I think those are some of the stronger threads of the show but Britta just kind of stopped being homeless.

I have reformulated my thought:

The key is that it has to be his kid or has to trigger arc-like webs of consequences.

They're really only tropes as things that get dealt with by the end of the episode. Part of what classic Community did well (until S3.5 when it became all arc) was juggle arcs and standalone episodes and leave you unsure whether an arc would rear its head in any given episode.

I think what we're missing is the lack of shock. These are all good episodes, I think, but the show feels safe. We need for the show to betray us and it seemingly missed the opportunity with the e-mail leak episode.

I don't think it needs to be all that convoluted. No full on death faking. Just say that he e-mailed the cafeteria to tell them he was dead because he wanted out of some kind of hare brained mandatory faculty meal plan. Nobody aside from the lunch ladies ever thought he was dead. But now they're getting the good…

If coming out is a magic show, and being gay is pulling a rabbit out of a hat, then a metaphor is like a thought with another thought's hat on.

Asexual doesn't even begin to cover it.

I think that would be interesting if that was what broke them up. Jeff wants a stable and mature relationship and is actually ready for it… And Annie isn't. A reversal of the S2 opening. Annie has matured enough to lie and Jeff has matured enough to not want to.

I was half expecting them to cast Ralph Macchio, who we'd learn was the Annie's understudy.

I dunno. If it plays out like the Jeff/Britta offscreen hookups, this could be one more development in that line. I hope they don't end up together but I think we'd get more juice out of the break-up if the relationship is secret.

That was what made that plot for me. The fact that they built in that subtext but never stated it in some artificial, expository way.

#SixSplendainamocha

I did find myself hoping she'd do it. Not that I want her off the show (and not that she'd have to leave THE SHOW) but it would have been the kind of arc we haven't seen since S3.

By the way, has anyone insinuated that Frankie = Melissa Mayer and Greendale = Yahoo? I felt that was almost not even subtext but text.

Exactly, I think this episode (and hopefully the next) take us from the Dean being crazy and creepy to being, instead, gullible and lacking self-awareness. Which is good because it allows Chang to be the crazy one and takes the Dean back to his S1 role of being the well meaning one in denial.

Part of the issue is that they're running the tags before the credits, which seems padded.

Harmon said he acknowledged that and he did. The IT Lady (Debra Chambers) is Frankie's mentally ill relative that Frankie moved to Greendale to take care of. I think that was the nod anyway. Harmon did say he addressed it somewhere and that it was not intended to be easily picked up on because he imagined most folks…

One nice thing about the show is that, at least for the moment, nobody who stuck with the show seems to be in a downward career trajectory, which is unusual.

Also, don't forget Anne seeing how much Andy has matured and, after giving everyone the cold shoulder for years, gets back together with Andy.