NBC’s ‘Community’ season 4, episode 10 review: Holiday hijinks and [spoiler’s] plan

“Community” has managed to do some pretty crazy things over the years, but Thursday night’s new episode managed to bring something new to the table: an episode all about entrapment, threats, and strangely, also Christmas. This was ultimately a thoroughly entertaining episode, and it showed once again that while it took the new showrunners some time to really get some of the characters back to their former selves, we are at least somewhere close now.

The basic story here was simple enough: in an effort to ensure that some of their recent grades could be raised, Annie invited the study group’s history professor to the Christmas party at Jeff’s apartment. Then, he proceeded to be tied up by “Kevin,” and a game quickly began to see who would be the first to unravel among the gang just so they could untie the teacher with an “A” grade in return. Who was willing to sell out their new-found family in return for a higher grade?

To make matters even more interesting, someone did supposedly “betray” the Greendale gang when Jeff answered the door, and Dean Pelton was on the other side complaining that he wasn’t invited. The twist here, though? That he actually wasn’t tied up at all, and this was just some elaborate scheme in order to ensure that he had himself an eventful little Christmas because he hated his life. He agreed to give everyone a C+, and they were sent about their way. This means that Jeff can graduate early, which could create all sorts of interesting questions for all of the characters when it comes to how they hang out moving forward.

However, there was also still one other problem that became clear at episode’s end: Chang. He is clearly still planning something to ruin the lives of all of these people, and has managed to put himself into the shadows well enough that it (gasp!) may actually work this time. While we almost miss the slightly-sympathetic Chang, the sociopath version also has his moments.

Oh, and who else loved the “Remedial Chaos Theory” shout-out at the end?

What do you think about this “Community” season 4 episode? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and you can read some early scoop on the “Community” finale over at the link here.

Photo: NBC