Britta for the Win!

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.On one hand, this was the least funny episode of Community so far this season. On the other hand, it was still pretty damn interesting and entertaining in its own offbeat way.It was good to see Duncan given a true spotlight episode, after all this time. While Season 5 is giving John Oliver his biggest role yet on the show, not only was the character first introduced in the Community pilot as Jeff's in to Greendale, but he was originally going to be a series regular. Getting to know him a bit more here, while being reminded that he has a history with Jeff that goes back before anyone else at Greendale, was nicely done. Duncan's crush on Britta has been established before, but the fact that he was both comforting to her when she needed it (though he sure would have liked to have done more...) and decided to go hang out with the old friend he hadn't really connected with of late helped humanize him.Meanwhile, while the focus wasn’t on Britta as much, she still got her own bit of character evolution, as she came face-to-face with some of her former anarchist friends and had to process how they’d all gone down very different paths. Hopefully we get a bit of follow up to this in the future, though it certainly seemed she’d come to terms with it all by episode’s end.The Chang storyline was, as is often the case with Chang, the outright weirdest. It was also clearly the throw away, C storyline, but an amusing one. There wasn't a true payoff in terms of the competing “ghosts” at the theater, but it certainly was funny how The Shining-reference was employed.And then there's the Buzz/Abed storyline, which was the one that was, in some ways, the most noteworthy. Certainly, not a lot of true laughs were found in the scenes between these two. Instead, we got a pretty intense bit of interplay between them, as both called each other out on their BS and the facade they put up. Not that Community hasn't had serious moments, but this storyline still stood out for how serious it played, more than anything. Even the set-up, with Abed wandering the halls in his Kickpuncher costume was so melancholy – you could feel his sadness at Troy’s absence. Because I am invested in both these guys (Hickey has been a good addition to the show and Abed's Abed) it was certainly a worthwhile character study, even though it could have used a few more genuinely funny moments so as not to feel quite so tonally different. Still, the fact that the two bonded by the end and were now working together was very sweet. Buzz and Abed may not have the same ring as Troy and Abed, but it's a fun direction to go in for a far more odd couple pairing.Annie and Shirley almost completely sat this episode out, but that was a pretty hysterical bit of meta at the end, with Annie’s dismissive, ‘We’ve had our share of focus lately,” and Shirley replying, ‘Speak for yourself.”I also must note that while Abed wasn’t the source of much comedy this week, he did deliver one amazing line when he mentioned a glue gun related story to Hickey that was, “so hilarious that even describing it would narratively eclipse what's happening here.”