“Basic Story”, the penultimate episode of Community‘s fifth (and, God willing, not last) season, has two contrasting roles to play: to close out what has been a consistent, if stunted (the 13-episode order didn’t help) season, and to create a satisfactory possible series finale. It isn’t the first time Dan Harmon has had to potentially end Community, so at least he has some experience with this awkward task; nevertheless, “Basic Story” is a very strange episode of TV, even by Community’s standards.

Community is a show that revels in being meta, more so than any other show currently on TV (with the exception of Dan Harmon’s other show, Rick and Morty); while this has led to some of the show’s better episodes, the misguided fourth season proved how delicate a tool meta commentary is, and how easy it is for it to be overused. That being said, “Basic Story” is one of the most meta episodes Community has ever done.

Most of the meta of “Basic Story” is contained in Abed’s subplot. Uneasy due to the lack of any conflicts at Greendale (it turns out the Save Greendale Committee actually did a pretty good job), when the Dean enters the study room to tell everyone that an insurance appraiser is coming to ascertain Greendale’s value, Abed latches onto that, saying that a crisis is imminent. Jeff convinces Abed that there really and truly is no story, and from thereon out the meta begins. Abed states “So be it. Let the lack of story -“, walking offscreen and letting the camera wander, before settling on a student eating some noodles.

In later scenes Abed realises that he is in a story (because he is saying out loud that there is no story), and decides to try to shake the story, sending the camera to the teacher’s lounge before running down the hall in an effort to escape from the camera, which chases him. Trying to convince himself to accept the story and wait for its lack of conflict to undo it, a bearded Abed shows up and tells him to do the opposite, creating an endless conflict. Leonard’s reaction to seeing Abed undergo a brief existential crisis is the perfect way to top off this subplot, which, while not uproariously funny, left me grinning at the screen due to just how clever it was.

The bulk of “Basic Story” consists of a much more traditional sitcom conflict, wherein the two bumbling school board guys (speaking of characters who we haven’t seen in ages, this season seriously would have benefited from an Officer Cackowski appearance – make it happen next year, Harmon), who are shocked to find that the school is actually a valuable property, promptly decide to sell the school to Subway, who in turn will turn Greendale’s campus into “Subway College”. It’s a critical enough arc to satiate anybody wanting the show to raise the stakes, which have remained stubbornly low for the majority of the show’s run, and is appropriate for both a season finale, and a (possible) series finale.

Furthermore, the conflict would be a little bland if not for Community‘s seriously weird – but nevertheless unbelievably brilliant – product placement; this isn’t the first time Subway has been endorsed on the show, as seen back in Season 3’s “Digital Exploration of Interior Design”, wherein the company was also represented as a heartless, monolithic corporation. It eludes me how Subway approve of its unflattering portrayal on Community, but, coupled with the aforementioned episode’s painfully funny human Subway, and this episode’s hilarious gags (“Subwayary” instead of library, amongst numerous others), I’m not surprised the show has found a way to bring back that rich comedy mine. I mean, even the name of next week’s finale, “Basic Sandwich”, makes me laugh for some reason.

In a surprisingly poignant moment, as Jeff and Britta are reminiscing about their times in Greendale, they make the knee-jerk decision to get married; Greendale has always been the butt of many of the show’s characters’ jokes, but as the two talk about it more, they both simultaneously realise that the school is pretty much their entire lives, and if they were to just leave, they would be exactly where they were five years ago. It’s a wonderful scene, which really brings to the fore the importance of Greendale, a character which has grown and changed as much as any of Community’s other characters. While doing this, however, the show is also freeing itself from the constraints of its setting. As much as these characters depend on Greendale, if the school were to really become Subway College (which I highly doubt it will, nor do I think the Britta-Jeff marriage will come to fruition) they’re flawed and human and just real enough that it doesn’t matter – we’d love to spend more time with them where ever they were.

The beginnings of a Deus ex machina in the form of potential buried treasure on campus gives me confidence that by the end of “Basic Sandwich”, Greendale will be back to normal (in the loosest sense of the word). I just hope that the show maintains that its characters aren’t only defined by Greendale – after five (well four, really) seasons, we’ve come to known these characters absurdly well, and, with or without Greendale, the study group should remain Community’s most important characteristic.

Grade: A-

Some other thoughts:

I can’t stress how much I enjoyed Abed’s subplot. It was self-aware without being smug, and pushed the boundaries of the format in a way that only Community can.

“Now, in the U.S each year six people die this way, and five of them are insurance appraisers, so I take this very seriously.”

“When I get over there, there’re going to be two sounds: me hitting you twice.” Jonathan Banks has been absolutely excellent this season, so it’s a shame they won’t be able to get him back for the next one.

Chang’s “five dollar footlong” jingle was probably my favourite part of the episode – it is just extraordinary how much better utilised of a character he is after that dreadful Changnesia subplot in the fourth season.

“Buried Treasureeeeeeeeee!”

In a season chockfull of amazing ending tags, this one was probably my favourite. The rapport between Jonathan Banks and John Oliver leads to absolute gold.

#SaveGreendale