"Basic Human Anatomy" was a bit of a strange episode for "Community" when it comes to quality. Certainly it was entertaining, but by all rights it should have been a bad episode, as it relied on approaches to the relationships within the group that don't really make much sense. But the great performances from Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, and Jim Rash make this episode a winner.

The plot is centered around the concept of body-switching, only instead of actually happening it's just all a big act, and this important distinction is made from the get-go. Troy and Abed have a Dreamatorium moment when, after watching the movie version of "Freaky Friday," they pretend to switch bodies thanks to a magical DVD and impersonate each other. This leads to Britta spending her one-year-dating anniversary with Abed instead of Troy, while Jeff tries to convince the two to knock it off so the group can finish their history project.

Ultimately, it turns out that Troy wants to break-up with Britta, and the whole body-switch thing is his weird way of trying to make it easy by having Abed do the break-up for him during the anniversary date. It's a bizarre, awkward conclusion to a bizarre, awkwardly written romance. Troy/Britta never really felt a true romance. There were never any moments where they developed as a pair the way Jeff did with Britta and Annie, and ultimately the romance was put aside for more Troy and Abed hijinks. It's nice for the show to sort of recognize this and have Troy admit that he was never able to fully grasp the concept of being in a romantic relationship, but having Britta just easily accept everything that Troy is doing in this episode hurts her as a character. All Britta has been in this subplot is an instrument through which Troy can experiment with interacting with people not interested in watching ten straight hours of "Inspector Spacetime" while sipping bowls of special drink. If Abed can have episodes where he learns how his little games can hurt people and have consequences, why not Troy? 

Fortunately, this glaring problem is balanced by the pure joy of watching Pudi and Glover imitate each other's characters. Seeing Troy imitate Abed's hand gestures and vocal inflections while Abed does Troy's eyebrow waggling and panic attacks is loads of fun. It gets even better when Dean Pelton joins in on the gag, when Jeff tries to get him to help stop Troy and Abed's act. Instead, the Dean pretends to be affected by the DVD and starts imitating Jeff by acting bitterly sarcastic, ripping his shirt off, and even doing his catchphrases ("Shut up, Leonard. I've got a picture of your old nose. It was a completely lateral move.") The comedy is doubled by Jeff's exasperation with the Dean, allowing us to see just how perfect Jim Rash's impression is.

There's also a b-plot in which Annie and Shirley continue their simmering rivalry for valedictorian while working together to eliminate the top student, Leonard, from eligibility. Honestly, it's just an excuse to allow the Dean to steal the show by having Jeff inside of him ("That did not happen!"), so all that tension between the two women falls by the wayside. Pierce is thrown aside for most of the episode, but ends up saving the day at the end by doing the history project on his own. It's an obvious attempt to avoid dealing with Chevy Chase's rants on set, but the fact that Pierce did a great job with the project beyond anyone's expectations makes it easier to bear. The writers have done a good job softening up Pierce and showing that he actually has some humanity in him.

"Basic Human Anatomy" is an episode for actors, which is fitting considering that Jim Rash wrote this episode. I expect this episode to earn a special spot in the hearts of "Community" fans for all the memorable moments it had, such as the Dean texting with a calculator, Troy and Abed sitting in each other's seats at the study table after their "switch," or Abed inexplicably wearing a t-shirt with a TARDIS on it at the beginning of the episode. Either "Doctor Who" AND "Inspector Spacetime" exist in this universe, or Abed just has a thing for British police boxes.

Reach Staff Reporter Jeremy Fuster here. Follow him on Twitter here.