The man known ’round the world as James “Sawyer” Ford is about to make a visit to Greendale in the upcoming paintball episode of Community. Lost actor Josh Holloway plays Black Rider, “a mysterious stranger who’s thrown a wrench into the paintball game,” as described by show creator Dan Harmon. NBC plans to air the Community finale in two parts. The next paintball epic will begin May 5 in the episode titled “A Fist Full of Paintballs,” and Holloway will make his mark here. Part 2 airs May 12.
In an interview with EW, Harmon details how the two-parter will work. “It’s designed to exist both as one story but also two separate episodes. [The first] one has a Sergio Leone Western motif, so there’s more emphasis on tension, scarcity of ammo, and who might draw on who. But the second one erupts — the Western motif falls away and an out-and-out war happens. There’s a kind of an epic, wartime, band-of-rebels-against-a-larger-force Star Wars feel to the second one … If we only did the Western one, there might have been some people who said, ‘Oh it’s great, but it’s not ‘Modern Warfare.’ And then there’s other people who, if we had only done ‘Modern Warfare,’ would say, ‘Eh, same thing again.’”
Watch the brief but titillating preview featuring Black Rider’s first interaction with Alison Brie’s Annie. Tune into Community Thursday nights at 8PM on NBC.
