You guys, this episode almost lost me. I was expecting great things from the season finale, so when Slater showed up to throw a wrench in Britta and Jeff’s nascent relationship, I groaned. It was so contrived, that I couldn’t imagine a way in which the ending wouldn’t annoy me. Add that to Annie’s decision to follow Vaughn to Delaware, and come on. One, she’s obviously not going to stick with this plan because she’s not leaving the show, and two, it’s Delaware. No guy is worth Delaware.
But of course, I should have known better. I should have known that any time Community goes down a hacky sitcom route, they have something up their sleeve. This time it was an ending that first made my jaw drop, and then made it hit the floor. But before we get to that, we need to back up a little bit.
I loved the awkwardness between Jeff and Britta. It was sweet, without being over the top. I especially love Britta’s drive to be Tranny Queen once she realized that Slater was encroaching on her territory. Britta has always struck me as not only phony, but especially weak in her convictions, so I loved seeing her try to convince herself that there’s “nothing more empowering than a woman in a crown.” Sometimes love makes you do crazy things.
Speaking of which, while I really like Britta now, I kind of hated her at the beginning of the season. I couldn’t understand what Jeff saw in her at all. Yes, she was hot, but a dude like Jeff Winger could get a lot of hot chicks. Britta was a pill, yet he was following after her like a sad little puppy dog. It was just really weird. So when Britta told Jeff that she loved him, I couldn’t imagine that Slater saying the same thing would matter even a little bit. Britta was right — he really was just dating Slater to get over the pain of not being able to have her. So the whole “decision” scene seemed really forced.
Of course, that was before I took into account the great lengths to which Jeff Winger will go to sabotage himself. Everything we know about him involves him purposely holding himself back. So why would he just go to Britta? Plus, he’s a child, so once he has what he wants, it doesn’t seem quite as awesome. The Annie thing was genius though.
There has been a subtext of attraction between the two of them all season, but sensible Jeff understands that it’s gross. The fact that Jeff knows that 18 is too young to date made me like him. However, the fact that he still kind of wants to make out with her makes him realistic. Annie’s a young, naive, impressionable girl. Of course she’s going to make out with Jeff Winger. That’s what girls do. Jeff is an idiot who can’t handle feelings or responsibility, so of course he’s going to torpedo everything by making out with Annie.
The Jeff/Annie thing is mainly a red herring, as is Slater. In any other sitcom, this would drive Jeff and Britta apart for another season or so. However, I have a feeling that Community may rise above that next season. What do you think? Will Jeff and Britta work it out, or simply become another sitcom cliche?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on May 20, 2010 @ 22:31 EST5EDT
First the best line – Troy: “I can’t believe no one took this giant cookie!” Hilarious.
This was a fun episode, because it brought back all the memorable characters from throughout the season.
I was not surprised at all by the Annie-Jeff kiss at the end – saw it coming a mile away. There were strong hints in the episodes leading up to this one. And it’s also totally believable that Annie would have a crush on him – and that he would take advantage of her crush. It remains to be seen whether he actually has any real romantic feelings for her.
I liked how everyone at the trannie dance were taking sides (“Team Britta” and “Team Slater”) just like the show’s fans. Once again, Community shows how self-aware it is. Much like Abed pointing out that Annie is the final plot twist and Troy realizing that his giant cookie is a giant metaphor.
Can’t wait for next season – what a fantastic show. Thanks for reviewing it!
Is it possible to be on both Team Annie and Starburn’s Team Coco at the same time? Because that’s where I am now after the finale.
Like Ruby, I saw the end coming a mile away. Didn’t make it any more enjoyable, though.
I’ve seen the analyses that state that this episode was clever because it knowingly jammed in every trite season finale cliché they could think of, but I found actually watching the end result to be painful rather than amusing. It actually made me less eager to return to a show I had hitherto found quite promising.
The show’s first few episodes were easy enough to understand. Britta was the hottest girl in Spanish class. She was probably the first hot girl to reject Jeff in quite some time, as his ego had not yet made the transition from hotshot lawyer to community college freshman. He fixated on changing her mind, pinning his need to control everything around him onto bagging her, at a time when everything else in his life had been upturned. If he had been able to let it go, he could easily have hooked up with a succession of equally hot girls without quite so many issues as Britta.
In the next season, I don’t really care with whom Jeff ends up, so long as we can return to interactions among all of the friends, and hopefully avoid more movie parodies that subsume entire episodes. And if we could avoid Shirley and Abed also being in love with Jeff, that would be swell.
And if we could avoid Shirley and Abed also being in love with Jeff, that would be swell.
Actually, that would have been more transgressive (and funnier) than Jeff macking on Annie at the end, which was just icky. HE became Annie’s “gateway douche,” not Vaughn (who has been nothing if not sweet and understanding toward her). That may have been the point of that scene, but all the winking “jump the shark” meta stuff didn’t lessen the squick factor (nor does knowing Brie is actually 26 – the character is 18!). The episode was a total “have its cake and eat it too” thing – while it crammed in the rom-com cliches, it also felt completely straightforward, from the misogyny of Slater and Britta’s catfight over Jeff to that final scene where he gives in to his douchier instincts. I expected more from this show, and this was a huge turnoff.