'Community' Season 3, Episode 1 Recap - 'Biology 101'

Ahhhh, it feels so good to have Community back, doesn't it? For a while there I was starting to feel like Abed, screaming incessantly (on the inside) because my favorite show was gone. My favorite isn't "Cougartown" though. I must say, however, that I approve of Abed's newfound love for "Inspector Space-Time" (it's Dr. Who, get it?).

Anyway, let's forget about the shows within the show for a second and talk about the show. Did that make sense? Don't care, moving on: it opened with a musical number, a full-on song and dance routine, which might be the only thing "Community" hasn't done so far. Check that off the list.

The theme of the song is "We're Finally Gonna Be Fine," and it's all rainbows and sunshine...and it's all in Jeff's head. That gives us a glimpse of how Jeff feels now that Pierce, who left the group in last season's finale, is gone. So when Pierce returns, that's when Jeff tries to argue that the group has "evolved" and they don't need to be sitting around the table anymore. It's just a table. And when a character says "It's just a table," that means it's definitely not just a table.

So Jeff is in a state of bliss as the group takes their Biology class sans Pierce, for whom there wasn't an extra seat. But things take a turn when his cell phone interrupts a speech from Dr. Marshall King, Ph.D., their new Biology professor (played by Michael K. Williams. Omar comin'). Jeff gets kicked out of class, never to return.

The kicker? Pierce was on the waiting list and takes his spot. Jeff is now the odd man out.

We get some fun stuff with Dean Pelton this episode, as he faces off against the vice-dean of the Air Conditioning Repair School Annex which, it turns out, makes more money than the Dean's whole school put together. It looks like the school is seceding, which means Greendale is going to be dead broke. More than usual. Sadly, John Goodman is a little underused in the episode, but he serves his function: cut the Dean, who was on a no-nonsense power trip, back down to size.

The Dean is still attempting to get Annie's Boobs (no, not like that...the monkey). The solution? Monkey gas in the vents. That leads us back to Jeff, who is unable to get back into class but spots a picture on Dr. King's desk of him and Pierce from back in the day, which Chang steals and escapes into the vents with. Jeff pursues and gets knocked out by the monkey gas.

Cue our major homage of the episode: "2001: A Space Odyssey." That's right folks, we're going Kubrickian. It's a fitting sequence for this episode's theme of evolution...after all, that's a major part of "2001"s' famous opening sequence. This time, Jeff sees himself in the white room, and turns into Pierce. And get this: the table is the monolith. See? It's not just a table.

Jeff recovers and bursts in, covered in white dust and looking remarkably like Pierce. He sounds like him too, especially when he gets all racist with the picture when it turns out it was a picture of Pierce with another black guy, whom Jeff mistook for Dr. King. He goes even crazier and axes the table in a rare showing of out-of-control Jeff.

Pierce eventually mends things by telling everyone that he bribed his way into the class, which Jeff knows is a lie. But Pierce makes a good point: Jeff can't handle being the bad guy the way that he can. So for now, it looks like everything is back in order, except that Chang is now head of security. "So this is the year we all die," muses the group.

A nice opener, and we can only hope that Williams and Goodman return for more fun later...especially Goodman, whose storyline fell by the wayside a bit. Or, maybe I was just distracted by that amazing "2001" sequence.

Here's a bit of trivia: in an earlier episode, Troy and Abed agreed that if they ever moved in together, it would mean that they had sorta "jumped the shark." Now they're roommates. Interesting...