I promised during my post about Community that I would write sometime about why I love Jeff Winger and Annie Edison together so much. I think that this is the perfect time to do it. I’m currently re-watching the second season of my favorite television show with a friend in anticipation for the third season. Since I’m the one catching her up – and she’s seeing these episodes for the first time – we watched up to “Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design” this weekend (which is both a fantastic episode in general, especially for Jim Rash, but also a great Jeff/Annie episode). She was thrilled with the episode, and at the end simply said: “I want Jeff and Annie to date.”
While I’m not sure that I want Jeff and Annie to date at this point in the show (they both have a lot of maturing to do), I will say that as far as a romantic potential pairing, these two are my favorite. When Community first aired, the show set us up to believe that Jeff/Britta was the ideal endgame. All of the TV spots for the show reminded us that the only reason Jeff agreed to form a study group was to impress Britta. The idea of Jeff and Britta together at the beginning didn’t repulse me, honestly, but I never saw the complete appeal of it. As separate characters, I love Jeff and Britta. As best friends/partners-in-crime (something along the lines of Doctor/Donna in Doctor Who) in episodes like “Romantic Expressionism,” I love Jeff and Britta. But I just feel like the pair is too similar in order to work romantically (some disagree, and honestly, to each your own. I will never tell someone that they are wrong for wanting a certain couple together). Perhaps it’s the fact that both of them can be hard-headed and stubborn, or perhaps it’s the fact that – quite often – they bring out the worst qualities in one another. They constantly bicker about everything, and that’s cute to an extent because it highlights their similarities (that’s why episodes like “Anthropology 101” are so funny to me).
But the most intriguing pairing of the show for me is still Jeff and Annie. And I think that the episode that really first highlighted their dynamic for me was “Football, Feminism, & You” in season 1 (also, can I say that this is probably my favorite episode title out of the seasons). In the episode, we really get the sense that Jeff and Annie are both very self-serving characters, but both for vastly different reasons. We know that Jeff, from the pilot episode, is a self-involved character who really dismisses the thoughts and feelings of others in order to serve his agenda. And this is something that he gradually learns to deal with (even slightly throughout this episode) and overcome during the coming seasons. Annie is self-involved in the same way that Shirley is self-involved – not because she is callously selfish, but because she wants control over life, and people, and things to make herself feel more secure.
I think that “Football, Feminism, & You” is one of the first times that we get to see how much Jeff and Annie really can butt heads and affect one another. Jeff makes her cry and she makes him feel guilty. It’s the first real interaction between the two that I think we get, and it’s significant because it shows – even early on – that they both have these strong sort of wills, and both have power to really affect one another. The end of the episode is sweet, and is the first instance that we really get to see how these two characters could be good friends. The “milady”/ “milord” is an exchange that I loved then, still love now, and am glad is a running theme in the show.
“Debate 109” is perhaps the episode that everyone who “ships” Jeff/Annie mentions as the turning point. The episode didn’t just show us that Joel and Alison can work together well chemistry-wise (which they can because they’re both wonderful actors), but also really brought the possibility of these two characters in a romantic relationship together. After the debate kiss, there’s this awesome moment from Jeff where he just looks properly stunned as to what just happened. And I think that – until that moment – he kind of thought of Annie as a little sister. But there’s this moment where you look at someone as more than just a friend. And it’s normally insignificant, but there is always a turning point, and I think this was Jeff’s.
“Romantic Expressionism” is another one of my favorite Jeff/Annie early episodes, because I think it’s a great chance to explore the idea of Jeff being jealous, and beginning to kind of thwart Annie’s attempts at relationships by doing so under false pretenses. This is also probably my favorite Jeff/Britta episode because together those two are just hilarious magic. The single greatest moment in this episode to me, is one of the subtlest Jeff/Annie moments – the “look.” I know it sounds campy and cheesy, but the look that they share is brief and sweet because of how much Jeff truly softens and how genuine his expression is.
I think that what I like the most about these two is that while Jeff/Britta is a perfect couple to highlight similarities between the two, Jeff/Annie is a perfect couple to highlight the differences. And that’s not to say that Jeff and Britta are completely similar or that Jeff and Annie are polar opposites (more on that in a minute), but to me, relationships are hinged on how that other person causes you to change and to respond. Annie brings out the heart in Jeff, I think – she makes him care, and feel guilty and he always goes to her because he knows that (see: “Basic Genealogy”). Jeff, on the other hand, brings out the feisty side of Annie – he causes her to loosen up, and to be less politically correct all the time and to instead learn to be more bold.
Which, of course, comes to a head in “Pascal’s Triangle Revisited.” I’ll be honest – I watched Community backwards. Or rather, I knew about the story backwards. My friend Jaime tweeted the night that the finale aired, freaking out over the Jeff/Annie kiss (and she had every right to be because she ships those two). At her urging, I decided to watch the whole first season. I suppose you could argue that I watched the episodes through slight goggles – obviously, I already knew what would happen at the end of the season. Nevertheless, I had fallen in love with all of the characters on the show, and also the Jeff/Annie ship.
Second season was interesting for me to watch, because people (Jeff/Annie shippers in particular) were bristling after “Anthropology 101.” The argument there was that Annie had matured so much by the end of the previous season, so when she suddenly regressed into a love-struck teenager again at the beginning of season 2, that made her appear child-like. Subsequently, they decided that this was a way for the writers and producers to dismiss the idea of Jeff/Annie as silly. Now don’t get me wrong – I would have loved to see Annie be completely mature and composed during that episode. But here’s my argument – that wouldn’t have really been Annie. That would be Annie at the end of season 2 (now a young woman who can hold her own against Jeff, and the entire school in a game of paintball assassins, mind you!) but not at the beginning.
Annie Edison is my favorite character because she’s so completely intelligent and witty, and yet we forget sometimes that she’s struggling to find her place in Greendale and in life. (I would say that she’s not a girl, not yet a woman, but that would incite all kinds of Britney Spears songs). Annie is a wonderful, beautiful character who is – often – more mature than her older study group companions. And maybe that’s why I don’t have a problem with the “age difference” between Jeff and Annie – because a lot of the times, I forget that Annie is only supposed to be 19. She’s living on her own, supporting herself, and driven to get an education and shake away her high school self. She’s mature.
Relationship-wise, it appears that both of the characters care a lot for one another (Dan Harmon, correct me if I am wrong!) but just don’t know how to proceed (or if to proceed). I’d say that they’re at this sort of impasse, where both have to grow before they can actually have a functional relationship. Jeff is still afraid of screwing the group up and himself up. He’s back at Greendale because of the latter, and he doesn’t want to mess up the – arguably – best six relationships he has. That’s why addressing things like in “Asian Population Studies” was so difficult. To him, relationships are always complex. To Annie, it’s just the opposite – to her, relationships have to be black and white. You either want me or you don’t. What’s it gonna be? And in this instance, I think that Annie asked Rich out to prove her point – decisions don’t have to always have drawn out discussions preceding them. Sometimes, if you like someone, you should just go for it (which of course, for her, actually backfired). And in this situation, I’d like to think that neither was completely right. Sure, things are “complicated” for Jeff, but that doesn’t mean he can’t know how he feels about her. And yes, relationships can be simple, but Annie should also realize that sometimes you can’t just be put on the spot about your feelings.
Annie is more of an open book than Jeff, as evidenced by how she does choose to view the world. In “Paradigms of the Human Memory,” she sees the world clearly through a romantic eye, whereas Jeff has always been more cynical. And I don’t think that neither necessarily has to change in order to make a relationship work, because – back to my point earlier – I believe they start to bring out these qualities in one another. Not that Jeff makes Annie more cynical or that Annie causes Jeff to become like a romantic comedy’s leading man, but that they appreciate those aspects of one another.
I think that one of my absolute favorite episodes of the season for Jeff and Annie was “Intro to Political Science.” And the reason that I like this episode so much is that we really get the sense that these two characters care a lot about how the other perceives them. Annie doesn’t want to be seen as a “kid” or a little girl. And I don’t think that it’s with condescension that Jeff has called her a kid previously (and in this episode too). I think that it’s Jeff’s way of trying to distance himself from her. It makes him feel better, perhaps, to think of himself as an adult, and her as a child – in “English as a Second Language,” he admits that the reason he treated her like a child was because she had feelings. Perhaps that’s why Jeff continues to distance himself from her by referring to her as “kid” – maybe he just can’t come to terms with the fact that she is both an adult and has feelings. Or else I’m reading too much into this. Regardless, I loved this episode because we got to see Jeff and Annie compete against one another and it proved that – once again – Annie is capable of holding her own against Jeff. The conversation in the supply closet was a nice touch as well. Jeff could have easily dismissed Annie’s admission that she cares about what he thinks of her and said something completely Jeff Winger to get himself away from admitting anything involving caring. But he didn’t – he actually reciprocated. I think that is what we’d like to call character progress, folks.
And yes, I just spent the past three or so pages (roughly) discussing why I love two fictional characters together on a fictional television show. And Dan Harmon, or anyone else for that matter, if you have read even half of this, I congratulate you.
I will once again reiterate this fact: Community is a brilliant show, full of brilliant characters and intriguing pairings, Jeff and Annie included.
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