He temporarily joins an elderly group of students who act like teenagers called the Hipsters, to feel accepted ("Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples"). He breaks both of his legs in a trampoline accident after revealing a secret trampoline Jeff and Troy were hiding ("Aerodynamics of Gender"). To move around, he buys himself an ineffective wheelchair powered by his breath, for which he claims to have outbid three hospitals. After this, he grows dependent on his painkillers and also becomes increasingly at odds with the study group because of the combination of his heartless behavior and their tendency to exclude him from their activities. He begins to play the role of the study group's villain but both trends seem to subside when he comes to terms with the group after overdosing on his painkillers. These underlying tensions come to a head in "A Fistful of Paintballs," when it's revealed that the other members of the group secretly took a vote about whether they'd include him in the group next year, with only Annie voting to keep him in; by the end of "For a Few Paintballs More," while the other group members have reconsidered and are willing to let him back in the group, Pierce says he's not interested in staying with "whatever this is". He also tells the group that he assumes all of his relationships will end, which is why he constantly tests and provokes people, and why all seven of his marriages failed and he had never kept a group of friends at Greendale for longer than a semester (until he joined the study group). However, at the start of Season 3, he promptly returns and rejoins the study group, having regained an overall center of relaxation. Having always sought the approval of his even more bigoted father, Cornelius Hawthorne (Larry Cedar), he becomes more uncooperative after his death ("Advanced Gay"). After the board of Hawthorne Wipes subsequently fires him, he tries to open up a sandwich shop on campus with Shirley. The space for the sandwich shop is rented out instead to Subway and together, Pierce and Shirley work together to sabotage the Subway restaurant. In "Curriculum Unavailable" Shirley delivers a speech against the Subway restaurant and it is destroyed in the ensuing riot. In "Introduction to Finality," Dean Pelton then offers the space to Shirley and Pierce, but because there is only one signature space, Pierce and Shirley file suit for the rights to the sandwich shop. After an inspirational Winger speech, Pierce fires his lawyer, Alan Connor (Rob Corddry), and he and Shirley agree to have joint ownership of Shirley's Sandwich Shop by having Jeff sign the papers.