The study group is studying for finals when a secret about Chang is uncovered that threatens to cause everyone to fail. Meanwhile, Troy discovers a hidden talent for plumbing which, much to his mystification, everyone seems to think is worth dropping out of college for.
The Community episode "English as a Second Language" provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Pierce's "Tierra del Fuego!"
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Abed misleads to imply Jeff might have failed the Spanish class, a Call-Back to Chang doing the same at the end of the first term.
- Big "NO!": Annie's screaming coming from Chang's room.
- Call-Back: The Big "NO!" sampling is from Advanced Criminal Law when Chang said he would flunk everyone.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Annie's tape recorder, which picks up Chang's confession to Jeff that he's not a real teacher.
- When Pierce wakes up before the exam, the book he's been "studying" isn't the textbook - it's a guide to talking dirty in Spanish. It looks like Pierce being Pierce — until you get to the end of the episode and find out he seduced the Spanish teacher.
- Chirping Crickets: Lampshaded - they're part of the Dean's "relaxing" ambient noise broadcast.Dean: And now, crickets! [chirp chirp]
- Continuity Nod: Chang faking his death is brought up.
- The two security guards who look like Troy and Abed break up the fight between Jeff and Chang via taser.
- Deconstruction:
- Abed pulls a paraphrasing of Ben Affleck's "the best part of my day" speech from Good Will Hunting on Troy, to try to get him to 'use his gift' and become a plumber. The next day, Abed turns to find that Troy is no longer sitting next to him in class... but not because he's inspired and has dropped out, but because Troy has switched seats because he's offended that his best friend would actually think the prospect of him just leaving without a word would be the best part of his day. Turns out, that would actually be a really horrible and offensive thing to say to a friend, no matter how gifted.
- Also deconstructs Abed as the Meta Guy. Not all his pop culture references can be understood, and not everyone has seen everything he's referencing.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Jeff leads the charge to get Annie kicked out of the study group for her actions and orders no one to contact her, insisting that they need to 'beat her' and don't need her to study for and pass their Spanish final — something which backfires on everyone seconds later when they realize that Annie's the only one out of them who actually knows how to study.
- Annie rats out Chang so that their grades will be invalidated and that they will have to repeat the class. However, the Dean believes that that would be unfair to the students, so he hires an actual Spanish teacher. So, not only does nothing go according to plan, but she makes things worse.
- Double Entendre:Pierce: Thanks for making it easy.
Escodera: I was going to say the same thing, [Beat] but you were gone before breakfast.
Pierce: Heh, I'm an early riser.
Escodera: I'll say. - Double Subversion: Troy stops to check out an "unsolvable" equation on a blackboard, picks up the chalk... and walks off with it. Then he finds out the water fountain's broken and discovers his latent plumbing skills.
- Dreadful Musician: Chang on Key-tar.
- El Spanish "-o":Jeff: El crapo.
-
Easily Forgiven: Chang wrecks Jeff's precious Lexus but the latter bears no grudge here or in later episodes. - Extremely Easy Exam: Annie rats out Chang to the Dean for not being qualified to teach. An incompetent Sadist Teacher who knows nothing about the subject he's supposed to teach and who has taught the study group next to nothing of value, he is fired just before the final and replaced by a native Spanish-speaking professor who intends to give the class an exam so hard that none will pass. Having learned nothing from Chang and disrupted in their attempts to study by group infighting, they expect to fail the test... only to find it shockingly easy and all of them pass. As revealed at the end, the new teacher is sleeping with Pierce and gave an especially easy test as a favor to him.
- Held Gaze: Jeff and Annie have one during their exchange where Jeff notices she's dressing like a professor.
- Hypocritical Humour: Intentional on Jeff's part.Chang: I hear you faked your bachelor's degree. Two questions: where did you get it; could you have prevented being caught; and how?
Jeff: One question: where did you learn to count questions; and are you telling me you need a fake degree? - I Did What I Had to Do: Annie's explanation that she ratted out Chang because she wants the study group to stay together.
- Instrument of Murder: Key-tar vs. windshield.
- Insulted Awake: How you wake up a napping Pierce.Jeff: Discrimination Lawsuit!
Pierce: Preposterous! - Iris Out: The episode fades out like this.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Annie's motivations for exposing Chang were selfish and her actions were harmful to the rest of the group. But at the same time, Chang is an incompetent Sadist Teacher who knows nothing about the subject he's supposed to teach and has taught them next to nothing of value, is grossly abusive of his power over his students, and all in all has no place being in charge of a classroom.
- Jeff is harsh with Annie when he and the group finds out, but who wouldn't be pissed if someone sabotaged their chances at succeeding?
- Language Barrier: Prof. Escodera treats the class to a real Spanish class, as in devoid of English dialogue. The mass crash-and-burn from the whole class is practically an art form.
- Kavorka Man: Pierce is a Dirty Old Man Upper-Class Twit Racist Grandpa, but when he puts his mind to it, he can seduce someone with little effort.
- New Year, Same Class: Annie actively works to invoke this trope, going so far as to risk all of her classmates failing class so they can stay together. She fails - they instead make a conscious choice to pick another class to take together.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: It's mentioned that Pierce didn't stay for breakfast after his night with his Spanish teacher.
- Not That Kind of Doctor:Troy: Why is she teaching Spanish if she's a doctor? Go cure something!
- Oh, Crap!:
- The moment the Study Group realize Annie hasn't turned up to the exam, and has gone to make things right with Chang.
- Also, the whole Spanish class when they realize they don't know a lick of Spanish for the final.
- Only Sane Man: Troy is mystified that people seem to genuinely think that he should drop out of college and become a plumber simply because he has a gift for fixing faucets. As he points out, getting a college degree will broaden his future opportunities.
- Political Overcorrectness: Dean Pelton apparently hired Chang without checking his credentials, because he thought running a check for Spanish qualifications on an Asian man would look racist.
- Preemptive "Shut Up": Jeff says that he can only become a lawyer again on schedule "if I take a full load." Pierce is opening his mouth and Jeff - without looking at him - says "Don't!" before finishing "a full load of classes."
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Annie's Disney face. Even Abed isn't immune to it.Jeff: Now she is going to make the Disney face. Her lip is going to quiver and her eyes will flutter but they won't ever actually close, but do not feel sorry for her! She stole a year of our lives and we're right to be pissed.
Britta: Oh, Annie...
Jeff: No! No! Everyone close their eyes! Do it! Close them!
[Everyone closes or covers their eyes except for Abed]
Jeff: Abed, close!
Abed: Oh, don't worry about me. I can only connect with people through... [looks at Annie] movies...
Jeff: She's the Ark of the Covenant!
Abed: [gasps in horror and covers his eyes] - Sarcasm-Blind:Britta: Music lessons would be great for you.
Chang: Awww, thanks Britta! - Sarcastic Clapping: The plumber after Troy fixes the bathroom sink.
- Ship Tease:
- Jeff tells Annie she doesn't have to dress like a travel agent to be treated like an adult. She corrects him by saying she's going for a professor look. In fact, Annie's outfit is almost identical to one that Slater wears in the next episode, meaning that Annie's specifically modeling her wardrobe after that of someone that Jeff had been in a sexual relationship with.
- The fact that Jeff knows Annie really well is what leads to him deducing that she got Chang fired. Also, Jeff breaking down the door because he thought Annie was in possible danger, and then his decision for the group to take Anthropology. He even teasingly indicates Annie when asking three times as she did previously!
- Britta and Abed sleep on each other and walk arm in arm behind the rest of the group at least twice once with an Iris Out. Usually, Abed and Britta don't interact that much.
- Shout-Out:
- The countdown to the Spanish final is the same as Without a Trace.
- To punish Annie for jeopardizing their chances of success in the finals, Jeff gets Abed to close his eyes by saying "She's the Ark of the Covenant!"
- Troy asks if May 23, 2013 is the date Jeff will buy a Flying Car.
- For a second, it looks like Troy is going to solve a weird geometry math thing like Good Will Hunting, only to turn and try to get a drink of water, then fix the broken water fountain.
- Significant Reference Date: Jeff mentions that he has a dinner appointment on May 23, 2013. That's a Thursday, the supposed finale of season 4. Ultimately amounted to nothing on screen, as the fourth season finale aired two weeks prior to that date. However, on that day, Jeff's Twitter updated to invite the rest of the Study Group to the restaurant, and wound up having his plans derailed by the Dean & Chang inviting themselves along.
- Sleep Cute: Britta and Abed fall asleep on top of each other after the study group's all-night study session, compounding their Ship Tease in this episode.
- Strange Minds Think A Like:Abed: Like the first season of The Wire.
Troy: Exactly like... ah hell I can't stay mad at you.- Also, when Chang tells Jeff he wants a word in private, Jeff and Chang both expect everyone to leave the room.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Jeff reprimands Shirley for texting Annie and "playing into her ploy for attention". Annie immediately texts Shirley back and says that she's fine and it isn't a ploy for attention.
- Take That!: Jeff wants everyone to picture Annie as Paul Giamatti, trying to invoke What Measure Is a Non-Cute?.
- Taught by Television: Chang admits that he learned some Spanish by watching Sesame Street.
- Unfortunate Implications: The black male of the group is pressured to drop out of school. This is done for parody however, and lampshaded in that Troy thinks the idea of dropping out of college to become a plumber is ridiculous.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Britta.Annie: Of course you think that, Britta. It's obvious from your name that your parents smoked pot.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Troy's subplot is a parody of Good Will Hunting with faucets. So really, just in reverse.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl:Troy: Someone make her a dude so I can punch her!
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Abed assumes Troy's subplot is following Good Will Hunting. It isn't; it's a parody instead.
