Where Has Abed Gone?

Community, S0316

After Annie set up Troy and Britta on a lunch date, she and Abed spent time in the Dreamatorium.  They argued about Abed's control issues and the accuracy of his scenarios about their friends.  After Annie messed with Dreamatorium's engine so that Abed would think of others before anything else, he began to imagine a soap-opera-esq world where Annie was the administrator of a hospital school and Abed played the parts of all of his friends.  Annie spent the time trying to talk to the real Abed and couldn't find him until she became Abed herself.  After finding Abed in a locker, chained to the wall, she learned that Abed was just worried about being alone and unneeded by his friends.  Abed in turn, learned a little about expressing empathy.

I guess because of last week's mystery text that Troy sent to Britta, Annie thought it was a good idea to try to hook them up.  Even if she saw something there, it wasn't that significant that she needed to push them along a bit.  It confused me for a while until Abed (in the form of Jeff) suggested that Annie had played matchmaker in order to somehow get herself and Jeff together.  She denied that as a motive, but I have to agree with Abed because nothing else makes much sense.  Perhaps Troy and Britta would have had a connection on their own, but since Annie decided to have a hand in it, Abed was justified to feel a little threatened by her action.  Whether his scenarios of them dating would ultimately turn into disaster had any merit was debatable.

I liked how Abed was playing the parts of everyone in the hospital school, but he himself didn't really exist there.  He made everyone else seem a little sillier than they were in real life (like Jeff just wanting to get into Annie's pants).  However, I don't think that he made anyone look too stupid.  The most interesting thing was when he became Annie and Annie became Abed.  I was beginning to think that the real Abed was lost forever.  Annie was pretty terrible in playing along with his scenario, so I thought she would fail to ever find Abed.  After all, each time Annie tried to imagine Abed in that world, Abed denied that she had.  Annie didn't do a very good Abed, but it was funny to see her try.  What wasn't very funny was to see the real Abed chained inside of a overly spacious locker.  As much of a child he was being trying to rule over others in his own way, I was affected by his vulnerable side.  How could you not feel for Abed when he worried that he would be cast aside when people grew tired of him and that he spent most of junior high school inside of a locker?  Saying "aww" just isn't enough.  I wasn't sure that Annie would convince him to come out of the hospital school world, but she did a good job of making him feel as human as the others are.

With the Annie and Abed story going on, it was easy to forget what was going on in the real world.  I didn't even really think about how Brita and Troy's date must have really gone.  Obviously, it wasn't anything to talk about because there seemed to be no change between the two.  Troy was still genuinely concerned about Abed more than anything else, so the balance of the group seemed to be have been preserved.

Although Annie seemed to raise her value as a friend to Abed, her contributions to the apartment are obviously still not appreciated.  During the "Troy and Abed in the Morning" scene, Abed went into a breakdown upon seeing how Annie how changed their bedroom.  Had she learned nothing when she messed with the Dreamatorium's engine?  I just loved how Troy tried to comfort him and Abed just stood around making a noise like a robot that was going to explode soon.

Really interesting and creative episode.  I wouldn't have thought that Annie could spend multiple hours with Abed just by herself, nor would I think that their time together would make a significant impact upon him.  It was nice to see that Abed can grow and learn to show more empathy toward his friends.  Not too sure how I feel about Troy and Britta getting together, but we'll have to see how that goes.  Hopefully after all that happened in the Dreamatorium, Annie will at least keep her nose out of it from now on.