Modern Espionage

"Modern Espionage" is the eleventh episode of the sixth season of the television sitcom Community. It was written by Mark Stegemann, and directed by Rob Schrab. It is the 108th episode overall and was first released on Yahoo Screen in the United States on May 19, 2015. The episode is the third "paintball episode" of the series after "Modern Warfare" (season one) and the two-part "A Fistful of Paintballs" / "For a Few Paintballs More" (season two).

Starburns (Dino Stamatopoulos) leaves Vicki's (Danielle Kaplowitz) one-woman show and is accosted by Todd (David Neher) in the parking lot. They are both involved in a game of paintball assassin driven underground by Frankie's (Paget Brewster) "Cleaner Greendale" initiative. While Starburns gains the upper hand, both players are ultimately defeated by a mysterious player who shoots them with silver pellets.

The following morning Frankie asks Jeff (Joel McHale) to introduce an award to deputy custodian Lapari (Kumail Nanjiani) at the gala for a Cleaner Greendale in order to be seen as denouncing the underground game. Although he is reluctant, Jeff approaches the study group and asks them not to participate in the game. They all agree only to turn on Chang (Ken Jeong) when he reveals he is playing, revealing that they are all playing as well. Jeff is drawn into the game as he tries to prevent his friends from being shot.

Abed (Danny Pudi) discovers that the game is being run on an encrypted server with signs pointing to someone from City College being involved. The group decide to look for the secret player, Silver Ballz, and defeat him. They are given permission to go forward from Dean Pelton (Jim Rash), who feels irrelevant because of Frankie and dubs the group Deanforce 1.

While trying to track Silver Ballz, Abed and Annie (Alison Brie) are led to Koogler (Mitch Hurwitz). Abed manages to recover Koogler's encryption key, which reveals that Silver Ballz plans to ambush Lapari at the gala.

The group split up at the gala; Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and Elroy (Keith David) take out the kitchen staff who are all secretly playing but realize none of them are Silver Ballz. While presenting the award to Lapari, Jeff panics and shoots a non-playing audience member in front of Frankie. He is saved from punishment by the arrival of the dean, who was assigned a non-active role scouting the perimeter and realized that the custodial staff, finally fed up with the mess the Greendale students make during paintball, are the ones behind the new game. The gala erupts in a shoot out with only Lapari, Jeff, and the dean making it out.

Lapari lures Jeff and the dean into the Museum of Custodial Arts, where he reveals that he organized the game in order to fight against Frankie and her attempts to clean up Greendale and change the spirit of the school. He is caught off guard by the two when he mistakes them for mannequins that are part of the exhibit, leading to a standoff. His words convince the dean to turn on Jeff, but Jeff convinces the two of them that Frankie only wants what is best for the school. Frankie agrees not to fire any of them as long as they put their guns down; however, faced with the possibility of winning the final prize, they all shoot each other once Frankie is gone, meaning there is no true winner.

The following week, the group put on bibs and bonnets and pretend to be babies as punishment for not listening to Frankie.