Entertainment

11 Best 'Broad City' Season 2 Moments, Episodes, & Characters, Because This Season Was On Fleek

In the wake of an excellent second season of Broad City , we are drawn to reflect on the highlights experienced throughout these past ten episodes. We look back on the very best of Abbi and Ilana’s sophomore run of misadventures, recalling our favorite episodes, scenes, lines, guest appearances, musical numbers, fantasy sequences, and moments of blissful camaraderie shared by the central duo.

With so many gems to celebrate, it's easy to forget a few of the brightest moments and elements of the season, but we've got a list of our favorite moments, episodes, characters, and more to help you remember this stellar year.

Image: Comedy Central

by Michael Arbeiter

Best Guest Star

Susie Essman as the impeccably cast Bobbi Wexler, mother of Ilana. It is sitcom tradition to fill episodes featuring the visiting parents of central characters with conflict and contention, but there is nothing but love and camaraderie shared by Ilana and her similarly feisty mom. To make matters even better, Susie is perfectly complemented by a stammering Bob Balaban as Ilana’s loving father.

Runner up: Kelly Ripa as the most delightfully insane version of Kelly Ripa you’ll ever see.

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Most Improved Character

Trey. In Season 1, Paul W. Downs’ upbeat gym manager Trey was little more than a self-unaware nuisance for his employee Abbi. This season, Trey is mined for some shimmering nuggets of gold. Between donating $14,000 to Zach Braff’s Kickstarter, admitting to his past as a porn star, and (best of all) hosting a party that featured CLIF Bars for the guys and LUNA Bars for the girls, Trey becomes one of the most consistent sources of humor among the supporting cast. Plus, in contrast to the usual thick-headed boss trope, he really does seem to care about Abbi.

Runner up: Bevers, who shows brief moments of insight and sensitivity on occasion in Season 2. But less is still more when it comes to Abbi’s personal ulcer.

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Best Musical Number

Abbi singing “The Edge of Glory” completely naked, after realizing that she is alone in her apartment for the first time in ages. The jump cut from Abbi’s hesitant navigation of her home in search of Bevers to her empowered and pixilated slide out of her bedroom provides one of the biggest laughs of the season.

Runner up: Abbi singing “Get Happy” as Val, her drunken alter ego, to a speakeasy full of elderly schmoozers.

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Best "New York Moment"

The subway. This season spent a good deal of time celebrating various facts of New York City, but its affectionate (but accurate) parody of the bizarre parallel dimension that is the subway was amazing. Rightfully on display are subway dancers, creepy leering guys, repugnant degrees of self-grooming, human excrement, and cars full of Hassidic men.

Runners up: As said, there are plenty, but Abbi and Ilana’s season finale trip to St. Mark’s Place takes a close second place.

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Best Surreal Sequence

Abbi tripping hard after getting her wisdom teeth out. Her supermarket adventures with Bingo Bronson enchant and haunt for years to come.

Runner up: Ilana and her mother’s covert, convoluted mission to collect bargain handbags.

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Best Supporting Character Moment

Jaimé becoming a citizen might not be as outright laughable as Trey doing porn or Jeremy revealing his affinity for being pegged, but the charming humbleness that courses through everything that Ilana’s sweet-natured roommate does and says makes him such a delight to watch… especially at his two proudest moments: becoming a legal American and living out his Titanic fantasy.

Runner up: Trey’s aforementioned apartment party, with CLIF and LUNA for one and all.

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Best Response To Misogyny

Ilana and Abbi “smiling,” as prompted by a St. Mark’s Place catcaller. A wry and clever retort to the all-too-frequent command given to passing women to “smile” in order to bolster their physical appeal, without having to expense precious conversation with such exasperating sexists.

Runner up: Ilana bemusedly yelling at a man who suggestively demanded “more than art” from Abbi for the price she assigned to her drawings for sale.

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Best Ilana Moment

Her affair with her own doppelgänger, played by Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat. Ilana’s oblivious infatuation with a woman who looks and acts exactly like her is as telling about the character as it is hilarious; the horror she feels after becoming aware of this peculiarity is just as satisfying.

Runner up: Her tutelage of an upper class elementary schooler in her bounty of philosophies.

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Best Abbi Moment

When she gets stuck in a pit in Prospect Park. With a sprained ankle and no phone to keep her entertained, Abbi devolves to madness almost immediately, staging her own version of American Idol, befriending a dried fig, and entertaining the greatest fantasy: visiting an extravagant flea market with Mark Ruffalo. It’s loony Abbi at her best.

Runner up: Again, Abbi as Val.

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Best Episode

“Knockoffs.” Just as Season 1 did, Season 2 featured a ton of stellar episodes, notably “Hashtag FOMO,” “Citizen Ship,” and “Coat Check.” But “Knockoffs,” which introduces Ilana’s family as well as advances Abbi’s crush on Jeremy to a point of befuddling sexual exploration and ultimately an emotional victory for our heroine, has got to be the top pick of the year.

Runner up: Any of the above mentioned three will do.

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Biggest Improvement Over Season 1

The girls’ growth. Already, Abbi and Ilana feel like better developed versions of the characters we met in Season 1, without having sacrificed the spirit of the show that Jacobson and Glazer set out to create. This year, we saw Ilana buckle down, get a little more responsible, and even open up (though not without trepidation) to the fact that she might be in a committed relationship with Lincoln. Likewise, we’ve seen Abbi get stronger and more confident, eschewing her worship of Jeremy and seizing a long-awaited trainer position at Soulstice.

It’s no accident that each season has ended on a birthday of one of the main characters. The girls are still young, wacky, and magnets for hijinks, but they are on a quest toward growing up.

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