Episode 'Community' Season 2, Episode 20 - 'Competitive Wine Tasting' Recap

Welcome back, Greendalers! It's been three weeks since the last new episode of "Community," so I'm sure everyone was as happy to see "Competitive Wine Tasting" as I was.

The gang essentially split off into pairs this week to take electives: Jeff and Pierce opted for a wine tasting class, Troy and Britta went for acting, Abed (ever the loner) took a class on "Who's the Boss?" and Annie and Shirley...well, they pretty much did nothing this episode. Sorry, Annie/Shirley fans.

The Abed storyline was a funny one, but was left on the backburner a bit. You see, Abed goes into the class thinking that he knows who "the boss" is, but the professor (Stephen Tobolowsky, also due back on "Glee" next week) shoots him down. Then Abed's storyline is mostly ignored until the end of the episode where he disproves the professor and shows, unequivocally, that Angela was in fact the boss. A nice payoff, and Tobolowsky is funny as usual.

Even funnier is the reappearance of Kevin Corrigan, a.k.a. professor Sean Garrity. He's the drama professor (as you might remember from "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design") so he's Britta and Troy's acting teacher. His overwhelming oddness is wonderful, as are some of his assignments ("For homework, drink a glass of cognac in a bathtub." Yeah, that sounds like acting class).

Troy drops a bomb when, in search of a painful memory to recount, he blurts out "My uncle put his finger in my no-no!" It turns out to be completely untrue, of course, but that's only revealed after it makes Britta attracted to his fragile, damaged soul. The whole thing is very strange...I mean, a Troy and Britta kiss? What is going on here?!

The main story of the evening, though, is Pierce and Jeff's experience in the wine tasting class. Jeff attempts to hit on an attractive young woman who speaks in broken English, only to find that he gets shot down...in broken English. Later, Pierce comes in with an announcement: he and the girl, Wu-Mei, are very much in love, and they're getting married.

Jeff is so incredulous that he attempts to find out Wu-Mei's ulterior motives ("I'm going to bust into her apartment, do you have any grappling hooks?"). He eventually discovers (spoiler alert) that she's just using Pierce to take over his wet wipe industry in China (seriously). Which reminds me: I need a record-scratch app.

Ultimately, after Pierce's disappointment, Jeff sets the two back up together. After all, they're both horrible people, so why not?

It was a bit disjointed as an episode, but not without laughs. It's tough to live up to something as great as "Critical Film Studies," which left us off back in March, so it's understandable that this week wasn't quite as incredible. In any case, we have three straight weeks of new episodes, so there's something to look forward to!