Random Terrifying TV Episodes About Diseases (12 items)

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  (#10) ‘CSI’ Quarantines Its Cast After A Cadaver Is Found To Have A Blood-Borne Pathogen

  • October 12, 2014

  While investigating a case in which the victim was suffering from a hemorrhagic fever before being shot, Sara and Greg are exposed to his blood and have to be quarantined. Meanwhile, the rest of the team investigates the theft of the pathogen in order to stop a real-deal outbreak.

  In “Bad Blood,” the CDC is called in to nip the illness in the bud, but their methods will destroy all of the evidence. The investigators have to figure out what’s more important - their case or the potential lives of millions. The scariest thing about this episode is the insight it provides into the decision-making process around an outbreak.
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  (#9) My Cabbage

  • February 28, 2006

  Even though it’s a comedy, Scrubs always has a handle on the realities of illness and doctors' struggles with keeping their patients safe. In “My Cabbage,” chief of medicine Dr. Kelso explains how an infection is the apex predator of a hospital. 

  In a scene early in the episode, a bacteria is traced from person to person through the hospital, beginning with a boy who sneezes into his hands before it's passed from a tissue to a handshake and eventually spreads to all of the patients.

  By the end of the episode, one patient with a compromised immune system is hit with the bacteria and perishes. This episode shows that a bacterial spread isn’t a malicious thing and can be passed along without anyone knowing.
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  (#6) 'Downton Abbey' Tackles The Spanish Flu Pandemic

  • February 12, 2012

  Downton Abbey isn't known for its terrifying visuals; however, its Virginia Woolf-esque dedication to depicting the rampant ennui of the early 20th century shows how a lack of care can help a disease spread throughout a group of friends.

  As people throughout the episode drop like flies, Doctor Clarkson attempts to provide information about the Spanish flu, but everything he says is either comically wrong or just confuses everyone even more. 

  In some instances, this could be funny, but it shows how misinformation can lead to a higher mortality rate. This is one of the more realistic looks at a pandemic and, outside of the show's period trappings, it feels modern.
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  (#5) A Typhus Outbreak Comes To Walnut Grove In ‘Little House on the Prairie’

  • January 29, 1975

  Little House on the Prairie follows the Ingalls family as they forge a life on a farm in Plum Creek near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 19th century. In the Season 1 episode, “Plague,” typhus breaks out in the town after diseased bugs and rats get into the town’s cornmeal supply.

  Many of the inhabitants of Walnut Grove continue on with their regular lives instead of staying home, even though Doc Baker insists on a quarantine. Pa Ingalls catches the disease and has to stay in town while his family practices social distancing on the farm.

  Even though everyone is staying home, they’re still getting sick, which is honestly the scariest part of this episode. Pa and Doc eventually figure out that it’s the diseased cornmeal that's getting everyone sick, and burn it to the ground.
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  (#3) Airborne

  • April 10, 2007

  Doctor House just can’t catch a break. While he’s on a trans-polar flight from Singapore to New York, people keep getting sick. Along the way, he tries to prove that there's not an outbreak of bacterial meningitis threatening to leave most of the passengers in body bags.

  This episode is absolutely terrifying, from a man vomiting a mysterious pink liquid on the plane to everyone on board having to be quarantined. However, the most disturbing thing about the episode is that there’s no virus and, aside from the vomiting man, everyone else is experiencing psychosomatic symptoms.
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  (#4) Plague

  • April 25, 2004

  "Plague" is a super realistic look at smallpox in the 19th century. When the disease comes to Deadwood, a "sick tent" is built and men are dispatched for a smallpox cure, yet everyone remains out of their depth. The episode doesn't just deal with the nasty nature of the illness, but also the way that regular people often have to bear the brunt of taking care of the sick.

  The patients are dirty and gross, but they never veer into David Cronenberg territory. Instead, the episode simply offers a realistic portrayal of caring for people who are gravely ill with little hope of survival.

  This look at illness and disease is filled with existential dread, especially when you try to parse why some people are affected and others aren't.

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