Community Finale was the Jeff and Annie Endgame
It’s been five years since the series finale of the Sony-produced sitcom Community aired, but it has recently experienced a resurgence in interest after debuting on Netflix in April 2020. This second life includes a mix of old fans re-watching their beloved show as well as new fans finding it for the first time. Examples of the renewed interest include over a dozen current Community related podcasts, an active Reddit thread with over 400,000 users, frequent social media activity (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Discord), and a Community reunion/virtual table read that has been viewed over 3 million times on YouTube and that raised over $100,000 for charity. There is even growing buzz about a Community movie with a former cast member saying, in an interview, that she has received “official” phone calls inquiring about her availability for a potential movie. Has any other network sitcom seen such post-finale relevance FIVE years after it ended?
With these dynamics in mind, it is the perfect time to revisit the series finale and its impact on [one of] the most important story-arcs from the show — the complicated relationship between Jeff Winger (played by Joel McHale) and Annie Edison (played by Alison Brie). Gallons of ink has been spilled on the topic and it still occupies the thoughts and minds of many of the shows dedicated followers. During the original run of the show, many of the pro-Jeff/Annie fans became disillusioned with the lack of meaningful progression in their story and some felt that Dan Harmon (the show’s creator) threw them a bone every few episodes to keep them hooked, but would never progress the story arc in a meaningful way.
The “general atmosphere of ‘would they? might they?” ” between Jeff and Annie began in season one and spanned the entire run of the show. It was a major element in 40% of the shows 110 episodes and in over half of the episodes there was at least one meaningful Jeff/Annie moment. Lastly, it was important in four of the season-ending episodes. While the writers never officially established a “relationship” between Jeff and Annie they did give fans many moments, both big and small, that were sweet, loving, and showed a subtle but important evolution of their emotional connection over time. One of the reasons that many fans of the show gravitate towards the Jeff and Annie story-arc is the complex, nuanced, realistic, and supportive depiction of their relationship and how it evolved over the shows six year run.
To address the difficult Jeff/Annie story arc, I believe Dan Harmon wrote one of the most complex, nuanced, and brilliant finale scenes in sitcom history. From the dialogue, to the cinematography, to the song choice Dan Harmon provided a story that allowed fans to imagine multiple divergent endings in the same episode. However, there is one interpretation that best fits the characters story arc and it is one that is often overlooked or missed by many fans because it requires a detailed and nuanced look at Jeff and Annie’s final moments on screen together.
The most literal interpretation of the ending was that Jeff was too late in telling Annie that he loved her, and he and Annie said their final goodbye. Many fans have this interpretation during their first watch of the episode, and many find it sad and depressing. Other fans, who opposed the Jeff/Annie arc, also support this incorrect interpretation. A second, more nuanced, interpretation of the finale is that their parting is only temporary and that at some later date, perhaps after Annie’s summer internship, the two characters reunite and finally begin their relationship. This interpretation does get support from Dan Harmon in the DVD commentary. In his own words, he says that what Jeff feels for Annie is:
“True love. [It’s] the love that we saw registered on the computer at the end of season 5. Jeff loves Annie. That’s different from being compatible with Annie. That’s different than understanding Annie. He loves her with all of his heart and all of his crotch and all of his brain; he loves Annie.”
Dan Harmon also says that,
“She [Annie] is clearly in love with him, but still searching for herself. They are kissing goodbye for now. And they do love each other very much.”
He emphasized in his commentary that he believed what was between the characters was true love. Thus fans can easily infer from the last scenes and Dan’s commentary that the parting is only temporary and that they will come together in the near future and be in a loving and happy relationship.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Before going any further it is important to note that several of the previous statements that Dan Harmon made in the DVD commentary for the final scenes don’t actually reflect what was shown to the fans in the actual episodes of the show. For example, Harmon’s following statement about Jeff, “That’s different from being compatible with Annie. That’s different than understanding Annie. “
This statement is a gross misunderstanding of the two characters he created. Throughout the six seasons when ever Jeff and Annie have been paired together they have demonstrated incredible compatibility and understanding of who each other are. They both came from difficult childhoods and both left home at 18 to be on their own. They are almost always in sync and compliment each other extraordinarily well. Jeff is compatible with Annie on every level and understands her to her core and vice versa. The biggest issues for Jeff is in season 5 and 6 he is written to have deep seated doubt about his own self worth and feels he isn’t good enough for her. It is his own issues that are preventing him from admitting his love to Annie out of fear he may hold her back. That was an unnecessary shift in the characters core that was never adequately examined or explained in the show. Jeff also has deep abandonment issues and most likely is greatly afraid that admitting his love for Annie could lead to him eventually losing her, which would be quite devastating to him.
Similarly for Annie, Harmon greatly misrepresents her character. Annie is not “searching for herself” and is not some confused teenager. She is a woman who left home at 18 to check herself into rehab to deal with her drug addiction and who put herself through college with a chance to make valedictorian while supporting herself without any help from family. After four years she went out and got a career as a pharmaceutical rep but quickly realized that it wasn’t the right path for her so she returned to college to pursue her passion in forensics. After six years Annie knows who she is and what she wants and his driven to achieve her goals and dreams. She is not going to DC to “look for herself”, it is simply another step in her journey to achieving her career goals that she has set for herself. A television critic who wrote reviews of the show during its original run wrote the following article that is one of the best summaries I have ever read about the Jeff/Annie arc, Annie Edison as a character, and Dan Harmon’s treatment of both:
http://www.itsjustaboutwrite.com/2015/09/dear-dan-harmon-annie-edison-was-not.html
While the opinions and views of the shows creator can’t be ignored an important theory in works of fiction is the concept of the “Death of the Author”. In essence, some argue that a work of fiction should stand on its own and that once it is released it belongs to the readers/viewers and not the creator. So while Dan may have his views and ideas of what he intended to show in a scene it is up to the viewers to interpret it for themselves based on the dialog and performances of the actors. For more information about this literary theory you can watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGn9x4-Y_7A
— — — — — — — — — — — -
With those thoughts in mind and after watching the evolution of the characters and the series finale, dozens of times, I have come to the conclusion that the correct interpretation of the finale is that Jeff and Annie are actually together and a couple at the end of the last episode. To fully deconstruct those final scenes between Jeff and Annie it is important to put the events and dialogue into the context of the whole show and to compare it to other scenes in the previous seasons, including the last scene in the season 1 finale “Pascal’s Triangle Revisited”, which has many interesting parallels and symmetries with the series finale.
In season 1, Jeff is an immature, lazy, selfish, narcissistic womanizer. While he showed growth throughout the first season, due to his friendship with the study group, he still has a long way to go and is still a serial bachelor not interested in love or commitment. In the season 1 finale, Britta and Slater compete for his affection and he at first enjoys it because he likes the attention and it validates his self-worth. Jeff has deep-seated issues, and in S2E19: Critical Film studies admits that he sometimes calls phone sex lines and lies that he is fat because he doesn’t think people would like him if he wasn’t fit and handsome. When both Britta and Slater claim they love Jeff, he can’t respond and he stands there in stunned silence. The truth is neither woman loves Jeff, but they are trying to win a competition for him. Jeff also doesn’t love either Britta nor Slater and ends up leaving the dance to get away from the emotional confrontation without making a decision between the two women. Britta sees Jeff slip away and watches silently as he leaves.
In season 6, when Jeff is confronted with the fact that both Abed and Annie are leaving, he is once again overcome with emotions and runs away. However, this time it is the opposite. In season 1, he ran from two women who claimed they each loved him; now he is running from the two people he actually loves the most and who are leaving him. A big difference in this moment is, unlike Britta, when Annie sees how upset Jeff is she goes after him. This is an example of a common connection between the two characters. Throughout the series whenever Annie was in trouble or needed protection, Jeff was always there for her. Likewise, Annie would also defend, support, and/or console Jeff when she felt he needed it. Conversely she would also confront him and push him to do the right thing when he needed that. Now at this moment, she is running to protect Jeff and make sure he is okay.
The next scene in the season 6 finale is a key moment of emotional growth for the character of Jeff Winger. When he is in the study room, he starts imagining his perfect life and it is him married to Annie and happy with her and their child. This represents another interesting comparison to earlier seasons when it was Annie who imagined being “Mrs. Winger” and acted out what it would be like to be married to Jeff and the life they could share (S4E3: “Conventions of Space and Time” and S4E8: “Intro to Knots”).
In the season 5 finale, Jeff came to the realization that he loved Annie, but he never told her about his feelings and he spent much of season 6 burying them and trying to “let her go” (will get to this later). Now, at this moment, with Annie about to leave, Jeff finally accepts that he loves her and admits to himself that he wants to be with her. In his fantasy he imagines the following conversation with her:
Scene: Jeff comes home from work.
Jeff: Annie I’m home.
imaginary Annie: Hey there! How was your day? Did anything fun happen?
Jeff: Aww, who cares, how was your day?
imaginary Annie: It was good, Sebastian did some drawing.
Jeff: Sebastian, lets look at him.
Scene: Jeff and Imaginary Annie call for their child, who runs out of a back room for a second and then turns around and runs back.
Jeff: Sebastian!
imaginary Annie: Sebastian!
Jeff: Back to your child area.
Jeff: I Love you
Scene: Jeff moves in to kiss imaginary Annie but she turns her head to avoid the kiss.
Jeff: Are you ok?
imaginary Annie: Is this really what you want?
Jeff: Of course, I mean, I’d be fine with a dog too, but what ever you want.
imaginary Annie: Do you have any idea what I want?
There are two important details here. The first is that Jeff Winger wants to get married. For much of the show Jeff was opposed to marriage and said multiple times that he doesn’t believe in it and he will never get married. Part of this aversion to marriage may have been due to his dad leaving him and his mom, and perhaps this led to fear and abandonment issues. Now it is true that in previous seasons he had threatened to marry Britta on several occasions, but the reason he could do that was he didn’t love her and so there was no fear of getting hurt or of what he could lose if the marriage failed. Now at this moment, he is imagining his perfect life and it is being married to Annie, the woman he loves and the person who changed him so fundamentally that she made him dream about and actually believe that marriage with her would make him happy.
The second important point in the scene is that Jeff doesn’t have any idea what Annie wants. He doesn’t know because he has never actually had the conversation with her about their feelings. He has been in love with her for years but has tried to hide it, deny it, and push those feelings away. Now, for the first time in his life, he loves a woman so much that her needs are more important to him than his own. He wants to be with her and make her happy, but he doesn’t know how to make her happy or what she wants because he never openly admitted his love to her and they have not yet had the conversations that they needed to have.
Soon after this moment, Annie comes in and confronts Jeff about his leaving. They share an emotional conversation about what each wants from life and how each is jealous of where the other person is in their life. Jeff wants to be younger and heading out into the world, like Annie is, with his whole life out in front of him while Annie wishes she was more settled and wise with less pressure. They basically both just admit to each other how they want to be in the other persons place, once again demonstrating how they compliment each other perfectly.
This moment in the series finale is similar to season 1 finale when Jeff runs into Annie, after having left Britta and Slater, and they both bare their souls to each other about their feelings about life in that moment. Jeff opened up to Annie and shared his honest feelings and she shared hers. Jeff talked about how with Britta he could be who he is while being with Slater made him want to be a better person. What he didn’t grasp in the moment was the woman standing in front of him, Annie, was the woman that allowed him to be both. Annie knew and accepted Jeff for who he was while also making Jeff push himself to be the best version of himself. Annie on the other hand talked about wanting to live in the moment and how she realized she didn’t want to leave Greendale, and so she broke up with her boyfriend and came back. She was taking a lesson that Jeff started to teach her in S1E9: Debate 109 to loosen up, live in the moment, and go off script sometimes. Now once again in the series finale, Jeff is sharing his deepest feelings with the woman he has grown to love and she is sharing her feelings with him.
The next moment is an interesting contrast between the two finale scenes of season 1 and 6. In season 1, Annie, living in the moment (as opposed to always being hyper focused on planning her future in detail) decides to kiss Jeff. She doesn’t ask him, she just embraces the moment and does it. When she pulls back she looks up at him with her “Disney princess eyes” using her gaze to silently ask Jeff for his approval of their kiss. Jeff doesn’t say anything; instead, he embraced her and kissed her back passionately.
In the series finale, Annie tells Jeff he has to accept that he is older and let the kid stuff go. She is now telling him to live in the moment (and not the past). Jeff responds not with actions, but with words; he tells her, “I let you go, Annie.” This is a direct reference to events that followed the season 5 finale where he had finally accepted that he loved Annie. Jeff spent all of season 6 drinking heavily as a way to try and force those feelings down and let her go. Despite his sentiment that he let her go, the truth is he never did no matter how hard he tried or how much he drank he couldn’t shake his love for her.
Jeff goes on to say he let her go, but that the heart wants what the heart wants. After all these years he is finally admitting to Annie, face-to-face, that he loves her. You can clearly see in her face that she wasn’t prepared for that admission and doesn’t know how to react at first. This is a moment she wanted for years, and she had confronted Jeff about his feelings directly and indirectly on several occasions. Through much of the series, you could see that they clearly cared deeply about each other and had a strong emotional connection, but because of Jeff’s issues he wasn’t able, or willing, to admit and act on those mutual feelings.
Now, in the series finale, Annie is faced with Jeff finally admitting he loves her. When Jeff stops talking, you can see Annie’s face become more resolved and confident, but before she can respond to Jeff’s admission, she gets a text letting her know the others are coming and they are going to get interrupted. Her response to Jeff is to tell him, “You should kiss me goodbye, or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life”. Once again, she is telling Jeff to live in the moment and kiss her. Unlike in season 1, when she lived in the moment and kissed Jeff, she is now trying to get Jeff to take the lesson he once taught her and live in the moment and kiss her. She is saying now that you have said you love me show me that you love me. What happens next is Jeff providing her evidence of his emotional growth and showing Annie that he is capable of being the type of man she deserves.
In season 1, Jeff returned Annie’s kiss without words. Now, he looks at her and asks her what she wants. He is showing her at that moment his emotional growth and that he cares about her needs and feelings and even if he wants to kiss her, he also needs to know what she wants because he has to make absolutely sure that what she wants comes first. Jeff Winger who used to care about nothing but himself has finally learned to love and now doesn’t know how to do it without giving away all of himself to the woman standing in front of him. Annie responds with a smile and a joke to lighten the mood but her body language clearly shows that she wants the kiss. As Jeff moves closer to her he gently embraces her and the kiss they share is a kiss between two people who for the first time can both admit and openly embrace their love for each other.
As they are interrupted by the sound of the rest of the group entering the building they pull away from each other. If you look closely you can see Annie turns away with a huge smile on her face. Jeff finally admitting his feelings is something that she has waited years for, but it seems like she feels it was worth the wait. It also doesn’t look like the smile of someone who is ready for this to be a goodbye between them. But as has always been the case Annie is probably a bit further ahead than Jeff when it comes to matters of the heart. She is likely already thinking about what they need to talk about and planning in her mind how they are going to make things work while she is away in DC for the summer.
Before going any further I think it is important to address a couple common misunderstandings about this scene. The first is Jeff’s, “I let you go” comment. Many people mistakenly interpret this as referring to Jeff letting Annie go in the present (or future), for example she is leaving for her internship and he is letting her go. This is NOT the case. The phrase is in the past tense, he let her go, BUT the heart wants what it wants. What Jeff is saying is that he TRIED to let her go (in the past) but he couldn’t and still he loves her. This is specifically referencing the events that occurred at the end of season 5 when Jeff used his love for Annie to open the door to Borchert’s Lab.
After five years of Jeff trying to deny his feelings for her and convince himself that what was between him and Annie was just “friendship” he finally had to admit to himself that his feelings for Annie weren’t “plutonic” but that they were in fact LOVE. This led to him attempting to “let her go” throughout season 6. In many of the Jeff/Annie moments in the final season you saw a shift in Jeff. He was often sadder and more detached and there was a clear increase in his drinking, which had never been a major character trait in the past, but was also something that he did in season 3 after seeing Annie in his heart.
This season 3 moment may have been the first instance of Jeff starting to realize his true emotional feelings for Annie and this led him to go to a bar and get drunk to try and bury those feelings. Now you see this behavior manifesting itself again as he tries to bury his feelings with alcohol in season 6.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
All these moments help inform the study room scene and his confession about [trying] to “let her go”. But even in this moment, after finally admitting his love to Annie, Jeff is still lost in his internal struggle and because they where interrupted he hasn’t yet grasped how his admission has impacted Annie and the fact that she too is [still] in love with him.
When the study group asks what they were doing Jeff, still in a somber mood, says “saying goodbye to the room” but in his mind he was still thinking that he was saying goodbye to Annie. However, she immediately interrupts him adding, “For season 6, season 7 who knows it’s out of our hands. Too many variables”. Annie says this while looking directly at Jeff and smiling. In that moment of silence as they lock eyes and share another lingering stare between each other you can see an almost immediate change in Jeff’s demeanor. Annie’s comment makes Jeff start to realize that maybe he was wrong and he quickly relaxes and returns her smile as he begins to understand that this isn’t the end he thought and feared it was. If this really was the end, as some fans wrongly believe, Annie would never give Jeff that kind of message of hope. Saying that was Annie’s way of foreshadowing their future and the conversation they needed to have after their kiss. She is still leaving for her internship, but this isn’t the end for them…it is in fact just the beginning.
Jeff continues and says, “I love that I got to be with you guys, you saved my life, and changed it forever”. He is looking directly at Annie when he speaks those words and is speaking to her more than anyone. If they had not been interrupted by the rest of the group there was a lot more conversation that would have taken place between Jeff and Annie, and in this interpretation of the ending, it does take place after the group leaves. And the next scene implies heavily what the outcome of that conversation was.
The next moment takes place one week later and shows Jeff driving Annie and Abed to the airport to drop them off. As he parks the car to let them out, he says his goodbyes to Annie first and then Abed, but we need to take them in reverse order. When he says farewell to Abed, he gives him a firm hug, and then stares at him and hugs him again. This is the goodbye of two friends who care deeply about each other and know they may never see each other again. It is a touching moment between best friends and is full of emotional weight.
Compare that to his goodbye with Annie. The camera is up close as they hug and then it pulls back behind Jeff as he leans down and gives Annie a kiss. The body language between Jeff and Annie is light and happy with no sense of sadness or remorse. As Abed and Annie walk to the terminal, Annie turns and gives Jeff a wave and a smile. This is not the final parting of two star-crossed lovers who will never see each other again; it is the goodbye of two people who are in love and are finally together after many years. They both know they will see each other again…and soon. You can almost hear Annie saying she will give Jeff a call when she lands safely in DC and that she will see him soon when he comes to visit.
A final note to talk about in this scene is the song playing in the background. It is “Ends of the Earth” by Lord Huron. The song is very melancholic and is about two people being in love and excited about exploring the world and wanting to do it together. The ending of the song is quite sad and has one of them leaving while the other stays behind. However, the part of the song used in the scene is the start of the song which is hopeful and positive. The last several lines go:
“No time for ponderin’ why I’m-a wanderin’
Not while we’re both still alive
To the ends of the earth, would you follow me
There’s a world that was meant for our eyes to see
To the ends of the earth, would you follow me”
The song cuts off at that point. Annie is getting ready to go out and explore the world, and it’s time for Jeff to follow her and explore it together. Whether their journey is short and ends back at Greendale, elsewhere in Colorado, someplace like Washington DC, or somewhere else entirely they will be together and happy.
But no matter where they go or what they do they are the perfect partners for each other. Jeff will love, support, and encourage Annie on her journey in life while being the rock she can always rely on. Jeff is the stability in life that she desires as she goes off to explore the world and chart her future. He will protect her when she needs it but will also pull her back when her competitive side pushes her to take things too far. Similarly, Annie will give Jeff exactly what he needs in life. She will love him and ground him but also give him the push he needs to reach his potential. They began as friends and over their six years at Greendale they have each seen each other at their worst, accepted each other for who they are, while supporting each others hopes and dreams. Together they will continue to help each other grow, mature, and navigate life’s challenges as they explore their future together…always making each other the best versions of themselves.
Epilogue 1— Hold old are Jeff and Annie?
A quick note on the ages of Jeff and Annie. One of the arguments used against Jeff and Annie by fans who opposed the pairing was the age gap of the characters. So what are the ages of the characters? Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer but the quick answer is that for most of the show there was a 12 year age gap. Annie was born in 1990 and turned 19 during the first season. Initially Jeff was born in 1978 and was 31 in season 1, but Jeff’s age was unnecessarily retconned at the end of season 5. For more detail you can see:
https://mattaf30.medium.com/how-old-are-jeff-and-annie-from-community-fb89919d99c7
