COMMUNITY: Basic Sandwich

With the knowledge of how the Save Greendale committee can actually save the school, Pelton and the group look into the video about the founder of the college – a man who was obsessed with computer who sealed off that part of campus from everyone else.

The original founder also has money and gold, and there’s a way for the group to get to the sub-level where their journey will either end in a blaze of glory of the tragic shame of defeat.

In the staff lounge, Hickey goes at a wall with a pick-ax as a way to try and find the hidden stairwell, and after exposing lots of wires, Duncan goes a little fried. He spends the rest of the episode recovering from electrocution, and actually looks pretty good.

Jeff, now a killjoy, says that he and Britta are getting married and that everyone should give up the hunt for this trap door and quest. But he still goes down with Abed, Annie, Pelton, and Britta to the sub-basement, leaving Shirley, Hickey and Duncan to fend off the School Board members and Chang.

With the group looking through the dusty halls long since abandoned, Annie has a moment that speaks to which version of Greendale the group is saving: the one she wants, where she and Jeff can be together, or the one where Jeff and Britta get married and fall apart.

A very obvious way to open the door (a song called “Open the Doors” by the Secret Doors), the group finds gold, and the original computer, plus the old Dean himself – who looks like a crazed man with too long nails and too long hair.

Shirley and Hickey are interrogated by the School Board and Chang, just so that that side can get ahold of the money. One technique doesn’t work, but a student does find the passage to ruin our teams plans.

In a moment of clarity, Annie has the important speech about wanting what we want and it’s all for nothing because the dean has a couple of million dollars, which the School Board steals before one of them kills the Dean’s original computer with a magnet and leaves everyone trapped.

The poor computer is nearly lost, but not quite and while that leads to a demonstration of emotional feeling I never wanted to see on television, it also allows Jeff to think about all the good memories he has of everyone trapped with him and that brings the computer back and frees them.

Jeff, using some of his actual legal knowledge, saves the Greendale we all know and Subway forgoes buying the school. The idea of working with the crazed looking dean was enough to get everyone what they wants and there’s a great David Matthews’ Band celebration.

Chang has a new job working for the School Board, and then takes all of that discovered money and gets diamonds on all of his teeth rather than turn it in.

Greendale is saved and hopefully we’ll have another season of Community next year. Or else maybe Abed’s wish about an asteroid is right. But if it’s not, maybe some of those shows in the tag will be on NBC’s lineup next year.