Epidemiology

Epidemiology

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Director: Anthony Hemingway — Writer: Karey Dornetto — Aired: October 28, 2010 —Season: Two — Number: Six Summary: The study group faces a mysterious outbreak that infects the other students at a Halloween party.

Plot

There's an infection at the party making people act weird and bite each other.

— Annie

The study group along with the rest of the student body are attending the Halloween party in the library. Pierce becomes sick after he eats the taco meat which turns out to be military rations from an army surplus store. Annie helps Pierce get medical attention from Rich who is also in attendance. Elsewhere, Troy and Abed are putting on a show in their costumes for two female students who scoff at their antics. Troy asks Jeff why they failed to impress them and he points out how immature they were being. Meanwhile, Pelton sends Rich more sick students to look after. Rich's preliminary diagnosis is interrupted when Pierce suddenly bites Star-Burns' arm.

The study group notices how sick Pierce has gotten.

Troy ditches his costume to be more "mature" which confuses Abed. It's then that Star-Burns starts exhibiting the same symptoms as Pierce despite not having eaten the army rations. Annie suggests to Rich that Pierce transferred his sickness to Star-Burns who suddenly attacks them. In another room, Dean Pelton phones the food supplier only for the call to be intercepted when he mentions phrases written on the ration containers. Rich and Annie arrive at the study room and warn Britta, Shirley, and Jeff about the contagion. A huge panic breaks out when Leonard bites a student. Everyone runs for the exits as the other infected students attack as well.

Leonard becomes a zombie.

The study group gets to the library entrance but finds Dean Pelton locking them all in. He tells them they have to be quarantined until the army arrives which will be six hours from now. The group is forced to make their way through the infected horde back to the study room. Jeff tries to contact the authorities while Troy and Abed start to barricade the room. Rich explains the infection and high fever the students are experiencing will lead to brain damage in three hours and death within six. Annie suggests that they counter the fever by lowering the temperature of the building. Abed volunteers himself and Troy to get to the library thermostat to make it colder, but Troy refuses.

Dean Pelton locks the study group in the library.

He insists on staying in his new mature persona and doesn't want to risk his life. Rich concedes how risky it is to get infected and lists various symptoms of the virus. He then begins talking in a slurred manner which was one of the indicators of infection he mentioned. Britta does this too and the two of them attack the others causing Chang to throw one of his costume skates in defense. It shatters one of the study room windows allowing a number of infected students to grab Annie. As the zombified classmates enter the room the remaining survivors flee only for Shirley to stumble and falls. Jeff insists everyone keep going but Chang stops to help her, and they both manage to make it to the restroom.

The zombified T-Rex and Banana.

As Chang and Shirley try to hold back the horde of zombies bearing down on the door to the restroom they share a moment of understanding and kiss. Meanwhile, Jeff, Troy, and Abed successfully make it to the library's basement. Abed confronts Troy over his new attitude but they are interrupted when Jeff hears a noise. They are relieved to find out it's just a cat but are annoyed when it jumps in and out of their way. After chasing it, the trio come across a possible exit; a window that leads to the outside. Jeff opts to leave out of a door on the far side of the room (as he doesn't want to damage his $6000 suit) but finds infected students on the other side including Rich. Troy and Abed escape the horde by climbing and crawling across metal shelving units.

Something wicked this way comes.

They reach the fenced off section in front of the window and barricade it. Seeing that the window is too high and knowing the zombies will break through soon, Abed offers Troy a boost. He is reluctant to accept but Abed tells him he is willing to sacrifice himself for Troy's survival. With Abed's help, Troy reaches the window but is forced to watch as the zombie students overtake Abed. Troy goes to the library entrance, punches Dean Pelton and takes the keys to the door. He puts on his original costume for protection and enters but the zombie students easily dismantle his suit. Slipping away from them, he makes his way to the thermostat. Along the way, he comes across the infected study group members. He manages to make his way past them but pauses when he runs into Abed who bites him.

"Abed...?"

The others join in but Troy shrugs them off, reaches the thermostat and manages to turn down the temperature before becoming a zombie. As the air conditioning kicks in the students inside slowly regain their senses. Outside, the army finally arrives and upon seeing the students are cured they knock everyone out with gas. Some time later, police officers led by Officer Cackowski are at the library along with the E.M.T's. The Dean tells Cackowski he, like the rest of the partygoers, has no recollection of the night's events. It seems that a cover story was created explaining that everyone had been roofied. Troy and Abed decide to leave and go watch a movie agreeing to avoid any film that contains zombies in it.

Troy and Abed survey the aftermath of the Halloween party.

End tag

Troy gets a voice message from Chang that claims he and Shirley just had sex. Troy wonders why he called him out of everybody else.

Troy receives Chang's voice message.

Recurring themes

Continuity

Continuity lists

Narrative Recurring or debuting plot points in this episode: Previously: Britta's Campus Connect profile as well as the Season One episode "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" reveal that she had a traumatic childhood experience with a man in a dinosaur costume. In this episode she wears a T. Rex outfit. In the library basement, Jeff, Troy and Abed walk past a banner for "GCC Family Day", which was celebrated in the Season One episode "Basic Genealogy". Mad skillz: As in Introduction to Statistics, Chang is the only person capable of correctly identifying Shirley's Halloween costume. Middle Eastern Magic 8 Ball: This episode sets up the story arc between Shirley and Chang and also a subplot with Annie and Rich. The ABBA soundtrack alludes to the "Mama Mia" type story arc of not knowing if Chang or Andre is the father of Shirley's baby. Identity crisis: Troy realizes how much he has changed from a jock to a nerd due to his friendship with Abed and tries to adopt a cooler persona. Replay: Chang repeats the phrase "Ya bit? Ya bit?" which he used in his first appearance in the Season One episode Spanish 101. A nice gesture: Troy and Abed do their signature handshake while they are both zombies. Discontinuity: Even if the government managed to erase all the students' memories of the night, there would still be plenty of evidence of what happened just from all the injuries the students suffered, particularly the bite marks. Despite claims that no one remembers anything about that night, Abed somehow later recalls in "Paradigms of Human Memory" an incident involving Jeff and Britta. Chang somehow managed to have sex with Shirley, take pictures of it with his camera phone, and send a message to Troy's phone all while holding back the restroom door against a horde of infected students. People Recurring or debuting characters in this episode: Returning students: Rich Stephenson Star-Burns Leonard Rodriguez Garrett Lambert Familiar face: Officer Cackowski shows up at the end of the episode to investigate what happened at the party. Places Recurring or debuting places in this episode: This must be the place: Group Study Room F Library Dean Pelton's office Borchert Hall Things Recurring or debuting items in this episode: Sweet spread: Dean Pelton mistakes biohazard containers for army surplus taco meat and serves the contents at the campus Halloween Party, leading to the viral outbreak.

Running gags

List of Running gags

Recurring or debuting running gags in this episode: Attention students!: The Dean uses the public address system for playing Abba music and his personal notes. Fanservice: Troy is shirtless in his Sexy Dracula costume for most of the episode. Nice outfit: Jeff is dressed as David Beckham Britta is dressed as a Tyrannosaurus Rex Annie is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood Shirley is dressed as Glinda the Good Witch Pierce is dressed as Captain Kirk Troy is dressed as Ellen Ripley in lift suit from "Aliens". He later makes a costume he called "Sexy Dracula" Abed is dressed as the xenomoroh from Alien Chang is dressed as ice skater Peggy Fleming Dean Pelton is dressed as Lady Gaga. Rich Stephenson is dressed as a banana. Star-Burns is dressed as a pirate. Leonard is dressed as a pumpkin. NOOOOOO!: Troy screams this after watching Abed being taken down by a group of infected students. A dollop of whipped irony: Dr. Rich tells the uninfected group that if anyone is bit and doesn't leave now, they put the group at risk. He had been bitten.

Pop culture references

List of Pop culture references

References to popular culture in this episode: Name that tune: Much of the soundtrack of the episode is comprised of ABBA songs from Dean Pelton's playlist. "Dancing Queen" "SOS" "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)" "Fernando" Shout out: The episode is narrated by George Takei. TV Guide: The Oscar's running time is made fun of by Jeff. Use your allusion: Jeff refers to Public Enemy song "911 Is a Joke" when he says "Flavor Flav was right" after attempting to dial 911 and not getting a hold of anybody. Troy and Abed express their love for one another by recreating Princess Leia and Han Solo's iconic exchange on Bespin from the movie "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back".

Meta references

List of Meta references

Meta references in this episode: Parody: This episode serves as a parody of various zombie and horror movies, with the infected students mimicking stereotypical zombies and various tropes of the genre being mocked. Abed's line "Be the first black man to make it to the end", directed at Troy, is a nod to the common trope of the Horror film genre where they kill the black characters first. Résumé: In this episode, Pierce is dressed as Captain Kirk from "Star Trek". This is not the first time Chevy Chase has dressed as a character from the series; in his stint on SNL, he played Spock in a famous skit about Trek's cancellation.

Trivia

• On the Community The Complete Second Season DVD commentaries Dan Harmon mentions that the original music for the episode was "Ghostbusters". Also, he and Donald Glover mention that Troy's line "You punched a lady bee!" was ad-libbed.
• Frequent background extra Long haired guy makes another of over 65 episode appearances. He's wearing a white t-shirt with the word "COSTUME" on it and is behind Pierce when he bites Star-burns.

Quotes

“Leonard, you better back that pumpkin ass up or I will make a pie.”— Shirley

“Make me proud, Troy. Be the first black man to make it to the end.”— Abed

“Abed... I love you.”— Troy

“I know.”— Abed