The Hopeful Timeline: 'Community' Triumphantly Ends Season 3

Community wrapped up its third (and not final!) season on Thursday night with three fantastic episodes. NBC has been all over the place when it came to its Thursday night comedy schedule, so I have no explanation for why we got three episodes of Community at once. I'm not complaining though. Compared to Whitney or most of this season's episodes of The Office, an hour-and-a-half of Community was awesome.

The three episodes, while very different from each other, represented just how creatively diverse Community has been and can continue to be. High-concept episodes, Chang episodes, sentimental episodes — Community can do it all. Dan Harmon and his team have delivered an amazing season's worth of television, despite NBC's attempts to kill Community. If there is any fairness is the pop culture world, Community would nominated for an Emmy and win.

Let's break down the final three episodes of Community's third season.

Digital Estate Planning

This was the strongest episode of the night. Like Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas and its claymation, Digital Estate Planning was largely done in the style of an 8-bit Atari video game. Pierce and the Greendale Seven must defeat a man who turns out to be Pierce's half-brother in order to claim the Hawthorne inheritance. The entire episode had me laughing, especially when noticing the details that had been put into the video game world. The tiny Pierce crying really got me.

I know that episodes like this one (or the claymation one or the Ken Burns one) turn casual fans off. Normal shows don't do this kind of thing. Community has excelled at it though, proving that not only is it smarter than most TV shows, but it's brave enough to take a chance on episode like this. You'll never see Two and a Half Men do a video game episode.

The First Chang Dynasty

After building up Ben Chang's transition from study group rejectee to community college tyrant (with the birth of the Changlorious Basterds in between), Community resolved Chang's storyline, reinstated Dean Pelton and brought the Greendale Seven back to school all at the same time. The elaborate plot to rescue the Dean was the highlight of this episode, allowing each character (even Pierce) to play a role in the scheme.

To rescue the rest of the study group, Troy agreed to join the Air Conditioning Repair Annex, giving in to John Goodman's Vice Dean Laybourne. Troy saying good-bye to his friends was probably one of the saddest moments Community has offered. The Troy-Abed high five is usually a joyous action.

Introduction to Finality

There was a very good chance that Introduction to Finality was going to be Community's series finale. The episode was shot with the show's future still in the dark and it shows. Harmon obviously prepared this episode to serve as Community's conclusion if need be. Jeff Winger faced off against a former colleague in Greendale Court, representing Shirley in her suit against Pierce over ownership of their café. Meanwhile, Evil Abed had overpowered Abed and set about to make the world the Darkest Timeline. A well-timed Winger speech fixed everything, bringing Shirley and Pierce back together and defeating Evil Abed.

We got a lot of great, quick scenes as the episode ended. Shirley's Sandwiches opening. City College planning war on Greendale. Chang hiding in the City College air duct (was he spying or getting ready to offer his services?). Starburns preparing for a new life after faking his death. The Dreamatorium being dismantled so Troy could have his own room. And finally, Abed entering into his own mini-Dreamatorium. Cue white light. Cue #sixseasonsandamovie card. What could've been a protest of cancelation was instead, thankfully, a hopeful celebration of Community's future.

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Come September, we enter into a new reality for Community. The show will be on Fridays and will be living off a 13-episode order. There's the chance NBC could pick up another nine episodes and give Community a full 22-episode season. It's more likely, though, that we're going to have to start accepting the end of this amazingly creative, one-in-a-lifetime show. NBC has never known what to do with it. That doesn't mean that we can't hold onto the hope that Comedy Central or FX swoops in and saves Community. The show does have a destiny to fulfill — three more seasons and one movie left to go.