Community: Origins of Vampire Mythology

What Happened, Yo!:

-Britta becomes panicked when the carnival her ex-boyfriend Blade works in returns to town. Knowing that it'd be bad if she went to see him, Britta asks Annie (A former junkie) to put her on lockdown at the apartment and take her phone in order to keep her from talking to/seeing Blade. Annie agrees. At the apartment, Britta is longing for Blade and Troy and Abed aren't helping matters by watching the vampire movie Blade. When Troy accidentally reveals where Britta's phone is, they have to lock Britta in Annie's room. Britta later tells Annie she's starting to recover and sees Annie as a sister in order to get her phone back, but Annie has switched her number for Blade's and starts getting lots of texts from Britta. Annie tries to be mean to Britta to get her to stop texting, but this only makes Britta text more. Eventually Troy points out that Britta's attracted to guys who are mean to her and texts a message (Though we never see it) that brings Britta out of the room, because she's convinced Blade is a loser now. Troy sadly goes to his room and when Annie sees what Troy has texted, she reveals the whole thing to Britta and asks why she was driven away the second "Blade" texted something nice.

-Meanwhile, Jeff and Shirley go to the Carnival to get a glimpse of Blade, and when he seems ordinary, Jeff drops lots of money on Blade's game in an effort to figure out why he's so irresistable to women. After spending over 300 dollars and causing Shirley to leave because of his obsession, Blade finally reveals his secret to Jeff. Jeff shows up at the apartment and reveals that Blade's secret is that he is brain damaged and has lost his ability to feel shame. This draws women to him because he doesn't care. This shocks Jeff, who gives a speech on how they need to stop hating themselves and look for something better. This reaches Britta, who later realizes that Troy was the one who sent her the mysterious nice message. After Annie wordlessly confirms this, Britta smiles to herself.

-Also meanwhile, Pierce is upset that he's not best friends with anyone in the group, so he looks outside the group for a new best friend and chooses Chang (Who was the first one to say yes to him.). The pair bond at the carnival, but Chang gets angry at an innocent comment made by Pierce and breaks off the friendship. Pierce later locks himself in Annie's bedroom and gives her his phone so he won't try to talk to Chang.

-Finally, Vice Dean Laybourne approaches the Dean to get him to get Troy to join the air conditioning repair school.  The Dean shows up at Troy and Abed's apartment and mainly hangs out, and his plan consists of asking Troy straight up towards the end of the night. Troy declines.

I Like This: Origins of Vampire Mythology was another great episode of Community that made me glad that the show's no longer on indefinite hiatus. Britta continues to get better and better every week and watching Annie try to help her get over Blade was a lot of fun to see. Annie having to pretend to be Blade texting Britta was great and the scene where Britta actually called "Blade", and Annie tried to fake it (Including getting Dean, Troy, and Abed to pretend they were a carnival) was the best scene in the episode. Also, as someone who would like to see Britta and Troy get together, I enjoyed the advancement of that plot with Troy's mysterious text message. If the writers of Community ever do decide to commit to a lasting pairing between study group members, I hope it happens to Britta and Troy before Jeff and Annie. Speaking of Jeff, I'm glad that him and Shirley getting closer during last fall's Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism is a lasting plot point, as Shirley added much to Jeff getting obsessed with trying to figure out Blade's secret. And Jeff's speech at the end was good too. Add in some great Dean moments, some parts of the Pierce/Chang plot and the great end tag, and you have another good episode.

But...: John Goodman was pretty much wasted this week. And Chang and Pierce's plot  was too brief to really mine all the possibilities of these two being best friends (Though there was some good moments).

The Bottom Line: Origins of Vampire Mythology was a great, funny, episode with lots of Britta (These days, always a good thing) and some interesting developments on the potential Troy/Britta romance. Plus Troy, Abed, and the Dean pretended to be a carnival, which pretty much made the episode.

Grade: 85% (Great)

Memorable Moments

-Abed: "I need help reacting to something."

-Troy remembers something about Britta: "She was born in the eighties! She still uses her phone as a phone!"

-Dean Pelton: "Well, that's what I get for improvising."

-Troy loves Abed's really specific comedy routine that seemed to only be about his and Troy's life at their apartment. "It's from his album."