I wasn’t totally in love with last week’s episode of Community, but this week it came back fighting. While Jeff’s complete and utter mental breakdown in the face of a “cooler” classmate was pretty funny, it was really Tony Hale‘s aversion to “Ghosting” that made the episode for me, especially because I’d bet that storyline comes out of a real truth. Can you imagine how many people in the past 20 years have made a Ghost joke any time they’ve gotten within 10 feet of a potter’s wheel? My conservative estimate would be all of them.
As much as I agree with the writers’ decision to vary the plot and mix up the characters a little bit, I have to say that not seeing Troy and Abed together at all in this episode made me a little sad. As much as I love Ken Jeong, at the end of each episode, I look forward to seeing another Troy and Abed adventure. So while I did get a kick out of Senor Chang getting robbed at the YMCA yet again, I missed Troy and Abed.
As far as the sailing class goes, it was all about Pierce. The writers have done a really good job of not making him a completely pathetic character. Even though he’s a truly ridiculous individual, he shows enough glimmers of insight to make him believable, instead of some pathetic sad-sack. That way, we don’t feel nearly as guilty when we laugh at him.
Community also went the extra mile when it came to the payoff to the pottery story. I really see this as a two part thing: the first part was when Jeff exited the class with a bang, or an Unchained Melody, as it were. I love that he looked at the situation, realized he was screwed, and decided to just make it a grand exit. The second part was the very end, when it was revealed that not only was Rich an expert pottery maker, but he was nearly Norman Bates-like in his obsession with it. I don’t know why, but having the voice-over of his mother telling him that practicing being a doctor wasn’t going to bring his brother back, completely cracked me up.
What was your favorite part of the episode?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Mar 18, 2010 @ 21:53 EST5EDT
This episode was freaking brilliant! I loved every part of it and thought the sailing plot was just as strong as the pottery one. Such a great show.
it’s driving me crazy – who did the voice of rich’s mother at the end?
also, did abed say ‘you’re goldbluming again’ to mchale, he was kind of channeling jeff goldblum acting crazy with the santa fe research – or did i hear that wrong?
*POST AUTHOR*
No, you definitely heard right. And he totally had a Goldblum face on, too!
They way Tony Hale molded that clay looked way too much like Buster Bluth giving a back-rub to be a coincidence.
An extremely well-done outing. What struck me most was the very cinematic music throughout the episode, as I normally don’t notice BGM at all.
What was that about trying not to sexualize Annie? Jeff and Abed weren’t blinking.
Even though he’s a truly ridiculous individual, he shows enough glimmers of insight to make him believable, instead of some pathetic sad-sack. That way, we don’t feel nearly as guilty when we laugh at him.
Yes, it was a bit weird to have this scene followed by the Jerry-centric storyline on Parks and Recreation right after.
*POST AUTHOR*
You’re absolutely right. I cover Parks and Rec for TV Squad, and I made that same comment. The whole Jerry thing made me uncomfortable– with the exception of Leslie’s Tom impression, which was just hilarious.