S3E7: Dear Community, you’re cute. This week’s episode wasn’t high concept or built on a colorful theme or gimmick, but it played perfectly on the very intricate personalities of the characters we’ve come to love over these past few years. Abed would be proud at how much we love these fictional people on our little televisions – and even the fact that I’m viewing this situation from Abed’s eyes would make him happy. Alright, I’m going to get into the recapping part before I start going in circles with this idea.
“Just because we’re awesome doesn’t mean we aren’t also adults.” – Troy
Annie’s finally moving out of her apartment above Dildopolous and she’s moving in with Troy and Abed. Everyone’s helping her move, including her new roommates who also created a Twitter hashtag for the occasion: #AnniesMove. They’re so excited, but in typical Troy and Abed fashion, they’re also “awesome.” They use all of Annie’s packing materials to tape Troy to the bathroom door and to build Abed a bubble wrap helmet, which sends Annie into a bit of a panic. Earlier, Britta said she’d end up hating Troy and Abed after living with them and she’s starting to think it’s true. Britta tells her to loosen up and it will all be fine – which means we get another instance of Annie doing a goofy little dance, which never fails to be adorable and hilarious.
With the help of her little loosey goosey dance (is it hyphenated, Annie? I’m not sure), she takes her boxes to her new abode away from Spaghetti Joe. There’s just one giant snag: Troy and Abed are using the second bedroom as a dreamatorium – which looks suspiciously like the Star Trek Holodeck, but I digress – and Annie’s room is a blanket fort in the living room. She tries to hang, but eventually she can’t take it. She storms out and says she won’t adapt to their needs anymore – because Annie is always the one who has to loosen up or relax. I love Troy and Abed as much as the next Community fan, but the girl’s got a point. They’re complete and total manchildren.
“Excuse me, Jesus, but what’s your point of view on marijuana?” –Britta
While helping Annie move, Shirley and Britta get into yet another argument over morals. Shirley is worried co-habitation will lead to sex and drugs for Troy, Abed and Annie and Britta once again outdoes her by being even more pious about second-guessing Shirley’s religion-based morals. Shirley is angry, but riding with Britta to the new apartment is a better option than hanging with Pierce, so she goes along with it.
Shirley’s on Britta’s case the whole ride and to prove she’s a good person despite her lack of religion, Britta picks up a hitchhiker along the way. At first, Shirley thinks she’s won the argument because the hitchhiker begins asking about their belief and acceptance of Jesus Christ, but he very quickly reveals that he thinks he is Jesus Christ. While Shirley squirms, Britta is enjoying the irony of it all and eggs “Jesus” on until he starts singing his racist song about not mixing people. Not even buzzkill Britta can deal with that and she kicks him out. Suddenly, Shirley and Britta seem to understand their differences, and all it took was a potentially murderous, psychotic hitchhiker to get them there.
“I’m just a Craig-ular Joe.” –Dean Pelton
But where’s Jeff in all this? After his very well-played ruse at the Gap in which he convinces Britta that he’s really at the hospital with the help of the sales clerk, Jeff thinks he’s home free. He got out of packing and he gets to buy 10 more identical button-ups from Banana Republic. Then the worst happens: Dean Pelton shows up and threatens to tell the study group where Jeff really was unless they share a day of fun together at the mall. What follows isn’t pretty. It’s fairly uncomfortable. It’s almost too much. But it’s completely deserved after everything Jeff has pulled this season.
They’ve really cranked up the douche in his character this year, so seeing the Dean force him into a romantic Mexican food lunch and then karaoke to “Kiss From a Rose” was just as satisfying as it was disturbing. And finding out that the Dean reads all of Jeff’s Greendale email because he can didn’t surprise anyone – come on, we already assumed he was doing something like that anyway.
While Jeff is getting his groove on with the dean, Pierce is trying to fix all of Annie’s little security deposit hazards at her old apartment. But of course, he ends up screwing everything up, getting high off paint fumes and ruining the whole place. He takes Annie to get her boxes from Troy and Abed’s but they’ve already given her the bedroom so they can live in the blanket fort instead. In the end, everything’s right as rain and everyone’s friends again – even Jeff who shows up and admits that he lied to get out of helping, for which they easily forgive him. They already saw his little performance thanks to the dean’s Twitter, so I guess they figured that was punishment enough.
This episode wasn’t mind-blowing. It wasn’t out there. But it was rich with character. It felt like hanging out with your hilarious, messed up friends – but those that could really only exist on television – for a half hour. And sometimes, that’s all you need.
