'Community' Season 3, Episode 19 Recap - 'Curriculum Unavailable'

What's more meta than a clip show of clips that never happened? How about a clip show of the "Community" characters re-enacting scenes while they're in a mental institution because nothing that has happened on the show ever happened? Yeah, that happened.

When Abed starts snooping around the school as Inspector Spacetime and accusing the Dean of being an impostor, the cops bring him in and inform the gang that he has been ordered to attend mandatory therapy sessions. Of course, they all end up attending with him, to prove to the therapist (guest star Jon Hodgman!) that Abed isn't crazy.

In doing so, though, a horrible reality is revealed to them: the therapist informs them that Greendale Community College never existed, that it was actually an insane asylum in which they lived out fantasies and from which they were recently released.

Of course that isn't actually true, but the brilliant thing about that twist is that it's totally plausible: it's a perfect explanation for the logical inconsistencies and plot holes that inevitably come up when writing a sitcom. Why else would our seven heroes all be attending this school for three years (and, just announced yesterday, four!) when most community colleges just offer two-year programs? Why would they be the center of attention of seemingly the entire school? How else could games of paintball get so ridiculously out of hand, and genre-specific?

There were echoes of "Paradigms of Human Memory" in this episode, as we got some flashback clips to things that either happened or didn't happen. For example, apparently there was yet another paintball incident, only this time it was 1920's gangster-style. And seeing the gang re-enacting moments from past episodes in the insane asylum was simultaneously creepy and brilliant.

As it turns out, Hodgman's therapist was a fraud, and he was just hired to dissuade the gang from going back to Greendale at all. But the gang, in going through this session, realizes just how much the Dean loved them (and gave them preferential treatment), so he never would have expelled them.

Looks like this arc is turning into a three-parter (or more?), as the gang must now return to Greendale, overthrow Chang, and save the Dean. Sounds like an opportunity for a genre homage to me!

Notes & Quotes:

- "I watch a lot of Antiques Roadshow"

- "I was there longer than anyone, and I'm fine. How are you? Why do you ask? 3:30."

- "I parked by a meter!"

- "...lost scholarship... old..."

- Nice dig at "Lost" (I think): "Greendale is Purgatory, and I'm the devil!" "These aren't even good lies!"