollen hand and visibly disoriented.
  • Mad or hungry?: Abed can't read Britta's face when she storms into the apartment, furious.
  • Man crush: When Jeff threatens to beat up Dean Pelton, his reply starts with "I'll like it."
  • NOOOOOO!: Annie and Abed yell when they see Chang's swollen, infected hand.
  • Well read: Pelton repeatedly says "Jesus wept" which is a famous quote from the King James Version of the Bible (John, Chapter 11, verse 35). At one point he mistakenly mixes it up with the line “When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer" by Plutarch. This line was most famously quoted by Hans Gruber in a key scene of "Die Hard."
  • You're the worst!: Britta calls her friends "the worst."

Pop culture references[]

List of Pop culture references
Pop culture references in this episode:
  • IMDb: Jeff mentions the movie Lawnmower Man; this is also alluded to in the episode title.
  • Shout out:
    • Britta's cat is named "Chomsky;" this is likely a reference to political and social activist Noam Chomsky.
    • Actress Brigitte Nielsen was mentioned by Elroy as being his date to the premiere of Lawnmower Man.
    • Frankie coins the "Jimmy Fallon syndrome," where you refuse to accept a person's newfound goodness as you had to deal with them when they were terrible.
  • Product placement:
    • Deb, George, Annie, and Abed are shown to be playing the classic board game "Trouble."
    • Abed points out the child's vehicle Britta stole was a Huffy Green Machine.
  • Use your allusion:
    • Jeff mentions the "Honeycomb Hideout," which is a reference to a series of commercials from the '70s and '80s promoting Honeycomb Cereal. It featured kids in a clubhouse dealing with adults looking to take their Honeycomb cereal. The jingle used in the ad became well known and at one point the kids had a robot mascot. One of those commercials can be seen here.
    • When discussing bad cinema from the '90s that featured Virtual Reality, Jeff alludes to the Micheal Douglas movie "Disclosure." It had a scene in the film where Douglas plugs himself into an overly complex VR simulation of a file room just to look up some information. The moment is parodied during the part where Pelton tries to look up a serial number. The first person VR perspective Pelton uses is also lifted directly from the movie. The VR scene from "Disclosure" can be seen here.
    • Jeff refers to Pelton as "White Morpheus" and Elroy as "The Architect," referencing "The Matrix" film franchise and the characters of "Morpheus" and "The Architect."
    • Jeff asks when Stella got her groove back while trying to remember when Britta's parents first made contact; How Stella Got Her Groove Back came out in 1998.

Meta references[]

List of Meta references
Meta references in this episode:
  • IRL: Britta's parents are shown to be avid players of board games. Actors Martin Mull and Lesley-Ann Warren famously starred in "Clue," the first feature film based on a board game, as Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlett. Ironically, these two characters lusted after and loathed one another, respectively.
  • Homage: The Portuguese Gremlins end tag evokes the Mockbuster genre, particularly foreign knockoffs of big Hollywood films, such as Turkish Star Wars and 3 Dev Adam.

Production[]

"Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care" has the production code of #601. According to Community writer Alex Rubens this episode was shot before "Ladders" but aired second (source).
Lawnmower Maintenance and Prenatal Care script

Trivia[]

Quotes[]

I can copy a file by holding my finger down on a phone.Jeff
Well, so can a monkey. Now, you're describing a system for animals. Terrestrial slobs bound to the earth by their meaty feet. I designed a system for gods.Elroy
Season Six Episodes

1. "Ladders"
2. "Lawnmower Maintenance and Postnatal Care"
3. "Basic Crisis Room Decorum"
4. "Queer Studies & Advanced Waxing"
5. "Laws of Robotics & Party Rights"
6. "Basic Email Security"
7. "Advanced Safety Features"

8. "Intro to Recycled Cinema"
9. "Grifting 101"
10. "Basic RV Repair and Palmistry"
11. "Modern Espionage"
12. "Wedding Videography"
13. "Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television"

Community Season Six DVD front cover

Season OneSeason TwoSeason ThreeSeason FourSeason FiveSeason Six
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