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TV Snapshot: Changing the game with love in ‘Community’

NBC via Hulu

In “Introduction to Finality,” Jeff is about to give his closing statement for a case in which he is defending Shirley in a college mock trial that will decide whether she (who came up with an idea and business plan for a sandwich shop) or Pierce (who is funding the shop) will sign as owner on a form. Jeff’s been pressured by a former colleague (who’s representing Pierce) to throw the case in order to get his old job back. He’s not sure what to do, when Shirley tells him that it’s okay for him to lose the case because, she says, “I want you to have what you want.” When Jeff gets up to make his closing statement he tells everyone exactly what’s going on:


Your honor, I have no closing statement because I’m throwing the case. No, no, it’s okay. It’s fine, don’t worry. My client, Shirley Bennett, my friend of three years, she told me that it was okay. She said what I want was more important. 
She’s right—right? 
I mean, guys like me, we’ll tell you there’s no right or wrong—there’s no real truths. And as long as we all believe that, guys like me can never lose. Because the truth is, I’m lying when I say there is no truth. The truth is—the pathetically, stupidly, inconveniently, obvious truth is, helping only ourselves is bad and helping each other is good. 
Now I just wanted to get out of here, pass biology and be a lawyer again instead of helping Shirley. That was bad. And my former colleague wanted so badly to keep his rich client that he just asked me to roll over in exchange for my old job. 
So, I guess we all walked in here pretty bad, but now Shirley’s gone good. Shirley’s helping me. It’s that easy. You just stop thinking about what’s good for you and start thinking about what’s good for someone else. 
And you can change the whole game with one move.


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“You can't go wrong when you love others.  
When you add up everything in the law code, 
the sum total is love.”