History Recap / CommunityS4E12HeroicOrigins

* FridgeBrilliance: Shirley is wearing an ''Elect Obama'' shirt in the flashback. Not the candidate you'd expect her to support - until you realise that she's never actually voiced and opinion on economics, and she belongs to a demographic (strongly religious African-Americans) that has a large percentage of socially conservative but fiscally liberal people in it.

'''Jeff:''' Okay, let's not get crazy!

** And also a small one for Jeff/Annie. Jeff is seen smiling up at the pictures of Annie that she's been awarded for "Citizen of the Month" in 2008. Considering how prominent Jeff/Annie has become as the series has gone on, it might count as a sort of unintentional {{Foreshadowing}}. [[strike: Especially since the show was envisioned with ''Britta'' being FirstGirlWins, but after the S5 finale, this is now completely [[ShipSinking sunk]] with Jeff's relevation that his love for ''Annie'' was strong enough to open the door.]]

* YouAllShareMyStory: Abed goes to great lengths to discover their interconnections, convinced they must have a shared OriginStory. At first everyone thinks he's being crazy, but the coincidences start piling up until it's revealed they were all in the same place when they first decided to study at Greendale. Even before that, everyone (With the exception of Pierce) had their life affected in some way by another member of the study group.

** [[spoiler: Dean Spreck's]] back-up 'destroy Greendale' plan appears to involve a giant mechanical spider. This may be a reference to Kevin Smith's famous anecdote from his time spent working on an abortive script for a Superman film, during which the producer, Jon Peters, kept insisting that he include a giant mechanical spider, which was later adapted to the giant mechanical spider in ''{{Film/Wild Wild West}}''. Also doubles as a FunWithAcronyms FreezeFrameBonus.

For the group's graduation present Abed maps out a Crazy Quilt of Destiny using collected ticket stubs and old receipts, to reveal that the study group's paths have all crossed each other's in everyone's OriginStory. We find out about Jeff's disbarring, the breakup of Shirley's marriage, Troy's lost football scholarship, Annie's breakdown and pill addiction, Britta's short-lived career as an anarchist and Abed's banishment from film school and how it all lead them to eachother...and Greendale.

* YouAllShareMyStory: Abed goes to great lengths to discover their interconnections, convinced they must have a shared OriginStory. At first everyone thinks he's being crazy, but the coincidences start piling up until it's revealed they were all in the same place when they first decided to study at Greendale. Even before that, everyone (With the exception Pierce) had their life affected in some way by another member of the study group.

** Jeff [[spoiler:got Mysti acquitted and (drunk from his fake degree being exposed) encouraged her to call the married man, Andre]]. Abed [[spoiler:ruined ''The Phantom Menace'' for Shirley's kids, forcing her to leave Andre alone at the bar. He also pointed out that a prescription pad was missing as Annie was stealing it.]]

* ContinuitySnarl: Troy's injury is a big one. In the Pilot, Annie says that he broke his shoulders doing a keg stand, which he reveals in [[Recap/CommunityS1E06FootballFeminismAndYou "Football, Feminism and You"]] that [[spoiler: he did on purpose out of fear of failure. In this episode, he ''pretends'' to have broken his legs.]]
* DemotedToExtra: Pierce appears in one flashback. It might not be him, but the old man [[Recap/CommunityS3E11UrbanMatrimonyAndTheSandwichArts broke the]] [[Recap/CommunityS4E08HerstoryOfDance frozen yogurt machine]] and [[Recap/CommunityS2E23AFistfulOfPaintballs faked a heart attack]].

* HonoraryTrueCompanion: [[spoiler: Abed realises Chang was part of the group all along, as it was him who handed out fliers for Greendale at the frozen yoghurt place.]]

* YouAllShareMyStory: Abed goes to great lengths to discover their interconnections, convinced they must have a shared OriginStory. At first everyone thinks he's being crazy, but the coincidences start piling up until it's revealed they were all in the same place when they first decided to study at Greendale.

->''"You see, on the surface we seem like [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits a group of people from diverse backgrounds]] [[OddFriendship who have become unlikely friends]], but according to my research, [[YouAllShareMyStory our paths have crossed many times]]. We were destined to meet, like a team of superheroes. This...is our {{origin story}}."''

* BigBad: The villain behind the plot is [[spoiler: Dean Spreck]].

* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler: Dean Spreck]] is fond of his electronic voice box.

* SayingTooMuch: Chang falls into this right at the very end, [[spoiler: when he decides to turn his back on revenge on Greendale]].

* TakeThat: To ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' and Creator/GeorgeLucas.

--> '''Abed'''

* FakeShemp: Pierce (or whoever it was that broke the fro-yo machine and faked a heart attack) is played by another actor, and never seen from the front.

* SoftGlass: Annie runs through the glass door pretty easily, and no one else is injured. She did need reconstructive surgery.

* YouAllShareMyStory

** [[Recap/CommunityS1E10EnvironmentalScience This better not awaken anything in me."]]

* ContinuitySnarl: Troy's injury is a big one. In the Pilot, Annie says that he broke his shoulders doing a keg stand, which he reveals in "Football, Feminism and You" that he did on purpose out of fear of failure. In this episode, he ''pretends'' to have broken his legs.

** [[Recap/CommunityS1E01Pilot "This better not awaken]] [[Recap/CommunityS1E10EnvironmentalScience anything in me."]]

** Chang's CatchPhrase: "I'm out - I Chang my mind"

** Troy's claim in [[Recap/CommunityS1E15RomanticExpressionism]] that Annie's nervous breakdown ended with her running into a plate glass window screaming "everyone's a robot!" turns out to be paraphrased. [[spoiler:She actually just calle Troy a robot because he does anything his football coach tells him to.]]