Geothermal Escapism

"Geothermal Escapism" (also titled in the opening credits as "Community: Lava World") is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Community, and the 89th episode overall in the series. It originally aired on January 23, 2014 on NBC; and was written by Tim Saccardo and directed by Joe Russo. This is also the last episode of the series to feature Donald Glover as Troy Barnes, who left the show for other film and music career commitments.^[1]

The episode also featured a cameo appearance from LeVar Burton, who last appeared in the second season episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"; his appearance was received positively by critics.

In this episode, as Troy Barnes prepares to leave Greendale for a year-long sailing trip in order to attain Pierce Hawthorne's (Chevy Chase) reward from his will, Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) organizes a campus-wide game of "The Floor is Lava," which grows surprisingly competitive when Abed reveals the prize: a comic book worth $50,000. While the game progresses, Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs) tries to convince the study group — specifically Abed — to appropriately cope with Troy's leaving other than another campus-wide competition, and she enlists Professor Buzz Hickey (Jonathan Banks) to help her.

Commentators applauded the episode, specifically Abed's role in trying to cope with Troy's impending departure; however, some were critical of the episode's theme and the show's dependency on concept episodes. Upon airing, the episode attained 3.02 million viewers and an 18-49 rating of 1.1,^[2] placing fifth in its timeslot and thirteenth for the night among primetime television.^[2]