A lice outbreak at the school leads to the building being put into lockdown. Dib finds himself going up against an obsessed exterminator, who is determined to destroy all lice for good.
Tropes
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Dib, who regularly fights an alien and believes in all other kinds of paranormal phenomena, refuses to believe in the Countess' claims of a "lice queen" until he actually sees it.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Something about Zim's skin acts as a toxic repellent to lice.
- Body Horror: Zim having most of his skin removed to power the Countess' anti-lice weapon.
- One of the Skool kids scratches his head down to the skull.
- Feel No Pain: Gaz isn't bothered at all by the lice on her head and continues to play her game.
- Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with Miss Bitters scratching her head, implying that she's still infected and that the outbreak will start all over again.
- Herr Doktor: Countess von Verminstrasser, who speaks in a German accent and is a scientist obsessed with destroying lice.
- Humble Pie: Dib at the very end when he sees for himself that Verminstrasser was right about an evil Queen Louse responsible for spreading lice.
- Mirror Character: Verminstrasser exists to be one for Dib, with her battle against the lice queen meant to reflect Dib's battle against Zim. Humorously, not even Dib believes her and calls her insane (something the other characters frequently call him). This is shown best with this line, which sounds eerily similar to what Dib said after first seeing Zim in The Nightmare Begins:Verminstrasser: All those years, searching, waiting! They laughed at me, told me I was losing my grip on reality! But there it is, proof of everything I've known to be true!
- Real After All: Verminstrasser takes immense satisfaction in discovering that there is indeed a giant Queen Louse after years of no one taking her seriously.
- Running Gag: Gretchen repeatedly asking why Verminstrasser keeps ranting about her plans, both towards her and in general. Especially when Gretchen gets dragged along as Verminstrasser hunts down Dib and Melvin.Gretchen: She does this, she just keeps talking.
- Serious Business: The Countess treats the lice outbreak like a major viral outbreak, quarantining the school and setting up major security measures to keep anyone from leaving. Considering it turns out there's a giant queen louse operating beneath the school to spread the infestation, this turned out to be the appropriate action to take.
- Shout-Out: Basically to Aliens in the second half of the story after the classroom floor collapses.
- The walls of the Queen Louse nest resemble the walls of the Atmosphere Development Plant when infested with aliens.
- The large egg sac the Queen Louse sits upon and the shape of the eggs resemble the facehugger eggs, and the Queen Louse rips herself off the sac similar to the queen alien.
- Verminstrasser saying "Cover your eyes, baby." is word for word what Ripley said to Newt when she thought they would be both killed by the queen alien.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Zim is one of the only two people in Skool to have no lice, he takes a moment to gloat about it:Zim: I'd just like to say that if I were a member of an advanced alien species-WHICH I'M NOT (asks "Huh?" a few times)-I'd have to take this opportunity to say "FILTHY EARTH CREATURES! IT IS CLEAR WHO THE SUPERIOR SPECIES IS, ISN'T IT?! ISN'T IT?! YOU STINK!"
- Ungrateful Bastard: Verminstrasser's reaction to Dib saying she can't force them to stay at the school.Verminstrasser: You dare question me?! Question my methods?! You, who stands to benefit the most from my research?! You disgust me!Miss Bitters: What a nice lady.
- Dib later gives a sheepish apology when he sees firsthand that Verminstrasser's actions were more or less justified because her theories were correct.
- Averted with Verminstrasser, who is more than willing to acknowledge and thank Zim's extremely painful and unwilling role in stopping the threat of head lice.
- The Watson: Gretchen involuntarily serves as one to the Countess' Info Dump about her theories on lice, due to being stuck in the room with her when she starts ranting.Gretchen: Why are you telling me this?
