More like Commumity

Spoilers for Season 4, episode 4 "Herstory of Dance."

Finally, Community feels like Community again, and not an imitation of itself.

This week's episode went back to the classic Community structure: a story on Greendale's campus that involves each character in a different capacity, and, of course, the show continues to play with sitcom tropes and its own recurring elements.

Abed

Abed understands how stories and characters work in TV shows, and he applies that understanding to figure out what's happening in the real world. That part of Abed wasn't strong this season until this episode. (Instead, we had an Abed that is tangentially connected to the plot. Delta Cubes! Delta! Cubes!) Abed thinks he should grow away from that dependency on TV understanding, but then he ends up in the Two Dates on the Same Night Trope. Community takes the plot device one step further: Abed has an accomplice to help him switch between dates, and it ends up being a woman who genuinely interests him. Instead of choosing between the dates, he chooses her.

Britta

Britta protests the sexist, old-fashioned Sadie Hawkins dance by organizing her own dance. She meant to celebrate Susan B. Anthony, but she misspeaks and says Sophie B. Hawkins instead. She brittas her idea but instead of admitting her mistake, Britta sticks to what she said and Pierce helps her bring Sophie B. Hawkins to the dance. Britta changes the term "britta" from meaning you messed up to meaning you succeeded.

Annie and Shirley

Annie and Shirley team up and compete in several episodes (starting with season 1, episode 20 "The Science of Illusion), and in "Herstory of Dance," they compete to find a date for Abed. Annie chooses a student who she thinks complements Abed's personality. Shirley chooses a young woman from her church, but we don't see anything to suggest Abed would be interested in her. Abed doesn't want to disappoint Annie or Shirley, so he agrees to both dates and knows he can treat the situation like a TV trope.

Troy

Troy is back to looking for wacky stuff to do, playing the Hobbes to Abed's Calvin. He helps Britta with her dance, but it seems like it is in a friend—and not boyfriend—capacity, which is good because their romantic relationship felt forced.

Jeff

Jeff starts out being mean to Britta and teases her for messing up the idea for her own dance. But by the end of the episode, he congratulates her for doing a good job. His change of attitude echoes back to season 1, where he thought he was stuck with an odd study group and then realized that these people are actually his best friends.

Pierce

Pierce finally shows his redeemable side when he tells Jeff that he shouldn't give Britta such a hard time. The first three episodes of this season had Pierce saying sexist and racist comments and being a constant annoyance. It left very little to like about him, but now that he interacts more with Jeff and Britta, we see the not-so-bad side of Pierce.