Here’s why Broad City's season 4 finale “Friendiversary” is one of the sitcom’s most underrated episodes. Created by and starring Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, Broad City started as a web series before being picked up by Comedy Central and is based around its creators’ real-life friendship and attempts at making it in the Big Apple. Although it’s also about twenty-something women living in New York, it’s been described as the ‘anti-Girls’ thanks to its focus on Abbi and Ilana’s friendship rather than their romantic relationships. And unlike Girls, Broad City is absurdist, ridiculously funny and a true celebration of female relationships.
Comedy Central aired some amazing Broad City episodes during the show’s five-season run. Classic episodes include “Wisdom Teeth” – in which Ilana’s attempt to nurse a post-dental surgery Abbi with a marijuana cocktail goes awry – or their adventures at a Sunshine State retirement home in “Florida.” For some reason, “Friendiversary” doesn’t get nearly as much love, which is a shame because it more than holds a candle to some of the show’s more highly rated episodes.
Maybe it has something to do with the tone of Broad City season 4. In comparison to earlier seasons, the fourth was far more introspective. It was the first season set during a harsh New York winter and the first to unfold under Donald Trump’s first year as president – which, of course, they addressed hilariously by bleeping out his name as if it was a curse word. It also dealt with issues like Ilana’s seasonal depression but through all of that, season 4 showed how Abbi and Ilana weathered through and remained best friends despite their differences. “Friendiversary” is a testament to that.
This Broad City episode opens with Abbi going on an elaborate scavenger hunt organized by Ilana which culminates in a dinner of chicken fingers and margaritas at one of their favorite haunts. Ilana tells Abbi it’s their friendiversary, which Abbi has forgotten all about to Ilana’s disappointment. Abbi tries to make it up to her with a fun evening atop the Empire State Building where through some observation deck binoculars they see what they think is a man throwing a woman off a building.
After the cops dismiss them, Abbi and Ilana set out to catch the ‘murderer’ - played by American Horror Story’s Denis O’Hare - themselves and the episode takes a hilarious film noir turn. They get into his apartment where he confronts them with a knife. Abbi jumps in front of Ilana ready to take the blow, proving that though she forgot their friendiversary, she still loves her very much. In Broad City’s typically funny fashion, it turns out the supposed murderer’s victim was really just a sex doll he accidentally dropped off his balcony.
“Friendiversary” ends with Abbi and Ilana back at the bench where they first met, as seen in Broad City season 4’s first episode “Sliding Doors”. It’s the perfect bookend to the season opener but whereas “Sliding Doors” celebrates the origin of their friendship, the finale celebrates the fact Abbi and Ilana managed to stay friends. This is what makes “Friendiversary” one of Broad City’s best – if most underrated – episodes.