The Fall Of Chang, The End Of Trobed

Community, S03E21

Jeff and the study group implemented a plan to save the dean from Chang.  After getting information about the extent of the Chang's army around the school, they were able to remove the dean from the basement Chang was holding him, but Chang stopped them before they could escape and locked all of them up.  Troy got them free by agreeing to be part of the AC school, and they stopped Chang from blowing up the school with fireworks.  Just when Jeff and Chang looked like they were going to go head-to-head with tasers, the school board came and informed Chang the jig was up.  Chang ran away before he could be prosecuted and the dean was reinstated.  Troy had to leave his apartment for the AC school housing and said goodbye to his friends.

I liked how Chang was looked upon as a savior of Greendale, and there was some kind of video at the beginning of the episode about how enrollment was up and tuition was more affordable.   I expected that Greendale would have turned into some kind of hellhole where order had been totally cast aside.  In truth, Chang was running everything into the ground (most apparent from his excessive spending to cover his birthday party), but at his party the board was treating him like a hero.  Chang was aptly dressed as Napoleon, the clothes making him look both hungry for power and off-balance.  I'm a little sad that he had the appearance of a king (with an elaborate throne in his office), but in reality he didn't seem to have heavily established his power.  In fact, I felt like he was just using his power to fund his random whims and get himself pampered.  I sort of wanted to see him hanging a blanket of doom over the students.  I think only the security detail outside that looked more like a militarized border control and his black suited mini-guards patrolling the halls were the only example of that.  But maybe Chang didn't have enough time to "chang" things.  Then again, if he had any more time as the leader of Greendale without opposition, he would blown it up.

As far as the gang's heist, I think it was clever that they pretended to fail so that they could get the jump on Chang, but I wished they had made their escape with the real dean a little faster.  They were strolling out of the school like they were in freaking Oceans Eleven.  I groaned when Chang caught up with them.  Chang would have been an idiot not to.  But at least thanks to Troy he got them out.

Speaking of Troy, it's looking like they truly are going in the direction of Britta and Troy.  Not exactly the biggest fan, but I'll see how that pans out.  The return of the dean wasn't that emotional for me, but it was when Troy had to say goodbye to his friends.  I liked that Pierce said something random about condoms, and Jeff followed it by saying that Troy should never listen to Pierce.  I might have gotten a little in favor of Troy and Britta when Britta gave him a lock of her hair and his response was:

Aww, creepy.

 But I'm probably more in favor of Troy and Abed as a duo because I was tearing up when they had to say goodbye.  Troy leaned into Abed's ear and whispered something and then they did their special handshake.  Annie later asked Abed what Troy had said:

He said, "I know you hate it when people do this in movies." ...Sorry for getting so emotional.

It just broke my heart to see Troy and Abed have to be separated!  If I had to wait a whole week to see what happened next, I would have died with anticipation.  How can they do their talk show without the other one or all of the other amazing things they do??  It's just not right for them to be apart.

I liked this episode, but obviously not as much as I loved the previous one.  I'm disappointed that Chang didn't take his leadership as far as he could, but I'm glad we got to see him enjoying himself as a self-proclaimed king for a little while.  I nearly cried watching Troy leave the gang, but I know that they can't possibly leave him out of the circle for long.  There just wouldn't be a Community without Troy and Abed together.  And if there was permanently, I wouldn't want to watch that for very long.