'Community' Season 3, Episode 22 (Finale) Recap - 'Introduction to Finality'

This season finale episode could have easily been the series finale, which would have made things considerably sadder and probably would have reduced me to a sobbing wreck when the #sixseasonsandamovie hashtag showed up on screen at the end of the episode. Thankfully, though, "Community" has been renewed for at least another half of a season, so there's no need to wail uncontrollably. Yet.

Troy is still pretty unhappy, though, as he is stuck in the A/C school and misses his friends. Things take a turn, though, when the Vice Dean dies from inhaling a lethal dose of freon during a routine repair. Immediately Troy is suspicious, and questions the new Vice Dean, Murray. He does have motive, and they did just do a "Law & Order" episode a few weeks ago...

Troy accepts his role as "The True Repairman," who is one that can fix not only machines, but people as well. We get an interesting cut straight to Abed after that line. Is that what makes Troy so well equipped to take care of Abed?

He's certainly better at it than Britta, who gets Abed to agree to be her therapy project. Unfortunately for Britta, Evil Abed takes over once and for all before she shows up, and sets about darkening the timeline by completely ruining Britta's psyche, and then setting out to cut off Jeff's arm. Thankfully, he manages to get a hold of himself before that happens.

Troy, for his part, uncovers Murray's guilt in murdering the Vice Dean by challening him in the Sun Chamber, which is kinda like the Thunderdome for A/C repair students. Troy really is exceptionally good at fixing those things. Which begs the question, why should he pay tuition for a two-year program? I hope they're giving him a full-ride scholarship. These are things that I think about. Anyway, his victory allows him to be with the gang again, so that's good.

Jeff spends the episode being Shirley's lawyer in a case against Pierce, when the two of them argue over who gets sole ownership of the sandwich shop now that Subway is gone. Pierce hires Jeff's nemesis Alan (guest star Rob Riggle), who was the one who got Jeff disbarred. Naturally, Jeff wants to run Alan into the ground, but it turns out that Alan is the head of the firm now, so if Jeff wants his job back, he has to throw this case.

What Jeff realizes along the way is this: "Helping only ourselves is bad, and helping others is good." If there's one unifying thesis to this show, it is that. It might seem like an obvious statement, but it's very true, and if everyone followed it we would most likely all be much better off.

Tying up loose ends and setting up for next season, we see that Chang might ally with City College, Jeff is going to look for his father, Troy gets the Dreamatorium as his own room (don't worry: Abed makes a small one for himself out of a cardboard box), and Starburns is still alive! Why did he fake his own death? We may never know. That mysterious bastard.

That's all for this season, we'll see you for season four!

Notes & Quotes:

- "It's a trade school! It's a two-year program in boxes that make rooms cold!"

- "You're VH1, Robocop 2 and Back to the Future 3"

- "...with a gay duck"

- "Cruel. Cruelcruelcruel."

- "You guys are weird"

- "I can do that because I'm their messiah"