In today's episode of our beloved sitcom Community, Greendale catches knowledge at the STD awareness fair organized by our very own Annie Edison. Eager to prove herself, Annie goes all out to impress Dean Pelton, only to be rewarded with the harrowing task of conducting the condom demonstration in front of the entire school, which is a problem since she's never actually seen a...thingamabob. In order to prep for this, Shirley and Britta help her pull a reverse Porky's and spy on the Dean's anatomically correct model (wha?!). Meanwhile, Pierce is determined to win a double date with Jeff, and Troy just wants to win something against the best athlete in school - Abed.

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This episode starts with the Dean declaring Green Week at Envirodale, and then goes fully off the rails from there. Chang goes even further off the deep end than usual when his wife leaves him. Jeff uses friendship for evil to manipulate Chang into changing their homework assignments. Shirley is so anxious about giving a presentation in her marketing class that she asks Pierce for help, and in an even wilder turn, Pierce actually helps. Troy and Abed train a rat to respond to song in a classroom experiment, and your humble podcast hosts realize they're basically trained rats in this experiment - getting emotional on cue when Troy and Abed sing "Somewhere Out There" because, dang it, Fievel needs to find his family! That poor, sweet mouse!

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In this episode, Britta gets angry and articulate while trying to quit smoking. She's so desperate that she'll try anything, even getting hypnotized by Pierce. Shirley discovers that Abed's films about the study group predict, or maybe even write, the future. Jeff and Annie team up to save the Greendale debate team, and we discover that it's helpful to talk about uncomfortable subjects even when you're not sure how to start. Hopefully we don't totally fumble it like Pierce tripping over every musical instrument in the Greendale band room.

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Jeff is living out of his car, Pierce is commissioning diss tracks, Troy is picnicking under the stars, Annie is faking appendicitis, and Britta is begging your unbelievable pardon. This episode covers more character development than we can keep track of, but we give it the old Greendale try anyway. We also get to see Matt's all-time favorite guest star! (Really? Already? In Season 1? A bold claim.)

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At this very important milestone (the end of disc 1 of the Community DVD box set), we take a step back and reflect on the show as a whole so far. Join us for the easiest pop quiz ever about how we feel about the show, the characters, and the production up to this point.

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It's Dia de los Muertos at Greendale and the gang is trying on all sorts of costumes. Annie tries being assertive when she tells Jeff he can't skip her extra-credit Halloween party. Jeff tries being honest for once in his pursuit of Professor Slater, his statistics teacher. Shirley tries punishing Slater until she realizes she's really just mad at her ex-husband. Everything goes sideways when Pierce tries being young again and ends up tripping balls in a desk fort. Luckily, Batman (Abed) is there to save the day. Bust out the tiny candy traffic cones, folks! It's a classic American holiday episode!

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Community gets cringey in this one when Pierce helps the Dean design a post-racial mascot, but we love that this isn't a "very special" episode that addresses race once and the shelves it for the rest of the series. Somehow, Pierce and Dean Pelton agree on their horrifying design choices, but Jeff and Annie clash over whether Troy should play football for the Greendale Human Beings. Troy can be swayed on the small stuff, but ultimately Jeff and Annie both run up against The Zen of Troy - a man who knows who he is and where he's at. Meanwhile, Britta is consciously trying to change to be more open to mainstream femininity with help from Shirley in the ladies' bathroom. Matt and Sandi try something new as well - for the first time in this podcast, only one of us really loved the episode. Gasp! Listen to find out who only just liked it.

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The main focus of this episode is about Britta cheating in Senor Chang's Spanish class, but meanwhile in the background, the writers are doing some major world building. So many of the show's future developments have their roots in this episode. We see an almost familial relationship developing between Annie and Pierce as she encourages him to compose the Greendale school song. The Luis Guzman statue goes up in the quad. (Really?! This is only episode 5!) The dean makes his first dramatic entrance into the study room, and his first bad dean pun. Troy and Abed decide that friends don't mess with each other, and seal the deal with their first best-friend handshake. Jeff's big speech is actually a closing argument this time in Britta's poolside cheating trial, and on our side of the screen, Matt gives his own big speech about how fictional characters can fill a very real emotional void. Sh#! gets real, you guys.

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As Vaughn would say, this episode of Community is tight, but us? Not so much. We're all over the map in this one talking about the Duncan Principle, Jeff and Shirley's growing friendship, our own college friends who couldn't keep their shirts on, Annie's budding sexuality, Pierce's ear...noculars, and how Britta fell into the "Interesting Boy Trap." We find out that Matt totally would have played hacky sack with Vaughn, that Pierce can be disarmingly sincere, and that there is true social value in getting together with friends to talk about a TV show. So, join us over by the Greendale Stoner Tree. You're already accepted.

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Sandi and Matt begin to start starting seizing the day with Professor Whitman's ultimate blow-off class, which Jeff could totally pass if only he'd stop trying so hard at the wrong things, like crumping. We follow Abed into some surprisingly deep emotional waters, and we delight in Britta's fisticuffs, Pierce's voice commands, Annie's pizza etiquette and Troy's delicate sneezes.

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