2x10 Mixology Certification

9.6/10. One of the strangest experiences of growing up is realizing that adults are just grown up kids, and there's not some magical totem you're given when you hit a certain age that gives you wisdom and maturity and the knowledge of what the hell you're doing. "Mixology" is, first and foremost, about that realization, and also about growing up. Despite the oddities that stem from the various romantic entanglements, Jeff and Britta spend much of the series playing Mom and Dad to the other characters. Here, Troy has the recognition that the people he looked up to are still his friends, but are flawed human beings like any other who may be just as naive and/or full of shit as he is.

Annie's struggling with the idea of growing up too. While her story starts with a fake ID as a catalyst for her concocting an increasingly byzantine backstory and performance as a young drifter from Corpus Christie, it ends with Annie realizing that she relishes the idea of this character so much because she has her whole path to adulthood plotted out, and there's something disheartening about the lack of uncertainty or spontaneity in that. It's some great comedy from Allison Brie, but also a nice moment of pathos for her character.

These two stories collide when Annie and Troy find themselves together at the end of the night, and realize that neither one of them is the same person that they were when they first met one another. Whether they want to think of themselves as adults or not, each has grown and changed and become a better person than they were in high school, and each being able to recognize that in the other is affirming for both of them.

There's a lot of other great stuff in the episode. There's some firm emotional truth in Shirley wanting to forget her drink-laden path and having the gang be kind of cruel in how it makes fun of her, another sign of their lack of maturity and that even the seemingly most put-together adults have rough patches. Pierce's storyline with his wheelchair helps reinforce this through the idea that even the oldest member of the group can have trouble admitting he's not in control and needs help. The Abed thing with Paul F. Thompkins feels like it's just there for comic relief, but it's good comic relief so it gets a pass. And Jeff and Britta arguing constantly, then making out whilst drunk, and then realizing they're talking about the same bar, are the perfect beats to accentuate both the comedy and the larger point about the pair's role in this episode.

Overall, this is one of Community's finest outings, which combines lots of great bits of humor with the profound darkness the show is known for, this time in the context of the realization that being an adult isn't what you imagine it to be and people you look up to can let you down, but also with a bit of optimism in those closing scenes where the show reconstructs that myth a bit, by showing that its two adolescents are growing and becoming better people regardless.