Community, "The Psychology of Letting Go": hottie spill

Quick Take: Community, "The Psychology of Letting Go"
"Mom was a part of my Buddhist church. She's a Level 5 laser lotus, same as me." – Pierce  

Review: Community, "The Psychology of Letting Go"
(S0203) Even for a show as adept at shape shifting from week to week as Community is, it's noteworthy that it was able to touch semi-seriously on the topic of religion and belief systems this week. In essence it showcased how "wacky" almost any religious/spiritual affiliation appears when looked at from a certain light. So, Pierce (Chevy Chase) believes in a "temple of renewal" and "energon pods" and throws around religious faux-Buddhist terminology that involves lasers (as Annie points out). But really, if we dig deep into any religion – major, minor, and in between – we can unearth stuff that kind of goes to the same bizarro places, can't we agree?

What's even more remarkable is how the episode started from a dramatic place – Troy (Donald Glover) finds Pierce's mom dead in the garage of the latter's house – and then packed huge piles of funny on top of it thereafter. Jeff (Joel McHale) for his part is determined to shut down any belief system after his perfect worldview-of-self is "shattered" when he gets the results of his physical and is put on cholesterol medication.

The perfect example of how Community worked on superior comedic and dramatic levels (and, of course, this is a comedy-first, drama-second kind of show, make no mistake) came when Jeff sat down for lunch with Dr. Ian Duncan (the great John Oliver, in his first appearance of the season). Dr. Duncan returns to take over the gang's Anthropology class after the hilarious disaster that Dr. Bauer (Betty White) made of it in the last episode.

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For all his wackiness (including teaching Anesthesiology for 40 minutes for the benefit of an attractive co-ed who wandered into the wrong classroom), Duncan cuts to the core of Jeff's issue: since his belief system – the worship of himself in his case – has been destroyed, he's determined to nihilistically pull down his fellow man's beliefs as well. Jeff heartily thanks him, now emboldened by his new understanding to go forth and execute the task of annihilating Pierce's energon pod-fueled sham with relish. The kicker is Duncan making a half-assed attempt to get Jeff to reexamine the application of this wisdom before settling back down for his lunch and saying, "Ah, I don't really care."

Of course, Jeff pulls back in the end from executing his mission with extreme prejudice, content in allowing Pierce his beliefs because they give him some level of comfort (and appreciation of The Sharper Image catalog) and in passing along a hair of healthy skepticism to young Troy.

Meanwhile, Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and Annie's (Allison Brie) storyline (they collaborate to fundraise for victims of the Gulf oil spill, which quickly devolves into squabbling and, finally, "oil wrestling" in front of the appreciative fellows) was played much more for comedic effect, though it too in its own way touched on issues of sexuality and identity and how we sell ourselves to each other and the world (Brie's Trudy Campbell from Mad Men would no doubt be interested as well!).

If this episode suffered at all, it was from a distinct lack of Aded (Danny Pudi) screen time, save for a few moments. But it was made up for with strong writing and great guest work from John Oliver and more general amazingness by way of Senor Chang (Kim Jeong).

More thoughts on this week's Community:

Video: Community, "The Psychology of Letting Go"
Check out this clip called Subversion of Reality, from Hulu: