After Britta is nominated for queen of the Transfer Dance, Professor Slater admits to Jeff that she misses him and wants to get back together. Troy's dad asks him to move out of the house, and Troy suggests that he should move in with Abed, although Abed rejects the idea.
The next day, at the Transfer Dance, Pierce offers Troy a place to live, but he still wants to live with Abed. Abed later explains to him that their personalities would clash if they roomed together and they would jump the shark. Annie reveals to the group that Vaughn has been recruited for a competitive Hacky Sack team at a college in Delaware and that she'll be going with him for the summer, but she secretly tells Jeff that the move is permanent and she will not be coming back to Greendale.
In a separate storyline, Chang plans to beat up Duncan, who mocked him for being fired when Chang turned to Duncan for help cheating his way to re-obtaining his degree. Chang however cannot go through with the beating, since he would be expelled for hitting a member of the Greendale faculty.
At the dance, however, Duncan becomes drunk and broadcasts Dean Pelton's "dalmatian fetish", resulting in Duncan's suspension. Chang seizes the opportunity and punches him in the face with a roll of quarters. During the dance, Britta publicly admits her love to Jeff. Professor Slater also announces the same statement. Jeff, unsure how to respond, leaves the dance as Chang and Duncan are fighting, only to bump into Annie, who's changed her mind about leaving. After the two each share their respective conflicted emotions, Annie gives Jeff a small kiss, and Jeff responds with a bigger one as the two embrace.
The Community episode "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: During the collective argument over whether Jeff should choose Britta or Slater, Starburns shouts "bring Conan back!", in reference to Conan O'Brien's then-ban from television after being ousted as the host of The Tonight Show. Starburns's actor, Dino Stamatopoulos, was a writer and performer for Conan's Late Night program from '93-'99.
- The Alleged Car: Jeff's Lexus is still wrecked from last episode.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Britta snatches the microphone from the Dean to announce that she's in love with Jeff when she sees Slater making moves on him.
- Backhanded Compliment:Slater: Britta! You look great! Such a stunning improvement.
Britta: Wow, you look gorgeous. It must've taken all day. - Ballroom Blitz: Chang starting a fight with Duncan.
- Betty and Veronica: Which ends with Jeff struggling to make a decision after both Britta and Professor Slater confess their love for him. He ends up taking a Third-Option Love Interest in Annie.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Jeff and Annie at the end.
- Callback/Continuity Nod: In the order they appear:
- Jeff's car still has the damaged windshield from Chang's attack with a Key-tar.
- He pulls into a faculty reserved parking space he secured due to his participation in Debate Team.
- He talks briefly with his accounting teacher, Prof. Whitman. Later on, Whitman is on "Team Britta", probably because he remembered seeing them kiss at the end of the episode.
- Jeff greets Vaughn in three variations, counting off each one. This goes back to an observation about Vaughn in "Social Psychology", the fourth episode. Later, the rest of the study group simultaneously does the same thing with goodbyes.
- Pierce plays the Greendale school song (set to the tune of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way it Is"), which he "wrote" in "Advanced Criminal Law".
- Britta's therapy sessions with Duncan were a condition of her acquittal for cheating in "Advanced Criminal Law" episode; here we see one for the first (and last) time.
- Britta reveals to Shirley and Slater that she had sex with Jeff during the events of "Modern Warfare".
- Having learned about Jeff and Britta's sex, Shirley responds, "Holy macaroni with pepper jack!" which was mentioned as an improvement on the standard macaroni and cheese formula during the background chatter when the group finds out about Slater and Jeff dating in "Interpretive Dance".
- The Dean's two apparent dates, dressed in Dalmatian costumes, refers back to a scene from "Enviromental Science", in which he watched a video of a man in a strangely muscular dalmation costume. This was referenced several times since then, in increasingly unsubtle fashion as the Dean piled up more and more dalmatian paraphernalia.
- Shirley's friend Gary from Finland is one of the students who's transferring.
- Britta using too much lipstick for the Valentine's Dance.
- One of the girls from the Greendale Comedy Club is on "Team Britta".
- Comically Missing the Point: Troy and the phrase "jump the shark". He thought that episode of Happy Days was the most awesome thing ever.
- Conversational Troping: Abed refuses to let Troy move into his dorm, citing that it's the sort of thing that usually signifies Jumping the Shark.
- Creator Cameo: Presumably the contestant "Danielle Harmon" is a reference to Dan Harmon.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Professor Duncan when Britta and Professor Slater walk into the dance.Duncan: You might want to go easy on the punch; I put in a little hot person. Hot people.
- Episode Tagline: Britta's "Do you have a patent on loving people?"
- Freudian Couch: Britta is lying down on the couch when she has a therapy session. Duncan tells her she doesn't need to do that, since they're not in a Woody Allen movie, and she angrily responds that he could have told her that sooner, not in the last session.
- Giant Food:Jeff: What’s wrong with you?
Troy: I’m sick. I don’t know why. [takes another bite of cookie]
Jeff: Have you considered the sixty-inch-diameter cookie you’re eating?
Troy: How can something that’s delicious make me sick? - Going Commando: Britta reveals her laundry habits:"Jeff doesn't need a girl who doesn't wear underwear because Oprah told her it would spice things up. He needs a girl who doesn't wear underwear because she hasn't done laundry in 3 weeks."
- Greeting Gesture Confusion: When Chang enters Duncan's office, he goes for a fist-bump greeting but uptight Duncan just shakes his fist.
- Held Gaze: One happens between Jeff and Annie before she first moves in to kiss him. Then they hold each other's gaze a bit longer before Jeff swoops in to give her The Big Damn Kiss.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker:Chang: What's this in my hand?Duncan: A roll of quarters, why?Señor Chang closes his fist around the quarters and punches Duncan
- I Can't Feel My Legs!: Shirley after her first keg stand.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Two examples, both involving Jeff and the Dean and plenty of lampshading.
- First time:
Jeff: Not much could ruin today.Pelton: Hi!Jeff: Aw, shoot, I forgot saying that summons him.- Second time:
Jeff: Nothing could ruin that.Pelton: Hi!Jeff: He's like an evil genie! - Ironic Echo: Señor Chang, who is now a student, asks Duncan if he can get help to cheat his way through school, mirroring Jeff's actions in the first episode. Naturally, he is rebuffed.
-
What Could Have Been: In the commentary, it's mentioned that they considered having a runner where Chang experienced Jeff's entire character arc from the season in miniature within that episode.
-
- Jumping the Shark: Abed worries that this will happen if he and Troy move in together, and the Trope Namer is brought up. Troy doesn't get why it's considered a bad thing, though; he saw that Happy Days episode and thought it was awesome.
- Lampshaded Double Entendre: Duncan makes sure that his Double Entendre doesn't go unnoticed by Slater.Duncan:' Now, what say you and I blow this pop stand and head off for a spot of slap and tickle? Beat. I mean sex, in case the lingo hasn't made it to the States.
- Lampshade Hanging: Britta takes therapy with Professor Duncan. She automatically lies down on the couch for the session, which Duncan notes is how one would act "in a Woody Allen movie" and is unnecessary.
- Love Dodecahedron: Annie is willing to transfer to another school to be with her boyfriend Vaughn, who used to go out with Britta. Jeff is stuck with choosing between Britta and Slater after both publicly profess their love for him. In the end, Jeff and Annie kiss.
- Main Characters: Lampshaded in the tag as a group of Greendale students watch Abed's video yearbook that focuses heavily on the study group."I can't believe I spent ten bucks on this. I don't know any of these people!"
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Duncan asks Chang what the correct term is for "a teacher who was pretending to be a professor, who turned out to be pretending to be a teacher".
- Plot Parallel: Spoofed with Troy noticing that eating the big cookie resembles his own subplot with Abed."How can something that's delicious make me sick? Unless too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. My friendship with Abed is a giant cookie!"
- Pregnancy Scare: Played for laughs in Abed's clip at the end wherein Leonard comments that he only got pregnancy-scared twice that semester.
- Running Gag: The Dean's dalmatian-furry fetish is followed from its very beginning ("I hope this doesn't awaken something in me"), to its escalation (dalmatian mugs, posters, and rugs), to its inevitable conclusion in this episode.
- Season Finale
- Serious Business: Vaughn just got a spot on the number one community college hacky sack team in the country.
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: In universe example between Team Britta and Team Slater. And Team Bring Conan Back.
- Shout-Out:
- Troy mentions that episode of Happy Days.
- Britta tells Shirley where and when she had sex with Jeff in the form of a Clue accusation.
- Troy calls Slater's outfit "very Fatal Attraction".
- The school splits up into "Team Britta" and "Team Slater".
- Star-Burns shouts, "Bring Conan back!"
- Chang says to Professor Duncan he'll find a loophole.
- Spinoff: Abed's thinks the idea of Troy moving in with Pierce sounds like a spinoff.
- Stock Sitcom Grand Finale: Parodied. Abed keeps trying to give things a finale vibe.
- Stylistic Suck: Professor Duncan's Boastful Rap.Duncan: My name is Ian Duncan and I'm here to say / I'm going to rap to the beat in a rapping way / I've got a real big penis and I drink lots of tea...
- Teachers Out of School: Inverted. Despite having held one-on-one psychotherapy sessions with Britta for the better part of the semester, Professor Duncan doesn't seem to recognize her in formal wear.Duncan: [to Jeff] H-hot person. Hot people. There are two of them... coming this way! Which one do you want?
- Third-Option Love Interest: Jeff has to choose between Britta and Slater. He chooses Annie.
- This Is My Side: Abed notes that this may be happening if Troy moved in with him.Abed: We'll end up fighting and putting a masking tape line down the middle of our room."
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: The Dean's reaction when a second Dalmatian-costumed man walks in.Dean: Please don't be mad. I didn't think more than one person would answer the ad.
[Drags the first Dalmatian toward the second]
Dean: Yes! Dream coming true!- Jeff wishes he could be two people so one could be with Britta and the other with Slater, then they could get together for some weird foursome.
- "What Now?" Ending: No mortal danger Cliffhanger here, but the question of how the study group can possibly stay together after Jeff runs away from Britta's confession and kisses Annie minutes later.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Jeff refers to Troy's giant cookie as having a "sixty-inch diameter". A circle's diameter is its width, so if that number were accurate, it would be a five-foot-wide cookie. Though, it appears to be around 18-20 inches in diameter, which would give it a circumference of 56-63 inches.
