- Title: Community – Intro to Felt Surrogacy
- tv.com: link
After the Study Group returns from their forest adventure in an uneasy silence and missing Pierce (Chevy Chase), Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) forces the group into puppet therapy with his collection of puppets in each of their likenesses he just happened to have on hand. The episode’s flashbacks are told entirely through showing the Greendale Six as puppets (while real-life actors fill in other roles), sometimes in song.
Through the episode’s first musical number we learn of the Study Group’s failed balloon ride which ended abruptly when the balloon crashed in the woods. Befriended by a somewhat psychic transient mountain man (Jason Alexander) and his psychotropic berries each member of the group unburdens themselves of a terrible secret. Re-sharing their secrets sober, and through another song, the group bonds once again.
“Intro to Felt Surrogacy” has a fun idea, and the puppets are cute, but the songs are all completely forgettable and the show can’t really find a way to use the puppetized versions of its stars to the concept’s full potential. It’s certainly better than some of the episodes delivered this season, but it also feels like a wasted opportunity.
