Episode 1
Title: “Anthropology 101”
Original Airdate: September 23, 2010
Everyone returns for a new year at Greendale, and the study group reconvenes to take Anthropology 101, taught by Professor June Bauer (Betty White). Jeff is annoyed that Britta is getting so much attention for being rejected by him, so he calls her bluff and declares his love for her, and they get together until she admits she doesn’t really love him. A jealous Annie gets upset, and the whole group turns on Jeff. After Jeff apologizes, everyone makes peace. The group agrees to let Chang, now a student, study with them.
Episode 2
Title: “Accounting for Lawyers”
Original Airdate: September 30, 2010
Jeff runs into Alan (Rob Corddry), a lawyer he used to work with, and starts reverting to his old arrogant, inconsiderate ways. Alan takes Jeff to a party at his old law firm, and the gang crashes it to find proof that Alan was the one who reported Jeff’s fake degree and got him disbarred. When they show the proof to Jeff, he says he doesn’t care, but when Alan tries to put the blame on someone else, Jeff realizes that he actually does care about people, and goes back to Greendale to rejoin the group for a dance contest.
Episode 3
Title: “The Psychology of Letting Go”
Original Airdate: October 7, 2010
When Pierce’s mother dies, he refuses to believe that she’s gone, instead insisting that her essence has been transferred into a lava lamp-like device provided by the strange religious cult he belongs to. Jeff professes not to care about religion, but when he learns he has high cholesterol, he freaks out about dying and tries to destroy Pierce’s beliefs. Eventually he realizes he has to just accept life as it is. Annie and Britta try to raise money to help victims of the oil spill, but they just end up fighting with each other.
Episode 4
Title: “Basic Rocket Science”
Original Airdate: October 14, 2010
Greendale buys an old space simulator, and the group is forced to clean it as punishment for designing an obscene flag. Everyone but Abed ends up trapped in the simulator as it gets towed away. Abed has to talk the group through the simulation so they can open a window and see where they are. But they’re out of town and too far away to get back for the launch to beat rival City College. Annie manages to get in the driver’s seat and race back just in time.
Episode 5
Title: “Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples”
Original Airdate: October 21, 2010
Shirley wants to create a YouTube video to promote Christianity, and she enlists Abed to help out. Shirley rejects Abed’s avant-garde idea, which then becomes a sensation on campus, turning Abed into a sort of religious figure. Shirley gets upset and destroys the production equipment, which is for the best because Abed’s movie is terrible. Pierce decides to hang out with a new crew of people his own age who smoke, drink and steal, and get away with it by pretending to be feeble.
Episode 6
Title: “Epidemiology”
Original Airdate: October 28, 2010
At the Greendale Halloween party, a batch of bad meat causes a bunch of people to exhibit zombie-like symptoms. The Dean calls the Army surplus store where he bought the meat and finds out that it’s a secret military pathogen. The gang has to hold off their fellow students while waiting for the Army to arrive. Shirley and Chang give in to a moment of passion while hiding out from danger. Troy saves everyone by turning down the temperature, and then the Army shows up and sprays a chemical that cures the affliction and erases everyone’s memory.
Episode 7
Title: “Aerodynamics of Gender”
Original Airdate: November 4, 2010
Jeff and Troy discover a hidden trampoline and become calm and relaxed after bouncing on it. Pierce is determined to find out what they’re hiding, and he ends up exposing the trampoline and getting it taken away. Abed helps Shirley, Britta and Annie take down a pack of mean girls led by guest star Hilary Duff, and then goes too far with his cruel insults, targeting other students and eventually his friends themselves. He lets the original mean girls cut him down to size in order to restore the natural balance.
Episode 8
Title: “Cooperative Calligraphy”
Original Airdate: November 11, 2010
Annie refuses to let the group leave the library until her missing pen is located, because she believes that someone in the group stole it. Everyone has to dump out their bags, and Shirley has a pregnancy test in hers, while Abed has a notebook charting the women’s menstrual cycles. Even after everyone strips to their underwear, and Pierce’s leg casts are cut off, they still can’t find the pen. They finally give up and agree to trust each other, and when they leave the room, Troy’s long-missing pet monkey is revealed as the thief.
Episode 9
Title: “Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design”
Original Airdate: November 18, 2010
The Dean accuses Jeff of fabricating a fake independent-study class on conspiracies to get free credits. When the fake professor somehow shows up, Jeff and Annie decide to investigate. They discover that the Dean set up a whole conspiracy to teach Jeff a lesson, so they double-cross him, and then get double-crossed themselves. Troy and Abed have a sleepover in Abed’s dorm room and build a blanket fort, which grows to encompass the entire dorm.
