S2:E8 Community is determined to prove that it’s not your father’s sitcom. Every episode takes typical sitcom and film tropes and turns them upside down, and this episode was no different. The gang takes on the concept of the “bottle episode” or a hallmark of lazy episodic television, and often a situation when the cast is forced to stay in one location for most of the episode. Generally, these types of episodes focus on characters’ quirks and dialogue. The great thing about this episode’s satire of the bottle episode is that the cast is so unique, each of them have such great quirks, style and comedic talents that the type of episode that should make us groan actually becomes an opportunity to indulge in 22 minutes of some of the most entertaining characters on TV.
The group is working on a project for Professor Duncan in the study room (yes, he actually put together an assignment) when, the dean walks in carrying the cutest puppy ever (and I was immediately distracted) and invites them all to a puppy parade hosted by the local shelter; Troy is stoked, he’s been waiting to finally figure out if wiener dogs are born that way or get wienery later. Pierce is still stuck in a wheelchair with two broken legs thanks to the trampoline incident last week, and his super high tech chair seems to have a mind of its own. Whoops. In the midst of the puppy news, Annie loses her pen and starts panicking. The gang leaves, saying they don’t know what happened to her pen, but Annie’s not taking it. After a little speech about how it’s the eighth pen she’s lost to the group, Shirley intervenes and says they’ll be more respectful in the future. But just as they try to leave again, Annie freaks out and screams at the top of her lungs. That’ll get their attention.
To solve the mystery, the whole group searches the study room, but they can’t seem to find it. Annie won’t take “I don’t know” for an answer, forcing them to continue looking for the pen. She even took a photo that proves it must be in the study room – calm down, Gollum, it’s not the Ring, you can buy another “precious” at Staples. Chill out. Troy reaches for some gum in his bag and she freaks out again – I guess they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Of course Abed points out that things are starting to look like a bottle episode and Annie starts to get worried that Abed took her pen just to create a meta situation to tickle his reality challenged funny bone, but Abed insists that he wouldn’t because he hates bottle episodes because it’s just a lot of facial expressions and nuances. I guess that means Dan Harmon and friends are going to show us how to do a bottle episode right.
Britta tries to escape, but of course Annie refuses, requesting to search her bag before she can leave. Britta dives into a monologue about this loss of privacy turning into an Orwellian world of thought police and zero freedom. Wow, they’re really going hard with the “Britta’s an uber-liberal rebel” thing this season. They keep pushing her, so she finally dumps her purse shouting “Welcome to the machine!” as she continues to yell about losing freedom. Blah, blah, blah. Jeff finds a string of six condoms, and Britta comes back with a sarcastic quip – am I sensing some residual jealousy there?
The puppy parade is announced and Troy and Abed get up to go (duh, showing up halfway through a puppy parade would be pointless), Britta’s pissed and tells them they can’t go either, waving the Patriot Act as ammunition. Nope. That’s not how that works. Shirley once again tries to be Mom, apologizing for accusing her and looking at her “prophylactic equipment.” Annie says if Shirley accidentally took it, she’ll forgive her (damn, that was a quick switch back to sugary sweet). Pierce lends his old man (racist) opinion, saying that statistically, the thief is Troy. Whoa. Whoa. Of course, Troy didn’t take it, and he turns it back on Pierce and his itchy double leg cast. (They’ve lost three DVD remotes already.) We can know for sure, because his pain meds are clearly messing with his brain.
Jeff takes his seat as the “leader” of the group, trying to explain the situation (albeit with Abed’s bottle episode comments in the background – he is not happy about this little experiment). Jeff promises amnesty to the thief if they come forward, but all that does is make everyone accuse him. He freaks out, closing all the doors of the library, canceling his date with the “catch,” and declaring that it’s a bottle episode. For once, Abed’s not alone in this.
Jeff sets up a bag-searching station and goes through everyone’s bags in search for Annie’s precious. They get to Abed’s and find a chart in his bag. It turns out he’s been charting their menstrual cycles so that he can better know how to speak to them on a daily basis – and apparently it’s been working (he knew to give Annie chocolate when she freaked out about the pen earlier). Annie starts crying and Abed is prepared with tissues and chocolate. Creepy, but effective…well until Annie figures it out and flips again. But with that, Shirley is the only one left to search and she’s refusing to cooperate. Pierce fakes a sudden pain so he can steal Shirley’s bag, and when Jeff opens it, they find a pregnancy test. Of course my brain went straight to CHANG’S BABY. Shirley says she’s rekindled with her cheating hubby, but Abed uses his chart show that she wasn’t ovulating over the weekend, but she was on Halloween…which means I’m totally right. Her ongoing fight with Britta over religious rules about sex comes to a boiling point just before Jeff finally loses it, tearing the library apart to find this stupid pen.
Annie yells for them to stop because it’s just a pen, but this just makes Jeff turn on her and accuse her of finding the pen and keeping it secret since she’s the reason the whole thing started. They start strip searching themselves in anger (and dudes everywhere rejoice at seeing Annie in her bra), but Abed demands that they divide the room by gender and have everyone strip searched. They do it, but no one finds the pen, so the guys go crazy and cut off Pierce’s casts in hopes of finding it in there. They find a whole host of other disgusting things but no pen and everyone’s left standing in their underwear – since when did Abed get so cut?
Instead of solving the mystery, the gang is left defeated. As Abed points out, it’s time for a Jeff Winger speech “to take us home.” After exhausting every possible location of the pen, Jeff says that it’s more likely that ghost took it (Troy’s been saying that the whole time, guys) than it is that one of the people in the study group doesn’t belong there. But why would a ghost need a pen? Well, Troy’s got the Paranormal activity-fueled answer. As Troy tells the ghost story, the group listens lovingly and eventually leaves the room together and smiling. Aww. But back in the study room, something’s stirring. It turns out that Annie’s Boobs are the ones who stole all the pens – and whole slew of other study group paraphernalia. I missed that little monkey.
Even though the ballpoint-pengate forced us to miss what would have been an adorable puppy parade, the tag leaves us with a little recap of the cuddly pups complete with narration from Greendale’s creepy dean. I’m convinced he probably shouldn’t be allowed to be that close to puppies after his strange confession about puppy fetishes last year.
