A Fistful of Paintballs

A game of paintball is started by Dean Pelton and "Pistol Patty's Cowboy Creamery"; they explain that the reason last year's paintball game was unsuccessful was that the prize was too important. They announce the new prize of $100,000.

Annie comes back to her base to find Abed, who proposes she join him, Jeff, and Chang in the library. Meanwhile, Jeff and Chang are trapped by the math club, so Chang betrays him. Abed saves Jeff, but Chang escapes. They are interrupted by a stranger, who they believe does not go to Greendale, and manage to escape from him.

On their way to the cafe, they run into Britta, Shirley, and Troy and find out they are working for Pierce, who has set up a safe zone in the cafeteria known as Fort Hawthorne. During dinner with Pierce, he expresses his desire to team up and split the cash. He informs them about a stash of ammo. On the way to the stash, Annie finds Chang and a gang of cheerleaders. Annie shoots the cheerleaders, but Chang runs away. She chases him but is caught by the stranger, known as "The Black Rider". Jeff and Abed arrive and save Annie, but discover that Jeff's gun was loaded with blanks. The study group finds Dean Pelton trapped in a closet and steals paintball supplies from his office. Annie takes supplies and storms off to confront Pierce.

Back at Fort Hawthorne, the group finds it's been demolished by "The Black Rider," with Pierce hiding in the bathroom. When they confront him, Pierce confesses he loaded Jeff's gun with blanks because he was offended to find the group playing cards without him three days ago. Annie admits that they weren't playing cards but were actually voting whether to allow Pierce to remain in the study group. One holdout (Annie) prevented Pierce's ejection from the group. "The Black Rider" emerges, but Pierce appears to have a heart attack. "The Black Rider" does not believe that Pierce is faking it and goes to help, but is shot by Pierce. Having lost the game, he leaves, revealing that he was hired by Pistol Patty's to keep the prize money. Pierce runs off alone, vowing revenge.

Chang is shot by a paintball machine gun from the Pistol Patty's van. Pistol Patty leads out a commando team in white to prevent any of the Greendale contestants from winning the prize money.

The episode was written by Andrew Guest, his sixth writing credit of the series. It was directed by executive producer Joe Russo, his 15th directing credit of the series. It was reported of February 28, 2011, by Entertainment Weekly that Josh Holloway would guest star in the season finale as a mysterious character.^[4]

Originally scheduled to air as an hour-long season finale on May 12, 2011,^[5] the episodes were split into two parts airing May 5 and May 12, respectively. Regarding the concept of the two-part season finale and the return to paintball, creator Dan Harmon said, "It's designed to exist both as one story but also two separate episodes. [The first] one has a Sergio Leone Western motif, so there's more emphasis on tension, scarcity of ammo, and who might draw on who. But the second one erupts – the Western motif falls away and all out war ensues. There's a kind of an epic, wartime, band-of-rebels-against-a-larger-force Star Wars feel to the second one ... If we only did the Western one, there might have been some people who said, 'Oh it's great, but it's not "Modern Warfare"'. And then there's other people who, if we had only done 'Modern Warfare', would say, 'Eh, same thing again.'"^[1]

The episode is a tribute to Western films, specifically the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone.^[1]

Fort Hawthorne is an homage to the Gem Saloon.

Abed notes that Holloway's character is handsome enough for network television – a nod toward Holloway's performance on ABC's Lost as James "Sawyer" Ford.

Troy's outfit is a tribute to Bart played by Cleavon Little from Blazing Saddles.