Community 4x10: Intro to Knots

It's been eight weeks since Halloween, so that means it's time for a Christmas party. Despite being Jewish, Annie's really excited for the party and she arrives a bit early to help Jeff make his apartment a little bit more habitable. He's a bit concerned that she might want to start playing house on a permanent basis, but she quickly dismisses the idea.

The gang (minus Chevy, but plus Chang as Kevin) arrives shortly thereafter, and all of them have gifts even though they said 'no gifts'. When they're all settled in, Annie sits them down and explains that she heard through backroom channels that they failed their big history paper. Since Jeff needs to pass the class to graduate, he's really ticked off. Fortunately, Annie has invited Prof. Cornwallis to the party so they can schmooze him a bit and try to get him to change their grade.

And it's going to be tough because he's not a happy dude.

The professor doesn't respond much to Winger's charms, but he's very interested in both scotch and boobs, so Jeff tries to get Britta to go over to him and jiggle her bits at him. She's not interested, though, because she thinks Cornwallis hates her. However, Jeff needs all the help he can get, since he blew off his section of the paper so he could go to a secret Tom Waits concert, and that's why they failed. Britta agrees to try, but she shows her disapproval with her judgy face.

It looks more constipated than judgy to me.

Jeff goes back in to continue schmoozing, but Cornwallis sees right through him, and says nothing he does will get their grade raised from the C- he gave them. Elated, Jeff grabs Annie to tell her that they didn't actually fail. She already knows. The grade wouldn't keep them from passing the course, but a C- would cause her to fail to become valedictorian. Jeff doesn't care, though, and he says that the only reason he agreed to kiss Cornwallis' pasty British ass is because he thought they failed. Unfortunately, he's forgotten that human beings have ears, so Cornwallis hears the whole thing and decides to change their grade to an F after all.

These new revelations require a confab, so the group gathers in Jeff's bedroom to discuss what they're going to do. While they're in there, the hear sounds of a struggle, and when they come out, Cornwallis is tied to a chair and Chang wants to know if they want him to kill him.

I think the answer is probably 'no'. Probably.

Annie wants to immediately untie the professor, but Jeff thinks that they now have leverage, and they can talk about their grade. Cornwallis threatens to report them to the police, but Jeff and Annie lawyer him into submission. So a sociological experiment begins: The professor offers to give an A to whoever unties him and flunk everyone else. The group manages to hold together, but Annie is sorely tempted when Cornwallis points out that Shirley is also on track to be valedictorian. But, when that still doesn't work, he reveals that the reason the group originally got a C- is because Jeff tanked his section. Annie punches him, and they all start arguing, which attracts the attention of Jeff's neighbour, The Dean. Craig knocks on the door, then barges in when he sees what's happening.

They're having a party, and they didn't invite him.

The professor has inexplicably been untied, and is roaming around the apartment, drinking more scotch. He's not going to leave, though, because things are finally getting interesting. Winger gives one of his standard speeches about how they're all flawed and he forgives whoever screwed him over, which is, of course, exactly what the betrayer would say. So, to prove his loyalty, Jeff grabs Cornwallis and they tie him up again. Then it's on to the gift-giving. The bows on Kevin's gifts show that he doesn't know how to tie a knot, which means he couldn't have tied up the professor, and he must have done it to himself. He admits to doing it because he was bored, and as compensation for the mental anguish he's caused, he agrees to change their grade to a C+. Chang excuses himself to the bathroom to make a call to his boss, then The Dean comes over with a basket of kittens to say he forgives them for not inviting him to the party.

Kittens make any party more awesome. It's science!

What I Liked
-After Annie smashes a ceramic thing, Abed takes off his shoes.

I really wish they'd done Die Hard, too.

-This week's best line: "I'm pretty sure it's anus."-Troy

What I Hated
-Shirley was on track to be valedictorian. Come on, no one believes that. She took a class that she thought was Phys Ed. Someone who could've been top of her class wouldn't take a class she thought she'd do poorly in.
-Cornwallis managed to slip out of the chair without anyone noticing. Malcolm McDowell is wily, but he's not a magician.

Final Thoughts
After two viewings, I still don't know what Abed's gifts to the group were. They looked like plastic bags full of chickpeas or something.

The final tag with the evil universe was silly.

I've changed my mind about who I think Chang's employer is. There's no reason for the City College Dean to try to get the study group expelled, so I figure it must be someone else, like Garrett or Fat Neil or Rob Corddry.

This was a better episode than last week's, although it would've been pretty hard for it to be worse. That doesn't mean it was any damn good, though. It was basically on par with last year's stupid musical Christmas, and not quite as good as the claymation Christmas in season two. They've had bad luck with Christmas episodes on this show.

You know what would've been really good? If they did Die Hard in a restaurant like Abed wanted. That could've been awesome. Yes, it would've been really gimmicky, but Community does a lot of gimmicky episodes, and Joel McHale did a really good John McClane in Modern Warfare. Oh well, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.