It's evening in a typical suburban community, and Dr. Bill Stockton is enjoying his birthday party with his wife Grace, their son Paul, and their friends from all over the neighborhood. Bill is a beloved member of the community, a good friend to them for over twenty years, and a trusted doctor always healing their illnesses and delivering their children. Everything is fun and jovial, even when mention is made of the fallout shelter Bill has developed in his basement, until Paul comes in and informs his father that a Civil Defense announcement is on. Bill tunes in on the radio, and everyone present is horrified to learn that unidentified flying objects have been detected en route for the United States. In this day and age, it can't be anything other than a nuclear attack. There is a window of time between 15 minutes to half an hour before the objects hit.
Bill, Grace, and Paul begin stocking their shelter when the neighbors come in one by one, asking if there's room in the shelter for them. Bill gives them each the same answer: no. He explains that there's only enough room, air, and supplies for three people. He does offer them to take shelter in his basement, but the neighbors are convinced that the shelter is the only surefire way to survive. They all start crowding into Bill's house, trying desperately to think of a solution. They also realize that not everyone can fit in the shelter, and start turning hostile to one-another. Angry words and punches are tossed around as everyone plots to get into the shelter with a makeshift battering ram. They tear apart Bill's house as they clamor into the basement and ram the shelter door.
Just as the neighbors break through and begin forcing their way inside, another radio broadcast comes on to inform everyone that there are actually no nukes on the way. The unidentified objects that were misidentifed as missiles were actually just harmless satellites. Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief, and as Bill and his family emerge from the shelter, everyone apologizes for how viciously they acted and the hurtful things they said, and offer to pay for the damages. Bill responds by asking the people who he thought were his friends if they actually know what those damages really are, as one of them might be finding out what kind of people they really are. He concludes by wondering, even though they were spared a nuclear holocaust, if they weren't destroyed without it.
The Tropeter:
- All for Nothing: Even if the entire ordeal wasn't a false alarm, Bill's shelter wouldn't have been any good to the neighbors after they rammed the door down.
- An Aesop: To quote Rod Serling: "For civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized."
- Analogy Backfire: When Frank tries to apologize to Marty over his earlier bigoted remarks, Jerry voices his concerns that he doesn't think Marty could ever hold it against him, just as Bill wouldn't hold a grudge against them forever. The thing is, Bill does hold it against them. For all they know, if Bill's angry at them, chances are it will be a long time before Marty ever forgives Frank.
- And Then What?: As they're gathering supplies for the shelter, Grace wonders what the point of gathering supplies at all amounts to if they're destined to live in a ruined world, surrounded by the bodies of their friends and neighbors. Bill tells her Paul is their reason, because even if that's the world he'll inherit, he's still only twelve years old.
- Battering Ram: The neighbors fashion one together to break into Bill's shelter.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Bill's birthday party promptly turns into a desperate scramble for survival in the span of a few minutes.
- Bittersweet Ending: What appeared to be nuclear missiles were actually satellites, rendering the situation a false alarm. Everyone is quick to apologize to Bill for what happened, but it's clear Bill's sense of trust in his neighbors has been severely damaged, perhaps irreparably so.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place in and around the Stocktons' house.
- Children Are Innocent: Even as their parents are screaming and arguing around them, the kids present are busy eating the leftover food from the party. This ends up being Deconstructed as well, as part of the reason everyone is so desperate to survive is that they all have children, one of whom is only three months old, so whose are more deserving to continue living?
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Towards the end, everyone tries to sweep the recent happenings under the rug, including mobbing Bill for his shelter. Understandably, they're trying to salvage the previous normality they had before the threat of extinction began. Bill's the only one to soberly bring up that, as of now, they're past the point where their lives, or their damaged friendship, can ever go back to "normal".
- Easily Forgiven: Averted with Bill and Marty, who seemingly give no external indication that they forgive the people who respectively wronged them.
- Emergency Broadcast: A CONELRAD broadcast informs the neighbors that unidentified objects are on the way, and a second one reveals that there's actually nothing to worry about, as they were satellites opposed to missiles.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Everyone fears that this is imminent after the bombs hit.
- Fairytale Motifs: This episode is a darker version of "The Grasshopper and the Ants". Bill and his family are the ants, having prepared for the worst ahead of time. The neighbors are the grasshoppers, having done nothing to plan for the worst. The story revolves around the latter trying (and failing) to convince the former to let them share the shelter, regardless if they deserve it or not.
- Fallout Shelter Fail: Bill's shelter is the crux of the conflict, given that it only has enough space and resources to sustain three people. Fights soon break out over what little is available - to the point that the neighbors try to break down the shelter doors. Then the whole thing turns out to have been a false alarm, revealing to Bill that his neighbors and lifelong friends are savage animals when threatened with extinction.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Played with. While the episode's plot is very grey-vs-grey, the neighbors grow increasingly aggressive compared to Bill and his family, to the point they form a mob to break down the shelter door. When all's quiet for the time being, Grace worriedly wonders who these people are anymore, so shaken by their sudden descent into viciousness that she nearly forgets they were once their friends. Bill can only answer soberly that those were their neighbors, haunted by the notion that they've hidden their true natures from them all these years.
- Humans Are Bastards / Humans Are Flawed: Both tropes are on full display. The neighbors are desperate to ensure their families survive, but their fear mixes with their pent-up emotions, so all kinds of ugliness come out. Frank is particularly antagonistic, since not only is he the first to advise breaking into the shelter, but he makes some bigoted remarks to Marty and even physically assaults him at one point. He does apologize after the crisis though. Even Bill delves into the tropes at times, scorning Jerry for not taking the time to build his own shelter in the midst of the crisis.
- I Warned You: During a heated discussion with Jerry about whether the latter and his family can use the shelter, Bill points out that their being unprepared for the end of all things lies solely at their feet, having told them time and time to "get ready and make the admission to [themselves] that the worst was possible."
- Idiot Ball: It's lampshaded several times that the neighbors are pointlessly wasting their time trying to convince Bill to let them in, when they could easily procure some other kind of shelter for themselves.
- Mundanger: There is nothing supernatural or science-fictional in this episode. All the danger comes from the natural human reaction to panic.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After it's revealed there are no nukes on the way, the neighbors are quick to apologize to Bill for for their behavior and want to make amends. It does little to repair the doctor's broken trust in his friends.
- Non-Specifically Foreign: When the crisis begins, Frank is continually racist towards the foreign-born Marty, describing him as a "pushy, grabby, semi-American" and later refers to him as "you and your kind." However, it's never stated what country Marty hails from.
- Oddball in the Series: This is one of only five episodes not to feature any sci-fi or fantasy elements. The others are "Where is Everybody?","The Silence" "One More Pallbearer", and "The Jeopardy Room".
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bill gives a couple of small ones in the first half of the episode, pointing out that the neighbors should've prepared for nuclear conflict when they had the chance. Later, after it turns out there's no missiles on the way, he gives his neighbors an especially scathing one about how they allowed themselves to become "a lot of wild, naked animals who put such a hefty price on survival that they clawed their neighbors' eyes out just for the privilege".
- Ripped from the Headlines: Serling wrote this episode in direct response to the social discourse and anxieties during the ongoing Berlin Crisis
. - Small Role, Big Impact: Bill's son Paul, who alerts his father and his neighbors that the radio is broadcasting a CONELRAD alert.
- Symbolism: Light has a notable motif in the episode. In the beginning, everything is well-lit to establish how everyone is "civilized". When the power goes out as Bill and his family load up their shelter, it marks the beginning of the metaphorical darkness, and the instant his neighbors' civility will start to decline from here on. (And decline it does.) At the climax, the power comes on the very instant Bill's neighbors have broken into the shelter, a chilling indication that they only resumed their "civility" because the threat is no longer real.
- That Man Is Dead: When Bill tries to turn him away from entering his shelter, Marty angrily guilt-trips the doctor with the fact that allowing somebody to die by a nuclear bomb would be violating the Hippocratic oath. After a moment of contemplation, a guilt-ridden Bill soberly makes it clear he no longer considers himself a doctor in this dire hour, rather a desperate man trying to protect his family from certain death.Bill: That was a million years ago... A million years ago...
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Bill has one once he emerges from the shelter, having seen and heard everything that went on with the people he considered his friends for twenty years.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The story ends on an ambiguous note, concerning what Bill and his family will do after everything he witnessed that night. On one hand, there's a slim chance he'll continue to endure living alongside the animals he thought were his friends. On the other hand, there's a more likely chance he'll move away to escape the sour memory of their true natures.
- What You Are in the Dark: The episode features a rather dark look into what humans truly are when faced between certain death and the only means of shelter from said death. Towards the end, Bill lampshades how his neighbors utterly failed to remain human when there was no real danger.
