Community/Recap/S3/E19 Curriculum Unavailable

Two months have passed since the "Greendale Seven" were expelled. Having spent the intervening time drinking, eating unhealthy meals at Troy and Abed's apartment, and generally dwelling on their years at Greendale to an obsessive degree, they are forced to face their situation when Abed is discovered in full Inspector Spacetime costume on the community college campus again. Taken into custody and insisting that the Dean has been replaced by a fraud, he is given the choice between therapy and jail time, and the entire group accompanies him to see a recommended psychiatrist (John Hodgman). Soon, however, they discover that all may not be as it seems and the therapy visit could change their lives forever.

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Tropes appearing in this episode of Community include:

• Actor Allusion:
  • It's not surprising that the camera cuts to Annie after Abed does his Don Draper impression again.
    • Also counts as a Call Back to when Abed used this impression to hit on Annie.
  • Dr. Heidi refers to Abed as "the Indian kid". Although Abed is actually Arabic-Polish, as Shirley and Abed point out, Danny Pudi is in fact of Indian-Polish descent.
  • Though he claims it was unintentional, it's hard not to think of the Judge John Hodgman podcast when Dr. Heidi says "I think I have everything I need to make my decision."
• Adult Fear: Troy wants your nightmares to avoid this.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The reasons stated for various study group members being at Greendale include divorce, lost scholarship, pill addiction, and disbarment. Pierce's reason is simply stated as "old."
• Bedlam House: The fictional Greendale Asylum; patients are crammed into locked, badly-lighted wards in straitjackets, while orderlies either watch their antics in amusement or abet sadistic experiments performed by the lab-coated doctors in charge.
• Berserk Button: Shirley learns the hard way not to favourably compare Brett Ratner with Steven Spielberg in front of Abed.

Abed: You're a bad person. You're a bad person.

• Big No: Subverted. Abed's reaction to having to see Chicago is not a Big No as would be expected, but a Big Lame.
  • Alternately, it could have been over the Dean taking paintballs for him and "dying".
• Blatant Lies: They're briefly suckered in, but it takes the study group all of five seconds after leaving his office to realize that Dr. Heidi has been feeding them these and they have loads of evidence to prove him wrong. This doesn't stop him from trying to convince them that he's the Devil and they're in purgatory, however. Only Troy actually falls for it.
• Bob Haircut: The Dean as a Wholesome Crossdresser.
• Book Safe: Shirley finds a book in the library with a handgun-shaped cutout.
• Brick Joke: Officer Cackowski recommends against using the brick to prop open the outer door as it was used in "Remedial Chaos Theory" (Annie, who removed the brick last time, glares at Troy) ... because it's an antique worth $60. Then he warns them that rapes are up 8%. Bonus points for actually involving a brick (compare to the buttered Noodle Incident from "Foosball And Nocturnal Vigilantism").
• Cassandra Truth: Abed knew that the Dean had been replaced for the entire two skipped months.
• Call Back:
  • The homeless guy in the study room from "Spanish 101":

Dean: (through the library’s PA system) In order to increase awareness of the homelessness, security has been given binoculars. .

• • The psych test results from "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps":

Jeff: I mean, if anything, Abed's more sane than any of us.

• • Annie does her trial of "Troy and Abed and Annie in the Morning" wearing the same outfit as her guest spot on "Troy and Abed in the Morning".
  • At the "Wigging Out" party, Jeff has the same fixation with his jacket as in "Epidemiology".
  • Abed abridges his Don Draper impression from "Physical Education" with Annie again visibly affected by it.
  • Dr. Heidi asks if the group can speak Spanish. Of course they can't — they didn't learn any. Heidi knows this detail because Chang briefed him.
  • The fact that the Dean was announcing a fire through a megaphone makes sense when you remember that Greendale's fire alarm system is fake. His fireman costume ties in with his fireman fetish.
    • Actually some of them do work, but either the dean presumably doesn't know which ones do, or that flashback took place between Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts and A Fistful of Paintballs.
  • The Greendale Asylum flashbacks: the trampoline, paintball combat, "Baby Boomer Santa", doing a clip show, doing a bottle episode, doing another clip show, Harrison Ford, Abed remembering camping and painting the nursery causing Troy's scream, Pierce's random interjection of having sex with Eartha Kitt, and Annie's lost pen.
  • In the background of the "Wigging Out" party can be heard the song "Party Where Your Heart Is" from The Art of Discourse.
  • Abed trying to remove his own tonsils in order to avoid seeing a doctor was probably brought about by negative experiences with hospitalization when he was a kid, as shown in his autobiographical documentary.
    • His reluctance to see Dr. Heidi also calls back to "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas, where he also automatically responded to Professor Duncan's suggestions of therapy with "I don't need therapy." The earlier episode also required the entire study group to be there to help him through it as well.
• Ceiling Banger/Big "Shut Up!": Annie resorts to this in The Tag.
• Cerebus Retcon: The Study Group, and by extension the audience, is led to believe this is happening to the entire three years at Greendale. Subverted: it takes the study group all of five seconds after leaving Dr. Heidi's office (well, it takes Pierce a bit longer) to realize that he's feeding them a load of horseshit and that they have copious amounts of evidence to prove him wrong.
• Clip Show: Like Paradigms Of Human Memory the idea is spoofed. Hell it even references Paradigms Of Human Memory.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Dr. Heid's dramatic declaration that Greendale Community College does not exist causes Troy to realize... that he parked by a meter.
  • Troy again, when he rides a brand new quad-bike into the study room in a flashback:

Annie: Troy, you can't bring that in here! Troy: Yes I can! It's all-terrain, dummy!

• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Troy's dish made entirely of junk food.
• Cuckoo Nest: According to the psychiatrist, the group's experiences at "Greendale" are part of a shared delusion stemming from years together in an mental asylum. This turns out to be a load of lies, however.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The Film Noir paintball flashback.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The Dean mentions "Jeffrey" twice in his non-birthday song to the group in one of the flashbacks.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: The Dean and Abed.
• Dramatic Thunder: Once Dr. Heidi reveals the awful truth. Which is a lie.
• Dresses the Same: The Dean runs Darcy off due to her wearing the same clothes as Annie.
• The Ending Changes Everything: Dr. Heidi tries to pull this on the study group, but they see through it pretty quickly.
• Dutch Angle: Just before the revelation of Greendale Asylum, there are several rapid shots that use this technique. Troy also gets an individual one when he's the only one who buys into Dr. Heidi's suggestion that they're dead and he's the Devil before Jeff slaps him out of it.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Dr. Heidi literally invokes this at one point but by this point no one's buying it.
• Failed a Spot Check: While the group is remembering some of the deranged things Chang has done, Dr. Heidi sneaks out the window without any of them noticing.
• Fake Nationality: Lampshaded. See Actor Allusion.
• Fanfic Fuel: A proposed alternate history of the series in which all of the depicted events took place on some level... but in the locked ward of an insane asylum? A field day for speculative/AU writers.
• Foreshadowing: Upon returning Abed to the apartment, Officer Cackowski mentions that it was the Dean who gave him Dr. Heidi's card and recommendation. Considering we saw the Dean get replaced by Fauxby in the previous episode, it's a pretty big clue for the audience (if not at that point the characters) that Dr. Heidi is not entirely on the level.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The chalkboard behind Troy when he rides into the Study Room says:

1. They may not want to play with you any more. 2. It can lead to permanent buzz kill. 3. It could cause them to need meds the rest of their life. 4. Meth can turn present fun into future numb. 5. It turned Star Burns into Star Burned. So if someone offers to tell you a "meth time story"...pass. "If Grieving you is wrong...I don't want to be right." C. Hawk Bored

• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Jeff slaps Troy to keep him from falling for another of Heidi's Mind Screw explanations.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The camera cuts away before Troy's karate chop strikes the table.
• Groin Attack: Chang uses a stun gun on himself twice, probably as Training from Hell.
• Group Hug: The group has one at the end, contrasting with the Dean's failed one last episode.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Dr. Heidi is PC!
  • Olaf the Troll/Kubiak has a one line cameo as a senior orderly.
• Hidden Depths: Officer Cackowski, the recurring police officer, is a fan of Inspector Spacetime ("If this were Comic-Con, I'd take a bullet for that kid.") and watches a lot of Antiques Roadshow to the point where he is able to identify an antique pre-Civil War brick.
• Hong Kong Dub: In the fake asylum scenes, Garrett as an evil psychiatrist is very obviously dubbed over.
• Human Chess: Used to determine parking spaces.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Britta announces that the stories they've just told Dr. Heidi are a reflection of the study group's solidarity... seconds before squeezing Troy's wounded hand.

Britta: Sorry! Troy: We just finished telling him about it, and then you grab it and squeeze it?!

• • At the potluck dinner in the beginning of the episode, Britta whines about all the "poison" food and how she needs organic food to help her hangover.
• I Have This Friend: Britta is wondering how long peyote lasts, you know, for a friend.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder:

Dr. Heidi: I'm a fake psychiatrist not a fake ethnologist!

• Lampshade Hanging: Literally, Dr. Heidi´s office has an unusual amount of lampshades.
• Late to the Punchline: Troy, then Pierce.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "Troy and Abed and Annie in the Morning"

Troy: What are all these cameras doing here.

• Mind Screw: Dr. Heidi pulls several of these on the study group. Subverted, as it doesn't take them very long to realize he's just making stuff up.
• Mushroom Samba: In one of the flashbacks, Britta shows up to the study room with wild, frizzed hair full of various small items, ruined day-old makeup, and presumably a banana in her pants. As she sits down, she nonchalantly asks for a friend how long peyote lasts.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Chang could have dealt with Abed by pressing charges and getting a restraining order. The alternate solution of getting Abed committed snowballs into an attempt to convince the whole study group that they're crazy and drive them away from Greendale. The session just serves to help them realize that Abed's right and that the Dean has been replaced with an impostor.
  • Keep in mind that even if the "Dean" did press charges against Abed, it could have blown up in his face too. Such as the study group confronting the "Dean" and realizing he was a fake by themselves.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Due to Abed's aversion to doctors, the group had to prevent him from removing his own tonsils.
  • As with "Paradigms of Human Memory" all of the flashbacks are things which happened in episodes we didn't see.
• Out of Focus: Lampshaped when Pierce doesn't get a "crazy-town banana pants" flashback and later complains that he isn't in most of the stories.
• Psycho Psychologist: Garrett withholds treatment to see what reactions he can elicit by playing mind games with his patients.
• Real Men Hate Affection: After Troy misunderstands "Little Miss adventures", he breaks off from putting his arm around Abed to shake with his injured hand.
• Shout-Out:
  • The whole Mind Screw/layered hallucinations/BedlamHouse motif is reminiscent of Sucker Punch.
  • Troy describes Abed as adorable-weird like Mork from Ork and then creepy-weird like Robin Williams.
  • Shirley's gushing about Tower Heist and its director Brett Ratner infuriates Abed.
  • Abed narrates that Pierce has "Time Enough at Last" to eat a sandwich. As Pierce leaves in frustration, Abed narrates that he believes that he is in a novel.
  • The Dean reveals that the paintball prize is tickets to a Chicago performance featuring George Wendt and Stefanie Powers. His short black wig resembles Velma Kelly.
  • Chang exclaims "I said hot damn!" in the style of Uma Thurman's Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction after snorting crushed corn chips. He attempts to predict future crime by forcing Garrett to float in an inflatable wading pool like the pre-cogs of Minority Report.
  • Both of the psychiatrist's "revelations" about Greendale that they were in an asylum the whole time and that they were trapped in purgatory were two of the more popular fan theories about the crash survivors in Lost. The asylum setting homages Shutter Island.
    • "We have to go back" are Arc Words used in Lost
  • "Dr. Heidi" might be a reference to "Dr. Heiter".
  • Chang shocking himself with the Taser while shouting "You're WEAK!" is similar to a scene in The Da Vinci Code.
• Ship Tease: Annie once again looks very taken with Abed's "Don Draper" impression. Their kiss in the Season 2 finale is also called back to as seen in the Greendale Asylum scenes.
  • Britta attempts to hold Troy's very bruised hand. Hilarity Ensues.
• Skyward Scream: "Lame!"
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Lampshaded by the psychiatrist regarding the Study Group.
• Stealth Pun: Dr. Heidi, PsyD
• Take That:
  • Dr. Heidi's example of a shared delusion is the swing dance music revival in The Nineties.
  • To director Brett Ratner.
  • "You have to understand about Abed; he's usually, you know, adorable-weird, like Mork from Ork. But since we got expelled, he's been creepy-weird like present-day Robin Williams."
• Taking the Bullet/Died in Your Arms Tonight: During the paintball flashback, the Dean covers Abed with his body.
• Teacher's Pet: Inverted; they don't do a lot of sucking up to him in this episode (or over the series in general) but there's a lengthy montage that establishes, if this wasn't already abundantly quite clear, that the study group are the Dean's favourite students in the entire school. It's what helps the group realize that there's something wrong at Greendale and that the Dean would never have stabbed them in the back like they were led to believe he did; he loves them too much.
• Time Skip: The biggest one on the show so far, with the exception of past summer breaks. The narrative picks up two uneventful months after the cliffhanger at the end of the last episode, and the viewer is brought up to speed with a few seconds of dialogue.
  • A two month Time Skip also allows the show to get back to The Present Day, since the spring premiere was delayed by almost exactly two months.
• Tomato in the Mirror: The ending essentially lampoons these and TV series that use them: Dr. Heidi reveals that the study group are in fact psychiatric patients, and their experiences at Greendale were all just a shared psychosis! Except they're not, they weren't, and it takes the group all of five seconds after leaving his office to realize that this makes no sense whatsoever. Then Dr. Heidi reveals that they're in purgatory and he's the Devil! Which they dismiss completely out of hand.
• Tough Love: Shirley's kids eat some cookies that she made for the study group. As punishment she gives away their favorite possessions.
• Umpteenth Customer: 10,000th Flush.
• Wham! Line: Greendale Community College doesn't exist. Actually a lie.
  • Later, averted and lampshaded:

Troy: I knew it! Jeff: [slaps Troy] Stop letting him make you realize things.

• What Could Have Been: The role of Dr. Heidi was originally written for Nathan Fillion, who had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.
  • Funny enough, there had been SEVERAL roles written for John Hodgman in the past (including City College Dean Spreck) that HE had to pull out of.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: Troy believes that Shirley's son's karate trophy is an Upgrade Artifact and attempts to break the table.
• Worst Whatever Ever:

Annie: Worst pizza day ever!

• You Must Be Cold: Jeff to Annie at the "Wigging Out" party. But immediately after giving her his jacket, he rattles off a lengthy list of care instructions to make sure it stays in good condition, and finally decides to take it back from her mere seconds after giving it to her in the first place.

Jeff: You're probably warm now, right?