Opening Traditional horror movie characters such as
Frankenstein's Monster, the
Mummy, the
Wolf Man, and
Dracula roam the streets of Springfield on Halloween night. After they are teased by
Dolph,
Jimbo, and
Kearney, they get new, more modern costumes from a Halloween store. They then go to an adult Halloween party thrown by
Homer and
Marge and hook up with the single women there, but are soon confronted by their wives, who are angry that their husbands lied about going out to kill children tonight. Homer tries to intervene as the wives begin to assault their husbands, only to be decapitated, and his eyes are then replaced with two red x's, the title of the episode then appears onscreen.
Dial "M" for Murder or Press "#" to Return to Main Menu In this
black-and-white segment and a parody of
Alfred Hitchcock's films,
Lisa wants
revenge after being sent to detention by
Ms. Hoover for disrupting class as she claims another student topped her through a tutor.
Bart, who also got sent to detention per usual, hatches a
"criss-cross" plan and tells Lisa that if she pulls a "ding-dong ditch" on
Mrs. Krabappel, he will do the same to Ms. Hoover. Lisa thinks this means
ringing the bell at Mrs. Krabappel's apartment and leaving. However, Lisa soon learns that Bart meant for her to kill Mrs. Krabappel (and dump the corpse in a ditch), as he has killed Ms. Hoover and actually believes the words "prank" and "kill" to be synonymous. Bart attempts to coax Lisa into killing Mrs. Krabappel with a
paper cutter, but she refuses. Eventually, Bart decides to blackmail her into it with help from
Willie, who would frame Lisa for the decapitated Skinner to honor his side of the "criss-cross" in which Bart killed Skinner. Realizing that Bart would frame her for these incidents, Lisa tricks him into believing that she was submitting at his will only to get a knife from his hands and attempts to kill Bart in self-defense, beginning a chase sequence. Bart finally finds shelter at a crowded playground carousel, but is left at Lisa's mercy when the other children leave to get ice cream. Lisa, however, recognizing that she would not be better than Bart, says she will never be a murderer, and attempts to throw the knife away. The knife cycles out of control and ends up nailing Bart in the head, much to her shock just as Mrs. Krabappel appears, pleased at his death. Lisa later agrees that it is better this way and she and Krabappel walk away smiling, leaving the murdered Bart to spin around on the carousel.
Don't Have a Cow, Mankind Krusty the Clown introduces a new version of his
Krusty Burger, the Burger2, made from cattle
that have eaten other cattle in their feed. Upon eating a burger on live television,
Kent Brockman begins to comment on the taste before turning gray, red-eyed, and cannibalistic, starting a chain reaction of people getting attacked and eaten.
Twenty-eight days later, Springfield has become overrun by
zombies called munchers. The Simpsons are established to be among the few survivors. One day, Bart, tired of eating fruit, escapes from his family's barricaded house and eats one of the tainted burgers, but turns out to be immune to its effects. Over the phone, a besieged
Dr. Hibbert tells them that Bart's immunity may be the key to developing a cure to the muncher epidemic and that they must bring Bart to a so-called "safe zone" being established in Shelbyville. The Simpsons are attacked after a failed attempt to sneak out but are saved by
Apu, driving an armored off-road truck. Apu explains that he was never infected because, as a vegetarian, he did not eat any of the tainted beef, and as a convenience store owner, he is "armed to the teeth" (with a large arsenal of military-grade firearms). The group tries to leave Springfield, but Apu crashes the truck on top of a pile of smashed cars at the edge of town. Apu goes to push the car off the pile, but the Simpsons drive away thinking Apu sacrificed himself, when he actually wanted the Simpsons to wait for him. After Apu is killed by the munchers, the Simpsons drive on but run out of gas in the middle of the highway, walking the remaining 20 miles to the safe zone. During their journey, Homer is bitten by
Mr. Burns, thus turning him into a muncher himself. The family decide not to kill him in the hopes of finding a cure. They reach the safe zone, where Bart, being immune to the virus, is worshiped as the "chosen one". However, the people there believe that cannibalizing Bart will save them from the virus. The Simpsons think of another solution:
vaccinating the remaining populace (except Homer who either refuses to get cured or Bart refused to cure him as payback for being abusive to him earlier) by having Bart bathe in their food before eating it.
There's No Business Like Moe Business In a parody of
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, presented as a stage musical,
Moe is lonely and upset that he does not have a girlfriend and is jealous when he sees Homer and Marge together. When Homer falls into the basement of
the bar and is impaled by the microbrew pipes, his blood becomes the secret ingredient in Moe's new beer. Everyone loves this new beer, saying that it makes them feel warm, secure and cozy on the inside. Moe uses this to his advantage and woos Marge, tricking her into thinking that Homer came out of the closet as gay and left Marge, when in reality, Homer is slowly dying from losing blood. Homer emerges, alive, despite being impaled by Moe's microbrew machine, hurls Moe (represented as a dummy) across the room, and reunites with Marge.
Ending The whole audience except for
Kang and Kodos gathers onstage and conclude the episode by singing "Number XX". Kang and Kodos, are however, present in the audience with one shushing the people, and the other asleep who is then awakened by the former that the show is over. ==Cultural references==