Jeff (Joel McHale) is invited to Greendale College's Valentine's Day dance by his girlfriend and statistics professor, Michelle (Lauren Stamile).
At the library, Annie (Alison Brie), Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) and Abed (Danny Pudi) receive Valentine's Day gifts, but Troy (Donald Glover) and Pierce (Chevy Chase) do not.
Jeff plays a hungover Britta the message she left him, mocking the implication of the booty call, leaving her humiliated.
After Jeff and the group notice over the following amount of time that Britta has been left too embarrassed to talk to him as a result of the booty call, Abed explains that in accordance with the rules of character dynamics in sitcoms like theirs, due to the interruption of Jeff's and Britta's sexual tension-imbued storyline, the only way the two can go back to their old mutually competitive relationship is for her to see him embarrass himself.
The next day in class, Chang receives a letter purportedly from Princeton offering him an associate professor position.
In retribution, he forces them to escort him to the Valentine's dance wearing ladies' pantsuits and threatens to fail them if they refuse.
Annie and Shirley confess to sending the fake letter and have decided to tell Chang the truth so that they can suffer the consequences.
[1][2] In its original American broadcast, "Communication Studies" was viewed by an estimated 5.15 million people, with a Nielsen rating/share of 2.3/7 in the 18–49 demographic.
Jonah Krakow of IGN said "There was plenty to love about this episode, including some great interaction between Jeff and Britta, some spot-on pop culture quips from Abed and some hilarious character work from Troy, Pierce and Senor Chang."
[6] Eric Hochberger of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.0/5 rating, saying "The main story line was not only hilarious, but also strong in terms of cementing Jeff's relationship with Slater and pushing off any potential Britta-Jeff pairing for seasons.
VanDerWerff praised the show's ending and the handling of the Jeff-Britta dynamic: "what finally makes this one work for me is that last scene between Michelle, Jeff and Britta.