South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid

South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid
South Park episode
Official release poster
Episode no.	Season 24 Episode 4
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker
Produced by	Eric Stough Bruce Howell Adrien Beard Vernon Chatman
Featured music	"I Forgive You" by Kelly Clarkson
Production code	2404
Original air date	December 16, 2021 (2021-12-16)
Running time	62 minutes
Episode chronology
← Previous South Park: Post Covid Next → "Pajama Day"
South Park (season 24)
List of episodes

South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid (also stylized South Park: Post COVID: The Return of COVID) is an American adult animated comedy television movie written and directed by Trey Parker. It is the second in a series of South Park television movies for the streaming service Paramount+ and premiered on December 16, 2021.^[1][2] The movie is a direct sequel to and continues the storyline of the previous movie, South Park: Post Covid.^[3] It is also considered to be the fourth and final episode of the 24th season and the 311th episode overall of the television series South Park.

Plot[]

Stan Marsh flashes back to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman were sent home from school before they could blackmail fellow student Heather Wiliams in order to attend a Denver Nuggets game; and the events leading to him burning down Tegridy Farms and inadvertently killing his sister Shelly, leading to their mother Sharon's suicide.

Presently, South Park still remains under quarantine due to the new COVID-19 variant. Randy Marsh, on the run and guarding his last sprout of marijuana, is cornered by Shady Acres nurses when Token Black defeats them and takes Randy to Kenny's laboratory. At the lab, Stan and Kyle, alongside Wendy Testaburger, Tweek Tweak, Craig Tucker, Jimmy Valmer and Clyde Donovan, cannot get past Kenny's firewall without a voice command from either him or his institutionalized associate, Victor Chouce. Wendy realizes that the experiment will need aluminum foil, all supplies of which are in grounded cargo ships. Stan and Kyle head out to retrieve Chouce while Tweek and Craig search for foil.

At the South Park Mental Asylum, Stan and Kyle find that "Chouce" is actually "Chaos". They enter Chaos' cell to discover that he is actually Butters Stotch, who gradually became insane after his parents abandoned him. In his isolation, Chaos began dealing in NFTs, upon mention of which asylum personnel subdue Chaos and remove Kyle and Stan from his cell. However, Chaos uses a paper on Kenny's research given to him by Kyle to convince a guard to release him. Meanwhile, Randy cultivates his marijuana as the others explain Kenny's plan to time travel and prevent the pandemic. Randy, however, is convinced that his marijuana is the solution to their problem. Their plans are further complicated by Clyde's refusal to be vaccinated.

At the South Park Church, Father Scott Malkinson is approached by Cartman and his family. Intent on preventing Kyle from implementing Kenny's plan, Cartman forms the Foundation Against Time Travel while hiding his family in the attic. Tweek and Craig arrive at the church and inadvertently inform Cartman of their purpose, resulting in their capture. Cartman convinces Clyde to join his cause; he later finds Chaos selling NFTs to senior citizens and uses him to incapacitate the group at the laboratory. Upon Stan and Kyle's return, Wendy, Token, Jimmy, and Randy have been brainwashed into investing in NFTs, while Cartman and his group have stolen the equipment. At the church, Cartman reveals his plan to have Kyle killed in the past, while Kyle and Stan undo Chaos' brainwashing. Wendy reveals that Kenny's plan was not to prevent the pandemic, but to salvage the boys' friendship and improve the future; Token states that "Tegridy Weed" was only in Kenny's notes as a reminder to take some marijuana with him. A depressed Randy forgives Stan for his actions and gives him his last seed of marijuana.

Cartman prepares for Clyde to travel back in time, when Stan and Kyle arrive and use their Amazon Alexas to neutralize Chaos. Cartman and Kyle begin fighting until Yentl, Cartman's wife, convinces him to allow Kyle and Stan to implement their plan. However, Cartman’s infant son activates the machine, sending Clyde back in time. Arriving to retrieve his father's gun, Clyde convinces his past self not to be vaccinated. Adult Clyde approaches the boys with intent to kill young Kyle when Stan, Kyle and Cartman arrive, having traveled through time to intervene. Before Clyde can fire, Cartman shoots him dead.

Realizing that they cannot prevent the pandemic, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman instead decide to change their reaction to it. They approach Heather Williams and blackmail her to get their younger selves courtside tickets to the Nuggets game, where the boys forgive each other. Stan sends Randy the marijuana strain from the future, which Randy cultivates for mass distribution. Under the strain's influence, everyone forgives each other for their behavior during the pandemic, changing the future. In the revised future, almost everyone's lives have changed for the better, with Sharon, Shelly, and Kenny alive in the new future, while Cartman has become a homeless alcoholic on the street.

Cast[]

• Trey Parker as Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Randy Marsh, Jimmy Valmer, Clyde Donovan, Ike Broflovski, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Mackey, Richard Tweak, Skeater, Stephen Stotch, Timmy Burch, Darwin, Hackelm Cartman, Moisha Cartman, and LeBron James
• Matt Stone as Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, Kevin Stoley, Scott Malkinson, Butters Stotch, Tweek Tweak, Craig Tucker, and Thomas Tucker
• April Stewart as Wendy Testaburger, Shelly Marsh and Sharon Marsh
• Mona Marshall as Yentl Cartman
• Kimberly Brooks as Margaret Nelson and Laura Tucker
• Adrien Beard as Token Black
• Delilah Kujala as Amazon Alexa^[4]
• Betty Boogie Parker as Menorah Cartman and Heather Williams

Reception[]

Dan Caffey of The A.V. Club said about the film "Picking up where November’s Post COVID left off, The Return of COVID finds South Park's grownup kids in full Avengers: Endgame mode, trying to figure out how to travel back in time to reverse the shitty present in which they currently live. If that sounds like an overly basic distillation of the plot, that's because, like the first movie, The Return of COVID complicates the story with subplots that sometimes make the core narrative feel like it's stalling."^[5] The ending of the film which revealed the fate of an adult Eric Cartman led to some strong reactions from longtime fans of the show.^[6]

References[]