Plot[]
 I've been making a conscious effort to get away from filtering everything through TV. I figured it's time I showed some growth. It's been 3 1/2 seasons...is what the old me would have said.
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| — Abed |
| In the study room, Pierce is praising the American version of Inspector Spacetime to the rest of the study group much to Abed's annoyance. A costumed Dean Pelton then arrives and announces an upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance. Believing the dance to be anti-feminist, Britta decides to throw a competing one named after a woman's rights role model: Sophie B. Hawkins. The study group are amused at her error, and Annie points out she meant to say Susan B. Anthony. However, due to Jeff mocking her, she decides to go ahead with her plans. Later in the hallway, Jeff unsuccessfully tries to get Britta to cancel her dance warning her that the students will expect Sophie B. Hawkins to actually show up. Elsewhere, Annie and Shirley enter into a competition to set up Abed with a date for the upcoming dances.
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| In the library, Pierce goes to check his e-mails on a specific computer only to find a distraught Britta using it. She admits to him that she made a mistake and now she has to secure an appearance by Sophie B. Hawkins. Pierce encourages her to not give up hope and adds she shouldn't give Jeff the satisfaction of being right. In the study room, Troy tries to get Abed to join him in some shenanigans, but the latter is insistent that he not fall back on bad habits. Annie shows up with her candidate for Abed to go to the dance with, a quirky girl named Kat. He accepts her invitation to the dance, but after the women leave, Shirley shows up. Before he can tell her he already has a date, Shirley mentions that she has someone from her church eager to go out with him. Abed agrees and once she leaves Troy questions his motivations. Abed admits to him that he couldn't pass up the opportunity to live out a classic trope where he has two dates to a dance.
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| In the cafeteria on the night of the dances, Abed first meets Jessica, the date Shirley set him up with. He excuses himself to go to the coat check room, so he change outfits for his other date with Kat. Inside, he meets a coat check girl named Rachel. Over at Britta's side of the dance, Jeff taunts her, mentioning the fact that someone put out an ad on Craigslist an hour ago asking for Sophie B. Hawkins or an impersonator to do a gig at a community college. Meanwhile, Abed continues to juggle both dates while carefully steering Annie and Shirley away from discovering his deception. When he returns to the coat check room to change outfits again, Rachel lets him know she is aware he is doing the classic "two dates to a dance" trope. Abed is impressed she figured it out and asks for her assistance to help keep the charade going to which she happily agrees.
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| Back at the dance, Dean Pelton confronts Britta and warns her that Sophie B. Hawkins is a popular singer to many of the students on campus who lived during the 90's, and if she doesn't show up, the crowd could get ugly. At the same time, Abed and Rachel are enjoying themselves as they keep his two dates distracted. Elsewhere, a stressed out Britta finds Pierce and asks him for more advice. He is unable to offer anything useful, and she realizes she "Britta'd" it again. Over at the dividing line separating the two dances, Annie and Shirley start passive-aggressively praising themselves to the other for supposedly winning the bet, only to quickly figure out after a beat that Abed is on two dates. Back in the coat check room, Rachel and Abed return having successfully kept the gag going. The two then share an intimate moment but Abed is unaware of the significance of it. He leaves a disappointed Rachel behind to choose one of his dates to continue the night with.
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| However, he is intercepted by Shirley and Annie who angrily admonish him for playing with Jessica and Kat's feelings so callously. Abed returns to the coat check room to update Rachel on the situation but finds she is gone. Another coat check girl tells him that she left her post early and seemed to be upset. He goes back to the dance and apologizes to Shirley and Annie having realized how badly he messed up. Britta takes the stage to admit to the crowd that Sophie B. Hawkins isn't going to play at the dance. As the crowd begins to revolt, Sophie B. Hawkins and backup musicians unexpectedly enter and take the stage to everyone's surprise. Britta reveals to Jeff that the only possible way she could have miraculously booked the singer was desperately willing it to happen.
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| Abed interrupts the performance and goes on stage to make a public declaration pleading with Rachel to return and admitting that he enjoyed the time they spent together. As he leaves the stage, Rachel appears. After she asks Abed out on a date, they both join the crowd in watching Sophie perform. Meanwhile, Dean Pelton and Jeff are wondering how Britta pulled this off, and Pierce reveals he was the one responsible since he knew Sophie B. Hawkins from the time Hawthorne Wipes sponsored Lilith Fair. Pierce admonishes Jeff for how badly he's been treating Britta especially in light of how she helped him deal with his father issues. Feeling ashamed, Jeff uses his cell phone to send Britta an apologetic text while also praising her for organizing a successful dance.
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End tag[]
| In online streaming sites (such as Hulu and on NBC.com) as well as on the official DVD release and in syndication, the original end tag was shown featuring Sophie B. Hawkins and Troy and Abed. In this tag, they each ask Sophie to perform the first line of "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" but with the lyrics switched out: "Damn I Wish I Had Some Ice cream" (Troy) and "Damn I Wish Abed Was Batman" (Abed). Dean Pelton arrives and tells the pair to stop bothering Sophie. When they leave, Pelton demands she sings a version he has rewritten as "Dean I Wish I Was Your Lover." Sophie scans the lyrics and asks who "Jeff Winger" is. "Just sing the damn song," is his reply. In the original broadcast version, a preview for "Intro to Felt Surrogacy" is shown. In it, the study group as puppets are seen sitting at the study room table humming the song "Daybreak".
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Recurring themes[]
Continuity[]
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Running gags[]
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Recurring or debuting running gags in this episode:
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Pop culture references[]
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References to popular culture in this episode:
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Meta references[]
| List of Meta references |
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Meta references in this episode:
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Quotes[]
- “You're really doing this? Look, as someone who faked being a lawyer for seven years, I appreciate your commitment to the bit, but just admit you were wrong.”— Jeff
- “So you can say I Britta'd it?”— Britta
- “Yes, of course. That goes without saying. But come on, it was a small mistake. Call this off before it becomes a full-scale "Brittastrophe." I coined that.”— Jeff
| Season Four Episodes | ||
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1. "History 101" |
8. "Herstory of Dance" |
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| Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six | ||
