History Recap / CommunityS2E06Epidemiology

** The explanation of the 'zombies' as infected by rabies pokes fun at both ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' and the American remake of ''Film/{{REC}}'', ''Film/{{Quarantine}}''.

* DeathByMaterialism: Okay, not an actual death, but otherwise played straight. Jeff would rather walk into a door with zombies potentially on the other side rather than climb out a window and wrinkle his suit.

--->'''Troy:''' Why did I think this would work?!

%% * HeroicSacrifice: Abed & Troy pull two separately.

* WeveGotCompany:
-->'''Abed:''' I hate to be the "[[WeveGotCompany we've got company]]" guy, but...

* BizarroEpisode: This episode has the Study Group [[OutOfGenreExperience being placed]] in a ZombieApocalypse where their lives are [[DarkerAndEdgier actually in danger]]. While some things are continued in later episodes, the ResetButton is hit meaning that nobody remembers the zombies.

** The people in charge of the military surplus store itself also fall under this for selling biohazard materials that as a result anyone, including dummies like the Dean or someone with more nefarious intentions, could get their hands.

'''Troy:''' ''HOLY CRAP, LEONARD'S A ZOMBIE!!!''

* PantyShot: Chang throws his skate and breaks the window, letting zombies into the study room. They grab Annie, pick her up and drag her out of the room, allowing the viewer a glimpse of Alison Brie's underpants under her Red Riding Hood skirt. It's so brief it's almost subliminal but noticeable enough to make you go "wait, was that...?". [[note]]According to the commentary, that was the shot with the ''least'' amount of visible panties.[[/note]]

* LastWords: Before they turned to zombies:
-->'''Star-burns:''' Jeez, why don't you two just get a room?\\
'''Rich:''' I thought that maybe I was ''[slurring]'' speciallll--\\
'''Britta:''' Special? You're not special! ''I'm'' special! I was bitten ten minutes ago and ''[slurring]'' I'm ffffiiii--\\
'''Annie:''' What the hell?!\\
'''Jeff''': That's my jacket! You're stretching it! ''You're stretching it!!''\\
'''Chang:''' Shirley and I totally did it! Gotta go!\\
'''Abed:''' Make it fast.\\
'''Troy:''' Jeff... still cool as a zombie!

* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Nobody will ever know how Troy risked his life to cure everyone due to the government erasing their memories, or how if he hadn’t the army would have just killed them.

-->'''Star-burns:''' Jeez, why don't you two just get a room?\\\
'''Rich:''' I thought that maybe I was ''[slurring]'' speciallll--\\\
'''Britta:''' Special? You're not special! ''I'm'' special! I was bitten ten minutes ago and ''[slurring]'' I'm ffffiiii--\\\
'''Annie:''' What the hell?!\\\
'''Jeff''': That's my jacket! You're stretching it! ''You're stretching it!!''\\\
'''Chang:''' Shirley and I totally did it! Gotta go!\\\
'''Abed:''' Make it fast.\\\

** Troy decides to use ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve and put on his power loader costume to fight the zombies. He immediately gets held down thanks to it and the costume is torn apart.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Troy using ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve to try and defeat the zombies with his power loader costume. The zombies quickly remind him that ThisIsReality.

** Troy decides to use "ThePowerOfImagination" and put on his power loader costume to fight the zombies. He immediately gets held down thanks to it and the costume is torn apart.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Troy using ThePowerOfImagination to try and defeat the zombies with his power loader costume. The zombies quickly remind him that ThisIsReality.

-->'''Dean Pelton''': Six hours, on the dot!
-->'''MIB''': We've had a lot of practice.

-->'''Troy''': ''[to Jeff]'' I don't get it! [[TheCasanova How do you do it?]]
-->'''Jeff''': Well... I'm wearing a $6,000 suit, and you spent three days making ''cardboard robot armor''.
-->'''Troy''': ''[nodding]'' You're saying they feel sorry for you.

** In "[[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics Introduction to Statistics]]," Shirley's Halloween costume is repeatedly mistaken for Urkel due to her race - she's actually Harry Potter. One of the people who makes that mistake is Chang. In "Epidemiology," Chang dresses as ice skater Peggy Fleming, and is repeatedly mistaken for Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan due to his race. In his case, it's on purpose - he's the [[EverythingIsRacist Racist Prover]]. Shirley is one of the only people who is able to tell who he's supposed to be.
** Annie also references the fact that Shirley's worn an 'unintentionally ambiguous costume' for the second year in a row - she's [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Glinda the Good Witch]], not [[Characters/TheMuppetShow Miss Piggy]]. Chang is the only person to realize this - a fact which leads to their hooking up.

--->'''Chang''': Ya bit? YA BIT?!?

-->'''Jeff:''' Oh great. [[LampshadeHanging A dark basement]]. I was just thinking we should be doing this in a dark basement.

-->'''Troy''': Why did I think this would work?!

-->'''Jeff''': Don't look back!
-->'''Shirley''': Why not? - Oh! ''[stumbles]''

-->'''Star-burns''': Jeez, why don't you two just get a room?

-->'''Rich:''' I thought that maybe I was ''[slurring]'' speciallll--

-->'''Britta''': Special? You're not special! ''I'm'' special! I was bitten ten minutes ago and ''[slurring]'' I'm ffffiiii-

-->'''Annie''': What the hell?!

-->'''Jeff''': That's my jacket! You're stretching it! ''You're stretching it!!''

-->'''Chang''': Shirley and I totally did it! Gotta go!

-->'''Abed''': Make it fast.

-->'''Troy''': Jeff... still cool as a zombie!

--> '''Jeff:''' Have you noticed a weird vibe taking hold of this party? It's like every fifth person is on something seriously hardcore.
--> '''Britta:''' Yeah, I wonder who's holding... the key to your riddle!

-->'''Abed:''' I hate to be the '[[WeveGotCompany we've got company]]' guy, but...

-->'''Troy''': You punched a lady bee!!\\
'''Troy:''' "Hey Annie, what nice fists you have... IN YOUR FACE!" *punch*"

Pierce eats some of the "taco meat" that Dean Pelton bought at an army surplus store and exhibits some strange symptoms, including fever and slurred speech. Soon, he bites Starburns and the infection spreads - resulting in a full blown ZombieApocalypse. And to make matters worse, the Dean locks them in the library to wait six hours for the army to arrive.

* TakeThat: The show deals another TakeThat to William Shatner by having Pierce dress up as [[Franchise/StarTrek Captain Kirk]].

'''Jeff:''' Jesus! Haha, it was just a cat. Let’s keep moving.\\

* BigDamnHeroes: Big Damn Hero Troy reaches the thermostat at the last second before becoming zombiefied, cooling everyone down until the military arrived.

* BlackAndNerdy: This episode actually {{deconstruct|ion}}s it for Troy. Hanging out with Abed has turned him from a JerkJock who could get ladies easily, into a huge nerd. This leads to his brief foray into being a sexy Dracula, however at the end he realizes he values Abed's friendship more. And even though he's roofied at the end like everyone else he seems to have absorbed this lesson.

* BloodyHandprint: Troy leaves a bloody handpring on the air con panel, as he manages to save everyone.

** In ''[[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory Paradigms of Human Memory]]'' Abed reveals he does remember one thing from the beginning of this night: [[spoiler:Jeff and Britta flirting.]]

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After Troy tries and fails to pick up some ladies while wearing his [[Film/{{Alien}} Power Loader]] costume:

* CuttingCorners: The Dean's idea to buy (what seems like) food from an army surplus store backfires when the content turns out to be toxic waste [[ToxicWasteCanDoAnything potent of inducing]] a ZombieApocalypse.
* DangerousWindows: Annie is wrestled out a window by a zombie horde.

** Britta wears a costume with mittens that cover her hands. She finds that she can't pick anything up at the party. Jeff while mocking it helps her get a drink.

-->'''Jeff''': My suit! You're stretching it! ''Stretching it!!!!!''

-->'''Chang''': Shirley and I totally did it!

* {{Hypocrite}}: One of the reasons the study group hates Pierce is for seeing them one-dimensional stereotypes. This episode we find out they do a [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] impression of him behind his back.

* TheMenInBlack: At the very end, mysterious men in black appear with the military. They look like they're ready to kill all infected and the sole witnes, but then they roofie everyone so they'll forget.

* PantyShot: Chang throws his skate, breaks the window, zombies grab Annie, pick her up and carry her out of the room, allowing the viewer a glimpse of Allison Brie's naughty bits under her Red Riding Hood skirt. It's so brief it's almost subliminal but noticeable enough to make you go "wait, was that...?". [[note]]According to the commentary, that was the shot with the ''least'' amount of visible panties.[[/note]]
* PatientZero: Pierce is the first confirmed infectee from eating the taco meat. It's unclear how many others may have eaten some (perhaps Pierce ate all of it) but he is the first to start visibly displaying symptoms and biting people.
* ResetButton: The end when the military comes in and [[MemoryWipingCrew wipes everyone's memories]]. Partially subverted, since the Chang/Shirley hookup became a major plot point later on.

* ShirtlessScene: Troy decides to change costumes to be a "sexy Dracula," which mainly consists of him without a shirt and wearing a toilet seat cover around his neck that says "Dracula", for enough time to almost qualify him as a WalkingShirtlessScene.

** When Jeff is about to be zombified, all he's scared of is ''Rich stretching his suit jacket''. A situation he only ended up in because he wouldn't climb over the dusty fence in his suit.
* SomethingElseAlsoRises: Pierce raises the lower part of Rich's banana costume while he was flirting with Annie.

-->'''Jeff:''' Whoa, if you get any more sweaty and puffy, your costume's going to take on new levels of authenticity.
* TechnicallyLivingZombie: Mixed with {{Flesh Eating Zombie}}s and {{Plague Zombie}}. People don't go from alive to dead to undead, they get zombified to a high fever that's caused by eating infected taco meat and then spread to other people by biting each other.

-->'''Annie:''' We need to co-ordinate an orderly evacuation without causing unnecessary panic.\\

** Troy not only tries to use a cardboard Powerloader as armor, but he laters tries to IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight with zombie-Abed. Unsurprisingly, he gets bitten.

* TimeForPlanB: The army's Plan A is apparently to kill everyone infected off, plus the dean who is the only witness, but they are quick to fall back on [[MemoryWipingCrew Plan B of memory wiping]] when they see that the infection has actually worn off.
* ToxicWasteCanDoAnything: The Dean gets biohazardous material from an army surplus which causes a ZombieApocalypse.
* VampiresAreSexGods: Troy tries to invoke this when he changes out of his Power Loader costume into a "sexy Dracula" costume, hoping he'll attract more girls that way.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Troy using ThePowerOfImagination to try and defeat the zombies with his Power Loader costume. The zombies quickly remind him that ThisIsReality.

* ZombieInfectee: Discussed, then parodied -- good-looking doctor Rich from "Beginner Pottery" makes a point of asking if anyone else has been bit, telling them that if they allow the rest of them to seal them in the study room, they'll be putting everyone else in danger. Turns out ''Rich'' had been bitten, and Britta too. It doesn't take long for the symptoms to kick in and ruin their cover.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Britta wears a costume with mittens that cover her hands. She finds that she can't pick anything up at the party. Jeff while mocking it helps her get a drink.

* RealityEnsues: Troy decides to use "ThePowerOfImagination" and put on his power loader costume to fight the zombies. He immediately gets held down thanks to it and the costume is torn apart.
-->'''Troy''': Why did I think this would work?!

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Troy does this to Abed.

* BadassBoast: "Leonard, you better back that pumpkin ass up or I will ''make a pie.''"
** Notably, Leonard is zombified and trying to bite Shirley, and this ''still'' [[KnowWhenToFoldEm scares him off.]]

* [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Hero]]: Troy, cooling everyone down until the military arrived.
* BigNo: Troy, when Abed gets DevouredByTheHorde.

* [[BlackDudeDiesFirst Black Dude Gets Zombified First]]: Intentionally inverted -- Abed saves Troy and sacrifices himself in hopes that Troy could be the first black guy to actually make it to the end and save everyone. It works.

* BloodyHandprint: Troy leaves one on the air con panel.

* BondOneLiner: Troy gets out a few, before running out of ideas.

*** Annie also references the fact that Shirley's worn an 'unintentionally ambiguous costume' for the second year in a row - she's [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Glinda the Good Witch]], not [[Characters/TheMuppetShow Miss Piggy]]. Chang is the only person to realize this - a fact which leads to their hooking up.

* DevouredByTheHorde: The assimilation of Annie, Jeff, Abed and lastly Troy.

* EpisodeOfTheDead

* FamousLastWords: Before they turned to zombies:

-->'''Britta''': Special? You're not special! ''I'm'' special! I was bitten ten minutes ago and ''[slurring]'' I'm ffffiiii--

-->'''Abed''': [[FaceDeathWithDignity Make it fast.]]

* FantasticallyIndifferent: Zombie!Jeff is robotically typing on his cell phone. As the temperature cools in the library, he comes back to life... and immediately resumes texting.

* HalloweenEpisode
* HeroicSacrifice: Abed & Troy pull two separately.

* [[GoodLookingPrivates I Love a Man in Uniform]]: The Dean's voice noticeably drops to a flirtier register when he gets transferred to someone with an authoritative military voice on the phone.

* KillEmAll: Plan A.

* TheMenInBlack: At the very end, they roofie everyone so they'll forget.

* [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice Job Getting Annie Infected]]: Chang.

* OrWasItADream: At the end of the episode, Troy receives a hint that more happened than just being roofied for no reason in the form of a [[DeadManWriting voice mail]] sent during the night by Chang, claiming he and Shirley did it in the bathroom.
** Troy [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint doesn't understand the relevance]], only wondering why Chang would tell ''him'' about it despite the sounds of the zombies attacking at the end.
** There are repercussions of Chang and Shirley's tryst in subsequent episodes.

* OutOfGenreExperience

* ShipTease: Abed/Troy (see Homage section); Annie/Rich; Chang/Shirley (the most overt)... Shirley/Leonard?

* ShoutOut: Many, many. Too many to remember. In particular, several glib references are made about everyone's costumes.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The Dean's Music/{{ABBA}} playlist plays throughout the entire episode. And it is SugarWiki/{{Awesome|Music}}.
* SpecialEditionTitle: The opening credits [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIbkJ9elpNo have been Halloweenified]]! Featuring some interesting in-jokes (if you listen to the commentaries on the first season [=DVDs=]).
** VisualPun: Within these credits, Shirley's actress's credit appears with a picture of a ''mummy''. And Chang's credits are... [[TheIllegal aliens in sombreros.]]

* ThatPoorCat: In keeping with the Troperiffic nature of the episode.

[''Zombie!Leonard bites someone'']\\

* TimeForPlanB: The army's Plan A is NukeEm but they are quick to fall back on [[MemoryWipingCrew Plan B]] when they see that the infection has actually worn off.

* WeveGotCompany: Invoked by name.

*** He also ends up infecting the study group after hiding his zombie bite. He thought he might be special - despite the fact that we know from "Beginner Pottery" that his mother repeatedly told him he wasn't.

** VisualPun: Within these credits, Shirley's actress's credit appears with a picture of a ''mummy''. And Chang's credits are... [[TheIllegal aliens in mexican hats.]]

* [[GoodLookingPrivates I Love a Man in Uniform]]: The Dean's voice noticeably drops to a flirtier tone when he gets transferred to someone with an authoritative military voice on the phone.

-->'''Chang''': Ya bit? YA BIT?!?

* CulturalTranslation: In the German dub, Chang announces he's dressed as Kati Witt, a famous [[UsefulNotes/EastGermany East German]] ice skater. After his line about being the racist-proofer, he adopts a generic [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent faux-eastern German accent]].

-->''(Screeching cat flies past camera.)''\\

''(Screeching cat flies in opposite direction.)''\\

''(Again.)''\\

''(And again.)''\\
'''Jeff:''' Let’s not keep moving, because there is an insane cat down here!\\

* TheCavalryArrivesLate

** Rich from "Beginner Pottery" shows up again (and Jeff still hates him).

** In a later episode, Troy shows attention to the fact that Shirley ovulates on Halloween. (ItMakesSenseInContext) So this episode might actually influence future episodes.
** In "[[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics Introduction to Statistics]]," Shirley's Halloween costume is repeatedly mistaken for Urkel due to her race - she's actually Harry Potter. One of the people who makes that mistake is Chang. In "Epidemiology," Chang dresses as ice skater Peggy Fleming, and is repeatedly mistaken for Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan due to his race. In his case, it's on purpose - he's the racist prover. Shirley is one of the only people who is able to tell who he's supposed to be.
*** Annie also references the fact that Shirley's worn an 'unintentionally ambiguous costume' for the second year in a row - she's Glinda the Good Witch, not Miss Piggy. Chang is the only person to realize this - a fact which leads to their hooking up.

-->'''Shirley''': Why not? - Oh! (stumbles)

* EverythingIsRacist: Senor Chang deliberately dressed as Peggy Fleming so he could prove everybody is a racist (for example, Britta guesses Kristi Yamaguchi). Because he's the racist prover. Shirley, though, figures out who he is on the first guess (and likewise, Chang figures out that Shirley is [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Glinda the Good Witch]] on the first guess).
* FamousLastWords: Before they turned to zombies.
** "Jeez, why don't you two just get a room?" - Starburns
** "Special? You're not special! I'M special! I was bitten ten minutes ago and I'm fine!" - Britta
** "What the hell?!" - Annie
** "My suit! You're stretching it! Stretching it!!!!!" - Jeff
** "Shirley and I totally did it!" - Chang
** "Make it fast." - Abed
** "Jeff: still cool as a zombie." - Troy

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Jeff, whose costume is David Beckham, uses his soccer ball to take out a ''zombie''.

-->'''George Takei:''' And so, Troy and Abed went back to the dormitory for a viewing of ''Film/{{Marmaduke}}''. I'm George Takei, and if your name is Kevin, here's a little freebie for your cell phone. Hi, Kevin can't come to the phone. [[FunnyAnsweringMachine He's on a spaceship with me, George Takei.]] Please leave a message. You're welcome, Kevins. Happy Halloween.

* PantyShot: Chang throws his skate, breaks the window, zombies grab Annie, pick her up and carry her out of the room, allowing the viewer a glimpse of Allison Brie's naughty bits under her Red Riding Hood skirt. It's so brief it's almost subliminal but noticeable enough to make you go "wait, was that...?".
** According to the commentary, that was the shot with the ''least'' amount of visible panties.
* PatientZero: Pierce is the first confirmed infectee from eating the taco meat. It's unclear how many others may have eaten some (perhaps Pierce ate all of it) but he is visibly the first to start displaying symptoms and biting people.
* ThePowerOfImagination: Thoroughly subverted. "That's right. Prepare to meet the power of imagination." "Why did I think this would work!"

'''Troy:''' '''HOLY CRAP, LEONARD'S A ZOMBIE!!!'''

-->'''Troy''' "You punched a lady bee!"\\

'''Rich:''' ''(slurring)'' I thought that maybe I was special!\\
'''Britta:''' Special? You're not special! ''I'm'' special! I was bit ten minutes ago and I'm ffffiiii-- ''(slurring)''\\
'''Jeff:''' ''(picking up a chair to fend them off)'' Oh, great! ''Nobody's'' special!

* ArtMajorBiology: The ''physician'' agreeing with Annie's plan to lower the temperature in order to "break the fever and kill the virus". Breaking a fever is all well and good for preventing brain damage, but the fever is the body's defensive response against the virus which was spread among people with presumably normal 98.6 degree temperatures. Bringing them back down to those temperatures they had when the virus was spread in the first place would do nothing against the virus itself, whatever brain damage lowering the temperatures was preventing notwithstanding. The thermostat needs to go at least below 50 F to affect the environment of the virus, by causing hypothermia in its host (it could possibly show up in Pierce and Leonard a bit earlier). And these low temperatures would just be expected to (very slightly) slow the spreading of the virus in the body, not "kill" it (it's pretty hard to kill something that isn't especially alive in the first place). The average virus would still be active, much less capable of reactivation, long, long after the human has died of hypothermia. There is a reason fevers and sterilization techniques use ''high'' temperatures, not low ones.
** Keep in mind that this whole episode is about a [[RuleOfCool zombie epidemic from taco meat]].

** Troy not only tries to use a cardboard Powerloader as armor, but he laters tries to IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight with zombie-Abed.