Community’s second episode of its third season introduced fans to two new Greendale members. One was a teacher obsessed with the constitution of resolving world peace and the other was an Asian clone of Annie, conveniently named Annie Kim. What ensued was a battle of smarts and eventually a full-on war for U.N. domination, with a nasty fart joke dropped in for good measure that was used in the same context as the film Spartacus.
The whole episode belonged to Annie and her diminishing confidence as the school’s number one student. The introduction to her nemesis was memorable, with Annie answering a question perfectly only for her doppelganger to retort everything she said with a cute side note of information as a cherry on top.
It was funny to see Annie try to play off the fact there’s someone just as smart as she is with such humility. Anyone who knows the character of Annie is aware that behind her adorable exterior lies a psychopathic tendency of raw unadulterated rage. Seeing her hold this anger up until the end of the episode where she explodes into a temper tantrum (“I want to win!”) was hilarious, another reason why Alison Brie is so much fun to watch on this show.
Funny enough, it’s Jeff that starts the battle royal between both the Annies. Initially it seems like sarcasm when he is interested in the whole clone Annie concept, but he actually got upset that her U.N idea was stolen. This lead to another romantic moment of awkwardness among the two disproportionate sized members of the study group.
It’s clear Jeff and Annie have an odd chemistry but it seems the show’s writers have no idea where to go with it. Jeff did give a good speech on why he always talks to her in a childish manner, along with a terrific line about walking behind her from an appropriate distance. That almost sums up their relationship.
The sub-plot with Britta and Chang had opportunity to be amusing and charming, but it was too off the wall even for the likes of Community. Britta’s personality this season is going down the path similar to Pierce’s mental state from last year. What is wrong with Britta? We know she likes to be an activist for no reason and contest against authority but her shtick went into strange territory.
A love blossoming between her and Chang is so random it doesn’t work or fit in with either of their characters. Britta is great in small doses where the rest of the group tires of her attitude for rebellious nature but as a continuing story arc it’s just weird. If she’s no longer a romantic interest for Jeff then her character deserves justice instead of being portrayed as one-note.
Though, Community’s writers are so gifted at coming up with new ideas from old ones, allowing Chang and Britta to explore a romantic possibility is something to be somewhat supportive of. Time will tell where this plot thread ends up, it does have a chance to be remarkably funny.
The U.N. face-off was the episode highlight that provided just as much fun as it did laughs. Troy with his Georgia accent, Pierce making fun of Uruguay’s pronunciation and Abed’s alternate world theory were reasons why the battle was so ridiculous. They all worked together nicely too, at least for a while.
Listening to Pierce talk about Somalia as if it was a paradise full of beauty was particularly outstanding. The guest appearance from Martin Starr also added to the hilarity as his ruling for the winner made sense and was completely insane at the same time. Hopefully he is a recurring character because his timing for delivering certain lines is impeccable. Annie Kim was a caricature of regular Annie and didn’t need to be more evolved than she appeared. Her role was effective enough just being a hindrance for Greendale’s leaderboard of top student.
Although it had a few missteps (that still delivered some solid laughs) “Geography of Global Conflict” was another great episode for Community. Anytime the show focuses on Annie it turns out to be a good thing since Alison Brie has crafted such a wonderful character who’s basically a classic school stereotype gone wrong. But does Annie belong with Jeff? Stay tuned next episode, or the one after that for the potential answer.