Damn you Subway! First the “yoga mat” bread. Now Greendale?! Is there anything your won’t wrap your formerly flabby tentacles around, Jared?!

Greendale Community College will soon become Subway University, after the Save Greendale Committee’s school improvement efforts during the year have brought Greendale up to code, giving the school lots of property value for a faceless corporation. Their mission to “save” Greendale has ironically doomed it to the highest bidder. After the school is sold, everyone is left to consider the end of Greendale. Dean, unsurprisingly, is not adjusting well to the news.

Lots and lots of details and setup in “Basic Story,” but no real plot or story, as Abed tries to search for it in his uniquely meta way. We must have CONFLICT! It’s pretty much the calm before next week’s season (series?) finale storm. Unlike other part ones from two-parters in the show’s history (the 2nd paintball episode from season 2 or the pillow fort war from year 3), this one didn’t have any real resolutions to anything and doesn’t stand on its own like those others. Something big is going to happen. Just not in this episode.

That’s not to say this appetizer of an episode wasn’t enjoyable, or without lots of funny stuff. It was, and it had it. Michael McDonald, of the late MadTV, was great as dedicated vending machine testing appraiser Ronald Mohammad, as were irresponsible school board members Carl and Ritchie. The button during the credits with Hickey and Duncan reminiscing about one-thumbed whores in the UK who weren’t Duncan’s mother was great. Anything Jim Rash did in this episode was instant .gif gold.

There was a nice full-circle moment with Jeff and Britta alone in the study room, reminiscing about how his efforts to get into her pants were what led to all the zaniness at Greendale. This was always a relationship that made more sense than Jeff and Annie, simply because these two are so comically and compatibly screwed up. I doubt there’s anything stable about Jeff and Britta getting married other than two actually scared people facing an uncertain future. Plus, as the episode alluded to, that’s what shows do with their “will they/won’t they” couples. If they don’t get married, what’s the point? Jeff is still weighing the job offer at Subway U and Britta’s road is leading to tending bar. These are two desperate people doing what desperate people do, not people who are in love.

Elsewhere: Annie, Abed and a world-rocked Dean stumbled upon a note hidden behind a framed picture left by the school’s famed, alleged computer-humping first Dean Russell Borchart. Buried treasure might be hidden somewhere! Is this the salvation of Greendale, or some other kind of ultimately disappointing “buried treasure?” If it’s legit, will the once again (and disappointingly) evil Chang get his hands on it first? Questions and setups galore!

It’s somewhat jarring to have a Community episode that isn’t a genre parody or at least one brimming with tons of pop culture gags. These types of campus-heavy episodes, albeit with plot resolutions, is what NBC wanted from day one. Thankfully, Dan Harmon is a lunatic, and the course of the show changed about halfway through the first season.

Next week’s “Basic Sandwich” will double as the last new episode of the season and a potential end to the series, just like every season finale since year 3. However, I think since we’re so tantalizingly close to the once unheard of “six seasons and a movie,” the show will return next year and we can all dance to the radio-friendly, uptempo harmonies of the Dave Matthews Band!