Episode: “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking”
Writer: Monica Padrick
Director: Tristram Shapeero
Previously on “Community”:
Troy Barnes has left the building and Pierce Hawthorne is lost and gone forever. Welcome to the new era of “Community.” Gas leak not included.
To fill the void left by Troy and Pierce, “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking” promotes from within. After three seasons, Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) finally gets to join the former study group turned Save Greendale committee. The surprise here is that Professor Ian Duncan (John Oliver) also joins the group.
But it makes sense. “Community” has John Oliver signed for several episodes this season and this allows Duncan to be near the center of the action. Likewise for Chang, who has been making glorified cameos up to this point in the season.
It’s way too early to tell how this new group dynamic is going to play out, but some of Duncan’s antagonistic tendencies have already been toned down. Note that at the end of the episode, when Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and his custodial thugs move in, Duncan is standing there defiantly with the group. Duncan even gets the tag scene this week!
However, it’s Professor Buzz Hickey (Jonathan Banks) who gets the most out of “Analysis of Cork-Based Networking.” As the newest character on “Community,” Hickey is still somewhat of a blank slate to the audience. Last week’s episode revealed that Hickey has a gay son in New York who is getting married and the second episode of the season showed us that Hickey has a desire to become a cartoonist.
For a few moments in this episode, we see more details of Hickey’s life play out in his bulletin board of failure. There’s a newspaper clipping about Hickey being removed from a serial killer investigation back when he was a cop, rejection letters, a restraining order, a letter turning down his loan. It’s really depressing stuff. But Hickey achieves a morale victory here by tearing down his failures and doing the one thing no one else at Greendale has bothered to do by openly defying the system.
Hickey’s subplot with Annie (Alison Brie) was the best part of the episode, as they navigated Greendale’s weird layers of red tape; which includes surly janitors, high living custodians, a bitter IT representative and a power mad Parking Lot kingpin. Several of those roles were played by big name guest stars, including Kumail Nanjiani, Paget Brewster and Robert Patrick. But it was Nathan Fillion’s Head Custodian, Bob Waite who made the most lasting impression. This was also the first time that I’ve seen Fillion on TV that I immediately thought of “Castle” instead of “Firefly.”
Unlike Annie, Hickey is willing to back down to Greendale’s insanely stupid bylaws after realizing how much effort it would take to fight back. To Hickey’s horror, Annie quickly buys into the Quid Pro Quo arrangements and strikes several bad deals just to ensure that a simple bulletin board is posted in the cafeteria. This leads to a very funny, Sorkin-esque falling out between Annie and Hickey over lunch with the Dean.
In the face of yet another failure, Hickey shakes off his malaise and he simply hangs up the bulletin board himself while practically daring the Dean to do something about it. It was hard to buy the Dean’s sudden villainous turn here, but it gave Annie and the rest of the group something to rally around and I liked that moment.
The second best storyline of the episode dealt with a feud between Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and Abed (Danny Pudi) over “Bloodlines of Conquest,” an obvious riff on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” This is Dan Harmon’s M.O., as shown when his “Doctor Who” parody, “Inspector SpaceTime” took on a life of its own within the show. One of the lessons from “the gas leak year” is that too much exposure killed the “Inspector SpaceTime” gag. But if used sparingly, “Bloodlines of Conquest” could be a suitable replacement.
Abed accidentally spoils Britta about an event on the “Bloodlines” TV series, so she resolves to read all of the novels and spoil the entire story for him. Abed flat out tells Britta that only an insane person would do what she is threatening to do, yet he escalates it by wearing earphones that leave him unable to hear while continuing to spoil more of the show for Britta.
Enter Katie Leclerc as a beautiful deaf girl who quickly catches Abed’s eye. Their bonding scenes were sweet and Abed’s failed attempts at sign language were amusing. I also loved Britta’s meta-commentary about Abed’s love interests appearing once and then never again.
Consider this: Abed was so into this young woman that he apparently became fluent in sign language inside of a day. That’s why it crushes him when the woman uses sign language to spoil the last novel’s ending for him. Pudi’s expression in that scene was terrific. The worst part is that Britta paid the woman to befriend Abed just to get back at him and she ends up emotionally harming him because Abed really liked her. Even in success, Britta has Britta-ed her own plan by going too far.
However, this leads to the second biggest surprise of the episode: the return of Brie Larson as Rachel, the renegade (or unauthorized) coat check girl from Season 4! I guess Dan Harmon really did watch the previous season, as Rachel is one of the few aspects of that year to carry over to the fifth season. It’s a wise choice, as Rachel and Abed reconnect and he is unusually bold when he immediately asks her out to dinner.
I wasn’t as fond of the third storyline, which found Jeff (Joel McHale), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) and Duncan duped into decorating a school dance around Chang’s questionable “Bear Down on Midterms” theme… which turns out to have been unintentionally inspired by a bear that attacked a child’s birthday party earlier in the day.
Watching Chang guilt trip the group into going his way wasn’t that funny. But that storyline had at least three truly hilarious moments: the insanely funny bear and birthday cake news graphic when Hickey was watching TV, “it’s not made up, it’s not made up!” and “It’s a bear dance!!!”
I didn’t notice this on my first viewing, but the news report had a crawl at the bottom of the screen that suggested Troy (Donald Glover) and LeVar Burton have been captured by pirates early in their trip around the world. Suddenly, I can see a “Community” movie where the study group has to go save Troy. That could be fun, if only to see Donald Glover as Troy again.
After two fantastic episodes in a row, this installment was a step backwards in quality. At least two thirds of this episode really worked, so I can overlook the parts that didn’t quite click. “Community” didn’t immediately bounce back from the loss of Glover, but most of the pieces are still there and this cast can do amazing things. I have every confidence that Harmon and his creative team, along with the cast and crew can make “Community” consistently great again. After six episodes back, I’d say they’re doing a pretty good job so far.
