"Introduction to Finality"
◄   Season Three, Episode Twenty-Two  ►
Air date	May 17, 2012 on
Written by	Steve Basilone and Annie Mebane
Directed by	Tristram Shapeero

“	Cruel...cruel, cruel, cruel."	”
–Evil Abed

Summary: When Shirley and Pierce have a disagreement over their sandwich shop, Jeff agrees to argue on Shirley's behalf. Much to his chagrin, Pierce retains Jeff's former colleague Alan Connor, and the two must square off in "Greendale Summer Fun Court." Meanwhile, Vice Dean Laybourne tells Troy about his destiny at the Air Conditioning Repair Annex.

Contents 1 Plot 2 End tag 3 Recurring themes 3.1 Continuity: 3.2 Running gags: 3.3 Pop culture references: 3.4 Meta references: 4 Promotional photos 5 Quotes 6 Comments

PlotEdit

It's summer, and the study group has finished retaking Biology 101 and are preparing for the finals. Jeff tries to remain focused on studying but finds himself distracted by the turmoil in the group. Britta misses Troy, and Annie is worried about Abed. After Troy's departure, Abed has become more withdrawn and hasn't left his apartment. Britta has agreed to help by having a therapy session with him. On top of that, Shirley and Pierce are now involved in a dispute over their new sandwich shop which has been chosen to take over the spot formerly held by the Subway franchise. When Dean Pelton informs them that only one of them can sign the contract and be named the sole owner, a falling out occurs between them. Back at Abed's apartment, Abed gets an unexpected visit in the form of Evil Abed.

At the Air Conditioning Repair Annex, Troy is distracted from his studies as he misses all of his friends. His instructor, Murray, calls him out for his ambivalence to the class he is teaching, but his admonishment is cut off by the arrival of Vice Dean Robert Laybourne. He asks Troy to accompany him and shows him several relics from air conditioning's past. After showing him the Sun Chamber, he presents to Troy The Air Conditioning Manual which prophesied the coming of "The Truest Repairman". Laybourne believes Troy to be that messianic figure. Murray interrupts his musings by telling him that there's an urgent matter that requires his attention, and he leaves Troy to ponder what he told him.

Meanwhile, Abed is attempting to ignore Evil Abed, who wants Abed to join him in The Dreamatorium. He tells Abed that he understands his despair at losing Troy but that turning to Britta for help is useless. Evil Abed suggests that he be allowed to talk to her instead. Back at school, Shirley locates Jeff in the library studying for his finals. When she asks for his help in her current problem, an angry Pierce suddenly appears. He states that if she tries to sign the contract without him, he'll sue. Dean Pelton hears the ruckus and offers to help resolve the issue. He proposes that later that day, they all meet in Greendale Court where he will hear their case as the judge.

Back at Abed's apartment, Britta arrives for her therapy session with him but is creeped out when she finds him in The Dreamatorium wearing a fake goatee. At the air conditioning school, Troy sees a crowd gathering outside of a room at the repair school. He learns that Laybourne was trying to repair a flow duct rupture but was killed after inhaling a lethal dose of freon. At the Greendale court, Shirley and Jeff are surprised when Pierce's lawyer turns out to be Alan Connor. Although thrown off guard, Jeff reassures Shirley that he can handle Alan. He and Alan briefly confer, and they both agree to wrap the case up quickly. At Abed's apartment, Britta loses control of the therapy session after being intimidated by Evil Abed.

Back at the air conditioning repair school, Troy confronts Murray over Laybourne's death. He questions how such an experienced repair man could make the rookie mistake of rupturing a freon line. After learning that Murray is now the acting vice dean, it makes Troy even more suspicious. Murray becomes agitated and tells Troy that he is released from any obligations he had to the school. At the Greendale courthouse, Alan is questioning Annie on the witness stand. Over Jeff's objections, he ends up attacking Shirley's character and portrays her as a bad mother who wasn't even sure who the father of one her children was. Alan concludes that she's unfit to be a mother and therefore unfit to own a sandwich shop.

At Abed's apartment, Evil Abed has taken complete control of the session and is questioning Britta about a past traumatic incident from her childhood. He calls her the worst and says a normal person such as herself is always trying to bring everyone else down to their level. Feeling that he's darkened the timeline enough by breaking her spirit, he tells her that he is leaving to do the same to Jeff. Meanwhile, Troy is about to leave the air conditioning school when a blast of cold air and a portrait of Laybourne changes his mind. Back at the Greendale Courthouse, Jeff tricks Pierce into making offensive jokes which turns the entire courtroom against him.

During Murray's coronation ceremony as the new leader of the Air Conditioning Annex, Troy interrupts the event. Declaring himself "The Truest Repairman", he challenges Murray to a duel in The Sun Chamber. Back at the Greendale Courthouse, Alan calls a recess and asks Jeff to throw the case. He tells him that the head of the law firm Ted has died, and Alan is the only one who can help Jeff get his old job back once he graduates. At the air conditioning school, the students gather to witness the showdown between Troy and Murray. Both will be placed inside separate rooms within The Sun Chamber, each with a broken air conditioner. The chamber's temperature will steadily increase, and they must fix their air conditioning unit before they pass out from the heat.

In the courtroom, Britta arrives, dejected from the therapy session and mentions dying her hair. Evil Abed then shows up equipped with a bonesaw; he's intent on making this timeline as dark as his and cutting off Jeff's arm is the next step. Shirley learns about Alan's threat and tells Jeff that his career is more important and asks him to drop the case. Meanwhile, Troy easily fixes his A/C unit while a frustrated Murray accidentally confesses that he killed Laybourne. Concurrently, Jeff begins his closing arguments. He launches into a speech about selflessness and how helping others is more important than helping ourselves. In the Sun Chamber, Troy saves Murray by fixing his A/C unit too after seeing an apparition of Laybourne. In the courtroom, Pierce is inspired by Jeff's speech to drop the case. Evil Abed is moved by it as well and "leaves" Abed's body.

Furious, Alan reveals to Jeff that he was the one who ratted Jeff out. Jeff tells him that he already knew this and sincerely thanks Alan for doing it. Later, Pierce and Shirley ask Jeff to act as their attorney and sign off as the owner for both of them. Abed reconciles with Britta and apologizes for his actions. He tells her that he does need therapy, and she's the only one he trusts enough to help him. Troy then returns, having been anointed the "messiah" of the Air Conditioning Repair Annex. He ordered them to run it like a regular school and had them take Murray to the police. Jeff is relieved that everything has returned to normal and turns his attention back to studying for his Biology finals.

Community "Introduction to Finality" Ending Montage sixseasonsandamovie(01:15)
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A montage plays out, showing glimpses of the future. Shirley and Pierce open their sandwich shop; Jeff successfully passes his biology final and decides to track down his father; Dean Spreck plots against Greendale with Chang secretly looking on; it's revealed that Star-Burns faked his death; The Dreamatorium is taken down with Troy moving into the now vacant room, and Abed steps into a miniature closet version of The Dreamatorium located in his blanket fort. The screen turns white, and the words #sixseasonsandamovie appear before the fade out.

End tagEdit

Leonard's YouTube Let's Potato Chips review.

Recurring themesEdit

Continuity:Edit

• And we're back: This episode takes place in the summer a month or two after the previous episode; the study group has retaken Biology, and Troy has been enrolled in the Greendale Air Conditioning Repair School for some time.
• Returning students: Leonard plays the role of bailiff for the courtroom, and it's revealed that Star-Burns faked his own death.
• Returning faculty: Vice Dean Robert Laybourne and his second-in-command Murray return.
• Familiar faces: Alan Connor and Dean Spreck return.
• Identity crisis: Evil Abed returns and takes control of Abed.
• Double take: Alan Conner calls Pierce "Vitamin P". In the Season One episode "Spanish 101" Jeff calls Pierce "Vitamin P".
• This must be the place: The cafeteria, the Greendale courthouse, Troy and Abed's apartment, the library appear. The Dreamatorium and the Greendale Air Conditioning Repair School makes its last appearance in this episode. Shirley's Sandwiches makes its first appearance.
• Climax:
  • After three years of working towards his goal of being a lawyer again at his old law firm, Jeff decides to choose friendship over his career. Alan tells Jeff he was the one who ratted him out to the bar association and Jeff truly thanks him for doing it.
  • The year long build up for the Air Conditioning storyline ends with a murder and a duel between Troy and Murray inside The Sun Chamber.
• Winger speech: Jeff delivers his closing arguments in a rousing speech about friendship :
  • "I have no closing statement because I'm throwing the case. No, no, it's okay. It's fine...don't worry. My client, Shirley Bennett, my friend of three years- she told me it was okay. She said what I want is more important. She's right...right? I mean, guys like me will tell you there's no right or wrong, there's no real truths...and as long as we all believe that, guys like me can never lose. Because the truth is, I'm lying when I say there is no truth. The truth is- the pathetically, stupidly, inconveniently obvious truth is- helping only ourselves is bad and helping each other is good. Now, I just wanted to get out of here, pass Biology and be a lawyer again instead of helping Shirley-that was bad. And my former colleague wanted so badly to keep his rich client happy that he just asked me to roll over in exchange for my old job. So, I guess we all walked in here pretty bad. But now Shirley's gone good. Shirley's helping me. It's that easy: you just stop thinking about what's good for you and start thinking about what's good for someone else...and you can change the whole game with one move. Now if you like this idea, you can make it true by doing something good for everyone here: throw this case out of court. It's dumb. That is all.—Jeff

• Middle Eastern Magic 8 Ball: The ending montage reveals a few scenes which possibly foreshadow future storylines.

Running gags:Edit

• Shut up Leonard!: Britta delivers the joke this time and says to him, "I know about your crooked wang!" to which he responds, "There's no such thing as bad press!".
• Nice outfit: Dean Pelton wears a construction worker outfit and then leaves to plan an alpine costume. He later gets to dress like a judge. After a court recess he returns as Blind Justice.
• Man crush: Pelton touches Jeff's shoulder again after making an announcement to the group.
• Rhyme time: Alan swears to Jeff that he'll go easy on Shirley in court saying, "Scout's honor, Sinéad O'Connor!"
• You're the worst!: Evil Abed insults Britta by comparing her to a long list of horrible things.
• My other half: Britta goes to hug Troy after he returns to the study group, but he ignores her at first and goes to hug Abed instead.

Pop culture references:Edit

• Shout out: Jim Belushi gets dissed again. This time by (evil) Abed.
• IMDB:
  • Abed is reading the novelization of the movie The Chronicles of Riddick.
  • Evil Abed compares Britta to the films Robocop 2 and Back to the Future 3.
  • Alan claims that Jeff drove him threaten Jeff's chance at a position with Hamish, Hamish & Hamlin as if he were Miss Daisy, of Driving Miss Daisy.
• Product placement: Two General Electric air conditioning units are installed inside The Sun Chamber. This can be considered a meta reference as well since NBC, the network currently airing Community, is owned by General Electric.
• TV Guide:
  • Apparently, Britta gets depressed when she watches the reality show Dance Moms.
  • Evil Abed also compares Britta to the television network VH1.

Meta references:Edit

• Homage: Evil Abed, in a callback to "Aerodynamics of Gender", has Abed's RoboCop and Terminator inspired HUD first person perspective.
• Parody: The Sun Chamber, along with its announcer Dennis, can be interpreted as poking fun at the Thunderdome from the Mad Max franchise.
• Use your allusion: The nicknames "Tango" (for Jeff) and "Sundance" (for Alan) are used again, referring to the movies Tango and Cash and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
• Up against the wall: The closing shot of the episode is a white screen with the hashtag "#sixseasonsandamovie", which was a phrase used in the Season Two episode "Paradigms of Human Memory". It was later used by fans of the show as a rallying cry during the show's brief hiatus at the beginning of 2012 which was also referred to as The Darkest Timeline.
• IRL: Abed and Troy pretend to be plumbers whose names are Rod and Berry. On the DVD commentary, writer Matt Fusfeld reveals that these names were chosen because the staff writers of Community prefer to use the toilet in the nearby Rodenberrry building (named after Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek) rather than the bathroom adjacent to the writers' room.

Promotional photosEdit

QuotesEdit

Season Three Episodes
1. "Biology 101" 2. "Geography of Global Conflict" 3. "Remedial Chaos Theory" 4. "Competitive Ecology" 5. "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps" 6. "Advanced Gay" 7. "Studies in Modern Movement" 8. "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux" 9. "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism" 10. "Regional Holiday Music" 11. "Contemporary Impressionists"	12. "Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts" 13. "Digital Exploration of Interior Design 14. "Pillows and Blankets" 15. "Origins of Vampire Mythology" 16. "Virtual Systems Analysis" 17. "Basic Lupine Urology" 18. "Course Listing Unavailable" 19. "Curriculum Unavailable" 20. "Digital Estate Planning" 21. "First Chang Dynasty" 22. "Introduction to Finality"
Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five

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