COMMUNITY: Advanced Documentary Filmmaking

This week the gang is studying Changnesia, and looking into the process of the study of Changnesia through another documentary. With the help of Abed’s documentary process, maybe we’ll all learn more about the group and about the way that the group responds to Kevin as he is now.

Much like “Pillows and Blankets”, the narrative structure follows the group around as they try to understand much of what happened to Chang before his Changnesia, leaving us with disparate smaller groups looking into the mystery of Kevin and his Changnesia. To that end, the school has also taken a hit trying to study Changnesia and is looking for money to the McGuffin Institute to gain $40,000 for the school and their study. This all means that the McGuffin Institute is going to be subjected to the study group and Dean Pelton in the end, which should never turn out well for anyone.

As always, Jeff is not interested in any studies about Changnesia, because he still believes the disease is fake and Chang is just baiting everyone. Everyone else is still so enamored with Kevin that Jeff looks ready to just leave the group behind, if not for his dependency on people.

Shirley, as the voice of reason, convinces Jeff that he should give Kevin a second chance, if only because Greendale gave Jeff that same second chance at the beginning of the show. But, that’s all a ploy, really, to expose Chang as a fraud, which Abed seems to agree with.

On board with the program, Jeff gets the group to look into Kevin’s past, sending Annie and Troy off to find where Kevin was after the end of last year and before he came back – that leads them to Sullivan’s Trout Farm.

Britta and Shirley are going to look into Kevin’s daily life, and in that moment Kevin walks into the study room and reveals that his short-term memory is not suffering, only his long-term memory. Britta’s about to Britta up her video with Shirley, cutting when she meant to record. Who knows what the story or the song were now.

Piece’s bit is horrible – including blackface and yellow face hand puppets – though that goes without saying.

At the Trout Farm, Annie and Troy discover that Kevin worked for free for a few months. Annie’s curious about the increase in productivity during the height of allergy season, and it turns out that Kevin was working without pay for those three months. Sullivan’s dog is also named Kevin, which explains a bit about the new name Chang adopted.

Jeff is still not sure about Chang, but as Jeff and Abed watch the footage from Britta and Shirley, they see Kevin make a phone call. But to whom is he calling?

Everyone from the McGuffin Institute looks offended at Pierce’s jokes, and Jeff’s presentation starts with Chang’s ex-wife, Alessandra. The footage that Jeff and Abed found revealed that Kevin was dialing Alessandra’s number. He kept calling the number and hanging up because he was unsure if Kevin would be wanted. Jeff tries again, and kisses Alessandra, and Kevin has no reaction at all.

Despite all of the difficulties, the McGuffin Institute will fund the Changnesia study. Jeff’s biggest failure is now recorded for all time.

Kevin walks up to Jeff in the cafeteria after it all and they start to form a friendship. The Dean is offended at the end that the documentary is not what it was meant to be at the beginning, as always, but that really doesn’t matter in the end.

It turns out Kevin really is still Chang, and he has someone else working with him to help this whole plan. Why am I not surprised at this?

Well, because it’s Chang. He’s always going to be evil.

Community airs Thursdays on NBC (8-8:30 p.m. ET).