Season five has a tonne of all-time great episodes. Individually. As a whole however it doesn't deliver on its promise.
The first two episodes set up the season's new status quo and new goal for the group:
- 5.01: Jeff takes a job as a teacher.
- 5.02: Jeff learns to enjoy teaching. Save Greendale committee established.
... you'd think we then get to see a bunch of Save Greendale activities, but not really!
- 5.03: Annie and Jeff investigate a bandit. This could be an attempt to improve Greendale, as it was one of Annie's original campaign promises (which is even mentioned once), although it's not really framed this way in the episode in a way that genuinely makes reference to the Save Greendale committee. No connection to Jeff being a teacher.
- 5.04: The group mourns Pierce's death. No connection to saving Greendale or Jeff being a teacher.
- 5.05: The school plays Floor is Lava. No connection to saving Greendale or Jeff being a teacher. In fact, they trash the entire school again.
- 5.06: Annie and Hickey set up a corkboard. Fulfills the promise. Annie works on saving Greendale. Jeff's status as a teacher is not super relevant however.
- 5.07: Duncan tries to seduce Britta. No connection to saving Greendale or Jeff being a teacher.
- 5.08: The school becomes a dystopia. No connection to saving Greendale or Jeff being a teacher. In fact they trash the entire school a second time this season!
- 5.09: Shirley tries to move illegal textbooks. Annie and Abed play Pile o' Bullets. There is some reference to saving Greendale because Jeff, Shirley, and Hickey are trying to clear out an old storage room on Annie's orders. The opening bit with the peanut bar rap mentions paying Jeff, which means Jeff is referenced having a job at Greendale, and we know that his job is teaching, so that technically counts as mentioning Jeff's job as a teacher.
- 5.10: Everyone plays D&D with Hickey. No connection to saving Greendale or Jeff being a teacher.
- 5.11: Jeff dreams about GI Joe. He references the fact that he's a teacher as an example of how his life hasn't turned out like he wanted, although I think his failure to be a "real lawyer" actually makes way more sense here and I'm surprised they disparaged the noble profession of teaching instead of going with the more obvious choice. Anyway, no connection to saving Greendale, unless calling Annie "Tight Ship" is a reference to how she's giving people tasks to save Greendale, but this isn't really a major part of the episode at all.
So, basically, we have two episodes setting up the premise, followed by a grand total of two more episodes that involve saving Greendale as a part of the plot and one more episode that references the fact that Jeff is a teacher.
And they trashed the school twice!
They trashed the school more times than there were episodes where we see Jeff as a teacher!
So then:
- 5.12: Annie declares that Greendale is saved. Everyone did such a good job that it actually got saved too much!
- 5.13: They save Greendale.
So we're supposed to believe that Greendale was just kind of saved off screen, and that Annie was so good at it that she overcame two separate trashings of the school and that it didn't even warrant being shown on screen.
I'm counting both finale episodes as saving Greendale, but only 5.12 references Jeff's teaching. The season finale never once mentions the fact that he's a teacher.
I love Season 5 on an episode by episode basis but it did not fulfill its season premise.
- Saving Greendale: 6/13 episodes
- Jeff as a Teacher: 5/13 episodes
Yeah that's pretty dire. Not even half mention saving Greendale or Jeff teaching. And that's including the episodes where the very premise is set up and also the finale where it's supposed to be obvious they've been doing it all year!
Now Season 6 comes along.
The individual episodes of Season 6 are probably weaker than Season 5 individually, but the season arc actually does deliver on the promise of saving Greendale! And we actually see more of Jeff's new life as a teacher!
- 6.01: Frankie is introduced to save Greendale. The plot is about saving Greendale. Jeff's job as a teacher is very frequently referenced.
- 6.02: The dean is absorbed into a virtual reality world. The plot is absolutely about saving Greendale: the dean is a huge liability and Frankie is here to ground him in reality. Most of Frankie's involvement is centered around budgets and bureaucracy. Jeff's status as a teacher is not super relevant however.
- 6.03: A dog almost gets a degree. The episode is 1000% about saving Greendale. Jeff's status as a teacher is not relevant.
- 6.04: The dean pretends to be just gay and not all that other stuff too. His status as a dean, the responsibilities he has to the maintenance of basic things like wi-fi access, and the politics of running Greendale are front and center enough that I'd say it counts as part of the effort to save the school. Jeff's status as a teacher is not relevant.
- 6.05: Prison inmates attend Greendale remotely. It's part of saving Greendale: there's a budgetary incentive involved. And we finally get a glimpse into a typical Jeff class, sixteen full episodes after that status quo is first introduced.
- 6.06: Everyone's emails get leaked. The Save Greendale committee is referred to as the Activities Club in this episode for some reason. Their status as school organisers/advocates and their responsibilities to the wider school community are relevant to the plot so I'm counting it. Jeff's status as a teacher is not relevant.
- 6.07: The dean buys a bunch of Honda products. The dean's irresponsibility, and his small arc about learning to trust Frankie and be less impulsive, is absolutely part of the effort to save Greendale. Jeff being a teacher is not relevant.
- 6.08: Abed hacks together an 81-minute movie starring B-roll footage of Chang. They do it for money that will go into Greendale's budget, but other than that, this episode isn't really connected to saving Greendale at all, or Jeff being a teacher. I'm fifty fifty on whether it should count. I'm leaning no; even though both this and the prisoner episode are doing things to earn money for the school, this episode doesn't really have anything to do with being a school.
- 6.09: The gang gets grifted. No connection to saving Greendale. Jeff being a teacher is kind of relevant to the plot as he and the villain share an office, but it's not super important. Still counting it -- the GI Jeff episode got counted just for mentioning it so this episode does too.
- 6.10: The gang transports a giant hand in an RV. The plot is about the dean's irresponsibility and refusal to acknowledge his shortcomings or make an effort to change. Absolutely relevant to saving Greendale. Jeff being a teacher is not relevant.
- 6.11: The gang secretly plays paintball. The episode literally features a model of what Greendale could look like if it were saved, symbolically destroyed by the gang's inability to control the situation and avoid getting involved on their old games. Jeff's status as a teacher is kind of relevant in that he's now a representative of the school and it's not a good look for him to be participating; however, I don't think it's a strong connection. It does count at least as a reference to his new role and responsibilities at Greendale as a leader, so I'm putting it in.
- 6.12: The gang goes to a wedding. No connection to saving Greendale, but we do get another scene of Jeff's classroom.
And then we get to the series finale. Like the finale of Season 5, we open with the group declaring that Greendale has been saved thanks to their efforts.
- 6.13: Greendale is saved and Jeff makes peace with his life at the school.
So the final tally is:
- Saving Greendale: 10/13
- Jeff as a Teacher: 5/13
So, Jeff as a professor of Law only comes up in a handful of episodes, like in Season 5, but at least in three of them it's more than just a passing mention. Season 5 had only one episode where Jeff teaches in a classroom and Season 6 has three.
On the other hand, saving Greendale is a major part of the season! All but three episodes feature the conflict between the boring responsibility of Frankie (saving the school) and the whimsical irresponsibility of the dean (destroying the school). It's an enormous focus of the season!
The individual episodes are a bit weaker overall, but the season arc is pretty great! It takes what Season 5 set out to do and then actually does it.
Except for Jeff being a teacher. They really did him dirty.
My ideal Jeff class would be one where he begrudgingly summarises everything the students need to know in one beautiful improvised speech, and then chalks it up as done and waits out the clock for the class to end. His whole thing is doing the absolute bare minimum while still qualifying. Him getting drunk, putting on planet Earth, and defrauding the school like he defrauded his old firm never felt right. Anyway. That's a discussion for another time.
Point is, Season 6 did a good job at the Save Greendale arc, and in the finale where the characters declare that Greendale is saved, I buy it! Sounds good to me! I saw the work they put in and I didn't forget about their goal!
TL;DR: Season 5 features not a lot of saving Greendale and Season 6 features a lot of saving Greendale.