Quick thoughts on Jeff and his relationships with Shirley and Annie from a Rewatch from 103 to 109
Rewatching Social Psychology, I was laughing a lot at the interactions between Shirley and Jeff and I noticed something very intriguing at the beginning. Jeff deliberately tries to avoid Shirley, but that’s only because Britta is tailing him and once again correcting him on what he’s doing wrong (e.g avoiding Shirley) and saying that she is fun to be with. Jeff however, keeps downplaying his interest in Shirley but when she ambushes him on the way across the quad, he lets her, and what’s more, he sincerely enjoys her company (especially the gossip!) and so it makes me believe that his previous interactions with Britta were just a front so that Britta wouldn’t see how much he does enjoy spending time with Shirley and I think it comes down to this.
Jeff didn’t expect to form the emotional connections he does with Annie or Shirley, or that he’d like spending time with them more instead of Britta (aka the girl whose pants he was trying to get into) and this startles him because Britta is the one he’s supposed to be forming a bond with. So when he forms bonds with Shirley and then Annie, and sincerely enjoys the time he spends with them (because Social Psychology shows that he does appreciate Shirley’s hijinks and the gossiping [Jeff is suuuuch a girl]) he’s not sure how to react to this.
And so when Britta calls him on supposedly avoiding Shirley, I now theorise that he only does that at the opening of SP to throw Britta off his scent because he likes the connections he’s forming with Shirley (and later again with Annie, in FF&Y and Intro to Statistics) and it shakes him that he’s becoming closer with these two other women who weren’t even in his plans for the study group instead of the girl he wants to get with.
Home Economics, in fact, is one of the first episodes that highlight the lack of emotional connection between Jeff and Britta and the disconnection in their mindsets leads to Britta downright verbally abusing him while he is homeless when she throws his faucet handles at him.
Meanwhile, the interactions with Shirley and Annie in the episodes that bracket Home Ec give us a very different picture. Jeff’s nonchalance about spending time with them is only a front because when he does spend time with those ladies, it betrays the emotional investment he’s beginning to have with them, and I don’t think Jeff wanted to acknowledge this at first because forming intimate emotional bonds with Annie and Shirley wasn’t in his plans when he came to Greendale!
And this is reflected later on throughout the series when Jeff’s emotional bonds with Annie deepen to the point that it’s clear that he considers her his best friend, and similarly with Shirley when their pasts collide, whilst Britta gets left in the figurative dust because he simply doesn’t connect with Britta the way he does with Annie and Shirley.
In fact, in terms of Jeff’s closeness with others in the group, I’d say it goes Annie, Shirley, Abed, Britta, Troy, and then Pierce. And that’s just in terms of emotional closeness and the fact that he can trust Annie and Shirley to get him deep down and still like him in spite of his flaws.
And I got all this from just rewatching episodes 103 to 109! It’s amazing how well-written this show is, that some of the earliest episodes lay down foundations for characterisation up to the 3rd and 5th seasons, and still all makes sense because you can see the seeds of it starting as early as here.
Jeff didn’t expect to form the emotional connections he does with Annie or Shirley, or that he’d like spending time with them more instead of Britta (aka the girl whose pants he was trying to get into) and this startles him because Britta is the one he’s supposed to be forming a bond with. So when he forms bonds with Shirley and then Annie, and sincerely enjoys the time he spends with them (because Social Psychology shows that he does appreciate Shirley’s hijinks and the gossiping [Jeff is suuuuch a girl]) he’s not sure how to react to this.
And so when Britta calls him on supposedly avoiding Shirley, I now theorise that he only does that at the opening of SP to throw Britta off his scent because he likes the connections he’s forming with Shirley (and later again with Annie, in FF&Y and Intro to Statistics) and it shakes him that he’s becoming closer with these two other women who weren’t even in his plans for the study group instead of the girl he wants to get with.
Home Economics, in fact, is one of the first episodes that highlight the lack of emotional connection between Jeff and Britta and the disconnection in their mindsets leads to Britta downright verbally abusing him while he is homeless when she throws his faucet handles at him.
Meanwhile, the interactions with Shirley and Annie in the episodes that bracket Home Ec give us a very different picture. Jeff’s nonchalance about spending time with them is only a front because when he does spend time with those ladies, it betrays the emotional investment he’s beginning to have with them, and I don’t think Jeff wanted to acknowledge this at first because forming intimate emotional bonds with Annie and Shirley wasn’t in his plans when he came to Greendale!
And this is reflected later on throughout the series when Jeff’s emotional bonds with Annie deepen to the point that it’s clear that he considers her his best friend, and similarly with Shirley when their pasts collide, whilst Britta gets left in the figurative dust because he simply doesn’t connect with Britta the way he does with Annie and Shirley.
In fact, in terms of Jeff’s closeness with others in the group, I’d say it goes Annie, Shirley, Abed, Britta, Troy, and then Pierce. And that’s just in terms of emotional closeness and the fact that he can trust Annie and Shirley to get him deep down and still like him in spite of his flaws.
And I got all this from just rewatching episodes 103 to 109! It’s amazing how well-written this show is, that some of the earliest episodes lay down foundations for characterisation up to the 3rd and 5th seasons, and still all makes sense because you can see the seeds of it starting as early as here.