WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for South Park's Season 24 prelude, "The Pandemic Special."
South Park pulls no punches in "The Pandemic Special" as it takes shots at current events during the COVID-19 era in the small Colorado town. Donald Trump gets pilloried in the form of President Garrison, all while Randy Marsh tries to find a way to stop the pandemic that he caused.
On top of that, the town's cops also get their time in the limelight when the show puts the spotlight on police brutality. However, the episode takes a much darker turn than expected as it examines the deadly repercussions that follow after the town's cops are defunded.
South Park mayor, Mary McDaniels, defunded the cops because she can't deal with their unhinged behavior. Led by Sergeant Harrison Yates, the all-white force has gone on numerous missions over the years, killing innocent people and costing the town money in lawsuits and damages. This was the show's first jab at the real-world issue plaguing America right now regarding police using excessive force and how reckless law enforcement needs to be corrected.
After being defunded, the cops do get a silver lining, though, when they get to become teachers. All the town's teachers refuse to come out to school due to the coronavirus, leaving Cartman and Co. in classrooms with germ shields around their desks to try to glean some form of education from the police. However, things get worse when the cops shoot Token, the only Black student, when a fight breaks out between two white students, Cartman and Kyle, that he had nothing to do with. Clearly, this moment was touching on the killing of innocent Black people in America, which has been a heavy topic of conversation in recent months.
The cops then tell the media that Token has been hospitalized due to COVID-19, but there's a technical explanation. Obviously, they were in the wrong, but because the incident took place in the school during a pandemic, they choose to report it as COVID-related. When the news spreads, the illusion is all the town's kids have the virus, so the school becomes a quarantine zone. The school then becomes a prison, driving children like Butters mad, at least until they break out. At this point, the mayor thinks she's got a bunch of infected kids running around town, so she chooses not to just to "refund" Harrison's team, but to also militarize them. They gear up in armor and tanks, and as an army, they drive around town killing the kids.
They justify slaying these kids out after curfew in the name of public safety, but in reality, they just want an excuse to fire bigger guns and pretend to be soldiers. Ultimately, Randy tries to save the kids by presenting a cure, but, by that point, South Park has lost itself to a militarized police force.
"The Pandemic Special" episode of South Park is now airing on Comedy Central. Season 24 currently does not have a release date.