After the A**-crack bandit, Lava floors and Meow Meow Beans, it was beginning to feel crowded in the fifth season with concept episodes. But who can blame Harmon? After getting the okay for only 13 episodes this season, you must admire all the creativity and zany ideas that we have had so far. Still, it was nice to see a proper Community episode without too much on top, and this episode delivers in two nicely separated sections.
The first is the case of the stolen textbooks, which leads to Hickey, Jeff, Shirley and Britta starting up a underground black market for the goods. It was refreshing to get every single major character on the screen for more than just a few lines this episode, something we haven't seen for a long time. I'm not sure if anyone else felt this way, but this episode felt much fuller compared to all the others of S5. Normally I would be glancing at the minutes and be disappointed that I was already half way through, but this time around they managed to fit everyone in bar Duncan and even 2 minor characters as well. I was left feeling more than satisfied.
Not much actually happened in the dusty storeroom but they managed to keep it alive with the dialogue. Chang's roles in S5 have been varied, extremely interesting and catered to the acting talents of Ken Jeong, and this one is no exception. Hickey once again impresses with his dry wit and cynicism, Banks not missing a beat in his portrayal. For once I was happy with Jeff taking a back seat and letting Shirley have more lines. Her scene with the book buyer was short but hilarious, as was the cut to all four being tied up by her after a struggle. Britta as a character hasn't looked this gorgeous since early season 1, and her straight no-nonsense role is yet another improvement from the past.
But the ones who stole the show were Abed and Annie in their fight to get their preferable room-mates. Both characters are remarkably uptight at times, and it shows in the hilarious scenes of them acting out in front of the VCR game. It had the perfect mix of ridiculous with the serious competitive looks on both their faces.
I was somewhat disappointed with Annie's brother. Throughout the episode, he was dull, quiet and added little to the scene. I'm not sure what Harmon and co. were trying to achieve here, but it is comparable to the baffling portrayal of Jeff's half brother Willy, who I didn't like either. However, Anthony redeemed himself in the end with a couple of short lines, first remarking on the absence of Troy causing a rift in the apartment, then with a brilliant delivery on how he had nothing to with Annie's drug addiction. Annie is much of a manipulative character to bring that up and trying to shift the blame on him, as she does to other members of the study group at times, and it was great to see Anthony call her out on it.
I was still half hearted about Rachel up until this episode, but she has fully won me over. Her chemistry with Abed is great, and it really brings out the non-robotic side of him when he is around. Her line when she gets up to leaves was really raw and emotional, but I wish they didn't try to slip in the VCR joke there. Still, the locker scene was downright adorable. It is really nice to Abed incorporate a reference into his apology but not speak in references like he always does. It continues the great scene of him tied up with Hickey which led me to believe that Abed is truly hitting a stride with his real life identity and how he always seems to get away with everything. Hickey and now Rachel has brought him back to earth and it shows that there are great things to come for Abed. I really hope the relationship isn't shafted aside like Troy and Britta, but that will probably require Brie Larson for every episode, which probably won't happen.
Hmm, call me crazy, but I don't miss Troy and Pierce that much.
8.5/10
Stray observations
- The coda was funny, but probably could have been a tad more subtle.
- I feel conflicted about the Dean Scene. On one hand, it is nice to have normal Dean after so many gimmicks from gas-leak year. On the other, him breaking down at the end was hilarious.
- Cool. Just a single cool. I liked the moment, really shows Abed's growth.
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