“Finally, a last day of school plot twist.” – Abed
It’s the end of the school year at Greendale Community College, so that means it’s time for a good old fashioned Tranny Dance*… to celebrate transfer students moving on to “real” schools, of course.
* Editor’s note: This episode first aired in 2010 and it’s pretty unlikely that this term would be used today out of respect to the LGBTQ community.
And in essence we received a brilliant end to a first season of Community, with big laughs, big plot developments, and even a few twists that would make Abed (Danny Pudi) himself happy.
This probably won’t get discussed all that much, but I’m most struck perhaps by how well this episode was plotted: the Troy-Abed-Pierce triangle of sorts intersected perfectly with the culmination of the Jeff-Slater-Britta triangle in fact. And that, of course, led to the twist-and-a-half ending in which Annie (Alison Brie) breaks off her relationship with her aspiring pro hacky sack boyfriend to share a very much in the moment kiss with Joel. If nothing else, Jeff (Joel McHale) has confirmed that he is indeed worthy of his self-appointed cool guy on (community college) campus title, with three attractive ladies after him by the end of the episode!
Because Community does frequently go into farcical mode and is always drenched in self-conscious and ironic pop culture references, it could easily become a show that holds little substance and pull beyond the jokes. But I think one of the reasons why Community is a brilliant show (a term I don’t use lightly) is because it knows how to deftly shift gears and turn in fine character and story moments. Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed’s friendship feels pretty real and eccentric and special, doesn’t it? Same goes for the ties of the group “community” itself. Annie can’t run off to Delaware (and love the randomness of getting a hacky sack scholarship to a college in Delaware), I thought, it’ll break up the whole group vibe!
Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and Jeff’s relationship was handled exceptionally well all season long. We’re so attuned to the guy-meets-girl, girl-blows off-guy, they finally get together dynamic that it seems part of sitcom DNA. Therefore, it was amazing and truly original that not only did we have Britta and Professor Michelle Slater (Lauren Stamile) professing love for our Community hero, but we had a “third way” ending with Annie and Jeff outside of the Tranny Queen dance. A storybook Community ending, no? (Yes, I realize by the way that Annie is supposed to be a college freshman and Jeff/Joel McHale is obviously a dude in his thirties, but I’ll let that go for the time being!)
It helps, of course, that was plenty of hilarity. Ken Jeong as Senor Chang is always comic gold and it was a treat to see him and John Oliver as Professor Ian Duncan in the same episode. Troy also got in plenty of great lines while waltzing around with a 60-inch diameter cookie, and Chevy Chase as Pierce seems to get stronger and funnier and weirder each week. Back to Troy and Abed, finally: their meta discussion about “jumping the shark” was fantastic, as was Troy’s realization about the nature of his friendship with Abed while munching down his cookie: “Unless too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. My friendship with Abed is a giant cookie!”
Where does Community go from here? The possibilities are limitless for this show – it has a true shot to be one of the all time greats.
More thoughts on Community’s season finale:
- “It’s called chillaxing, duh.” – Chillaxing dude (duh)
- “Levar ‘banana’ Burton.” – Abed, using a banana to emulate Burton’s Data character on Star Trek: The Next Generation
- “Am I black boobs?” – Troy to Pierce
- “I saw things others won’t. That has value.” – Pierce
- “Jeff Winger, do not get back with Slater. I love you!” – Britta to Jeff, and the Tranny Queen party
- Anyone else notice Badger (Matt L. Jones) from Breaking Bad in the Tranny Queen crowd? With Alison Brie doing double duty with Mad Men, it’s an AMC party they’re building here.
- “I have a problem? Who is it here who has a Dalmatian fetish?” – Prof. Ian Duncan (John Oliver) to Dean Pelton (Jim Rash)… Was thinking the Dean was maybe a furry?
From Around the Web: Community, “Pascal’s Triangle Revisited”:
- IGN: Obviously this turn of events will anger some Jeff/Britta shippers, but it should make for some great passive-aggressive dialogue in the study room next season. My only hope is that after teasing us with Jeff and Britta for an entire season, the Jeff/Annie relationship is allowed to run its course. Otherwise, the end of this episode will just feel like a cheap stalling tactic and a meaningless cliffhanger.
- Cultural Learnings: The one scene which clearly played with the idea of sitcom finale cliches was Abed’s scene trying to find the right line to turn off the lights with, as seen in many location-based sitcom finales (most famously Cheers, I believe).
Some stats and info about Community, “Pascal’s Triangle Revisited”
TV SHOW – Community
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 25
AIRED ON – May 20th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC/Yahoo! Screen
GENRE – Comedy, College Shows
CREATED BY – Dan Harmon
CAST – Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong, Jim Rash
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.