I need your help reacting to something. – Abed
After a dark two-part turn towards an even darker timeline, it was nice to return to the relative normalcy of the study group’s weirdness in this edition of Community.
Vice-Dean Laybourne (John Goodman) is still sporting his iconic “darkest-timeline goatee,” however, which could potentially indicate otherwise.
Britta’s carnie-ex (not ex-carnie) is coming to Greendale, and she is simultaneously ecstatic and petrified. Once upon her hippie past, Britta fell for guy at a carnival, and it gets worse: his name is Blade. Aside from doing a good job of selling the Marvel comic book and movie franchise of the same name, Blade (Kirk Fox) has something irresistible about himself that Britta can’t help but pursue like Annie and Adderall. Which is why she asks Annie to put her on lockdown while Blade is in town.
Troy and Abed don’t help her case, however, as they’re enticed to watch the vampire movie while she stays at their apartment under Annie’s supervision. Eventually Annie gives Britta her phone back while trying to build trust between them, but not before redirecting Blade’s contact number to her own phone instead. After running Britta through various stages of emotional neediness, Troy sends one final text that kills her addiction faster than Pierce killed her cigarette habit, while also spilling his soul.
The episode teases a lot of potential romantic developments, not only with Troy and Britta, but between Annie and Jeff. Even though they spend most of the episode apart, Jeff and Annie don’t need to share that much screen-time in order to convey the tension and taboo that keeps them apart. Jeff visits the carnival in the hopes of learning Blade’s secret to driving women insane, yet learns that it’s the carnie who is insane. Or more accurately: brain damaged.
After a stray bolt from a malfunctioning Ferris wheel lodged itself in his brain, Blade stopped feeling shame, giving him nothing to prove to himself or anyone else. Even though his disability makes him seem cool, he never felt the need to tell Britta, which is what attracted her to him so absolutely. She eventually discovers Annie’s deception and the truth of Troy’s text, landing on one of the most optimistic endings to Community in some time.
Despite the happy ending, Vice-Dean Laybourne’s machinations are in motion, as he recruits Dean Pelton to do his dirty work, and Pierce looks outside of the study group for a best friend. Pelton shows up at Troy, Abed, and Annie’s apartment in order to convince Troy to join the air-conditioning annex, but ends up doing a better job of watching movies than persuading the plumbing prodigy. Chang, meanwhile, spends a joyful night at the carnival with Pierce before turning on something smaller than a dime and fleeing Pierce before he can have his heart broken. Can you believe this guy used to be a professor? And married?
Some stats and info about Community, “Origins of Vampire Mythology”
TV SHOW – Community
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 3, Episode 15
AIRED ON – April 12th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC/Yahoo! Screen
GENRE – Comedy, College Shows
CREATED BY – Dan Harmon
CAST – Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.