Michelle Slater
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 MICHELLE SLATER
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Early in the study group's first year at Greendale, Jeff gave up on pursuing Britta romantically and set his sights on another conquest, his statistics professor Michelle Slater ("Introduction to Statistics"). Although impressed with his bravado and charm she turned him down citing her personal rule to never date one of her students. Undeterred, he continued to flirt with her going so far as to crash a faculty Halloween party she was attending in the cafeteria. His efforts were hampered by the interruption of the study group who showed up asking for his help to deal with Annie's failing "Dia De Los Muertes" party and Pierce tripping on acid. Michelle was at first entertained by the spectacle his friends were creating at the party until Dean Pelton pointed out that Shirley was vandalizing her car out in the parking lot. When Pierce showed up in a hallucinogenic state inappropriately feeling up party goers, Jeff ejects everyone from the festivities.
No longer amused, Michelle shoots down another one of his passes causing Jeff to be desperate enough to take advice from Ben Chang. Dispensing with his charm and swagger, he takes an approach suggested by Chang and simply begs Michelle for chance to be with her. He declares himself unworthy of her and makes his desperation abundantly clear. Surprised and somewhat flattered by his seeming sincerity she agrees to spend the night with him. Unfortunately their plans come to a halt when they are about to leave campus and pass the Library where they are stopped by Troy. He pleads with Jeff to help as a crazed Pierce has cleared out the study room where Annie's party is being held. Jeff resignedly calls an end to his plans with Michelle who is confused by his contradictory actions. As Jeff makes his apologies, Michelle kisses him on the cheek and tells him good night before leaving.
This wasn't the end of things between Slater and Jeff as it's revealed that sometime during Winter Break they had started seeing each other ("Interpretive Dance"). They both agreed to keep the relationship a secret as Slater was worried about the inappropriateness of it (despite the fact that Jeff was no longer one of her students) and Jeff didn't want the friends to find out. However it's revealed to the study group when they all witnessed a make-out session between the professor and Jeff in the library. Slater and Jeff ask the group to keep it a secret but Pierce went ahead and announced their affair on his twitter account. Dean Pelton gets wind of it and calls them both into his office to discuss the relationship. In the presence of the Dean, Michelle happily decides to come clean about what's going on admitting she is dating Jeff. However, Jeff finds himself unwilling to define what it is they are doing together. Michelle is upset at his reluctance to embrace what they have and leaves the office disappointed.
Jeff goes to her office and apologizes for his indecisive responses about their relationship but expresses his concern over clarifying what it is they are to each other. He fears that discussing their feelings may make a break up between them in the future even messier. Slater is unimpressed with his arguments and replies that all relationships face that possibility but it shouldn't be used as an excuse not to try to make it work. Unwilling to deal with his inability to commit, she ends the conversation by telling him goodbye. Jeff is about to go but changes his mind and tells her that he enjoyed whatever they were doing and doesn't care what they call it as long as they can continue doing it. Slater walks to her office door seemingly gesturing that Jeff leave before closing it as he attempts to go. Jeff grins and she smiles back indicating that she accepted his offer. They later appear together at Britta's dance recital. During her tap dance routine on stage, Britta notices them in the crowd holding hands and realizes that the two have become serious.
Things go smoothly between them until Valentine's Day week celebration at the school ("Communication Studies"). Jeff gets a suggestive voice mail from a drunk Britta who becomes embarrassed and uncomfortable in his presence. On Abed's suggestion, Jeff gets drunk and sends his own voice mail message to Britta to restore the balance between them. While sending the message he mistakingly contacted Slater believing her phone number to be Britta's. Later at the Valentine's Day dance Michell is chaperoning, Jeff attempts to explain his actions. Although Michelle believes him to a certain extent, she is unconvinced he doesn't harbor some feelings for Britta. Slater notes how he went to all that trouble to help Britta but in comparison is unwilling to go the extra mile for her in their relationship. It's then that Britta arrives at the dance and exonerates Jeff by playing a portion of the voice mail. In his drunken stupor, Jeff rambled about how happy he was with Slater and didn't want to screw it up. Michelle forgives him and and the two leave the dance together.
Not long afterwards during Greendale's Family Day event, Slater unceremoniously breaks up with Jeff ("Basic Genealogy"). She immediately hooks up with another teacher leaving Jeff devastated. At the end of the semester ("Pascal's Triangle Revisited"), Michelle admits to Jeff that she may have been too hasty in ending things with him. Slater asks him to reconsider taking her back and tells Jeff that she misses him. She "accidentally" runs into Jeff again later that day at a keg party being held in Abed's dorm room where she finds him with Britta. The two women exchange pleasantries but the animosity between them was clear. An unspoken gauntlet was thrown down and both women decide to attend the end of the year Tranny Dance and battled it out for Jeff's affections. Throughout the night the women flirt heavily with a very confused Jeff. Slater arrogantly believes she has the advantage having been intimate with him but then learns from a drunk Ian Duncan that Britta had slept with Jeff recently ("Modern Warfare").
She goes to confront Britta who had been nominated for the dance's "Tranny Queen" and was standing in line with the other contestants. Slater tells Britta that she means nothing to Jeff other then "a pit stop to something real". Britta scoffs at this notion suggesting that instead Jeff used Slater to get over his unrequited feelings for her. Britta then makes an embarrassing mistake by prematurely accepting the Tranny Dance Queen award in front of everyone at the dance. With Britta humiliated, Slater makes her move and kisses Jeff. Britta sees this and makes a drastic decision, using a live microphone she loudly declares her love for Jeff to the shock of everyone in the room. Not to be upstaged, Slater quickly follows suit and declares her love for Jeff as well. The crowd starts heckling Jeff to choose between the women but he finds himself unable to respond to either of them much to everyones annoyance. When a fight breaks out between Ben Chang and Ian Duncan, Jeff takes the opportunity to silently exit the dance. He and Michelle share one last look before he goes. Michelle Slater has not been seen since.
TriviaEdit
Slater's disappearance on the show was briefly brought up in the Season Two episode "Intro to Political Science". During Troy and Abed's election coverage broadcast, a ticker at the bottom of the screen reads "Slater still missing...".
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