January 2014
It was an annual tradition on the Community set. This was the third straight time we came to the last day of filming for a season, without knowing if we'd get to come back late that summer.
Two times, I thought I'd be in my last day as Gillian Jacobs' personal assistant on the show. Two times I somehow got to keep my job. Would the third time be another charm, though?
Nevertheless, I stuck around at the end of the last day of filming, taking it in if this was it. This feeling worked out well before, so there was no need to mess with tradition.
So maybe it was a bad sign that Gillian came into the empty Greendale cafeteria set as well.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"What are you doing here?" Gillian repeated. "Whatever your answer is, I probably got it too."
"Even if it was....taking the study group lunch table?" I deflected.
"See, I knew I needed another pair of hands for that! You always think of everything for me," Gillian played along. I liked to think that last part wasn't just a joke.
Then again, she had let me work for her on this set for five years. Or at least her bosses did. It wasn't as unlikely as Community's constant survival, but it was just as improbable to me. The TV gods blessed the show – most of the time – and I guess the goddess Gillian played a part in blessing me too.
She came to me with a perfect, closed lip smile and bright, amused blue eyes, as I saw her now wearing a black dress with white straps. Once again, I blocked out thinking of her as a goddess while I was near her.
"Going out to celebrate our next brush with death? Or Greendale somehow surviving in a fictional world again, at least?" I asked.
"Eventually. My 'brush with death' mental photos were running a bit low. Had to fix that before I called it a night," Gillian stated.
"We should compare mental photo albums sometime," I offered.
"I gotta warn you, mine's on par with the real prop binders for Annie. If they're that good, you might want to tread lightly," Gillian kept playing.
"I'm not that intimidated. Annie and her props are just my co-favorites here," I let slip out.
Not being on the clock, and the possibility of never being on the clock again around here, must have made my lips looser. Perhaps that was a worse analogy.
"But until we settle that, do you need an escort out of here?" I kept going. "I'm not free from working for you yet. And I shouldn't start getting rusty now. We're already getting the next few months off as it is."
"At least around here," Gillian reminded. "But yeah....giving you one more task should fill my nostalgia quota. So I order you to take me out. Like I need a man to help me walk a few blocks."
"I got to see your last Britta moment. Of the season. That's enough nostalgia for me," I agreed.
We left the cafeteria set, going through the rest of the Community lot one last time. But when we got to the set of the infamous study room, we saw something we didn't expect on the couch.
Or someone.
"Alison?" Gillian went into the 'study room' and saw Community's other Goddess, Alison Brie, shoot up from the couch.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked us.
"What are you guys doing here?" I repeated, although it made less sense.
"Well....same thing I think you are? Only I was smart enough to find a couch?" Alison guessed.
"Being lazy at the end, I see. You trying to take Joel's part? It's a little late for that," Gillian responded.
I almost said it'd be one way to get Jeff and Annie closer together – but this wasn't the best day to actually complain about the show. And I didn't have the best audience. In every other way, I did.
"So, should we let you go back to looking back on your own?" I asked instead. "This is the best place to do it in."
"It sure is," Gillian realized. In Greendale, this was the study group's home, so it was like one for their actors too. As such, when Gillian sat down next to Alison, I realized we'd be staying a while longer now.
Instead of entertaining my boss one more time, I was a third wheel as Gillian and Alison looked back on the last five years. They were co-stars and I wasn't, so I couldn't add that much to everything.
For a moment, I was almost resentful of Alison for cutting in on my last moments – in this season or more – with Gillian. Once I saw how ridiculous that was, I felt something more ridiculous – jealousy.
When that got ridiculous, I upped the ante further. Maybe I was jealous that Gillian was hogging Alison, not the other way around.
Since I worked for Gillian, I had to be around her by default. I had less of an excuse to be around Alison for long periods of time. I could only watch her, her timing, her talent, her beauty, her body and her gif-worthy cleavage shots from afar.
And on those moments back in the early seasons where Alison and Gillian had....gif-worthy shots together....
"You know, every year I wish I did....a few things in here," Alison broke my daydreaming. "And then when we come back, I don't do them anyway. Then I start wishing all over again."
"The downside of still having a job," Gillian replied.
"Yeah, but come on! One of these days it'll be the last day! And all the things we wish we did around here....all the things we kept joking about and even talking about....we won't ever get that chance," Alison reflected. "If this really is the end, what's the point in holding back? We kind of asked that in the finale too!"