'Community' recap: 'Economics of Marine Biology'

"Economics of Marine Biology" tells the story of the Dean trying to woo a whale, a potential student with a rich family and little ambition, into attending Greendale.

Other than the main storyline about the whale, in this episode of Community there is a small side story about Shirley and Troy taking P.E.E.

P.E.E. originally started as a typo but has become a master class in teaching physical education teachers how to teach. Upon entering, Troy, believing it would be a normal P.E. class, is prepared to dominate while Shirley expects to be picked last for everything. When they learn the true nature of the class, it becomes clear pretty quickly that Shirley is the one who will excel. Troy does horrendously. He even gets stuffed into a locker by one of the theater kids pretending to be a P.E. student. The teacher and the other students mock Troy and Shirley is even forced to pick him last for a team (picking the teams is the actual exercise). Shirley apologizes and they enter into a training montage with a hilarious song. In the montage, Troy teaches Kevin/Change to use a water fountain.

The rest of the episode revolves around the Dean trying to get the whale, a rich student who is unlikely to graduate any time soon, to enroll. The Dean enlists the study group in helping with the courting. Shirley and Troy cannot help since they will be busy in P.E.E. Jeff, however, agrees to help in order to avoid hanging out with Pierce who has been desperately trying to hang out with him. With that arranged, the Dean scheduled Archie’s tour for a day Pierce will not have class, since Pierce gets jealous when anyone else gets attention. This is when the school board guys show up, clearly drunk, and tell the Dean that he needs to go dramatic to win Archie.

While they are waiting for Archie, though, Pierce does show up and starts getting jealous, so Jeff has to jump on that grenade. Jeff goes off to spend the day with Pierce and has a really nice time. He later tells the dean that if they treated Pierce like they expected him to act better, he might. Once Jeff and Pierce are gone, the Dean, Annie and Britta start trying to impress him. They go all out and the Dean starts going a little crazy. Archie gets anything he asks for. He gets a computer. He gets pushed around in a desk chair and steals a guy’s necklace. The Dean even throws a party with strippers in the cafeteria.

It gets too much for Britta pretty early on, but Annie continues. At the party, Archie announces he is planning to enroll in Greendale and Magnitude does his signature “Pop-Pop” catch phrase. Archie wants that too and the Dean tells Magnitude he needs a new catch phrase. At this point, Annie thinks it really has gone too far. The next day when Annie and the Dean enter the study room, Magnitude is at a bunch of chalkboards writing out new phrases. The Dean is horrified at himself and tells Archie that he will not change the school to get Archie to attend. Archie likes the idea of being treated like a normal person, so he is in.

image: NBC