Last night’s Community was kind of an odd one, and that’s saying a lot compared to the last two weeks, which took place in Russia and didn’t seem to follow the main characters at all. I don’t know what that was about, but I’m glad we’re back on track at least.
The main focus last night seemed to be on Professor Duncan and his friendship with Jeff and all around character development, so it seems like they’re finally committing to more John Oliver on the show, which is pretty great.
Duncan asks for Jeff’s help in his slightly-more-than-mildly creepy quest to get close to Britta, and his advice is to lure her in by pretending to take an interest in a cause. Stay classy, guys.
Sadly, it totally works.
Duncan isn’t too happy when the entire rest of the group jumps on board and wants to go to a charity event for starving children with cleft palates along with him and Britta. Well, except for Abed, who wants to go to the Kickpuncher movie reboot, and no one tries to convince him otherwise, because he’s Abed.
Duncan is especially excited when they all pressure Jeff into going, too.
So, they all wind up at the charity event. Except for Chang. Maybe. I don’t know; he was too busy with a weird The Shining-reference storyline. Britta sees some old activist friends and decides to snub our… um… heroes? And go hang out with them. So, Duncan decides to go the route of waiting to comfort Britta after some kind of breakdown as Jeff gets ready to go.
But, when Britta’s old activist buddies have her make a short speech, Jeff seems to be starting to remember what he liked about Britta in the first place (a running theme this season). He decides to stick around a bit longer, which he tells Duncan is due to his huge drinking problem, and Duncan responds like a true friend.
Abed, on the other hand, is Kickpunching around the school, though it remains to be seen if his punches are as strong as kicks. He eventually winds up in Hickey’s office, where he accidentally ruins some of the professor’s cartoons. Hickey decides to teach him a lesson by making him miss his movie, and he and Abed wind up stuck together for an oddly serious bonding storyline.
Jeff finally admits his feelings for Britta to Duncan, but he agrees to give his friend an hour to see if his plan will work.
Sadly, it does.
Back at the school, Abed and Hickey have a heartfelt moment and an apology, which causes Abed to explode when Hickey still insists on teaching him a lesson.
“I’m yelling I’m yelling I’m yelling!”
Abed finally caves when he realizes there’s nothing he can do about missing the movie, and Hickey lets him go.
Duncan is in the car with Britta as he takes her home, but they have an actual, meaningful conversation, and Duncan realizes that he shouldn’t take advantage of Britta. He also realizes that he doesn’t want to get in the way of Jeff and Britta, because of their friendship.
He handles this realization super maturely.
So, he and Jeff have a boys’ night together, and they even develop their own little best friend handshake that I sincerely hope doesn’t become a thing.
Abed has calmed down, and he and Hickey are going to work on tightening up a movie script Abed has written about a cop named Police Justice, which I now desperately want to read.
In the end, despite there not being any huge laughs, everyone has had some pretty decent character growth except Annie and Shirley.
And Chang, who suddenly thinks he might not exist.
(images via Community)
- Here’s the “leaked” full Ass Crack Bandit song
- And here’s what happened on the previous episode
- And the one before that, where they all played “The Floor Is Lava”
