Episode guide
Essential Community Episodes
NBC, 2009 to 2015
Our 9 character guides for Community point to 39 key episodes across 6 seasons. Of those, 12 turn up in two or more guides, so they come first, followed by every episode in air order.
Season and episode numbers follow the original broadcast order.
The essentials(12)
Episodes that matter to more than one character, the most shared first.
- In 3 guides
Season 1, Episode 1
"Pilot"
- Jeff Winger: Jeff fakes a Spanish study group to get closer to Britta, and accidentally gathers a set of lifelong friends.
- Britta Perry: Jeff invents a study group to win Britta over, and she invites Abed, who brings in the rest of the group.
- Troy Barnes: Troy is one of the classmates who joins Jeff's fake Spanish study group.
- In 3 guides
Season 1, Episode 24
"English as a Second Language"
- Annie Edison: Desperate to keep the group in Spanish together, Annie gets Chang fired over his fake teaching degree.
- Ben Chang: Chang confesses to Jeff that his teaching credentials are fake, and he loses his class to a far tougher replacement.
- Troy Barnes: A knack for fixing pipes turns out to be Troy's hidden gift, and a pushy maintenance man will not stop trying to recruit him.
- In 3 guides
Season 6, Episode 13
"Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television"
- Jeff Winger: In the series finale, Jeff faces the idea that his friends are moving on without him.
- Abed Nadir: Abed imagines a seventh season with his friends and announces his move to Los Angeles.
- Annie Edison: Annie says goodbye to Jeff before leaving for her FBI internship.
- In 2 guides
Season 1, Episode 23
"Modern Warfare"
- Jeff Winger: A campus paintball war ends with Jeff and Britta finally sleeping together.
- Britta Perry: During the campus paintball war, Britta and Jeff finally sleep together.
- In 2 guides
Season 1, Episode 25
"Pascal's Triangle Revisited"
- Annie Edison: At the transfer dance, Annie shares a secret kiss with Jeff.
- Britta Perry: Britta publicly declares her love for Jeff at the transfer dance.
- In 2 guides
Season 3, Episode 6
"Advanced Gay"
- Pierce Hawthorne: Pierce's party celebrating Hawthorne Wipes' new gay fan base is upended by his bigoted father, Cornelius.
- Troy Barnes: Vice Dean Laybourne begins recruiting Troy for the Air Conditioning Repair School.
- In 2 guides
Season 3, Episode 14
"Pillows and Blankets"
- Abed Nadir: Abed and Troy's fight over forts becomes a campus-wide war that tests their friendship.
- Troy Barnes: A fort dispute with Abed escalates into a campus war that strains their friendship.
- In 2 guides
Season 3, Episode 21
"The First Chang Dynasty"
- Ben Chang: With Chang in control of Greendale, the study group stages a heist to rescue the kidnapped dean.
- Craig Pelton: The study group pulls off a heist to rescue the Dean after Chang replaces him with a double.
- In 2 guides
Season 4, Episode 11
"Basic Human Anatomy"
- Britta Perry: Troy ends his relationship with Britta.
- Troy Barnes: Troy and Abed act out Freaky Friday, and Troy breaks up with Britta.
- In 2 guides
Season 5, Episode 1
"Repilot"
- Jeff Winger: With his law practice in ruins, Jeff returns to Greendale and ends up taking a job there as a teacher.
- Craig Pelton: Pelton welcomes the group back and offers Jeff a job teaching at Greendale.
- In 2 guides
Season 5, Episode 5
"Geothermal Escapism"
- Abed Nadir: Abed turns Troy's last day at Greendale into a schoolwide game of The Floor Is Lava.
- Troy Barnes: On Troy's last day, Abed throws the school into a game of The Floor Is Lava before Troy sets sail.
- In 2 guides
Season 6, Episode 1
"Ladders"
- Craig Pelton: Pelton brings in Frankie Dart to fix Greendale, and her rules quickly rub the Save Greendale Committee the wrong way.
- Shirley Bennett: Shirley leaves Greendale for Atlanta to care for her father.
Every key episode by season(39)
Season 1(8 episodes)
Season 1, Episode 1
"Pilot"
An essential, in the guides for Jeff Winger, Britta Perry, and Troy Barnes. Read the notes
Season 1, Episode 2
"Spanish 101"
- Ben Chang: Señor Chang makes his debut as the volatile teacher of the study group's Spanish class.
Season 1, Episode 6
"Football, Feminism and You"
- Craig Pelton: Working with Pierce, the Dean retires the Greendale Grizzly in favor of a deliberately bland new mascot, the Human Being.
Season 1, Episode 9
"Debate 109"
- Annie Edison: Annie and Jeff team up for a debate competition, and she kisses him to clinch the win.
Season 1, Episode 21
"Contemporary American Poultry"
- Abed Nadir: Abed takes over the cafeteria's chicken finger supply and narrates the scheme like a mob movie.
Season 1, Episode 23
"Modern Warfare"
An essential, in the guides for Jeff Winger and Britta Perry. Read the notes
Season 1, Episode 24
"English as a Second Language"
An essential, in the guides for Annie Edison, Ben Chang, and Troy Barnes. Read the notes
Season 1, Episode 25
"Pascal's Triangle Revisited"
An essential, in the guides for Annie Edison and Britta Perry. Read the notes
Season 2(11 episodes)
Season 2, Episode 1
"Anthropology 101"
- Ben Chang: Out of a job, Chang enrolls at Greendale as a student.
Season 2, Episode 3
"The Psychology of Letting Go"
- Pierce Hawthorne: After his mother dies, Pierce insists she will be reborn and carries a lava lamp he believes holds her soul.
Season 2, Episode 6
"Epidemiology"
- Shirley Bennett: Frustrated that her costume is mistaken for Miss Piggy, Shirley has a fling with Chang at the Halloween party.
Season 2, Episode 7
"Aerodynamics of Gender"
- Pierce Hawthorne: Pierce breaks both legs in a trampoline accident, setting off his painkiller-fueled villain phase.
Season 2, Episode 11
"Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"
- Abed Nadir: Abed begins seeing the world as stop-motion animation, and his friends try to find out why.
Season 2, Episode 12
"Asian Population Studies"
- Ben Chang: After a long campaign to join the study group, Chang is finally voted in over Rich.
Season 2, Episode 13
"Celebrity Pharmacology"
- Pierce Hawthorne: Pierce hijacks the group's anti-drug play to give himself a bigger role.
Season 2, Episode 19
"Critical Film Studies"
- Abed Nadir: On his birthday, Abed invites Jeff to a dinner modeled on My Dinner with Andre.
Season 2, Episode 21
"Paradigms of Human Memory"
- Britta Perry: Abed reveals Britta and Jeff's year-long secret affair to the group.
Season 2, Episode 22
"Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts"
- Shirley Bennett: Stuck on campus during a riot, Shirley gives birth with Britta and Abed's help, and the baby is clearly Andre's.
Season 2, Episode 24
"For a Few Paintballs More"
- Pierce Hawthorne: Hurt by the group's vote about him, Pierce walks out at the end of season two.
Season 3(10 episodes)
Season 3, Episode 4
"Remedial Chaos Theory"
- Jeff Winger: Jeff rolls a die to decide who fetches the pizza, splitting the evening into six different timelines.
Season 3, Episode 6
"Advanced Gay"
An essential, in the guides for Pierce Hawthorne and Troy Barnes. Read the notes
Season 3, Episode 8
"Documentary Filmmaking: Redux"
- Craig Pelton: Pelton's quest to film a perfect Greendale commercial sends him spiraling, with Abed filming every moment.
Season 3, Episode 9
"Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism"
- Shirley Bennett: Jeff learns Shirley was the childhood foosball bully who humiliated him at the YMCA.
Season 3, Episode 11
"Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts"
- Shirley Bennett: Shirley and Andre remarry while she and Pierce chase a sandwich shop on campus.
Season 3, Episode 14
"Pillows and Blankets"
An essential, in the guides for Abed Nadir and Troy Barnes. Read the notes
Season 3, Episode 16
"Virtual Systems Analysis"
- Annie Edison: A simulation in Abed's Dreamatorium forces Annie to examine her feelings for Jeff and her friendship with Abed.
Season 3, Episode 18
"Course Listing Unavailable"
- Ben Chang: With the campus reeling after Star-Burns' apparent death, Chang starts quietly seizing power as head of security.
Season 3, Episode 21
"The First Chang Dynasty"
An essential, in the guides for Ben Chang and Craig Pelton. Read the notes
Season 3, Episode 22
"Introduction to Finality"
- Shirley Bennett: Jeff represents Shirley in her legal fight with Pierce over the sandwich shop.
Season 4(3 episodes)
Season 4, Episode 1
"History 101"
- Britta Perry: The fourth season opens with Britta and Troy revealed as a couple.
Season 4, Episode 11
"Basic Human Anatomy"
An essential, in the guides for Britta Perry and Troy Barnes. Read the notes
Season 4, Episode 13
"Advanced Introduction to Finality"
- Jeff Winger: With enough credits to graduate, Jeff has to decide what kind of man he wants to be once he leaves Greendale.
Season 5(4 episodes)
Season 5, Episode 1
"Repilot"
An essential, in the guides for Jeff Winger and Craig Pelton. Read the notes
Season 5, Episode 3
"Basic Intergluteal Numismatics"
- Annie Edison: Annie and Jeff play detective, hunting the coin-dropping prankster known as the Ass Crack Bandit.
Season 5, Episode 4
"Cooperative Polygraphy"
- Pierce Hawthorne: After Pierce's death, his will forces the group through a lie detector test and hands out his parting gifts.
Season 5, Episode 5
"Geothermal Escapism"
An essential, in the guides for Abed Nadir and Troy Barnes. Read the notes
Season 6(3 episodes)
Season 6, Episode 1
"Ladders"
An essential, in the guides for Craig Pelton and Shirley Bennett. Read the notes
Season 6, Episode 4
"Queer Studies and Advanced Waxing"
- Craig Pelton: Pelton joins the school board as its token gay member and finds the label too small for him.
Season 6, Episode 13
"Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television"
An essential, in the guides for Jeff Winger, Abed Nadir, and Annie Edison. Read the notes
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