South Park "The Pandemic Special" Review

 "I made a promise to the American people...to get rid of all the Mexicans."

-President Garrison

The Pandemic Special kicks of with Randy announcing a Pandemic Special of his own at Tegridy Farms, which rakes in a lot of money.  Unfortunately, Randy learns that a bat from Wuhan, China is thought to be the source of Covid-19 and while visiting Wuhan, he and Mickey Mouse both had sex with a bat.  Later, it's discovered the source was not a bat, but a pangolin, which Randy also had sex with.

Randy manages to steal the pangolin from a research lab, but feels guilty when he learns his DNA is needed to cure Covid-19.  He masturbates into some of his Pandemic Special weed and gives it to the infected Jimbo, which seemingly cures him.  Randy then sells the weed, now infused with his...DNA.  This ends up causing people who smoke it to grow mustaches identical to his own, which causes further panic in South Park.

The students of South Park Elementary are finally sent back to school to the anger of Cartman.  However, the teachers have refused to return due to safety concerns, so the school hires the recently fired police force as the new teachers, who quickly end up shooting Token.  When they claim Token was taken to the hospital for Covid-19, the entire school goes into quarantine, with all of the students and staff stuck inside.  The cops quickly start running it like a prison.

Stan, who has not been coping well with the pandemic, tries to get help from President Garrison, who refuses because Covid-19 is killing Mexicans.  Stan leads a breakout under the guise of helping Butters cope with the pandemic.  He, Kyle, and Cartman take Butters to Build-a-Bear Workshop.  Mass chaos breaks out with news of the breakout hits.  The police are given permission to use all of their resources to find the kids and end up killing several, including Kenny.

Cornered inside Build-a-Bear, Randy stops the police before they can shoot Kyle.  He offers up the pangolin, but Cartman takes it to kill it, so the pandemic never ends and he can socially distance forever.  Stan has a breakdown about not coping well with the pandemic and Cartman returns the pangolin, only for President Garrison to kill it with a flamethrower.

The episode ends with all of South Park exposed and quarantined.  Randy is about to confess to Sharon until he sees she has grown a mustache, even though she doesn't smoke marijuana.  He decides to make a few more specials.

What Works:

What I loved most about this special was how much it didn't hold back and how dark it got, even by South Park's standards.  We get multiple dead bodies of victims of Covid-19, we have the Grim Reaper riding around on a tricycle, and we get two kids getting brutally murdered by the police, and one of them wasn't Kenny, so we won't be seeing him again.  While this special was very funny, it also showed how serious and dark this year has been, and I really appreciated that.

The episode is also surprisingly emotional in terms of character development.  Stan's breakdown was pretty heartbreaking and a reminder that he's a 10-year old kid.  I forget that sometimes with how maturely he typically handles the insanity of his town.  His speech really tugged at my heartstrings.

We also get some character development for Cartman of all people.  He backs down from killing the pangolin because of Stan's breakdown.  He actually does something for the good of someone else.  It's rare that we get anything like that from Cartman and it was a great moment.

The cop storyline was genius.  Hiring them all to be the new teachers was perfect commentary on both the protests and the pandemic.  I loved everything about their storyline, especially their shooting of Token.  You knew it was going to happen, but that didn't stop it from being impactful and hilarious.

The phone call between Stan and President Garrison was probably my favorite moment of the episode.  Garrison is incredibly blunt and I love that South Park always has him dialed up to 11.

Finally, the flashbacks of Randy and Mickey Mouse in China were insane, messed-up, and hilarious.  I love these two together and I hope we get more scenes with them in the future.

What Sucks:

The only aspect of the episode I didn't like was Stephen Sotch.  He starts off the episode getting mad at people wearing their masks incorrectly, which was amazing, but then, when he meets Dr. Fauci, Stephen changes his tune.  That didn't really work for me and I don't really understand why he flip-flopped.

Verdict:

"The Pandemic Special" was exactly what I needed in these "unprecedented times".  It perfectly encapsulates everything that has happened this year.  The cop storyline is brilliant, the episode is funny, but really dark, the emotional beats work very well, and the flashbacks were hilarious.  I didn't love Stephen Stotch's storyline, but this episode has absolutely got it going on.

 9/10: Great