Let's burn this mother down.
"Listen up, people! We got an inter-dimensional battle on our hands. The evil counterparts are waging a war. And it's either us... or us."
— Abed
With Jeff having passed history and collected all his required credits, Annie and the Dean plan his graduation, but Jeff is hesitant to leave his friends behind to rejoin his old partner. As the study group plans a party, Jeff rolls a die to decide who has to get soda... which lands on its side, in the crack between the tables. Abed stares in horror, but decides to shake off his sudden premonition. But Evil!Jeff had already teleported into the Dean's office, only to discover that his good self is lamer than ever, and reluctant to leave Greendale. Together with Evil!Annie, they decide to destroy the study group from within, forcing Jeff to graduate.
The Community episode "Advanced Introduction to Finality" provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc / What Happened to the Mouse?: Whatever happened to Dean Spreck?
- Affectionate Pick Pocket: Evil!Annie nabs Jeff's phone while she hugs him.
- All Just a Dream: We learn at the end that the episode played out as a Battle in the Center of the Mind in Jeff's mind.
- Alternate Timeline: The Darkest Timeline's "Troy and Abed In The Morning!" takes a peek at one of the others during The Tag.
- Artificial Limbs:
- Evil Annie brings Evil Jeff's prosthetic arm.
- Evil Pierce has lost his right leg from the knee down, and uses a unicycle wheel and crutches to get around.
- Backing into Danger: While stalking each other, Evil!Troy and Troy back into each other, turn round and take aim.
- Badass Boast:
- Evil!Jeff when preparing for the Final Battle.
"Let's burn this mother down."- Shortly after, Lame!Jeff has his own moment when loading his gun handed to him by Abed.
"All right. Let's light up these dark suckers." - Badass Crew: The evil study group. Just look at that page image. Subverted, though, in that Shirley's too drunk too aim properly, Britta and Pierce shoot themselves and Troy only wants his other self to think he's intimidating. And Abed has made his Heel–Face Turn.
- Badass Longcoat: Evil!Troy and Evil!Jeff wear long leather ones.
- Not-So-Badass Longcoat: Evil Troy admits to his good counterpart that he's out of bullets and that he just wanted to seem intimidating.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Everything post dice-roll is going on in Jeff's head as a representation of his conflicting feelings about graduating.
- Beard of Evil: Like Evil!Abed, Evil!Troy grows a real goatee as discussed in the Darkest Timeline. The two of them are the only ones of the Evil!study group to commit to this, though.
- Book Ends: Ends the fourth season as it began - with an episode that takes place heavily in the mind of a character worried about life after Greendale. Jeff and Abed's roles are even flipped, with one giving a Rousing Speech that takes place in the other's mind. On top of that, the last line is "Troy and Abed in the morning!", a variant of which was used as the first line of the season.
- Bullet Time and Bullet Catch: Jeff vs. Jeff at the end.
- Butt-Monkey: Pierce in the cold open.Troy: All for one, and one... dude we can leave behind. Everybody go, quickly, go!
- The Caligula: Chang is still emperor in the Darkest Timeline. The evil study group doesn't seem to mind.
- Call-Back:
- The last cases that Jeff tried involved sandwiches and yams.
Jeff: It's official—it's on a banner.- To "Remedial Chaos Theory":
- Abed hasn't brought up the Darkest Timeline in months, so Jeff tosses the die under the pretext of assigning graduation tasks.
- We get to see the timeline where Britta and Troy got a Relationship Upgrade.
- Parallel Star-Burns posters: memorial picnic and blowout meth sale.
- The Doppeldeaner and Emperor Chang appear.
- Troy's proposed "Troy-jan Horse" sandwich.
- "Let's burn this mother down!"
- "We finally figured out how to make paintball cool again."
- Abed points out that the vending machines only contain meat and eggs to indicate that everything is happening inside Jeff's head — much like to how the vending machines only contained buttered noodles while inside the Dreamatorium.
- Annie's book of wedding plans.
- In the Darkest Timeline, The Cape found a second life on cable.
- Jeff has a photo from the group's stint as the Glee club in his locker.
- Evil!Shirley would like to get some dairy-free mudslides, which are just vodka. This harkens back to Troy's 21st birthday party where regular Shirley suggests the gang goes out and get some vodka-free mudslides, which are just milkshakes.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience / Evil Wears Black:
- In the study room confrontation between Good!Jeff and Evil!Jeff, Evil!Jeff is wearing a black shirt, and Good!Jeff wears white.
- Evil Annie wears a black cardigan, Good Annie wears pink.
- Counting Bullets: Troy vs. Troy
- Cower Power: The group is hiding in a line behind Britta at the cafeteria.
- Dark Is Evil: All evil timeline selves are wearing black leather.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Darkest Timeline Abed wears black and has a goatee, but underwent a Heel–Face Turn. And Evil Pierce is just Pierce in dark clothes.
- Dark World: The Darkest Timeline. Chang still rules the school with an iron fist via the Doppledeaner... but hey, at least The Cape found a new life on cable!
- Divide and Conquer: Evil!Jeff's impersonates Jeff and start causing a feud amongst the group members.
- Distracted by the Sexy:
- Jeff makes a speech to Evil!Annie when the study group runs late because everyone's behaving weirdly... only to trail off when Annie takes off her coat.
- Whilst facing off with Evil Annie, Annie becomes momentarily distracted from the actual issue at hand when Evil Annie mentions that she's sleeping with Jeff in the the Darkest Timeline.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The graduation ritual plays out like a wedding.
- End of an Age: This is the final episode in which the main characters are students at Greendale and the final time the core cast is complete. By Season 5, Jeff returns but as a professor, while Pierce suffers a Bus Crash, Troy leaves Greendale to fulfill his task in inheriting his bequeathment from Pierce, and Shirley is gone by the time Season 6 rolls around (although she does make the odd cameo there).
- Entendre Failure: Annie totally fails to get Evil!Jeff is coming on to her.Jeff: Well, you are making me feel something.Annie: *blank look*Jeff: And it's not about graduating.Annie: *another blank look*Jeff: I'm saying I'm hot for you!
- Evil Me Scares Me: Played straight with Annie and Jeff. Britta jumps in to defend herself ("Don't talk to her like that!"), Troy is still a bit of a softie even when evil, Shirley sees her drunk self with a mix of contempt and pity, Evil!Pierce is just Pierce without a leg, while Evil!Abed had undergone a Heel–Face Turn.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Evil!Jeff has a hoarse Batman-like voice, likely due to smoke inhalation.
- Failed a Spot Check: The Dean is too busy singing to himself while making a collage of Jeff to notice Evil!Jeff teleporting into the office behind him.
- Failed Attempt at Drama:Evil!Troy: I'm counting bullets. And one of us is out.Troy: Is it you?Evil!Troy: ...yes.Troy: Why would you tell me that?Evil!Troy: To sound intimidating.
- Faking the Dead: Evil!Pierce.
- Femme Fatale: Evil!Annie is trying to seduce and manipulate Lame!Jeff.
- Foreshadowing: Jeff mentions when asked that his major is in education. He returns to Greendale in the next season as a professor.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Another message about the hiatus and thanking the fans on the whiteboard.
- GCC #411 and SIX SEASONS AND A MOVIE on the blackboard.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Inverted. Jeff realizes after Abed's Rousing Speech that if this is all in his head, he doesn't have to do anything."Don't logic this one away from me. We finally figure out how to make paintball cool again."
- Heads, Tails, Edge: The die lands in the gap between the two tables.
- Heel–Face Turn: Evil Abed (he's just Abed now).
- Held Gaze: Lame! Jeff and Evil! Annie, when they first meet up in the study room (after she reveals her red dress)
- Hell-Bent for Leather: The evil study group.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Evil!Shirley is too drunk to aim.Good!Shirley: Get help. [Shoots herself]
- It's All About Me:
- When Jeff says that he met 6 very important people when he came to Greendale, the Dean believes that he's included in the six at Britta's expense.
- Pierce complains about the group leaving him out again as they decide the six of them will take Astronomy in the next semester, and when it's pointed out that it's only six because Jeff's going to have graduated by then, he complains that he's no longer the one who gets left out anymore. And then barges in on Jeff's graduation to announce that he's graduating first.
- Similarly, Evil Pierce complains about being left out of the Evil Study Group's invasion plans, but as Evil Annie points out, they thought he was dead for over a year. Even when that's pointed out, he still complains they left him out.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: The doppel-Deaner. "Abed brought me here to prove to all of you that—"
- Laborious Laziness: Shirley lampshades Jeff's trademark:"Congratulations, Jeffrey. You worked hard not to work hard to earn that degree."
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When Abed comes back from the Darkest Timeline carrying space-warping paintball guns, the study group decide to go to town whupping ass. Good thing they had three (four including a Noodle Incident) previous paintball episodes to give them experience.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Even though the majority of the episode took place in Jeff's head, you've got to wonder if he really did have some sort of ultra-realistic vision of a future timeline where he threw the die.
- Mr. Exposition: Abed, in both timelines.
- Mr. Fanservice: Jeff in underwear.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: "All right, Mr. Winger, et al. Britta."
- Naked on Arrival: Evil!Jeff appears in his underwear in the Dean's office. Dean doesn't even notice.
- No One Gets Left Behind: "Not without my study group," says Jeff to Evil!Jeff as he rips up his diploma.
- No Range Like Point-Blank Range
- Oh, Crap!: Abed's face when the die lands."It didn't land on a number. It probably means nothing..."
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Troy forgetting to bring the soda becomes a running gag for the group.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Parodied & subverted, when Evil Annie is telling Annie about how she's sleeping with Evil Jeff in the Darkest Timeline.Annie: Nobody sleeps with Jeff. Not even me.
- On Second Thought: Said by Jeff at the end, coming out of his Battle in the Center of the Mind."On second thought, who needs to roll a die? And who cares if we have soda?
- Overused Running Gag: Abed proclaims that they finally managed to make paintball cool again, as the last time they have a paintball reference they agreed it was played out.
- Paintball Episode: Now Darker and Edgier and with inter-dimensional paintball bullets.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Evil!Jeff's Evil Plan is to deliver these to all of Jeff's friends so he would feel driven to get his law firm job back.
- Rousing Speech: Played with:
- Abed convincing Jeff he's grown as a person and shouldn't go back to his old law firm.
- Subverted in that after his graduation ceremony, for once Jeff doesn't know what to say.
- Season Finale: The fourth one.
- Sequel Hook:
- The Study Group decide to study Astronomy next semester.
- Jeff off-handedly mentions that he wound up majoring in education.
- Series Fauxnale: This episode was written with the show's uncertain cancellation in mind to give the fans a satisfying closure. Then the series got renewed for season 5.
- Ship Tease:
- A boatload to Annie/Jeff. Since all the Darkest Timeline stuff is in Jeff's head, Evil!Jeff/Evil!Annie is a huge tease, as is Evil!Annie trying to seduce Jeff. Even discounting the dream, Annie is way too prepared to throw a wedding for Jeff, and at the end, when he says he loves all the members of the study group, he locks eyes with Annie and gives her a nod.
- Jeff/Britta and Jeff/Abed: Jeff mentions the study group fighting over who misses him the most, Britta and Abed both point to themselves.
- Troy/Britta in timeline 5 in The Tag. They're a couple with a baby.
- Shout-Out:
- Tango & Cash
- Terminator
- Season 3 of The Cape.
- The Matrix
- Star Wars
- Superman III
- The Graduate
- Suddenly noticing background details are weird to tip off that the darkest timeline is inside Jeff's head seems to be one to Inception.
- Abed's Rousing Speech is a parody of the kind given by Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive and the Men in Black series.
- Evil Abed's reformation after meeting his good self is a reference to Mirror Spock's similar reformation in the Star Trek episode Mirror Mirror.
- Silence, You Fool!: Evil!Jeff to Abed when Abed calls him on being Evil.
- Sniff Sniff Nom: Chang tastes the blue goo that the paintball warping gun hits him with.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Pierce: At a graduation ceremony.
- Surprise Party: Annie is totally unprepared to deal with Jeff graduating early — then Surprise! It's on a banner.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Annie and the Dean are planning a graduation, not a wedding.
- Taking the Bullet: Chang takes a bullet for Jeff while he screams "FRIENDSHIIIIIP!!"
- Time Skip: Lampshaded; it's been several months since the events of the previous episode.
- Unholy Matrimony: Evil Jeff and Evil Annie.
- Unusual Pop Culture Name: An alternate universe version of Troy and Britta have had a child together named Chewbacca (ie. the Wookie from Star Wars). Troy apparently convinced Britta that it was a traditional African name.Troy: It means "he who hunts bounties".
- Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Evil Jeff and Evil Annie are treated as serious villains, while the rest of the evil study group are incompetent.
- Villains Out Shopping: Evil Troy and Evil Abed do "Troy and Abed in the Morning!" during The Tag, with Chang and the other Alternate Timelines as guests. Evil Jeff yells at them to stop goofing around.
- Your Makeup Is Running: The Dean as he comes to Jeff in a wedding dress, distraught at whatever Evil!Jeff said to him.
