This week on "Community," everything old is new again. Annie starts up a model UN club against Asian Annie (Annie, but Asian, with glasses), while Britta misses her days as a tear-gassed protester and Chang gets his wings as a Greendale security officer.
New Professor Cligoris (played by Martin Starr, of "Party Down" and "Freaks and Geeks") asks his poli-sci class a question. Annie, as per usual, shoots her hand up, but other Annie -- a competitive, knows-all-the-answers Bizarro Annie -- beats her to the punch (the real Annie, played by Alison Brie, was apparently almost cast with an Asian actress). Annie takes other Annie to her study group, where she proclaims her intention to start a model UN. Unfortunately, other Annie does it first.
"An Asian Annie -- Obama's America," says Pierce, who is on sexist/racist form this episode.
Cligoris says the only resolution to the problem is a "head-to-head model UN battle royale."
Annie and Jeff go to confront other Annie, who responds to the duo by asking, "Is he your father or your lover?" At the end of season one, Annie and Jeff shared a passionate kiss during a debate in season one -- which was promptly shunted under the carpet in season two.
This time, the entire group is participating (Troy is Georgia, which he accomplishes with real facts and a fake southern accent).
Abed is piqued by the idea that there are two model UNs.
"Are there parallel earths in different galaxies or identical earths in different dimensions?" he asks. "What does that say about free will?"
Britta discovers that an old protest buddy is being held in jail in Damascus, imprisoned by an "oppressive regime halfway around the world," whereas all Britta does is attend school. She heads out to make trouble and bumps into Chang -- "Hello," by Lionel Richie plays as one lost soul greets another. Later, Britta protests outside, in a cage, squirting paint on a blow-up globe. Chang takes her in and the two have another Lionel Richie moment, this one where Britta admits she's no longer interested in getting arrested for no reason.
Back at the debate, things are getting heated and weird. In a surreal montage, each person's giant talking head floats across the screen one by one. Then someone farts, thus distracting the group and leading Annie into a screaming fit where she jumps on the table and writhes.
Jeff says she's acting like "a little school girl and not in a hot way." She runs off. He runs after her, to tell her that he's been treating her like a child because he's afraid of the way he really feels. The two quiet down, stare into each other's eyes and --
"Nope that's gross, I feel gross," Annie says. They separate, and return to the model UN, with Jeff following at a respectable distance.
New plan: Abed leans in and starts to plan --
"You can't just mumble nonsense," Jeff says. "No one's cutting away."
Other Annie is looking forward to victory when the group pops through the giant paper sign behind her making sci-fi noises, with Annie's head in a cardboard TV. They represent the earthlings of Earth 1 (they used Switzerland's Hadron collider to build a portal). Earth 1 offers to merge with Earth 2. Other Annie refuses, choosing "the real victory."
Fortunately for the group, however, Cligoris recognizes that just like the real UN, Annie's UN has used "high-minded rhetoric and empty gestures" to accomplish nothing. They win.
In the middle of all this, Britta busts in dancing, covered in Barbies. Chang tasers her and carries her off in his arms: A happy ending.