Community/Recap/S2/E10 Mixology Certification

Happy expulsion, Troy!

—Britta

Troy is having his 20th birthday and the whole study group is celebrating. But wait a second--Troy was held back a year in fifth grade! It's actually his 21st birthday. As in legal drinking age. Time to hit the bars.

The rest of the episode revolves around the group's night on the town. Annie adopts the persona on her fake ID and has a crisis of confidence. Abed talks Farscape with a fellow Sci-Fi geek and gets hit on. Shirley tries to hide pictures showing the fact that she used to be a regular in this bar. Jeff and Britta continue arguing over which bar is cooler, L Street or the Red Door, and consume one too many drinks.

The Community episode "Mixology Certification" provides examples of:

• Actor Allusion: Jeff groans upon hearing Tyra Banks' name. Joel McHale is well-known for making fun of her on The Soup.
• American Accents: Annie puts on a Texan drawl.
• An Aesop + Broken Aesop: After the group convinces Pierce they threw him a birthday party that he forgot, Troy says Pierce still owes him for the keg deposit. Britta criticizes him and Jeff congratulates him.
• Becoming the Mask: Annie dives into her role as Caroline from Corpus Christi.
• Bouncer
• Brake Angrily: Troy does so when he finds out that Jeff and Britta have been fighting over the same bar.
• Broken Pedestal: Troy, towards Jeff and Britta, after he's spent all night listening to their advice on growing up only to learn they've also spent all night bickering over the same bar under the mistaken impression that it's two different places:

I just spent the last two years thinking you guys knew more than me about life, and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.

• • Their response?

Britta: ... Duh-doy.

Jeff: Yeah, duh-doy.

• Call Back: Annie lives in a really bad neighborhood.
• Coming of Age Story: "You're a man now."
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming:

Annie: Admit it! We went to high school together for four years and you didn't even know me.
Troy: "Yeah, but, I know you now."

• Dark Secret: Shirley's well-documented past as a barfly.
• Deleted Scene: One where Chang calls Jeff to ask where the party is upon discovering Troy's cake. Jeff tells him that the group is actually hunkering down to study for finals.
• Development Gag: The Uncle Rusty's T-shirt that appears in The Tag is a reference to a cut plotline from "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" where Pierce and Shirley would go on a road trip together to get the "best burger in the Midwest".
• Drink Order: Both Britta's and Jeff's Drinks. Troy is also told not to order a Seven and Seven since that is "a high school drink for girls".
• Drowning My Sorrows / I Need a Freaking Drink: Annie starts off with Root Beers and as she get worked up about planning out her life Annie eventually ends up switching to screwdrivers.
• Embarrassing Old Photo: Shirley has some incriminating photos of her when she frequented the bar.
• Fake State-Citizenship: Annie's persona of Caroline Decker.
• Food Slap: Abed is on the receiving end of a drink to the face.
• Foreshadowing: "Maybe later you'll let me drive your car". Jeff just laughs.
• Forgotten Birthday: Happens to Pierce. The rest of the group convinces him it happened otherwise. Or do they? "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" suggests that Pierce wasn't as convinced as they thought...
• Genre Shift: A minor example. Usually a Community episode stays within the Greendale campus, is mainly comedic, and includes a ton of jokes. This episode keeps this up for the first five minutes, but as soon as things switch to the bar, things become more somber. The end of the episode isn't comedic, but poignant. Consuming alcohol doesn't make the characters do anything funny, but makes things "sad" (it's the "Lifetime original movie of beverages" as Troy puts it).
• Happy Birthday to You: The episodes opens with only the last two words are sung, to get around the copyright on the song.
  • Although it's played with, in that Pierce immediately questioned why they didn't sing the whole 'happy birthday' bit; turns out, since Troy is a Jehovah's Witness, they didn't even sing those bits anyway.
• Hipsters: Jeff and Britta spend the episode out-douching one another.
• Is That What He Told You?: Minor example done by Troy's mother.
• Kissing Under the Influence: Jeff and Britta
• Mistaken for Gay: Abed, by Paul Tompkins.
• Self-Deprecation: Annie, in her role as Caroline, insults her life.
• Ship Tease: YMMV. Jeff/Britta and Troy/Annie
  • And Abed/Paul Tompkins.
  • Hell, maybe even Britta/Troy.
• Significant Reference Date: December 3, 2010.
• Split-Screen Phone Call: Jeff and Britta, while driving to the bar.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Jeff and Britta.
  • And Abed/Paul Tompkins.
• Unusual Euphemism: Britta excuses herself at the bar to "go see a woman about the female equivalent of a horse".