Meanwhile, Jeff has declared to the study group that he has taken some online courses over the summer, and now only needs one history credit to graduate. Hence his eagerness to get into The History of Ice Cream – the only history course that’s currently available at Greendale – and his subsequent determination to win the “Hunger Deans”, Dean Pelton’s homage to The Hunger Games that would determine who gets into the hugely popular course.
The imminency of Jeff’s early graduation and the realization of how ready Jeff is to move on from Greendale life only heightens Abed’s anxiety: as the Hunger Deans unfold and Jeff continues to win more challenges, Abed retreats again and again into his fantasy Greendale sitcom. In it, he imagines that the Dean has lost all the student records, and as a result, everyone has to do the last three years of college over again. Yet even this imaginative rendering is not enough to soothe Abed, since sitcom!Annie (now a Forensics major) has found a way to retrieve everyone’s records. Like her actual counterpart, sitcom!Britta encourages Abed to go to his happy place, and he retreats into a second fantasy world within the first: a cartoon called Greendale Babies in which everyone stays a baby at Greendale Daycare…forever.
Frankly, this Abed arc worries me a lot. He’s always been emotionally detached than the others (at least on the surface), but to have him actually check out of reality and into his TV-infatuation-induced imagination for the majority of an episode? Yikes. I thought the show’s already explored the darkest of Abed’s psychological issues with the appearance of Evil Abed at the end of last season, but this episode seems to foreshadow more troubling things to come.
Back to Jeff, whose willingness to win has him dancing a tango with a very enthusiastic Dean Pelton. Jeff gets the Dean to admit that he cancelled the other History class at Greendale and orchestrated the Hunger Deans to stop Jeff from graduating at the end of the semester. When he is on the verge of winning the games, Jeff decides to ditch the last event to help break Abed out of his escapist reverie. In the meantime, Leonard has stolen the red balls that marked Jeff’s winnings, which means bye-bye History of Ice Cream for the study group.
In the last few moments of the episode, the Dean tells Jeff that he’s moved in next door (is it just me or is this kind of creepy?), and Chang reappears at an unspecified location as “Kevin”, who has “Changnesia”. What?! Well, I guess that’s one way to leave us hanging.
To be honest, I watched the premiere with some reservations, because I was concerned that Community wouldn’t be the same without Harmon. I’m glad this episode proved me wrong; it wasn’t without its off moments, but overall, a strong first showing to mark the return of the best comedy on television.
Random Remarks:
- The post-credits scene is another look inside Abed’s Happy Community College Show: Troy and Abed are dressed up as girls to get into Antics 101 (“You need a tomfoolery prereq, but they waive it for women!”). They avoid getting caught by the Dean, who mistakes Britta for a guy instead. HAH.
- Pierce’s only function in this episode was to stare intensely at the red balls Jeff earned as winnings for the Hunger Deans, and eventually coming up with the joke: “Gay balls”. He finds it hilarious. I could have done with less Pierce in this episode.
- In Abed’s imaginary sitcom, Pierce is played by Fred Willard, while everyone else plays themselves. Interesting.
- I loved how meta the sitcom parody was. Nice insight into what this show could have been like if it’d gone the Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother route.
- I also enjoyed the running gag with the hipster glasses. (Cliffsnotes version: in Abed’s sitcom they’ve become a ‘fad’, but everyone takes them off when Pierce is seen wearing them. In Greendale, Britta and Jeff are the only ones wearing the frames…that is, until Jeff sees Britta wearing them and takes his off.)
- Minor characters who appeared in this episode: Leonard, Annie Kim, Garrett, Vicki, and Fat Neil. I miss Magnitude (Pop, Pop!).