One of my favorite moments from the last season of Community is when Shirley has to give birth in the Anthropology classroom. As the gang gathers together, we see a few of the supporting characters like Starburns, Vicki, and Fat Neil who say something to the effect of "We almost had a class that wasn't about them". It's funny and it also gives insight into how the study group is seen by the rest of the school. Because if there was a group of people in real life like the study group or other groups of friends from ensemble comedies, we'd probably view them as a self-centered, obnoxious clique. Tonight's episode was about how the study group really only wants to be with each other, but at the same time, they're constantly at conflict with each other and how this "weird love" drives an outsider, who is probably the nicest guy in the world to an emotional breaking point. It's really funny.
We see more of the Biology professor, Marshall Kane this week as he assigns the class their first project: a Terrarium ("It's kind of like a diorama", he says, elicting loud groans from everyone who took Anthropology last year. "You guys have weird reactions to stuff", he marvels.). He then assigns everyone to pair up with the person directly across from them as their lab partner for the entire semester. Unfortunately, this means our favorite study group is getting paired with 7 complete strangers. They quickly get out of this and get permission to pair up within themselves. So they break up with their old partners in a great sequence (The funniest of these reasons is Abed saying he may have a developmental disorder, shortly followed by Jeff saying the same thing, complete with Abed impression.) But since there's only 7 of them, Pierce is stuck with his original partner, a good natured fellow named Todd. But everyone quickly tires of their current partner (Annie finds Jeff too disinterested, Troy and Abed have been spending too much time together now that they live together, Shirley has too many pictures of her son and Britta is Britta.) and wants to change, so they all gather under the excuse that it wasn't fair to stick Pierce with Todd (who doesn't take offense to their various insults towards having to work with him.)
This sequence in the study room is great, because it allows all the various characters to bounce off each other, while Todd's patience is increasingly worn down. No matter what they try, they can't agree on partners. When they all list their preferred pairings from 1 to 8, Abed pairs them up, and everyone gets distracted again when they realize he paired up popular people with unpopular people. And Jeff freaks when he finds out Todd is the popular one in their pairing (Todd is 4. Jeff is 5.). So they argue some more and attempt to find out who picked who until Britta sets the paper on fire and drops it into the container with Todd's turtle, the only thing anyone had gotten in terms of completing the project. This is Todd's breaking point and he rants to the study group about how he thought they were friends and how their love is weird and destructive, before going home to hold his wife and baby. The group pretty much ignores what he said, and Jeff prepares to leave too when he realizes that class is in 15 minutes.
So ultimately Professor Kane labels the study group the "mean clique", and decides that they will all work together with one set of supplies and get one grade. They also fail the Terrarium project. This should be an interesting development for the course of the season, with their academic fates now tied more closely than ever before. If anything, Biology looks to be a much tougher course to pass than Anthropology was and that's a good thing. And now the group that only wanted to be together gets what they wanted. And they all bond again, by making fun of Todd again, who is right in front of them and can hear everything they say. Soo cruel but soo funny.
Meanwhile Chang continues his life as a security guard, deciding he wants to make detective. When he's informed there is no such thing as security guard detective, he begins narrating his day, like a noir detective film and through a series of unrelated incidents, becomes convinced that he has uncovered a massive conspiracy involving the Arizona Match Company. This is a fine and funny story, as it continues to show Chang is a good comedic fit in a non-teaching position of power. The best part of this story is the pay-off, as Chang accidentally sets fire to the closet he's been secretly living in as part of his agreement with the Dean and assumes it was part of the conspiracy. His boss thinks there is a squatter on campus, which breaks a lot of health codes, but rather than call the cops, the Dean claims there must be a conspiracy in order to cover his tracks. Unable to take the Dean enabling Chang, who he believes to be seriously mentally ill, the head security guard quits, leading to the Dean promoting Chang to head of security. As the Dean wonders if he's done the right thing for the school in his internal monolgue, Chang's has been replaced with insane laughter. Uh oh. All in all, another great week for season 3.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-Greendale now has pay water fountains with two-drink minimums reflected in tuition.
-Troy's excuse for breaking up with lab partner: "I really need to catch up on Breaking Bad". Yes, you do Troy.
-Troy really wants to be partners with Britta. Hmmm.
-Jeff: "Now before anyone goes putting Todd last, remember he comes with a turtle".
-Based on Abed's calculations, the rankings looked like this: 1. Annie. 2. Abed 3. Troy 4. Todd 5. Jeff 6. Britta 7. Pierce 8. Shirley
-Annie to Jeff: "Who are you always texting? Everyone you know is in this room".
-Magnitude made his season 3 debut this week. Pop Pop!
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