Community: Season 2, Episode 10 "Mixology Certification" Review

 "I broke my legs, not my gender."

-Pierce Hawthorne

"Mixology Certification" picks up with the group celebrating Troy's (Donald Glover) 20th birthday in the study room.  During some birthday trivia from Annie (Alison Brie), Troy reveals that he was born in 1989, not 1990.  He had to repeat 5th grade and his mom tried to make him feel better about it by telling him everyone is 10 for two years.  The group realizes he is actually turning 21, so Jeff (Joel McHale) insists they go out to a bar so Troy can have his first legal drink.  Jeff wants to go to L Street, which Britta (Gillian Jacobs) hates, so she suggests The Red Door.  Jeff hates that bar, so they settle on one that appeals to everyone, Flanahan's Hole.  Annie, who is underage, is sad about not being able to go, but Britta gets her an ID that belonged to a woman named Caroline Decker from Corpus Cristi, Texas.

Jeff drives Troy and Abed (Danny Pudi), but they discover Flanahan's Hole has closed, so they change the meetup to The Ballroom.  Jeff calls Britta to let her, Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), and Annie know.  Shirley doesn't want to go to The Ballroom, but her protests are ignored.

The study group, minus Pierce (Chevy Chase), arrives at the Ballroom and the bouncer (Joe Nunez) recognizes Shirley.  It turns out Shirley had a drinking problem in the past and this was her bar of choice.  She tells the bouncer that he doesn't know her.  The Ballroom has pictures up of all their patrons all around the bar and plenty of them are of a very drunk Shirley, so she leaves the others to discretely take them all down.

Annie, paranoid about being bused with an ID that doesn't belong to her, takes on the persona of Caroline Decker, complete with a Texan accent.  She ends up away from the others at the bar and has a conversation with the bartender (Tig Notaro) completely in character.  She plays Caroline as a drifter who never plans anything and talks smack about Annie having her whole life planned out for the next 15 years.  It makes her sad and she starts drinking.

Abed goes off to play arcade games and meets a guy named Robert (Paul F. Thompkins).  They start talking about the show Farscape.  Robert tries to hit on Abed, while Abed keeps on talking about Farscape.  Eventually Robert cuts to the chase and invites Abed back to his apartment for sex.  Abed declines and says he knew Robert was hitting on him, but just loves talking about Farscape.  Robert throws a drink in Abed's face and leaves.  Abed gets sad and starts drinking.

Troy decides to wait until midnight, his actual birthday, to have his first drink and talks about what his first drink will be with Jeff and Britta.  They belittle his pick of a Seven and Seven, his late uncle's favorite drink, and then proceed to get drunk and argue with each other about their choices of drinks and bars and how lame the other is.

Pierce arrives at The Ballroom, but gets stuck by the front door because of his electric wheelchair.

Britta finds a drunk picture of Shirley in the bathroom and shows Jeff and Troy.  When Shirley joins them, they show her the photo and laugh hysterically.  She gets angry and leaves, which saddens Troy.  On her way out, she finds Pierce, still stuck.  He asks her for help and she gets him out of the bar.

As the clock strikes midnight, Troy goes to the bar and gets a Seven and Seven, but notices how drunk Abed, Annie, Jeff, and Britta are.  He abandons his drink to safely drive them all home in Jeff's Lexus.  They drive past The Red Door, which is on L Street, and they realize Jeff and Britta have been talking about the same bar all night.  Troy slams on the branks, furious that two people he looked up to are just as stupid and immature as him.  He snaps at them, but eventually keeps driving.

Troy drops Annie off, who is sad because she realized she doesn't really know who she is.  Troy comforts her and tells her she's a good person.

Jeff and Britta start making out in the backseat right next to Abed, but stop when they realize it's a bad idea.  When Troy returns, Abed immediately rats Jeff and Britta out, annoyed they would do that right in front of him.  Troy tells Abed that no one likes a tattletale and apologizes for snapping at Jeff and Britta.  Feeling bad for ruining Troy's birthday, Jeff tells Troy he's a man now, which Troy appreciates.

The episode ends with Abed trying to put as many t-shirts as possible on Troy.  They reach 157 when Troy's phone, which is in his pocket under all the shirts, rings.

What Works:

This might be the darkest episode of Community.  And not in like a way where people are dropping dead, but the characters have to reckon with their flaws and their pasts and some use alcohol to cope.  It's not a very funny episode, but that's okay.  Sometimes it's good for a comedy to stop down and get serious.  The episode as a whole has a very sad tone, but I think it works for the coming-of-age story it's telling.

Donald Glover gives a terrific performance in this episode.  He gets some moments to be funny, as per usual, but shines especially bright when he gets mad at Jeff and Britta.  We've seen Troy get mad on the show before, but it's usually in a funny context.  Glover gets to be mad and serious here, and he does a fantastic job of putting people in their place a little bit.

It's fun seeing Annie take on the role of Caroline Decker.  It's pretty silly at first and Alison Brie gets to deliver some ridiculous Texan lines.  And while it starts funny, it gets sadder later on when she starts talking smack about herself.  I think that's what this episode does really well.  It starts off with what should be a funny storyline, but gives it a sad twist as it goes along.

Shirley's storyline is another great example of this.  The photos we see of Shirley are pretty funny to look at.  Troy, Britta, and Jeff certainly think so, but eventually we learn just how ashamed and embarrassed she is of that chapter of her life.  With that context it puts a damper on that whole storyline, especially on the rewatch, but I think that's the point.

Finally, one really funny moment this episode does have is near the beginning.  I love Troy's birthday cake that can't explicitly say it's a birthday cake.  I like to send an image of the cake to my friends who also love Community on their birthdays.  And if you don't like how dark this episode feels, at least the opener is really funny.

What Sucks:

This isn't exactly a criticism of the episode, but I will say this episode is in the running for episode I enjoy rewatching the least.  Like I mentioned above, it isn't a fun episode, which is totally fine.  And I'd still rather watch this one over quite a few episodes from season 4, but when I'm in the mood to watch a random episode of Community, I'm never picking "Mixology Certification."

Funniest Moment:

For me, the funniest moment of the episode is when Troy reads his birthday cake out loud.

Heavenly Human Being:

The Heavenly Human Being Award goes to the MVP of the episode.  For "Mixology Certification," this Award obviously goes to Troy Barnes.  He sacrificed his first legal drink to make sure his friends got home safely.  He shows a lot of maturity in this episode for a character who is usually pretty immature.  This is his 2nd time winning this Award, which ties him for 6th place with Britta.

Verdict:

While not a fun episode, "Mixology Certification" is a great Troy episode.  As Jeff puts it, he becomes a man in this episode.  This episode certainly does its job.  It takes some funny storylines and makes them sad.  Not fun, but effective storytelling.  The cake is great, as is Donald Glover's performance, and Annie's take on Caroline Decker.  This episode has definitely got it going on.

 9/10: Great