A former boyfriend lures Britta into joining Honda's guerilla marketing campaign. Jeff looks to get Elroy to like him.
Much like last week's episode was a thematic sequel to two previous episodes, "Advanced Safety Features" serves as the second part of the story that started in Season 3's "Digital Exploration of Interior Design." The core plot of this episode hinges on the return of Travis Schuldt as Britta's "one true love." In his first appearance, his entire identity was stripped away in order to be the personification of a certain sub corporation. Britta still fell in love with him. But their love couldn't be because he didn't have any control over his own life. And now, he returns freed from his "Subway" name and able to go by his real identity, Rick. He broke free of that corporation and is now his own man. That means he and Britta can now be together.And yet, Britta and Rick's story is just as complicated as it was before. Rick is his own man now but it's inherently ingrained into his personality to promote various products for companies. This time he has become a guerilla marketer for Honda. That leads to a lot of product placement and integration in the episode's main story. However, it all works and isn't a distraction because of the heart at the center of it. Community's best stories often find the human emotional element for the characters amongst all of the parody that is happening around them. It's fantastically heightened how strongly a Honda spokesperson is a part of who Rick is now. It's presented almost as an addiction. The dialogue of the episode suggests that Rick needs to promote products as much as an alcoholic needs drugs and booze. It's wonderful but always remembers the heart within the love story.
This has been an overall great season for Gillian Jacobs as Britta. This episode gives her a chance of actually having a meaningful relationship. The rest of the gang may joke that the two of them will never last because it's Britta. But to Britta, this is a relationship she is really invested in and wants things to work out even though there are still huge problems the two of them have to overcome. She is willing to join him as a guerilla marketer for Honda just in order for their relationship to be okay in the eyes of his boss - played by Billy Zane who was somewhat just a one-joke character. For the first time, they are able to be together in a meaningful and real way as a two people who really love each other.
The bigger problem though is that Rick can never turn off being a spokesperson for Honda. He is trying to make the sell at all times. The two of them are an effective duo. They get Todd with just a few back-and-forth lines while the Dean, of course, is Level 7 susceptible. That leads to a fantastic reveal of the Dean buying so many Honda products, with Frankie trying to console him even while she was also calling him stupid. Things take a more tragic turn when he goes for the sales pitch when meeting Britta's parents. It's great that Britta rebuilding a relationship with her parents is an ongoing storyline this season because it had much more story than could simply fit into one episode. It's a big deal that she wants to introduce her new man to them. She sees this relationship as being serious. And yet, there is still this part of Rick that he can't turn off. Britta wants to be with his genuine self. But as it eventually turns out, his genuine self is just a spokesperson trying to get people to buy his company's products. That's just who he is. It's a painful realization for Britta. Jacobs nails the pain of the moments where she doesn't know if this can be an actual relationship and then seeing him carried off campus for him needing to do one last job. It is heartbreaking but it gives their story a nice pay off and was incredibly enjoyable throughout the episode.
The rest of the episode was fun and pleasant but not instantly memorable. It was also a good spotlight episode for Keith David as Elroy even though his story was only somewhat about him. It was largely about Jeff worrying that someone didn't like him. The concept of Jeff not knowing how to deal with someone who doesn't like his charms is a story beat the show has done better before. And yet, the scene featuring Britta and Elroy unable to come up with the word for "drawbridge" for her analogy was hilarious. And then, the return of Natalie is Freezing as an indie band who everyone enjoys was a good continuation of that time Britta had a music video hallucination in Elroy's trailer. Overall, this was a solid episode that was helped immensely by the heart in the main story, with some good humor in the subplots.
Some more thoughts:
- "Advanced Safety Features was written by Carol Kolb and directed by Rob Schrab.
- This is the third or fourth episode this season to make a Troy reference. That definitely means he's going to make an actual appearance later this year, right? If not, why is everyone constantly bringing him up just so Frankie and Elroy can be confused about who he was?
- The joke about Frankie playing the steel drums would have worked better if Jeff hadn't blatantly said that it would probably payoff later after he set it up in the episode's teaser.
- No one in the band Natalie is Freezing is actually named Natalie because they're artists! Why can't anyone understand that?
- Yeah, Annie and Abed, you're going to have to keep workshopping new handshakes.
- No big deal but Britta's parents have a friend who collects elephants. That "guess the ear" game really was very informational about people.
- Chang's bit with the powerpoint presentation and the egg was a great source of dry humor that was simple and had immediate payoff without anyone really having to call much attention to it.
