"Environmental Science" is the tenth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series ''

Community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

''. It aired in the United States on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

on November 19, 2009.

Plot

Dean Pelton (

Jim Rash James Rash (born July 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He played Dean Craig Pelton on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best ...

) announces that Greendale will have its annual

environmentalism Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...

initiative "Green Week," culminating with a performance by

Green Day Green Day is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Rodeo, California, in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, with drummer Tré Cool joining in 1990. In 1994, their majo ...

. After a small infraction by Annie (

Alison Brie Alison Brie Schermerhorn (born December 29, 1982) is an American actress, writer, and producer. She earned recognition for playing Trudy Campbell in the drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), and had her Breakthrough role, breakthrough starring ...

), Spanish teacher Ben Chang (

Ken Jeong Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong ( ; ; born July 13, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and physician. He rose to prominence for playing Leslie Chow in ''The Hangover'' film series (2009–2013) and Ben Chang in the NBC sitcom ''Community'' ...

) requires that the students write twenty-page essays due the following Monday. The study group finds the assignment untimely: Shirley (

Yvette Nicole Brown Yvette Nicole Brown (born August 12, 1971) is an American actress. She starred as Shirley Bennett on the NBC sitcom ''Community'', as Dani in the 2015 reboot of '' The Odd Couple'' on CBS, and as Dina Rose on the ABC sitcom '' The Mayor''. Br ...

) has a marketing presentation due, and Abed (

Danny Pudi Daniel Mark Pudi (born March 10, 1979) is an American actor and director. His roles include Abed Nadir on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015), for which he received three nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supp ...

) and Troy (

Donald Glover Donald McKinley Glover Jr. (; born September 25, 1983), also known by his musical stage name Childish Gambino (), is an American actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. While he studied at New York University and after working in Derrick ...

) are conducting a biology lab experiment. The group asks

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes ...

(

Joel McHale Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for hosting ''The Soup'' (2004–2015) and his role as Jeff Winger, Jeffrey "Jeff" Winger on the NBC sitcom ''Community (TV seri ...

) to intervene with Chang to cancel the assignment. Pierce (

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

) offers to help Shirley overcome her public speaking anxiety. She feels that his advice is strange and useless, such as using hand gestures and sexual innuendo to catch attention. Abed and Troy are trying to train a rat named Fievel to respond to their duet of " Somewhere Out There", but during a test, the rat escapes. Troy, who is afraid of rats, is unable to help catch it, which enters the air ventilation system. Jeff learns that Chang is bitter over his wife (Andrea de Oliveira) throwing him out. Jeff takes pity on Chang and tries to help him move on, spending the night out drinking with him in exchange for not having to do the essay, unbeknownst to his study group. The next day, the rest of the study group is infuriated to learn that Jeff claims to have already completed the assignment while Chang increases the importance of the essay on their course grade. The group catches Jeff talking to Chang about getting a good grade in exchange for spending more time with him, and insist he fix the problem. Instead, he spends the next night with Chang, ridiculing the homework of other students. Chang breaks down into tears, missing his ex-wife; Jeff realizes he still loves her. The promised concert arrives, but Dean Pelton finds that the band is actually "Greene Daeye," an Irish

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

ensemble. As the band plays, Chang spots his wife in the crowd. Troy joins Abed as they sing "Somewhere Out There" to recover Fievel; Chang and his wife steal the spotlight dancing at the concert, and Shirley realizes the value of Pierce's advice and gives a successful presentation. After dancing, Chang announces that the essay assignment is cancelled.

Reception

"Environmental Science" was met with positive reviews from critics. It first aired on

on November 19, 2009 to an audience of 4.86 million Americans. Emily VanDerWerff of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' rated the episode A−, praising the show's continued development but worrying that some viewers might find Chang's character too broad and irritating. Jonah Krakow of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' rated the episode a 7.6/10 described as narratively satisfying.

References

External links

"Environmental Science"
at

* {{Community (TV series) Community season 1 episodes 2009 American television episodes