COMMUNITY: Remedial Choas Theory & Jeff Is a Conniving Jerk

Community presented a mind-boggle with this week’s alternate timelines episode.

We’re finally introduced to Troy and Abed’s (or Trobed’s) new apartment as they host a housewarming party. It starts out with a random joke about if their new apartment was 303 or 304 (the actual episode this season) and what comes next is nothing but what felt like an extended version of a game I’ve seen in competitive improvisation.

At the party proper, the group is playing a game of Yahtzee! (though no one knows how to actually play it, save Pierce) and to avoid being the one to get the pizza when it arrives, the group is sent into seven different realities that take into consideration what will happen when each person leaves to get the pizza downstairs. A few basic items remain the same through most of the scenarios – Britta trying to sing along to “Roxanne”, Jeff hitting his head on the ceiling fan, a very horrible story about Pierce and Eartha Kitt, Shirley’s obsession with pie right now and Britta’s solution to be high instead of face the party alone. However, in each different story some of the story changes, including one where the apartment nearly catches on fire, Pierce is shot and Troy is traumatized by an evil Norwegian troll Pierce had given him as a housewarming present.

There’s really no good way to summarize each different spin on the same basic scene, but that’s really the point. It’s about the absurd moments in between. In the end Abed saves them from any of those realities by snagging the die before it can land and calling out Jeff on his selfishness. The party ends with everyone except Jeff singing and dancing to “Roxanne”. “I can’t leave you alone for a minute,” Jeff pretends to grumble as he contentedly watches them goofing around.

As it would have to be, the tag ends with Abed from the worst version (where Pierce is shot and a fire set) suggesting that they all become evil versions of themselves and go back to replace themselves from that first timeline. However, even that isn’t true, because all of the episode is a dream of Abed’s–meaning that nothing like that ever happened at all.