COMMUNITY: Heroic Origins

One of my favorite lyrics (well one of many) comes from Regina Spektor and goes like this: I’m the hero of the story, I don’t need to be saved. By the time that I was finished with this week’s episode, those words say something utterly different, and for all the best reasons.

It seems that Cornwallis’ plan from last week didn’t work, so now the Study Group, minus Pierce – who has donated a kidney- is studying for the final. I’ve known some crazy professors before, but never one who would assign one final and then another within the same semester. I’m really starting to wonder about the caliber of teachers at Greendale now. Only instead of wanting to study the course’s final, Abed wants to study the group itself and has a theory that they were all destined to meet each other at some point in their lives. What unfolds next is a look back at 2008 and how the group all managed to cross paths in unexpected ways, some for good and some for the worst.

Before the credits role, however, the mystery of Changnesia is revealed. Kevin’s been working for City College’s dean to ruin Greendale all year. That is a dedicated plot, I will say, but when I think about it more, the City College dean’s been out for Pelton and everyone at Greendale since the show started. Maybe his plan is just a little more on the long-con than I ever thought possible. The latest way that Kevin can make Greendale pay, it seems, is to not mail the School’s lease renewal. I don’t know if I’d rather have a Greendale Community College of a Greendale Gaming Resort, but that’s not the point of this storyline. Is it?

Jeff is disbelieving of the whole idea that Abed’s putting forth today and really wants to get down to studying, but Abed starts back on a journey of 2008 with Annie at her high school: complete with braces, glasses, her Adder-all and her awkward moments with really popular Troy. Shirley is a firm Obama supporter and talking to Andre about their night alone for their anniversary. Britta and Jeff were at the same courthouse, though Britta’s got some rockin’ purple hair and a nose ring that connects to her ear. After a few minutes of Abed explaining, it turns out that Jeff defended the stripper who slept with Andre later, just after Shirley left their anniversary dinner for unknown reasons. This origin story is turning out to be less awesome than I originally thought and so. I mean, Annie had some serious issues – not that we didn’t know that before – but watching her near invisibility compared with Troy’s overbearing nature is a shock to the system of what we’ve all come to expect from the show.

Troy points out that Annie ruined Troy’s time in high school by being there when Troy ruined his knee, because Annie said something about Troy at a party. In truth, Troy swept the campus superlatives at this party and that made Annie snap and run through the window. Magnitude was also at the party and discovers his catch-phrase. This is a live that all comes together in very strange ways, but I wouldn’t expect that the show couldn’t find perfect way for the group to have been around each other before being the Study Group.

Back to other stories of how the group met, Shirley does complain about picking up her boys from the theatre and that is what makes Shirley leave Andre early. The boys have been harassed by a younger Abed, who goes to theatres specifically to warn people off of the Star Wars prequels, only Shirley’s boys are not so keen on this man telling them that they’ve made a horrible choice. The pieces all come together in that moment, Abed realizes he is responsible for all the bad as well as all the good for the group – back to that one singular moment at the theatre with Shirley’s boys as it spiraled down into everything else. So Abed wants to be both hero and villain, but Jeff tries to take the blame by using his horror story of the stripper to prove the point. I can’t tell if I want to believe that either Abed or Jeff are the villains of the story; I’d give each of them more of a show at the anti-hero than anything else, but let’s drop that before the conversation goes off on a tangent.

Realizations make the group disband for the sake of not hurting everyone’s feelings any more than have already been done, only Abed and Jeff turn up at the same yogurt place together. Maybe Abed didn’t ruin everything, because now Shirley, Britta, Annie and Troy all arrive. Standing there, they all realize that group all decided to go to Greendale at the same place – the yogurt shop they’re all in now. Also, we learn that Shirley is responsible for the Dean’s love of women’s clothing because she threw away her nice lingerie just as Pelton and Chang were spreading fliers for Greendale all around the mall. It really is a small world after all.

“Don’t You Forget About Me” plays as the group remembers finding their flier and it all starts to remind me of the Pilot in so many ways. Also, is it just me or is Pierce the old guy who broke the fro-yo machine? Looking back on it now, all of the group isn’t sure of that fact, but for the sake of making everyone having been at the same place on the same day, let’s say that was.

Is there really Free Will for everyone here or was it all predestined to be? Everyone in the group is Uncle Ben’s murder and Spider-Man at the same time, according to Abed (using that as the reference that everyone would understand because we all know enough about Spider-Man). Well, maybe it wasn’t them, but Chang all along, and that’s for everyone’s benefit. Kevin has a moment of love for the group, even as he realizes that he might have screwed everything up. Kevin admits that he’s been faking it all along and Abed might not actually know that Chang’s been playing everyone all year, but it might not matter. Kevin’s going to happily mail the lease renewal, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to satisfy the City College Dean, who has some crazy plan B.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d be worried for our group, but somehow I have faith in humanity and Greendale conquering City College for the final time and putting an end to that plot.

Community airs on Thursdays at 8 Eastern/7 Central on NBC.