Episode 'Community' Season 2, Episode 22 - 'Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts' Recap

This week's episode took a step back from the crazy meta-ness of "Paradigms of Human Memory" to do some good old-fashioned storytelling, and another bottle episode of sorts.

It's exams time, and the gang is sitting in on Duncan's Anthropology final, which consists of drinking and throwing balls of paper at Annie. Have I ever mentioned how much I love it when Duncan teaches this class? It's doesn't get much better than "And that is what Jews do at weddings. Anthropology!"

Sadly, the Duncan segment of the episode was short-lived, as the Dean enters. He wiggles his way into this episode by being in the middle of an interview for "Dean Magazine," which ends up lasting only two issues and is the "worst idea for a magazine ever."

The focus of the episode, though, is Shirley's pregnancy, which quickly becomes Shirley's labor. She finds herself stuck delivering the baby in the Anthropology classroom due to the "race kerfuffle" outside from the international food festival, which means she's constantly bothered by Chang, who is convinced the baby is his.

Abed attempts to deliver the baby (after all, he delivered one earlier this year...nice callback!), but Shirley wants one of the girls to do it. Britta talks a big game about the natural beauty of childbirth, but seeing the sight of the crowning baby takes her to barf-town. She eventually conquers her fear, though, and gets "in the zone." Britta for the win!

Andre shows up just in time to see the baby come out, and sure enough it's his and not Chang's. You almost feel bad for the guy, as he actually does a great job calming Shirley down during the delivery. Still, though, it's probably good that Chang's not a father. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

The other notable storyline this week (and the only major pop culture reference, of which this episode was a bit short) was the "Indecent Proposal" between Pierce and Troy & Abed. Pierce pays them $1,000 for the rights to their handshake, and subsquently ruins it for them because they "sold out." An interesting little commentary from the writers about making the thing you love into a business. Oh, and don't worry: they get the magic back.

Troy & Abed Tag: The guys try to pull a fire alarm to get out of an exam, only to find it's fake. Nice one, Dean.