Community 4x13: Advanced Introduction to Finality

Jeff passed history, and now he's graduating. His old partner offers him a job at his new firm, and the study group makes him a banner. He has everything he could ever want. Nevertheless, he's not as excited as he should be. He tells Britta that he's worried that the group won't be able to handle him leaving, but she says that everyone will be fine, even Abed, whose sanity is evidenced by the fact that he hasn't spoken about the darkest timeline in months. In order to stir up trouble, Jeff rolls a die to see who will bring the soda to his graduation party. It lands on its edge.

That probably means nothing.

Later, a one-armed Jeff phases through a dimensional portal in the Dean's office. The darkest timeline is invading the prime timeline to force Jeff to graduate and leave Greendale forever. Dark Jeff toys with Annie's emotions and makes her cry, then blasts Abed in the chest with a fancy paintball gun and sends him to the other universe. While Abed's away, Dark Jeff and Dark Annie wreak havoc and destroy Jeff's relationships with the rest of the group.

The Dean is particularly upset.

With everyone acting weird and no one coming to his graduation ceremony, Jeff wonders just what the hell is going on. Dark Annie arrives to try to use her boobs to convince him to take the job with his old partner, but when he resists, she has to call in Dark Jeff. They do that thing where they say the same thing at the same time, which was done much better on Fringe, and then Dark Jeff tries to convince regular Jeff to take the job using Dark Logic. Jeff still won't do it, so his doppelganger has no choice but to shoot him. Fortunately, the dark ones haven't mouthed off to Chang, so he dives in front of the paintball and takes the hit for his new friend. In the confusion, Jeff escapes, and Dark Jeff is forced to call in some backup.

Evil Shirley is almost as drunk as regular Shirley.

Abed returns from the other side with a sackful of paintball guns, and a shootout with really bas special effects ensues in the cafeteria. The evil study group really sucks and goes down quickly, leaving Dark Jeff as the last one standing. Jeff doesn't think he can take him alone, but Abed explains that this is all crazy and clearly just a manifestation of Jeff's subconscious battle between the Jeff he is and the Jeff he was. New Jeff decides he doesn't want to go back to being a sleazy lawyer, then pulls some Matrix stuff and shoots Dark Jeff. The show phases back to 'reality' and the next day, everyone shows up for Jeff's graduation. Including the recurring guest stars and some girl who I can't remember.

The credits tell me it's Marcy McCusker, who played Quendra. I guess she was in town.

Jeff tries to give an emotional speech, but has a little trouble getting it out. He loves everyone, even Pierce, who interrupts the ceremony when he decides he wants to graduate, too. Everyone has drinks and cake at the after party, and Jeff resolves to look into some smaller firms around town so he can pop in from time to time to see how the group's doing. Evil Troy and Evil Abed do the tag, and the season ends.

What I Liked
-Pierce recognizes that the timeline on the show doesn't make any damn sense. Who would have thought that he would turn out to be the voice of reason on this show?
-Evil Pierce.

Mainly the hair and the wheely leg.

-After Abed explains that the whole thing is in his head, Jeff realizes that he doesn't actually need to fight Dark Jeff. At least he was still somewhat sane.
-This week's best line: "If you call a sandwich a 'Troyjan Horse' people are gonna think there's horse in it." -Dark Jeff

What I Hated
-They tried to do paintball again. They caught lightning in a bottle back in season one, then they became a sad parody of themselves, trying to do it again.
-It was all a dream. Only two shows have ever managed to get away with that, and neither Patrick Duffy nor Bob Newhart are on this show.
-Dream Abed says they finally figured out a way to make paintball cool again. No you didn't, Megan Ganz. No you didn't.
-Really bad green screen work. Why even try to do it when it's clear that the show just doesn't have the budget for that kind of stuff?
-"Six Seasons And A Movie" on the chalkboard.

Even four was too many.

Final Thoughts
I'm going to start with my thoughts on this episode before I get into the series as a whole.

Since this was a finale, a little self-reference was to be expected. But the problem is that they've already done paintball twice, and the darkest timeline was never all that compelling. So, the things they wound up referencing the most were overdone and boring. Also relatively obscure, since they brought back Quendra for some reason.

They also managed to reference the facts that Annie's majoring in forensics and Troy's still in AC repair school, the latter of which was a fairly major story point last season and then all but ignored in this one.

As for the way they wrapped up Jeff's storyline, I'm not really sure I bought it. He's not quite as sleazy as he once was, but he's still been engaged in some sleazy things over the past four years. Plus, didn't he go back to consult for his old firm at some point in season two? I know they brought back Rob Corddry last season to tell him that Drew Carey died, but that didn't exactly make a whole lot of sense. What has Jeff been doing for money for the past few years if not working as a consultant? How could he be concerned about going back to his old life if he's been basically living his old life for two years?

So where are we after everything that happened this year? Jeff graduated, but he somehow earned a degree in education, so he'll be back at Greendale next year as an instructor. Troy and Britta became a couple, but then the show barely mentioned it and they broke up. Shirley has a new baby who she apparently never sees, and is somehow on track to be valedictorian. Annie and Abed are both still in school, and I'm not sure if either of them has shown any character growth at all this season. And Chang is also on the show. Basically, either nothing happened to the characters this season, or something stupid and nonsensical did. The only one who showed any real growth was Pierce, and that was only because Chevy was tired of playing a horrible racist.

Beyond that, "It's all a dream" episodes rarely make any sense, and this one was no exception. We saw a bunch of stuff that Dream Jeff couldn't possibly have seen, unless he was omniscient, in which case he should've realized it was a dream a lot sooner. Not that I expect a lot of realism from this show, but things like that are why shows just plain shouldn't do dream episodes.

Inexplicably, NBC decided to renew Community for another season. As with HIMYM, I won't be watching it. The show's decreased in quality so much over the past two seasons that I really don't enjoy it anymore. I stuck it out until the end of this season out of some misguided sense of loyalty and a desire to see it through to the end after investing so much of my time in it over the first three years. Since the production staff were well aware that this could have been the final episode, it had enough of a sense of closure that the only reason I would want to watch any more of the show is if I thought I would enjoy it. And I don't think I will.

It's difficult to quantify why I feel that way... or it would be if I hadn't been reviewing the show for the past three seasons. Season two earned and average of 3.3 stars and 24.3 laughs. Season three faltered starting with the Christmas episode, but still managed a very respectable 2.6/16.9. This season earned a 2.0/10.8, making it 60% as good and less than half as funny as it was two years ago.

The whole thing is a shame, really. This season actually started off relatively well; I actually liked the first three episodes. But then it all went to hell when the Germans showed up. Episodes 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12 were bad, while episode 6 was both bad and blatantly offensive. When the best a show can aspire to is mediocrity, it's time to stop watching.