Community: Season 1, Episode 9 "Debate 109" Review

 "By Zeus!  What sort of jackassery is this?!

-Professor Whitman

"Debate 109" picks up with Britta (Gillian Jacobs) snapping at the other members of the study group as she tries to quit smoking.  Pierce (Chevy Chase) offers to help and claims he is a hypnotherapist.  Feeling bad for snapping at Pierce, Britta agrees to his offer.  Pierce is completely inept at hypnotherapy, but when he falls over and hurts his leg, Britta pretends to be hypnotized and does not help him up.

At a second hypnotherapy session, Pierce spots Britta with her eyes open and starts pretending to hypnotize her into having a threesome with him.  Britta wakes up to berate him and Pierce calls her out for pitying him.  When Britta goes for a smoke later, all she can think about is having a threesome with Pierce which gets her to give up smoking for good.  

Greendale is set to take on City College in the final match of the Debate Championship, but Annie's (Alison Brie) debate partner drops out.  She, Dean Pelton (Jim Rash), and Professor Whitman (John Michael Higgins) ask Jeff (Joel McHale) to join the team and he reluctantly agrees in exchange for a faculty parking space.  The debate starts off poorly for Greendale as Annie is very mechanical and Jeff flirts with a judge and gets the crowd to sing "Evil Woman" instead of actually debating.  Fortunately, the remainder of the debate is postponed to the next day when its discovered Greendale's basketball team had reserved the gym. 

City College's star debater, Jeremy Simmons (Aaron Himelstein), makes fun of Jeff and Annie for their performance and Annie's Adderall addiction, which motivates Jeff to properly prepare for the debate by studying.  He also encourages Annie to loosen up her debate style.

Troy (Donald Glover) discovers that Abed (Danny Pudi) has been making short films about the adventures of the study group.  He shows the group the most recent episode, which is about Jeff living out of his car.  However, Abed made the film before Jeff lost his condo.  Later, Abed seems to predict the future again when his film shows Pierce hurting his leg, which he later does in therapy with Britta.  Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) demands to know the future from Abed, who claims he can't see the future, he's just very good at predicting human behavior.  He shows Shirley his next film, which features her being chased by a werewolf and Jeff and Annie kissing.  This calms Shirley down.

Shirley goes to Jeff and Annie's debate prep session at the same time Jeff realizes he is attracted to Annie.  Shirley tells them that Abed thinks they're going to kiss.  This ramps up the sexual tension of the sessions to awkward levels and they both agree to prepare on their own.

The debate is tight with Simmons arguing that man is good and Jeff and Annie arguing that man is evil.  When Greendale pulls ahead, Simmons decides to try a gambit.  He launches himself out of his electric wheelchair and Jeff catches him.  Simmons argues that this proves man is good.  Annie grabs Jeff and kisses him, which causes Jeff to drop Simmons.  Annie argues that this proves man is evil.  Greendale wins and Annie and Jeff depart awkwardly.

Shirley is now more convinced than ever that Abed can predict the future and is concerned she will die via werewolf attack.  Abed reassures her that in his next film they discover Pierce is secretly a genius.  Shirley is convinced that will never happen and she leaves.  Abed overhears Britta call Pierce a genius for helping her quit smoking and learns that there is a full moon out.  He rushes off to save Shirley from a potential werewolf attack.

The episode ends with Abed and Troy directing a film, where the actors playing Abed and Troy attempt the biblioteca rap, but don't meet Troy's expectations.

What Works:

There isn't much to the Britta giving up smoking storyline, but their are two hilarious line deliveries.  After Britta snaps at several people, Jeff tells her she needs to start smoking again.  That's great on its own, but I love the agreement from Annie, Shirley, and Pierce.  Pierce also has a great line after he falls over during hypnotherapy with Britta.  "Damn my talent!" is a line that truly defines Pierce as a character.

I love Abed's short films and they are something I wish we had seen more of on the show.  I love the recreations of old episodes and the revelation that Abed is seemingly able to predict the future is wonderful.  This leads to an all-time Abed moment for me.  After he hears Britta call Pierce a genius and learns that there is a full moon out, Abed seems to wonder if he can truly predict the future and runs off to save Shirley.  Danny Pudi 100% sells this and it kills me every time.  I would totally watch a movie with Abed and Shirley fighting werewolves.

Professor Whitman has only a minor role in this episode, but he brings it with every line he has.  His zinger to Jeff about romancing his nether regions in front of the E! channel is gold, especially because the E! channel was where Joel McHale hosted his other show, The Soup.  Plus his reaction to the Greendale basketball team is one of the best lines every delivered in the history of television.

I love the debate sequences.  All of the reactions of the various characters make this very memorable, but the debate topic itself is a lot of fun.  Our heroes have to prove that mankind is evil in order to win the debate.  That's the opposite of what you would expect from TV shows that came out before Community.  That feels very Dan Harmon to me, and I love it.  To win the debate, Annie and Jeff have to drop a disabled man to the ground.  Not a nice thing to do, but the Greendale crowd ends up cheering.  It's just a very fun tone that not many shows would attempt in 2009.     

Finally, we have the beginning of the Jeff and Annie situation.  A lot of people slam this potential pairing as being creepy, which is fair.  Jeff is 35, I think, and Annie is 18.  It's gross, but I think that it works in the context of this episode.  It's about man being evil and Jeff gives in to his feelings.  McHale and Brie do have incredible chemistry, but it is gross if you really think about it.  I do think it helps make this a very strong episode though.  I don't know if that will continue to be the case as the show goes on, but I have no problem with it in the context of this episode.  Plus Jeff patting Annie on the head is hilarious.  

What Sucks:

Apart from the two funny moments I mentioned earlier, there isn't much of interest in the Britta giving up smoking storyline.  It's not bad, but nothing too special.

Funniest Moment:

For me, the funniest moment of the episode is the quote I have at the top of this piece.  Professor Whitman's reaction to Greendale basketball team is simply perfect.  Plus earlier in the episode, the Dean mentions that the best compliment Greendale ever gets is that the basketball team is really gay.  When they enter the gym, yes.  That's accurate and hilarious.

Heavenly Human Being:

The Heavenly Human Being Award goes to the MVP of the episode.  For "Debate 109," this Award goes to Annie Edison for being the person to teach Jeff how to prepare for the debate and her kiss is what won it for Greendale.  This is her 2nd time winning this Award, which ties her for 2nd place with Britta.

Verdict:

"Debate 109" is another iconic episode of the show.  We get some absolutely fantastic dialogue from many different characters, Abed predicting the future, great chemistry between Brie and McHale, and wonderful debate sequences.  I don't love the Britta storyline, but even that one has a couple of great moments.  This episode has absolutely got it going on.

 9/10: Great