COMMUNITY: “Competitive Ecology” and Outsider Todd

Community went for character study this week, and it didn’t quite work.

Instead we’re getting to Chang’s scary new life in the boiler room, with a mannequin leg named Veronica, who he seems to have fallen in love with (is that a Lars and the Real Girl shout out?).

Then we move to the group walking to Biology, where Pierce is happy to pay a quarter for water, all in the name of increasing revenue to keep tuition down at Greendale. Of course that also means that we watch Dean Pelton hit on Jeff as they walk to class, which is about five different levels of awkward. Also, Annie doesn’t know who Nick Nolte is, which is sort of funny.

By the time that we’re in Biology this week, I’m so very much with the gang when they all complain about a terrarium (it’s another diorama, and after Anthropology, I’d be tired of them too). Making them with random lab partners might be even worse, if I’m being honest. Getting the professor to let them work as the study group instead of with their random partners would have been good, but it resulted in many awkward break-up conversations and all of the awkwardness that was to come from the rest of the episode. Pierce is odd man out, as usual, but he does find Todd to work with him.

What comes next for the study group is trying to avoid working with their naturally assigned partners (Annie not wanting to carry Jeff, Britta put off by Shirley’s constant baby pictures, Troy and Abed spending too much time together). It’s far too awkward for my own taste, but I’ve come to expect that from the show. It also results in the group trying to find some equitable way to pair off, which has Abed creating an algorithm based on everyone’s popularity, leading to more than a few hurt feelings (Jeff was 5, Shirley 8), before no one actually gets anything done at all.

It also doesn’t help that the other side of the episode has Chang turning his work as security guard into some film noir, complete with voiceover and slightly creepy glances at people around campus. The end result, sadly, is that Chang’s make-shift home goes up in flames, but he does get to be head security guard as a result.

After an internal meltdown that leaves Outsider Todd aghast, the study group must face working together as a collective for their grades all semester, and being known in class as the “Mean Clique” before going back to being catty about everyone else in the class. I’m pretty sure that no one has learned anything from their failed terrarium, but it’s not too surprising.

I won’t even touch the button, if only because I don’t think those jokes actually deserve credit.

All in all, it was a more confined episode, but it really did miss all of the heart that I’d enjoyed the week before.

Community airs Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.