Recap / Superjail S 3 E 5 Special Needs

Airdate: October 28, 2012

Written by: Adam Modiano

Story editor: Janine DiTullio

After the Warden pisses off Alice and winds up critically injured, he comes across a group of inmates that he's never witnessed before in the jail- ones that were injured by past disasters and that have come to live in their own peaceful society. However, the Warden feels that this is his chance to integrate them back to the jail and make Superjail handicap-accessible.

"Special Needs" contains examples of:

• A Day in the Limelight: Although mostly focusing on the disfigured inmates and the Warden befriending them, Alice also gets a bit of a B-plot.
• Big Ol' Unibrow: Seen on Bagpipe.
• Body Horror: The group of disfigured inmates all exhibit some form of this. There are at least two that even exist as disembodied heads, one using a garbage bag full of his organs to get around, and one using his spine to slither about. Then there's a pair shown that are forced to co-exist by the huge skewer impaling them through their eye sockets and leaving them stuck together.
• Continuity Nod: A few of these guys were last seen in "Sticky Discharge" when Jean mentioned them, as a way of setting up their appearance here. Although, Slim's appearance is completely different to the version of him that appeared in that cameo (he's a younger blond man here, while the "Slim" in the cameo was much older, balding, and gray-haired).
  • The Warden troopers, last seen in "Superfail", reappear as sweatshop guards.
  • The inmate who had half his face transplanted onto Jared's in "Mayhem Donor" returns as one of the disfigured inmates, and proceeds to have the other half of his face sliced off, courtesy of Gary.
  • When Alice thinks back to how she's always beaten others up and "acted like a man", the first flashback shown is of her as "Big Al" at her old prison (as last seen in the flashbacks from Jailbot 2.0).
• Disproportionate Retribution: Even though he survives it, Alice doesn't just beat the Warden up for hitting on her, but rip out his very skeleton (eyes intact) and shove it back down his throat. He's lucky enough to simply wind up needing a body cast.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The inmates are disgusted when watching Alice's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the Warden.
• Handicapped Badass: All the "Special Needs" inmates fall under this.
• Here We Go Again!: All of Warden's inmate "friends" have all died by the end, and he shows little care for them. Instead, he figures that the other newly-injured inmates will replace them, and tells Jared to go put them away where he doesn't have to look at them, thus repeating the cycle.
• Humiliation Conga: Warden, for the first half of the episode.
• Interrupted Suicide: The Warden attempts to kill himself, at the prospect of being crippled and thus not being able to feel Alice's boobs. He doesn't get far.
• Non-Action Guy: The disfigured inmates attempt to be this at first and live in peace, as to not repeat the actions that lead them to being injured before. It doesn't go so well.
  • Alice tries to be a non-action girl after two of the inmates insulted her brutality, but eventually gives up.
• No Name Given: The armless leader of the inmate group never has his name spoken in the episode.
• Stock Footage: The explosions and fireworks from "Sticky Discharge" (minus the Warden-shaped ones) are re-used during the inmate fight, particularly in the shot where inmates are blown to pieces.
• Punny Name: There's "Guns" ^note the wheelchair-bound inmate with super-strong arms, "Slim"^note an inmate that was vertically cut in half, existing only as the remaining half, and "Bagpipe"^note an inmate with pipes lodged in his body. There's also "Lowbrow" later on ^note a diminutive inmate with his head squished down.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Janice becomes the unfortunate victim of a monster crawling about in the air vent. The Warden and Jared wind up luckier and escape being eaten.