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Plot

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



E Captain Kirk is sick
The study group notices how sick Pierce has gotten.
At the same time, 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 via the bite when Star-Burns loses and attacks them. In another room, Dean Pelton talks on the phone with the food supplier. When he mentions key phrases written on the ration containers, a government agent intercepts the call. Rich and Annie arrive at the study room and warn Britta, Shirley, and Jeff about the contagion. At that moment, Leonard bites another student on the neck, creating a huge panic. Everyone runs for the exits as the other infected students attack as well.



E pumpkin zombie
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.



E Locked in
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.



T-Rex and the banana zombies
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.



E Something wicked this way comes
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.



E Zombie Abed stops Troy
"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.



E The aftermath
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.

Recurring themes

Continuity:

  • Previously: It's mentioned on Britta's Campus Connect profile as well as the Season One episode "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" that she had a bad experience with a man in a dinosaur costume and in this episode she wears a T-Rex outfit.
  • Returning students: Rich, Star-Burns, Leonard, and Garrett return.
  • This must be the place: The story takes place in the library.
  • Mad skillz: Chang's ability to be the only one to know what Shirley is dressed for Halloween is showcased again this episode. First seen in the Season One episode Introduction to Statistics.
  • Middle Eastern Magic 8 ball: This episode sets up the story arc between Shirley and Chang and also one between Annie and Rich.
  • 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 more mature persona.
  • Replay: Chang repeats the phrase "Ya bit? Ya bit?" which he used back 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.
  • Familiar face: Officer Cackowski shows up at the end of the episode to investigate what happened at the party.
  • 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. Also, 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 that a horde of infected students were beating down upon.

Running gags:

  • 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 Ripley in lift suit and later as "sexy Dracula", Abed is dressed as the Alien, Chang is Peggy Fleming, and Dean Pelton is dressed as Lady Gaga.
  • NOOOOOO!: Troy screams this after watching Abed being taken down by a group of infected students.

Pop culture references:

  • The episode is narrated by George Takei.
  • 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)" and "Fernando" in particular are featured prominently in this episode.
  • TV Guide: The Oscar's running time is made fun of by Jeff.

Meta references:

  • 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.
  • Use your allusion:
  • 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 DVD commentary 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.

Gallery

Behind the scenes photos

Karey DornettoCommunity producer and writer of "Epidemiology",  took photos with the cast inbetween production. She later posted the photos online at her website.

Screencaps


Season Two Episodes

1. "Anthropology 101"
2. "Accounting for Lawyers"
3. "The Psychology of Letting Go"
4. "Basic Rocket Science"
5. "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples"
6. "Epidemiology"
7. "Aerodynamics of Gender"
8. "Cooperative Calligraphy"
9. "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design"
10. "Mixology Certification"
11. "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"
12. "Asian Population Studies"

13. "Celebrity Pharmacology 212"
14. "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons"
15. "Early 21st Century Romanticism"
16. "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking"
17. "Intro to Political Science"
18. "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy"
19. "Critical Film Studies"
20. "Competitive Wine Tasting"
21. "Paradigms of Human Memory"
22. "Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts"
23. "A Fistful of Paintballs"
24. "For A Few Paintballs More"

Community Season Two DVD

Season OneSeason TwoSeason ThreeSeason FourSeason FiveSeason Six
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