Community Rewatch- 1x16, 1x17, & 1x18

Now I have "Annie's Song" stuck in my head. Thanks Vaughn. It's not even a good song... Anyway! We're coming to the tail end of the first season! I forgot how great this season was, honestly. I haven't seen a lot of these episodes in a while. So let's keep going!

1x16- Communication Studies

Episode Rundown- It's Valentine's Day, Human Beings! And this is a great episode. Like one of my favorites from the first season. So the episode opens with Jeff checking his voicemail and what do you know? He has a drunk message from Britta. Oh the humanity... He, of course, teases her about this nonstop all day, until she tells him to leave her alone for a little while. He tells Abed she's being super weird and Abed decides they must reenact the situation to restore the balance in their relationship. Though at first Jeff thinks this is a stupid idea, Abed explains that Britta's "thing" is that she cuts and runs and if Jeff continues to push her, she may leave and they'll all lose her. So Jeff decides to go along with it and oh jeez, what a drunken night they have...

Meanwhile, Troy and Pierce are upset when they don't receive any gifts from the Cupid Being, mainly because they don't have girlfriends. They send themselves gifts, but Chang finds out and finds this so ridiculous he spends an entire class making fun of them for being single. To get back at him, Annie and Shirley write a fake letter from Princeton offering Chang a job there, but he sees right through the joke and assumes the letter is from Pierce and Troy. As punishment for attempting to prank him, he forces them to escort him to the Valentine's Day dance, which they do, reluctantly. Annie and Shirley confess that they were the ones who sent the letter, but in an act of chivalry, Pierce and Troy take their punishment anyway.

When Jeff wakes up in Abed's dorm the next morning, he finds he made two outgoing calls the night before- one to Britta and one to Slater. Slater is super pissed at him when he arrives at the dance that night and he finds out it's because he called her only to hang up when he realized she wasn't Britta. Oops. So he's in the doghouse and Britta decides to mess with him a little, of course. But when Slater sees the two of them talking, she assumes the worst and then it's Britta to rescue, where she plays the first twenty seconds of a forty-minute, "very informative," drunk message, in which Jeff confesses Slater is the "perfect girlfriend." The two kiss and make up, literally, but as they're leaving, it's Jeff's turn to "look back" at Britta. What did I say earlier? The ultimate pinnacle of hope! ;)

The tag is pretty hilarious. Pierce and Troy, dressed to the nines in their ladies pantsuits Chang forced them to wear, are planning on leaving, but Chang drives up to the school on his moped and Pierce climbs on. They're going for frozen yogurt and didn't invite Troy! As they drive away, Troy shouts out, "SLUT!" You tell 'em, Troy!

What Was Great

~ The drunk dial- "Jeff Winger! I am calling you! You're probably... Whatever. So, wazzzupppp?!"

~ Abed explaining sarcasm. "I'm Abed! I never watch TV!"

~ Annie and Shirley being badasses. Love 'em.

~ Jeff basically doing everything to save his friendship with Britta. It's so cute how he wants friendships now, considering he wanted nothing to do with these people at the beginning of the year.

~ The entire drunk scene with Abed and Jeff. Oh my god. Everything was perfect.

~ Friends reference!

~ Jeff's description of Britta is spot on: "She wants everyone to be honest, but lies to herself. She's seen the world, but doesn't get it. She has more fights about stuff that doesn't matter than a YouTube comment section. She's passionate, which I find stupid... But entertaining." So great.

~ Jeff's drunk message: "So look... I am really happy with Michelle. Don't get me wrong, she's a perfect girlfriend. And I want you to be as happy as me because you're like my favorite friend so hahahaha. I'm sorry. Abed just made a turtle face."

~ Hungover, "broken" Abed. "I don't remember the name of the girl in The Breakfast Club. Mary. Margaret. Molly Ringworm. You broke me." HAHA.

~ The fantastic tag. 'Nuff said.

What Wasn't So Great

~ UGH. Chang! No one knows how to ruin a scene quite like Ken Jeong.

Rating

I loved this episode so much. I would give it a nine out of ten. Seriously. It's that fab. And it makes up for the awful season 2 V-Day episode. Ugh.

1x17- Physical Education

Episode Rundown- This is the infamous naked pool episode! So basically, Jeff thinks he's going to be super cool and play pool dressed like a tool (and apparently I'm now Dr. Seuss). He shows up in this leather ensemble and the teacher, Coach Bogner (could they picked a grosser name?) does not accept this in his "palace of the arts" or whatever. Jeff must play pool in shorts. Blegh. So he refuses, drops the class, and the continues to taunt him for the rest of the week about his fascination with "looking good." Finally, Jeff's sick of the BS and puts on his shorts, plays pool with the Bog, and wins! But then there's some argument about thinking Jeff looks cool so they both strip down, much to most people's dismay. Whatev. Super weird.

Meanwhile, Troy finds a drawing of Abed in his Spanish textbook with hearts all over him and when they present the book to Chang, he says it used to belong to Jenny Adams. The group then tries to coach Abed on how to pick up a girl, even though he's not interested in Jenny, and he does a bunch of impressions including Don Draper from Mad Men, which Annie falls for, before ultimately deciding on doing Jeff. He hits on Jenny, she falls for him and then surprise! She has a boyfriend who's a white version of Abed. Holy Twilight Zone. Also, Britta says bagel wrong. Instead of bay-gel, she pronounces it bag-gel. I know. What a GDB.

The tag is Troy and Abed doing a Bert and Ernie bit, but it goes wrong when Troy realizes there's somewhere he's supposed to be- his cousin's funeral. "I knew there was some reason I couldn't do this today!" Abed's response? "Poor Demitri."

What Was Great
~ Britta's whole "baggel" thing. So funny.
~ Jeff's tantrum- "Because I don't look cool in shorts!" *kicks things around*
~ Abed's impression of Jeff's tantrum- "Because I'm NOT cool in shorts!" *kicks things around*
~ Abed's impression of Don Draper, Jeff, and of course the vampire. Oh good God, it's hilarious.
~ "Shut up, Leonard. I talked to your son on family day. I know about your gambling." "Touche."
~ White Abed + Brown Joey = Perfection
~ "Lots of girls like me because, let's face it, I'm pretty adorable." Oh yes you are, Abed. <3


What Wasn't So Great
~ The pool storyline haha. I know that's the whole point of the episode but I found it boring.
~ The tag. Lame-o.

Rating
I would give this episode a seven out of ten. The seven's for the Abed storyline. The rest of the episode was blah.

1x18- Basic Genealogy

Episode Rundown- The family day episode! Hurray! This episode guest starred Katharine McPhee as Pierce's ex-stepdaughter... Yeah. So basically, Slater breaks up with Jeff in the hallway in a literally two-second conversation. Then, he flirts with this random girl who turns out to be related to Pierce. Ahh!! Anyway, Pierce strictly says to stay away from her, but Jeff and Amber decide to hook up anyway. That's when Jeff learns she's taking a bunch of money from him. Uh-oh! He good be a good person and tell Pierce or... He has sex with Amber again. He does tell Pierce, who doesn't mind, and then comforts Jeff when he sees Slater with another man. Oh dear...

Meanwhile, Britta thinks that Troy's mean old bag of a grandmother is cool because she's old and wise, but Troy's convinced she's a psycho. And she pretty much is. Being Britta, she manages to insult the woman within the first five seconds of meeting her and then, as punishment, has to find a "switch," or a stick Troy's G-ma can whoop her with. She spends all day finding the perfect stick, to which Troy responds, "Yeah, that's a great switch, Britta. Should hurt a lot." She presents it to the old bag, who tells her to bend over, and Britta was, apparently, expecting to get smacked on the hand. Psh, no honey. She pulls down her pants and gets over old bag's knees, who proceeds to smack her senseless. Over Britta's shrieks of pain, Troy yells, "I don't understand you, Britta!! I don't understand you at all!" Neither do I, Troy. Neither do I.

Also, Shirley's boys come to Family Day and so do Abed's father and cousin. Gobi makes a reappearance, y'all! And he's super strict with Abra, Abed's cousin, and get's pissed when Shirley's normally-behaving boys spill soda on his nice shirt. So Shirley yells at him for not being open enough to let Abra have fun, but when she goes to ask the girl a question, she realizes it's her boys underneath the berka (definitely spelled that wrong and don't really care) and Abra's in the bouncy house. Aww. To make things even better, it was Jordan and Elijah's idea, to which Abed says, "You're a really great Mom" or "You have great boys" or something equally endearing.

The tag involves Troy and Abed getting themselves purposefully stuck inside the vending machine. Abed realizes that if Troy pushes one of the buttons, it'll push Troy's cell phone into the receptacle and then they'll be able to call for help. Troy does so, but he accidentally presses the wrong button and lever goes somewhere it definitely shouldn't have...

What Was Great

~ Shirley's explanation of her boys' names: "Elijah, like the prophet, and Jordan, like the 14-time NBA all-star!"

~ Shirley greeting Abra: "Sorry, you're like a black ghost!"

~ Annie being Jeff's moral compass. "You're becoming dangerous, Annie. It's those doe-eyes. Disappointing you is like choking the Little Mermaid with a bike chain." Lol.

~ Gobi Nadir. He was an ass in this episode, but I love this guy.

~ Pictionary. "I don't think this going to stop until Pictionary bans the word 'windmill'." So so good.

What Wasn't So Great

~ Slater's breakup with Jeff. Tacky, Michelle. What are you, in middle school? 

~ Amber. What a biotch.

~ Chang. Blegh. 

~ Troy's biotch old bag of a grandmother. Blegh. 

Rating

I would give this episode an eight of ten. It was good to see everyone with their families and such. Fab!

Thanks all! I have to go to bed now- gotta get up early for my kiddies! But there will be more tomorrow!