History Recap / CommunityS3E19CurriculumUnavailable

Two months have passed since the "Greendale Seven" [[Recap/CommunityS3E18CourseListingUnavailable 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 InspectorSpacetime costume on the community college campus [[NoodleIncident 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 Taken into custody and insisting that the Dean has been replaced by a fraud, he is given the choice between therapy and jail time, and the entire group accompanies him to see a recommended psychiatrist (John Hodgman).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.

* HiddenDepths: Officer Cackowski, the recurring police officer, is a fan of ''InspectorSpacetime'' ("If this were Comic-Con, I'd [[TakingTheBullet take a bullet]] for that kid.") and watches a lot of ''Series/AntiquesRoadshow'' to the point where he is able to identify an antique pre-[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Civil War]] brick.

* BedlamHouse: The [[spoiler: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 [[MadScientist lab-coated doctors]] in charge.
* BerserkButton: Shirley learns the hard way not to favourably compare Brett Ratner with Steven Spielberg in front of Abed.

* BlatantLies: [[spoiler: 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 [[TheDitz Troy]] actually falls for it.]]

** Dr. Heidi asks if the group can speak Spanish. Of course they can't -- [[Recap/CommunityS1E24EnglishAsASecondLanguage they didn't learn any]]. [[spoiler: Heidi knows this detail because Chang briefed him.]]

** The Greendale [[spoiler: Asylum]] flashbacks: [[Recap/CommunityS2E07AerodynamicsOfGender the trampoline]], [[Recap/CommunityS2E24ForAFewPaintballsMore paintball combat]], [[Recap/CommunityS3E10RegionalHolidayMusic "Baby Boomer Santa"]], doing a [[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory clip show]], doing a [[Recap/CommunityS2E08CooperativeCalligraphy bottle episode]], doing [[Recap/CommunityS3E19CurriculumUnavailable another clip show]], [[Recap/CommunityS2E24ForAFewPaintballsMore Harrison Ford]], [[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory Abed remembering camping and painting the nursery causing Troy's scream]], [[Recap/CommunityS3E04RemedialChaosTheory Pierce's random interjection of having sex with Eartha Kitt]], and [[Recap/CommunityS2E08CooperativeCalligraphy Annie's lost pen]].
*** It's also not the first time they've [[spoiler:[[Recap/CommunityS2E21ParadigmsOfHumanMemory been shown in the crazy house...]]]]

* CerebusRetcon: The Study Group, and by extension the audience, is led to believe this is happening to the entire three years at Greendale. [[spoiler: 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.]]

** Dr. Heidi's dramatic declaration [[spoiler: that Greendale Community College does not exist]] causes Troy to realize... that he parked by a meter.

* [[spoiler: CuckooNest: 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.]]

* DramaticThunder: Once Dr. Heidi [[TheReveal reveals the awful truth]]. [[spoiler: Which is a lie.]]

* DutchAngle: Just before the revelation of [[spoiler: Greendale Asylum]], there are several rapid shots that use this technique. Troy also gets an individual one [[spoiler: when he's the only one who buys into Dr. Heidi's suggestion that they're dead and he's the Devil]] before Jeff [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan slaps him out of it.]]
* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler: Dr. Heidi tries to pull this on the study group, [[SubvertedTrope but they see through it pretty quickly]].]]
* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Dr. Heidi literally [[{{invoked}} invokes]] this at one point [[spoiler: but by this point no one's buying it.]]
* FailedASpotCheck: While the group is remembering some of the deranged things Chang has done, [[spoiler: Dr. Heidi sneaks out the window]] without any of them noticing.
* FanFicFuel: A proposed alternate history of the series in which all of the depicted events took place on some level... [[spoiler: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. [[spoiler: 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.]]

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Troy is in the centre of a dramatic DutchAngle and music sting [[spoiler: when he's the only one to buy into Dr. Heidi's claim of being the Devil]], Jeff can audibly be heard incredulously / skeptically yelling ''"What?!"''

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Jeff slaps Troy to [[spoiler: keep him from falling for another of Heidi's MindScrew explanations]].

* GroinAttack: Chang uses a [[StaticStunGun stun gun]] on himself ''twice'', probably as TrainingFromHell.

* HongKongDub: In the [[spoiler:fake]] asylum scenes, Garrett as [[spoiler:an evil psychiatrist]] is very obviously dubbed over.

-->'''Dr. Heidi:''' [[spoiler: I'm a fake psychiatrist not a fake ethnologist!]]

* MindScrew: Dr. Heidi pulls several of these on the study group. [[spoiler: Subverted, as it doesn't take them very long to realize he's just making stuff up.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: 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.]]

* PaintballEpisode: Averted, but [[Recap/CommunityS1E23ModernWarfare another]] [[Recap/CommunityS2E23AFistfulOfPaintballs one]] [[Recap/CommunityS2E23AFistfulOfPaintballs happened]] off-screen. This time it was with a FilmNoir theme & [[spoiler:Abed won]]. After the theapy session, [[SelfDeprecation the group all agree that the idea is played out]].
* PsychoPsychologist: [[spoiler: Evil Psychiatrist Garrett]] withholds treatment to see what reactions he can elicit by playing mind games with his patients.

** Both of the psychiatrist's "revelations" about Greendale [[spoiler: 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 ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The asylum setting homages ''Film/ShutterIsland''.

** Annie once again looks very taken with Abed's "[[MadMen Don Draper]]" impression. Their kiss in the Season 2 finale is also called back to [[spoiler: as seen in the Greendale Asylum scenes]].

* TomatoInTheMirror: The ending essentially lampoons these and TV series that use them: [[spoiler: 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, it takes the group all of five seconds after leaving his office to realize that this makes no sense whatsoever, and they provide a lengthy list of reasons why this cannot be the case at all. Then Dr. Heidi reveals that they're in purgatory and he's the Devil! Which they dismiss completely out of hand.]]

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Subverted, since [[TheReveal the big reveal]] that would have made this a WhamEpisode turns out to have been completely made up.]]
* WhamLine:

--> [[spoiler: '''Dr. Heidi:''' Because it doesn't exist.]]
** [[spoiler: It's actually a lie.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The role of Dr. Heidi was originally written for NathanFillion, 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.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Dr. Heidi is [[AppleMacintosh PC!]]
** [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Olaf the Troll]]/[[ParkerLewisCantLose Kubiak]] has a one line cameo as a senior orderly.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Tried and failed, according to the DVDCommentary: In the first take, Joel didn't warn Donald that he was going to slap him, hoping the reaction would be more genuine, but Donald ended up laughing instead.

* MilestoneCelebration - Pierce's 10,000th flush.

* FakeNationality: Lampshaded. See ActorAllusion.

* ActorAllusion:
** It's not surprising that the camera cuts to Annie after Abed does his [[Series/MadMen Don Draper]] impression again.
*** Also counts as a CallBack 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.
** John Hodgman plays a psychologist. The ''other'' psychologist in the show is ''also'' played by a ''[[Series/TheDailyShow Daily Show]]'' correspondent named "John."
** Though [[https://twitter.com/#!/hodgman/status/200940727910404096 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."

** Chang exclaims "I said hot damn!" in the style of UmaThurman's Mia Wallace in ''Film/PulpFiction'' after [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin snorting crushed corn chips]]. He attempts to predict future crime by forcing Garrett to [[InstantOracleJustAddWater float in an inflatable wading pool]] like the [[{{Seers}} pre-cogs]] of ''Film/MinorityReport''.

** Troy describes Abed as adorable-weird like [[Series/MorkAndMindy Mork from Ork]] and then creepy-weird like RobinWilliams in the present.

** "You have to understand about Abed; he's usually, you know, adorable-weird, like [[Series/MorkAndMindy Mork from Ork]]. But since we got expelled, he's been creepy-weird like present-day RobinWilliams."

** The whole MindScrew/layered hallucinations/BedlamHouse motif is reminiscent of ''SuckerPunch''.

* HiddenDepths: Officer Cackowski, the recurring police officer, is a fan of ''InspectorSpacetime'' ("If this were Comic-Con, I'd [[TakingTheBullet take a bullet]] for that kid.") and watches a lot of ''Series/AntiquesRoadshow'' to the point where he is able to identify an antique pre-[[TheAmericanCivilWar Civil War]] brick.

** Troy says [[Recap/CommunityS3E13DigitalExplorationOfInteriorDesign "Uh, oh"]] after Pierce shows off more of his senility.

--->"If Grieving you is wrong ... I don't want to be right." [[MeaningfulName C. Hawk Bored]]

* AdultFear: In TheTag, Troy wishes that your nightmares be spooky monsters scary, and not 'grandma died' scary.

** Troy [[Recap/CommunityS3E13DigitalExplorationOfInteriorDesign "Uh, oh"]] after Pierce shows off more of his senility.

* ShipTease: Annie once again looks very taken with Abed's "[[MadMen Don Draper]]" impression. Their kiss in the Season 2 finale is also called back to [[spoiler: as seen in the Greendale Asylum scenes]].

** Both of the psychiatrist's "revelations" about Greendale [[spoiler: 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 ''ShutterIsland''.
*** "We have to go back" are Arc Words used in ''{{Lost}}''

* BobHaircut: The Dean as a WholesomeCrossdresser.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Subverted, since none of the things that would have made this a WhamEpisode are true in the first place.]]

* MilestoneCelebration - Pierce's 1000th flush.

* MeaninglessCelebration - Pierce's 1000th flush.

* MeaninglessMilestone - Pierce's 1000th flush.

* FanFicFuel: A proposed alternate history of the series in which all of the depicted events took place on some level ... [[spoiler:but in the locked ward of an insane asylum?]] A field day for speculative/AU writers.

* AdultFear: In TheTag, Troy wishes that your monsters be spooky monsters scary, and not 'grandma died' scary.