The Hurry Up: Community

Is this the final hurry up for Community? *gulp* If it is then I can just take solace in the fact that it lasted three times as long as Undeclared and has equaled Arrested Development (which has since risen from the dead). Plus, Dan Harmon's experience with Channel 101 "the unavoidable future of entertainment" offers some interesting ways for the show to continue on if NBC decides to kill it in order to get...what, exactly? To replace it.

Anyway, let's just pretend we're really heading for #SixSeasonsAndAMovie and talk about the season so far. It's an odd hurry-up because things are usually winding down right around now, but due to the hiatus everything is still in motion at Community. Troy is still under pressure to embrace his destiny as an air conditioner repairman. Abed is being forced to become a real person instead of just an outlandish TV character. Annie has recently admitted that her infatuation with Jeff has nothing to do with having found "the one," and may have helped Britta turn towards an actual healthy relationship with Troy.

Also, it can't be coincidence that the evil study group from the worst timeline has been introduced, with their felt goatees standing in place for the goatees they're growing to show their evilness, and Vice Dean Laybourne just HAPPENED to show up with a goatee and inexplicable ponytail halfway through the season. There's a real Lost feel to the things that happen with the air conditioner repair school, with Laybourne as the man-in-black and Jerry the Janitor as Jacob. Right down to the room where the temperature is used to define room temperature almost being the light at the center of the island. But...maybe I just still miss Lost.

• Best Episode So Far: Origins of Vampire Mythology (Could've easily gone with Remedial Chaos Theory, but this one was fantastic without any gimmicks and I spent the whole week afterward watching it)
• Worst Episode So Far: Competitive Ecology
• MVP Candidate: Jim Rash as Dean Pelton. Literally every single moment of the Dean has been funny this year, and he was excellent as the Dean's many phases of ego in Documentary Filmmaking: Redux.
• Rookie of the Year: Travis Schuldt as Subway. As much for concept as execution (plus it doesn't hurt that I'm glad he got something to do after Scrubs)
• Favorite Scene So Far: Three moments have made me laugh the hardest: Seacrest Hulk, Kiss From a Rose, and the worst timeline in Chaos Theory. Best emotional scene goes to the ending of Vampire Mythology.