*SIX SEASONS AND A FILM THEORY!*

I like how you eliminated Pierce because he was in a wheelchair in season two, BUT NOT BECAUSE HE WAS DEAD IN THE EPISODE SURROUNDING THE ACB

Still trying to figure out the question ‘Nicolas Cage: good or bad?’

The dean tryin to get his assistant to "trace the call" is honestly one of my favorite scenes lmfao

During the call the pause when the ACB says "I mean, get a room already" tells me it's Abed. Britta says it quicker Jeff says it slurred, a bit nonchalant Annie was never cool, she couldn't pull it off. Abed is the only one that pauses his sentences there.

Imagine never watching the show and just hearing "Peirce dies at the end of the episode and Troy leaves on a boat with Levar Burton"

Can you recreate Abed’s theory about how Angela was the boss in whos the boss

Okay but you missed one key thing. In the last episode of the show, right after Jeff brings up the bandit again, it cuts to Britta’s pitch for the next season. In which she says a very specific Dave Matthew’s lyric.

It was all of them at various points. This has been done TO DEATH in the Community Fandom. The truth is right in the ending montage. Troy and Abed did it for fun. Duncan for sexual gratification. Annie and Jeff to keep having their little flirty adventure. Finally, Britta, because she wanted to bring it back to write about in the school paper.

this theory was streets ahead

"Starburns is still locked in his cage being pelted by change." Never realized how insane that sounds outside the context of the episode lol

Also, for a split second when Jeff + Annie are chasing the bandit after Duncan gets cracked, you can see Abed in sprinting around the corner.

I always thought it was Abed as he generally loses touch of reality and becoming the ACB was a way to “move the story along this season” as Abed would put it. Also what ACB says about Annie and Jeff definitely sounds like something Abed would say

I miss Leonard’s Food Review. It was Streets Ahead

I personally always loved the idea that the ACB was actually all of them at different times. All cashing in on the mystery to serve a personal agenda and then hanging up the cape for the next person to use.

Plot twist: it wasn’t a slip up or a realization, it was an awkward moment because Annie had said “her” instead of “she”

Abed literally never once in the entire course of the show says "I mean, ..." His speech is far too calculated for him to ever need to rely on that phrase like most people. Also, Dan Harmon, who wrote that episode, said himself that he deliberately wrote it so that it could be anyone. This question has no answer.

Could've saved a lot of time of crossing out Britta. She'd Britta the whole thing and get caught in the act 🤣

I literally binged every season of Community over the quarantine, and now there's tons of new content coming out about it. This is the Brightest Timeline.

Mat: "2 little humps in one continuous stroke" Me: "Don't all people write m's that way?"

Still think it’s Britta…😄 I think she was standing on something…also I think Anne found out when they lived together and that’s why she reacted that way, I also think the phone call sounds just like Britta!

Annie acts so suspicious in that last episode because she knows who the ACB is. She lived with him for 3 years and he decided to tell her, but she can't tell anybody else...

Dan Harmon: **furiously crosses out **_Community_** movie script**

can we also appreciate that the russo brothers directed those paintball episodes and that’s one of the things that got them hired for marvel

More community theories please! Attempt their greatest mystery: It's been six seasons, WHERE'S THE MOVIE?

I think the reason Annie acts weird with the mention of the ACB is she knows who it is! She was really close with Abed by the end and they lived together for half the series

In one episode Abed literally helps a pregnant lady and gives BIRTH to her child all in the background. Then later in the episode when asked what he did that day Abed simpler replies “meh not much.”

It was Abed but both Annie and Troy were in on it. Troy was with him from the beginning because they are best friends, and he sold getting cracked way too much. Annie on the other hand figured it out almost immediately, but she decided she wanted in so she could continue to work with Jeff and cause it was fun. Abed struck a deal with Annie that would have her act like the bandit to throw people off, and be the one to take the blame if it was ever figured out. Change my mind

This series is way too underrated. It's so we'll written and consequently so funny and fun to watch.

Jeff in season one: “I gave a quarter to a dirty bum today”

I remember the first time I watched this episode I had to pause from laughing so hard at the Dean going "Abed you're special...cant you just stand at the crime scene and see what happened?"

The attention to detail and hidden secrets in this show is INSANE! In season 6 Buzz Hickey disappeared without an explanation but an email discussing his funeral was briefly shown in the episode where everyone's emails were leaked

Maybe this will be how they set up the movie

My theory expands on yours: It was Abed from the beginning, and Annie actually figured it out on her own (hence the binder) but kept her solving it a secret so she could play detective with Jeff, using it both to spend more time with him and as an attempt to DTR. Then, she got carried away and teamed up with Abed to keep Jeff from solving it before she’d accomplished her goal, dragging the mystery along for her own ends.

“Pierce can’t move around well in season 2.” Well, that and he’s dead in the ACB episode which would make it pretty difficult to be him.

To back up your case about Abed being the ACB: it is confirmed that Abed himself doesn't like Jeff and Annie's romantic entanglement. In season 4 episode 1, History 101, we get a glimpse into Abed's 'happy place,' which is the idyllic TV show taking place inside his mind. In that 'perfect world,' Jeff and Britta kiss, not Jeff and Annie. Plus, later in season 4, we see a scene from the darkest timeline, where Annie gets released from the psych ward and Jeff says he wishes that him and Annie's age gap was bigger than it already was, which reveals that Abed is disgusted by their age gap. Additionally, in Virtual Systems Analysis in season 3, Abed gets mad at Annie for playing matchmaker with Troy and Britta because that would 'tamper with the fabric of the group' (granted, Abed had other, more personal reasons to be mad at Annie in this episode, but this was part of it.) Hence, Abed bringing up Jeff and Annie's relationship may have been genuine; he wants Jeff and Britta to be together, not Jeff and Annie, because Abed assigned Jeff and Britta the 'mom and dad' role early in the series. So that call was a chance for him to express his disdain for Jeff and Annie's relationship without receiving ridicule for doing so, while directing the blame toward Britta at the same time.

What if this is like a scream situation where there’s two bandits? Annie and Abed

I just finished Community today and I’m not ready to move on yet. I’m trying to find all the content I can, I’m still fully immersed.

I love this theory and am 100% convinced. I'm glad when Community gets a little love, it's a criminally underrated show. Great theory Matpat.

I love how Mat doesn’t even mention that Pierce is fucking dead after Season 4

What convinced me it was Annie was the map she showed Jeff, the faculty lounge isn't near the attacks...she just knew Jeff wouldn't look

When the bandit talks through the phone, he suddently accelerates his talking, just like Abed does.

The movie might be coming out soon. The actors say they're interested. The Russo brothers say they're in. It's on Netflix now. There's a new podcast with Ken Jeong and Joel McHale, called The Darkest Timeline. I think that it might be made by Netflix.

I'm OBSESSED with the amount of time and effort in this analysis of an invented mistery from a tv serie. God I love this kind of things

I think they were all in it. Abed and troy started it but troy had to take one for the team bc always something up with those two (and the group overall, something the other students at greendale always point at) They all know but they got something from the bandit so they didn’t say anything, shirley got the money, britta gets something to write her paper on and annie gets to spend time with jeff (tho she def was the last to find out or maybe she finds out later but never says anything bc she can’t snitch on her friends). Jeff is the only one that never finds out and that’s why he’s the only one still intrigued

Me, knowing that Abed's handwriting matching is probably just a props person writing both pieces: Wow this is so true...

Leonard is actually Purple Guy

This excludes a lot of minor characters too. I feel it's much more likely that it's a side character than the main cast. Notably Neil, Magnitude, and Leonard who all appeared by season 2 and could be potential candidates as the ACB. Todd would make a decent candidate too but he was introduced in season 3 and may not have attended Greendale during the ACB's initial spree. Now while Neil was in this episode and notably called out Garrett while on his way to Shirley's Sandwiches opening, he could've looped around and cracked Garrett. We don't see Magnitude during this episode so it's possible he was hiding in the shadows (his backstory is extremely murky; in s2e6 "Intro to Political Science he is shown as being 16 but appears in a flashback when Annie smashes through the glass door at the party Trop "injured" his shoulder which calls into question his actual age, he's actually British but pretends to be American, and is extremely affable which could just be a front). Leonard, while definitely older, was into frisbee, swimming and tai chi so he could be in surprising shape and does not appear in any cracking scenes but does appear in the episode giving more credibility to him being the ACB than Magnitude. This also leaves out other instructors like Sean Garrity who appears in both seasons 2 and 5 (when the ACB is actively referenced). One last teacher of note would be Cory Radison who (allegedly) killed the Glee Club and disappeared when he let that slip so the return of the ACB could be revenge.

was literally just introduced to dave matthews, loved him, and now he's appearing EVERYWHERE

Annies pretty young, we try not to accuse her.

That actually explains Annie’s reaction! By season 6, she has lived around 3 years with Abed, so it’s natural she could have discovered the true identity of the ACB. They probably talked about it, and Abed probably convinced Annie to not tell anyone. Then, when Jeff mentions the ACB in the last episode, Annie gets nervous about Abed’s secret and behaves weirdly.

It really makes a lot of sense, cause Abed is also really into older movies and stuff. It wouldn't be far off for him to know about Dave Matthews either. Gotta thank the person who bought Annie's binder for sharing the info 😮👏🏾 Also, thanks for loving the show and making this video Matpat. Here's to hoping that #sixseasonsandamovie happens 😊

Nah, it was Annie. We know from their psych evals that Abed is the only non-psychopath. And once he saw how much Troy was hurt by the cracking, he would have fessed up. (Like when he stopped Troy from running into the cartoon tunnel). Annie is clearly a sociopath who often obsesses over perceived sleights (the pen) and takes things too far (breaking the Batman DVD).

Plot twist, it’s Leonard taking revenge for all the times people told him to shut up.

The most damning piece of evidence that it is Abed is at the end of the episode when he is going through his DVR. The Episode is actually more of reference/parody/homage to Hannibal and, coincidentally in that scene, the Bridge. Abed is deleting the episodes, thus hiding evidence that this is the current homage he is doing

It was Professor Duncan, the crackings stopped while Duncan was away "looking after his mother" and only began again when he returned. At the very end, one of his victims gets revenge on him, Troy.

I had never heard of Community before I saw this episode half a year ago. I proceeded to binge the whole thing in the first two weeks of summer break, and I’m doing the same this winter break. Favorite sitcom, easily.

Remember what Batman said about Abed. "That guy's pretty ruthless, and that's coming from Batman."

It's probably my favorite show ever as well. Every little detail in the background and the incredible character arch's(not including the gas leak year) are just amazing. This show with everything it has to offer is just perfect.

The fact that you covered this show genuinely makes me so happy, it's one of my all time favorites

If Abed isn't the acb, then it could be that he planted those notes to add drama. It seems like something he would do to make the acb more villainous and interesting.

I’d literally never heard of this until last week and I binged it all and finished it yesterday. I’m actually scared how even MatPat knows what I’m thinking.

as a criminology major and community super fan i revisit this episode like every couple of months 😅 thanks matpat love the channel

The theory that I believe is true and that I find the cutest is that it’s both Jeff & Annie, but that they don’t know that each other are doing it. They both have the same motives, to stay close to each other, plus the last scene of the episode seems to signify that they were talking about themselves. Just saying

When you finish Community Troy and Abed are in mourning.

Annie: maybe the acb's point is that we're letting our values slide Jeff: or maybe he's a frat boy coming from the laundromat Maybe he's the founder of the only fraternity on Greendale campus, the Delta Cubes

4:26 wait, why was Troy’s law for cameras in the bathroom when he was cracked in the library outside of the bathroom?

Abed is the only one that makes sense for them to be the ACB. I also love how, throughout the series, the homages they do to movies, are usually instigated by Abed (and normally to relate to everyone else like in contemporary American poultry) or at least involves him as a main character in the plot, but it is very odd that in this particular episode they don't have him as a main character at all and barely see him as a result. Also the thing about pointing out Annie and Jeff's relationship is very on brand - as he sees them looking at each other all the time, but never mentions it, like how he can only understand real life when he relates it to tv. Basically... I've watched wayy too much Community recently.

I don't think those mat pats are social distancing. They seem really close to each other.

I just love how he talks about this whole thing like murder when really. It’s just quarters. A lot, a lot of quarters hOw DiD i GeT sO mAnY lIkEs

Dawg, Annie, throughout the show, is shown to be thorough and intelligent. She would fake notes in a binder, and she would write with different handwriting. She's that type of person.

I'd be happy with a spin off of troy and abed traveling the world together

It’s weird seeing community so popular right now. I’m happy to see it has lots of traction, and hope it lasts. We need a movie

For me, the “I mean get a room already” line toward Annie and Jeff solidified Abed for me. Despite the voice change, I recognize Abed’s instigative sitcom tone in that comment. I have loved this show for years. Been raving about it for a long time and people never knew what I was talking about. Feels good seeing others enjoy this cult gem now.

i would also like to point out that the bit where he calls out jeff and annie, even through the voice changer the speaking pattern matches abed’s, the pause and then the slight rushing of his words doesn’t match anyone else in the group

It’s actually sad that Troy and Lavar was captured by pirates

Annie's reaction in the finale (aside from it being tossed into the script, I guess) was probably more of a "trying to hide my frustration" thing. Because she was a forensics student, always one of the most intelligent in classes, and pretty neurotic about losing or not understanding things. The Bandit was probably the one case she could never let go of because they'd bested her.

Is anyone else slightly stressed that if he'd just left out the MatPat part, "theorizing in the morning" would've had the right number of syllables? Just me, probably, yeah...

I just finished binge watching this show on Prime Video. Im not streets behind anymore.

I think I figured it out. Nobody has considered that it might be two people, the dean has the most incentive. Think about it, the heroic dean stops a technical molester would look really good in order to keep the school open and have abed do the dirty work to give the dean an alibi and abed would do it for all the reasons in the video. The dean also crack Abed's friends to keep suspicion away from abed. Theory finished.

one of those cracking "victims" could just be the ACB pretending to get cracked to shake suspicion off of them

6:18, pierce can’t be the acb because of the wheelchair, yea he also died in that episode

You just Brita’d the ACB theory!! 8:00 it was Pop-Pop! Duh!! 😂

Totally agree that Abed was the actual ACB. But I'm 90% sure that Annie was in on it from either the beginning or close to the beginning. My head canon has always been that attacking Troy was Annie's idea to force Jeff into the team-up, since Jeff wouldn't care if it was random students. She was forcing the team-up in the same way she did in 2x09, which she was also behind. Plus in both episodes, there was a recorded voice thing that called in to help hook him into the mystery. I think the whole purpose of it all was to force Jeff to define their relationship. She herself actually confronts him on it in this episode which is something she hasn't done directly since 2x12 (When he was getting obviously jealous of her and Rich. Sidenote: Jeff is a terrible liar when it comes to his emotions. "Plutonic Shoulder Holding." Sure buddy. Keep pretending you haven't been in love with this girl for the past 4 years. Everyone's buying it.

I loved the moment when Magnitude was at the high school party and discovered the catchphrase that would change his life: "Pop...Pop..."

Community has gone mainstream, initiate protocol omega!

This video made me decide to binge Community, loving it so far

I think it might be multiple people, Annie definitely knew, she’s really smart and capable, i also think Abed, Troy and Britta may also have contributed. I think it was mainly Abed, but some Troy and Britta as well.

The loss of Donald Glover in Community was more of a tragic event than even The Red Wedding. You can quote me on that.

So glad everyone watched the same show this week cause of Netflix

One issue with Abed is that in an earlier episode, Troy tells Abed that "Best friends don't mess with eachother", which he would likely stick with, therefore not cracking Troy

15:24 1st clip, he does the bit because he feels isolated and underapreciated by Jeff, 2nd clip, it isn't even him messing with Troy. It's the... Other person.

Just an idea: maybe the reason Annie was acting odd in the finale was because she knew it was Abed and was trying to hide it (she may have figured it out or Abed may have confessed to her at some point). She may have been trying to protect him knowing it wasn't malicious in nature

I just gotta ask, who DOESN'T dot their lowercase i's? That's literally the difference between uppercase and lower case I.

Abed is definitely proud of you for over-analysing a tv show

To solidify Abed’s status as well, Abed is willing to go thru lengths to make a bit happen. CIP, the “I was messing with you” bit with Troy when he created an entire alien language and even had Garrett join him. And then the Pulp Fiction episode

I’m so glad this show is finally blowing up.

ACB strikes in seasons 2 and 5, and there's 25 cents in a quarter...

This is exactly what commitment looks like. Congrats! You really nailed it

Binged community last year while recovering from surgery. Sad week of my life but awesome show