five favorite episodes of community

[hyojungss]

2x10 Mixology Certification

TROY: It's the same bar? You two have been saying one bar is lame and the other one is awesome all night, and it's the same bar?
BRITTA: Well, he probably goes there on Friday nights, which is lame.
JEFF: You wish--
TROY: Stop. Just stop. I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life, and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.
BRITTA: Duh doy.
JEFF: Yeah. Duh doy.

I love this episode for a lot of reasons. Jeff and Britta take it upon themselves to inaugurate Troy into drinking like an adult on his 21st birthday. Abed nerds out about Farscape to a guy who is clearly hitting on him. Shirley tries to hide all the evidence of her past bad nights, immortalized by photos on the bar wall. Pierce has too much pride to ask anyone to even help him get in the bar. Annie freaks out about using a fake ID and crafts an entire fake identity so that she doesn't get caught, but the reason it goes so far is her identity crisis. "I'm not sure who I am," she says in front of her apartment door. But Troy tells her: "You're a fierce competitor and a sore loser. And you expect everybody to be better than who they are and you expect yourself to be better than everyone."

I love everything about this episode really - how it starts in the study room and turns into a night out, but ends with them driving each other home and making sure no one gets left behind. Troy shows so much maturity - "Alcohol makes people sad." And it's SUCH a great story about growing up and having new experiences with people who come from different backgrounds. It's so real. I think going to the bar is so much fun for this reason. (Also: "That woman is a hurricane." / "Yeah." / "Hurricanes are bad, Troy." / "I know." T/B was not handled well in S4 but the development was honestly so good. I love this show because it doesn't constrain itself to one interesting or potential romantic relationship per character.)

Incidentally while looking up the script for this I found out that Abed was originally supposed to take Annie to her apartment, but it's really so much better this way because we get the Troy-Annie high school reference, which makes his delivery of how he sees her even more special - and we get the comment about Abed not being a coat rack after Jeff and Britta make out!!

3x04 Remedial Chaos Theory

ABED: I wonder why she's so upset. Her pies probably didn't burn in the other timelines.
JEFF: Abed, Shirley just had a nervous breakdown.
PIERCE: More like a nervous-
JEFF: Bakedown, I know, I didn't say it on purpose. And Abed, there are no other timelines.

This is the best episode of TV ever made, probably. Community has a lot of great concept episodes, but what this does is take a sci-fi concept, play it for laughs and use it as an opportunity to showcase character dynamics. The buzzer rings at a housewarming party and someone has to get the pizza from the delivery guy. How do you make the decision? Roll a die. "Just so you know Jeff, you are now creating six different timelines." Each timeline takes one person out of the seven-member group and shows how the same events play out with each absence.

This works perfectly at the beginning of season three because characterization and relationships AND CONFLICTS have been established and some are still developing. Community has always been meta/self-aware and I just can't imagine it working this well in any other show. I love the bathroom talk between Britta and Troy, hate the Jeff/Annie but always laugh when she brings up her DAD, the domino effect to every timeline's resolution and hello the second level depth to the timeline where Troy leaves being the disaster one!! Because this is Abed's manifestation. You can see that as you want I think but I just love how much thought was put into it. (Britta voice) Roxanneeeee ♪ You don't have to put on the red light ♪
 

Of course, what it also did was 1) gift us with the infamous everything is on fire gif and 2) establish the phrase 'this is the darkest timeline'. I don't think the darkest timeline did great things for the season 3 arc (or the season 4 arc but that was already awful) but in real life it's such a fun hypothetical concept.

3x16 Virtual Systems Analysis

ANNIE: Enough games, just take me where I wanna go.
ABED AS JEFF: Follow me.
ANNIE: Are we close?
ABED AS JEFF: Almost there, although you should probably run in place and let the hallway move around you. Here we are.
ANNIE: Where?
ABED AS JEFF: Where you wanted to go. The last night of school, first year. The night we kissed.
ANNIE: Abed wasn't there, so whose memory is this?
ABED AS JEFF: Maybe it's yours. Maybe the Dreamatorium really works. Or maybe Leonard was watching from the bushes and told Abed about it.
ABED AS LEONARD: I don't have cable.

This episode was my favorite when I was first watching the show (2014-2015) because my favorite relationship was Annie and Abed. There isn't much romantic compatibility between them, but this episode is so key to their understanding of each other and like the start to what they evolve into. Annie moves into Troy and Abed's apartment but is so clearly dismissive of Abed's processing system. Really no one got Abed like Troy did, and when he goes on the date with Britta and calls her, Annie rolls her eyes that he even has to check in on Abed. And it's just so crazy how they read each other - falsely. Annie wants to understand him but goes about it in completely the wrong way - "Can't we play something I know like hospital administration?" She assumes he uses no empathy and "people bend over backwards to cater to him", but he accuses her of playing matchmaker to pair off Britta so she could have Jeff to herself.

ABED AS ANNIE: But we love Jeff.
ANNIE: No, we don't. We're just in love with the idea of being loved. And if we can teach a guy like Jeff to do it, we'll never be unloved. So we keep running the same scenario over and over hoping for a different result.
ABED AS ANNIE: Running scenarios. Careful now. You're starting to sound like Abed.

Earlier Annie says "you don't have a patent on being a control freak" to him and I love how they get paralleled. Actually quite a lot of great Community episodes are about characters fighting over control LOL (1x21 Contemporary American Poultry - Jeff/Abed, 5x08 App Development and Condiments - Jeff/Shirley which were both honorable mentions to this list) - tension between people who are a lot more similar than they think at first. Anyway this is not only a great piece of development for them but also such a look into Annie's head w/r/t Jeff.

ANNIE: My point is, your simulations are nothing more than anxieties. You're afraid you don't fit in. You're afraid you'll be alone. Great news... you share that with all of us, so you'll never be alone and you'll always fit in.

I really love the message of this episode as someone who is also really neurotic about relationships and change. Ultimately, this is the foundation for how much better they get each other by S6. I love when Britta tries to throw a party in their apartment by using Abed to skirt around Annie's rules and Annie's like "before this is over you'll beg for my forgiveness" ♡ Iconic scene but I just love how Annie can fill that role after Troy leaves. Also this episode is screaming Annie ISFJ so I am going to reiterate that she's permanent ISXJ to me!! It depends on the episode :_)

3x17 Basic Lupine Urology

PROFESSOR KANE: Ms. Edison, when you called me down here at midnight, I expected more than a yam. Specifically since you said, "There's been a murder."
ANNIE: Our yam was murdered.
JEFF: If it's any consolation, she got me here on a very misleading text message.
ANNIE: Jeff, technically, you are about to be screwed in the biology room because our final project has been destroyed.
PROFESSOR KANE: All right, look, I'm sorry for your loss. I know you guys put the work in, so you'll get a passing grade.
ANNIE: A passing grade? Like a C? Why don't I just get pregnant at a bus station? That was going to be an A-plus yam.

This is my only favorite episode that I don't really have an emotional/chara development connection with. It's just a really good episode of television LOL.... Law & Order parody about yam murder. I honestly feel like it crams so much into 22 minutes. I don't know if Law & Order is edited that way b/c I've never watched but this ep has very sharp editing and transitions. It's sooooo funny.

6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television

ABED: There is skill to it. More importantly, it has to be joyful, effortless, fun. TV defeats its own purpose when it's pushing an agenda, or trying to defeat other TV or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. It's TV, it's comfort. It's a friend you've known so well, and for so long you just let it be with you and it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day or phone-in a day. And it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with LeVar Burton and never come back. Because eventually, it all will.

I think this is objectively the worst of these five episodes, and it's got to be the least funny episode of season 6, but it's meant to be like that. It's meant to be sad. It's SUCH a good series finale. Why else would I almost cry every time I watch it.

What Season 6 does so well is that despite the series at this point "hemorrhaging characters" it introduces new ones with ease, its episodes live up to their concepts and it has a lot of really good dialogue. And it sets up a good character arc which really just means Jeff has a really good narrative that you can see in 6x08 Intro to Recycled Cinema as well. "Every single one of you is going to leave here except for me." It's how in the finale - Jeff has a mental breakdown because this is actually happening. I love how the whole point of the finale is that as much as you don't want to let go of what you love (Annie... Abed... Troy, Shirley, Pierce) (Community as an airing TV show) - "but you're coming back, right?" one day you have to. And one day you have to be okay with letting what you love go in order for it (the study group members) (the cast and crew) to grow elsewhere and move on, even when you're not ready to.

The other thing is that you see in earlier seasons Abed is the one spinning out of control because of change (VSA and 5x05 Geothermal Escapism), particularly with the loss of Troy. I love that Abed and Jeff are two sides of the same coin (INTP/ENTP respectively) and how Abed can make the comment he does above. The way that Abed → Troy and Jeff → Annie dependencies play out. In this essay I will

IMAGINARY ANNIE: Is this really what you want?
JEFF: Of course. I mean, I'd be fine with a dog too, but whatever you want.
IMAGINARY ANNIE: Do you have any idea what I want?
JEFF: Yes?

JEFF: I wanna be 25 and heading out into the world. I wanna fall asleep on a beach and be able to walk the next day [...]
ANNIE: Well, I wanna live in the same home for more than a year, order wine without feeling nervous, have a resume full of crazy mistakes instead of crazy lies. I want stories and wisdom, perspective. I want to have so much behind me I'm not a slave to what's in front of me.

I want to make it very clear that I have never liked J/A but as the years went on I grew to appreciate the role that their relationship has in the show and in each of their stories. Moreso A -> J than the other way around because it was so clearly a case of idealization and looking upwards and frankly being taken advantage of!!. It always drove me insane how people actually want them to end up together when they're 16 years apart in age ("Men are monsters who crave young flesh", etc) but like, whatever!! I understand that they bring out some good traits in each other - I understand Alison is super attractive and a lot older than her character at any given time - I am also aware they have to leave it open ended because of the polarization in the viewership. But to me. They really should not end up together (speaking in context of potential #andamovie).

I'm just really glad that Annie and Abed got the dream chasing ending that they deserved. I loved Annie's conversation with Jeff for that reason - the world is open to her, but at the same time she can't just do whatever she wants because she has to worry about her future, too. As someone who's in Annie's position though, it shocked me how much I empathize with Jeff. SO much of this is the direct parallel between Jeff and the viewer though. That's why this is a genius finale. I don't even like J/A and yet the part that gets me the most in this whole episode is when he says "I let you go" to her. The second part is the airport scene where Ends of the Earth plays. How this song is about exploring the world alone even if you have to part ways T______T I'm going to cry. I was backreading the Community sub this week and just the amount of analysis done on that scene -- the way Jeff hugs Abed twice, the way it's representative of how everything began, the way that not everything had to be said for them because it'd been said out loud with Annie but was no less important. I love that subtlety (even if it's part because one relationship is obviously more fanservice than the other. But like this video is 78 minutes long.)

I think the worst part about the finale is that Britta is a non-player in it when she's also a core member of the group and really - Jeff/Abed/Britta are why the group exists. I think the S5 finale did a better job of closing that circle. But the S5 finale was boring, messy and unfunny :_) Like I really wish she had gone to the airport with them at least. Does she even want anything out of life at this point!!! But Britta has always gotten the short stick & I get that this particular arc is all about Jeff and like I said it was really good in that sense. THE DOUBLE HUG. It was a very good finale for J/A/A.

Comments

[girlrock]

the amount of s3 episodes on this ❤️ i watched community 2012-2013 (yes i never watched past s4 T__T and of course i was trobed shipper...) so i barelyyyyyy remember like. ACTUAL PLOT LOL... but the first 3 seasons were quite dear to me when i was a bby 9th grader and reading this was such a blast!!! i always like hearing you talk about community since you watched all of it and care about it so much and Imo 3x04 is really such a timeless classic pick LOL

"I love how the whole point of the finale is that as much as you don't want to let go of what you love (Annie... Abed... Troy, Shirley, Pierce) (Community as an airing TV show) - "but you're coming back, right?" one day you have to. And one day you have to be okay with letting what you love go in order for it (the study group members) (the cast and crew) to grow elsewhere and move on, even when you're not ready to." nothing else 2 say just love this so much... thank u 4 sharing ;__;

[walleye]

sorry for short reply but omg as someone who watched community in college like. 4 years ago or something and doesn't remember much but really enjoyed it, this was FUN TO READ thank u for sharing it really is such a fun n special show, and hearing what you loved abt it was very interesting 2 me. i need to rewatch these eps at some point...

[sunwalkr]

im so excited to continue w my community watch (i stopped mid 2020 i think 😭😭) and get to these eps.. when i do i’ll come back to read & see ur opinion

[lapiscave]

annie absolute isxj slay forreal i only had to watch one episode to know that!

i really want to do a Full watch of community it's really such a good show and i've only seen the first few episodes and then part of s3 in a night... i'm really fascinated by this annie and abed parallel thing you've discussed here and so now i have to watch it (eventually) (why don't we have more time in a day)

[arundels]

hi I read a couple of your svt fics and then followed you everywhere on the internet I apologise, I simply am insane. but also I wanted to comment on this because I adore community I think it is funny but also has a lot of heart and that's a big part of why it's funny - the humour comes from the characters rather than just being quippy one liners. and in uni my best friend and I made a spreadsheet ranking all of the community episodes (I think we didn't have the final 2 seasons yet back then?) and I think season 3 also performed the best on that list... perfect season of tv!! remedial chaos theory definitely topped that list is really is the best episode of tv.

also the annie/abed dreamatorium episode YES!! also one of my faves, and annie/abed is also my favourite relationship in the show. I still don't know if I see them as a romantic pairing but I also don't completely see them as a 100% platonic pairing. they're so interesting and genuinely so different but also sooo identical in some ways that they loop all the way round to being opposites again. and they both grow together so much and come at each other with so much love it's honestly... ahh.

anw I am enjoying reading all the thoughts you have on things thank you for sharing them!

[hyojungss]

hi thank you for commenting!! community is so special to me i really think it is one of the most special shows on television (i can't say it's the best show on tv but i think the best fandoms are for media that has its flaws)... and it's made me so picky about my tv LOL.

thank you for sharing your thoughts back!! it is so nice to hear the thoughts of someone else who loved the show... there are a lot of people out there but when it is someone in your little kpop community it hits different!