COMMUNITY: “Advanced Gay” – RECAP

True to Dan Harmon’s word prior to the start of Community’s current season, things haven’t been as epic, but they have certainly gotten weirder. And because this is Community, they find a way to make weirder work. I still hope they find an appropriate way to do another big genre episode, but I completely understand the reasoning behind toning those down. These smaller episodes can focus more closely on character development and that is exactly what this season is about. This could very well be the last year for show, so the plan is to take these characters as far as they can go before that final episode. Exploring the characters allows the show to dig deep and find these bizarre moments, and “Advanced Gay” is filled with them. Some of them work great, like the Air Conditioning Repair School having breath recognition instead of eye recognition. Others felt a bit too much.

The big player in the episode is Pierce. In some ways it’s an origin story for him, as we are introduced to his father, Cornelius Hawthorne (Larry Cedar). Pierce is running Hawthorne Wipes (something I had completely forgotten. Where does he find the time to run a business when he’s in school full time?), and discovers the product is a big hit in the gay community. Pierce has a history of homophobia and being politically incorrect, but we get the sense throughout the episode that Pierce doesn’t really believe any of the offensive things he says. He may not even be aware of what any of it actually means. At one point he’s completely clueless that he’s speaking with two gay men, when it was perfectly clear to everyone else. Later on he admits to believing “gay” simply means “dumb”. This really does shed a new light on who Pierce is. He’s confused, and his dad is entirely to blame.

When Cornelius enters the library, he immediately picks out and insults everyone’s physical traits from their heritage. The group gives him the title of the Racist Abed. It’s very fitting. He is unabashedly racist and intolerant, stamping out Pierce’s idea to market Hawthorne Wipes to the gay community. Pierce, normally the guy in the I’m-not-afraid-to-be-offensive chair, cowers in the face of his father and is completely without a backbone until Cornelius inevitably passes away. Only in death does Pierce find the courage to finally tell off his dad. It may be too little too late, but it was still a moment of triumph in Pierce’s eyes.

Jeff has a rather interesting journey through out the episode. It’s no secret that Pierce and Jeff don’t always get along. On more than one occasion, Jeff has gone out of his way to ruin things for Pierce under the guise of “helping” him. But with the presence of Cornelius, all of Jeff’s own daddy issues come gushing out. Unfortunately Winger Sr. has yet to make an appearance, so Cornelius will have to suffice. Fueled by his hatred for bad dads, Jeff goes out of his way to actually help Pierce by throwing a giant gay party with Pierce as the guest of honor. To have Jeff knowingly make Pierce the center of attention is huge for him as a character. It’s not a step forward as much of a reveal of his deeper emotions. He so hates father figures that he would rather make his nemesis happy. That smile on Pierce’s face when he sees the gay painting of himself felt big to me. For once, he and Jeff are fighting for the same thing.

If you asked Britta, she would tell you Jeff and Pierce are fighting to kill their fathers and sleep with their mothers because they’re suffering from Oedipal Complexes. I’ll have spare you the detailed description and simply state it’s pretty much exactly what Britta says it is. But because she’s so brash about it, and not even sure of the name, they hardly take her serious. She gets torn down so many times as she poorly attempts to be a therapist for Jeff and Pierce. Even a minister tells her she’s terrible. To borrow from last week’s episode, she really Britta’d her own therapy lecture.

While I’m not sure Jeff wants to sleep with his mother, he just may want to kill his dad. That speech he gives to Cornelius (the one that ultimately kills him) sounded very well thought out, almost as if he’d been planning to say that for quite some time. It felt personal for sure, especially when he said, “I’m done with you.” Didn’t seem like he was talking to Cornelius anymore.

Continuing on from a story that started in Season 1, Troy is told by the janitor (Jerry Minor) to be a plumber, but this time he finds himself swayed by Vice Dean Laybourne’s (John Goodman) Air Conditioning Repair School. I have always loved the idea of Troy being inexplicably good at fixing pipes and other plumbing things, but introducing that he’s some kind of general maintenance genius makes it all the better. I have to admit, I was surprised Troy would be the first character besides the Dean to have any storylines with Laybourne. It just didn’t cross my mind for reason, not that I’m complaining. John Goodman and Donald Glover were great together in every scene they had. Goodman has been so great in this villainous role. He can be completely over the top and then immediately switch to down to earth. He just works as a character.

What I loved the most about the plumbing/air conditioning plot was how serious they made it. I don’t mean it was acted seriously, but the circumstances were treated like they were so dire, like picking one trade over the other could change the course of history. Yet, as Abed pointed out, the two choices were virtually the same thing. To add to how sinisterly silly it all was, the plot wasn’t wrapped up completely. Troy’s storyline this season seems like it’s going to get nicely entangled with Laybourne’s schemes for Greendale. I can’t wait to see where this is going and to have more of the cast interact with John Goodman.