The initial weeks of the Great Community Return have been dominated by grandiose art metaphors, Ken Burns sendups, campus-wide pillow fights, and Britta looking way too much like Michael Jackson, so it was nice that Community scaled way back for this episode. Community is certainly at its most creative when doing wild genre parodies, but some of their best episodes happen when the characters are just allowed to act together. This was even true for "Remedial Chaos Theory," where Jeff creates six different timelines in parody of Lost and The Butterfly Effect. Despite the high concept, it was basically a bottle episode featuring just the group.
This week opened with Troy and Abed (who had been quarreling in recent weeks) playing Best Friends Patty Cake. It was probably the most adorable thing in sitcom history. We then find out that Britta’s ex-boyfriend—a carny named Blade who killed her belief in love—is in town. She runs to Annie and begs her to put her on lockdown by taking her phone and keeping her under a watchful eye all weekend. The two quickly develop a bond over their respective struggles with addiction. Britta has shown in the past how desperate for sisterhood she is—she's so closed off to the company of other women that she's never even been invited to go to the bathroom before. Annie is desperate for Britta's approval because Britta's cool and Annie's a goody-goody. While we’re mostly led to believe Britta was feeding Annie this sisterhood crap to get her phone back and text Blade, there are some genuine feelings underneath on both sides.
Meanwhile, Shirley accompanies Jeff to the carnival because Jeff wants to see what’s so special about Blade. The weird Jeff/Shirley connection is one of the more interesting relationships on the show. It’s basically Our Hero getting Magic Negro Advice from Our Token Colored Lady, but the fact that Jeff never listens to her and Shirley is so sympathetic and likable on her own (“I wanna go on a ride…I spent my carnival years pregnant.”) makes the relationship work. Winger ends up doing whatever he wants anyway, and Shirley seems to be able to navigate the group in the healthiest way of anyone. Recall when she recited Psalm 23 while clocking motherfuckers in the first paintball game, only to happily go home to her sons when she got eliminated. Shirley is probably the happiest character and Yvette Nicole Brown’s comedic timing is phenomenal, but she totally flies under the radar.
The relationship angle is the idea of men being destructively seductive. Britta will go to Blade even though he’s terrible for her and Shirley will let husband Andre get away with anything. Jeff somehow has gone through life never realizing this possibility, and is now intrigued by it. Annie has also made it twenty years without this sort of relationship, even though Jeff is slowly becoming that for her (did Alison Brie swoon more when Joel McHale changed his shirt in Community or when Jon Hamm stripped and fixed her sink in Mad Men? Sub-question: week-to-week, how jealous is everyone of Alison Brie?). Annie buries her feelings while Jeff goes to discover. Here is also the episode loses a bit of consistency. Blade, a ladyslayer so egregious he actually got Pierce to be funny (“Her pain unifies us. She’s the King Arthur of bad taste in men”), actually seems like a pretty chill bro. He’s so down to earth that Jeff spills his guts out to him while dropping $300 on his duck-shooting table. His only downside seems to be that he works at a carnival and has a gross awesome trashstashe. This is what Britta’s cowering from? Come on, Community. Give us some real mayhem.
It’s also revealed that Troy has a huge crush on Britta. She can’t realize it because of all the Blade talk, but she eventually figures it out when she learns that she’d been texting Annie and the boys all night. The episode ends with some self-satisfied looking around at each other, which is typically a sign of lazy writing. For some reason, it works here, mostly because nothing is settled: the Winger Speech at the end was probably the emptiest Winger speech of all time. How could everyone possibly have been content for the evening? With a show as smart as Community, you can count on heavy stuff next week.
Interestingly, all the sidelong glances and sexual tension, Community seems set on upending other sitcom tropes, but for earnest reasons instead of sarcasm. The entire reason these people know each other is because Jeff wanted to do Britta “like a crossword” (mission accomplished!), and it makes sense that they’d end up together: Jeff is the hero, and Britta is the blonde. Furthermore, since Annie Adderall and Football Captain Troy went to the same high school but never knew each other, it makes sense that Troy and Annie would end up together. Instead, Troy is completely all about Britta, and Annie is completely all about Jeff. Whether or not Our Hero or Our Blonde will realize it remains to be seen, but the typical sitcom arrangements do not seem to be in the stars.
Pierce Watch: Pierce’s stories aren’t even subplots anymore, nor is he attached to anything going on with the group. This week, after whining about not having a best friend, he takes up with Chang. The two go on a date to the carnival, it’s not very funny, everyone knows it’ll last about two minutes because it’s racist Pierce and psychotic Chang, and well, guess what happens. The way it ends, though, is interesting. Chang asks how to keep a best friendship going, and Pierce responds with “I say we just let it happen.” Psycho Chang then bursts out with “Don’t tell me what to do!” and storms off. It’s a cursory sketch of something that easily kills relationships: the fear of hurting or getting hurt. To predict is human, and predictions are based on past experience. New friendships/romances can be frightening because you imagine repeating the horrible things you’ve done or the horrible things that have been done to you. The easy answer is to run away quickly, before things escalate and someone gets really hurt. The Pierce/Chang end is exactly this. Unfortunately, it’s Pierce and Chang, so exactly no one cares.
Dean of Thrones: Not to repeat a gimmick in the same column, but Dean Pelton deserves his own paragraph. How hilariously childish and homo-repressed is it that he’s into trains now? And how many awesome puns can the Community writers come up with for his ridiculous entrances? “She’ll be comin’ around the mount-dean when she comes?” Not only is it excellently suggestive, Jim Rash’s delivery is so sneaky you almost miss it. Then you miss his next few lines because the pun is so hilarious. The fact that he needs a book on how to do things, then a Scotch and soda (which he doesn’t know how to make) is great enough. But then his only plan for getting Troy to sign up for the Air Conditioning Repair School (which is developing into a City College-like rivalry) is showing up at Troy and Abed’s with a six-pack of Dr. Pepper and a bag of chips for “boys night.” Dean Pelton rivals 30 Rock’s Kevin as the best adorable-puppy-you-still-want-to-kick character on NBC.
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