Coon 2: Hindsight

Plot

Cartman's alter-ego, The Coon, leads a team of crime-fighters including Mysterion, Toolshed, Iron Maiden, Tupperware, Mosquito, Mint Berry Crunch, and The Human Kite, though the Coon seeks all the glory. When a fire breaks out in an apartment building, the Coon has his mother drive them over, but Captain Hindsight arrives first, telling everyone what safety measures should have been taken. The crowd cheers him for "solving" the problem and abandons the still-burning building, leaving fourteen people to die.

The Coon decides they need Captain Hindsight to join them to regain glory, but fails to recruit him and instead plans to blackmail him by photoshopping Hindsight's face onto images of a homeless person having sex with Courtney Love (actually Butters Stotch as Professor Chaos in disguise). Meanwhile, a BP drilling vessel accidentally causes another oil leak in a protected zone, and the CEO Tony Hayward launches a "we're sorry" campaign, renaming the company from "Beyond Petroleum" to "Dependable Petroleum" (DP).

At a Coon & Friends meeting, the Coon states he does not care about the DP spill victims, prioritizing his blackmail plan. The group votes to instead hold a fundraising event for the crisis, and the Coon reluctantly agrees, then viciously assaults Mosquito and Mint Berry Crunch to regain control.

Secret identities

The Coon is Eric Cartman, who speaks in a dark, gritty rasp when in costume and gives inner monologues in the style of dark comic-book movies, often disappearing mid-conversation. He is kicked out of the group in this episode for being "a dick," but the team keeps its original name to spite him. Mysterion is Kenny McCormick, who has the superpower of being unable to remain dead after being killed, though he finds dying painful and is frustrated that his friends cannot remember his deaths; he shoots himself in the head to try to make them remember, without success.

Toolshed is Stan Marsh, who uses his dad's tools for his outfit. Tupperware is Tolkien Black, whose costume is made of Tupperware. Iron Maiden is Timmy Burch, with his wheelchair covered in metal armor and blades, resembling the torture device turned inside-out. Mint Berry Crunch is Bradley Biggle, a parody of Two-Face with half a costume, who is ridiculed but later discovers powerful abilities.

Mosquito is Clyde Donovan, wearing a mosquito costume with wings and a vuvuzela over his nose. The Human Kite is Kyle Broflovski, who wears a kite costume and is frequently harassed by Cartman as "The Human Kike." Professor Chaos is Butters Stotch, who claims to have been locked in Cartman's basement for six days and is already breaking character. Captain Hindsight is Jack Brolin, a former news reporter who gained the power of extraordinary hindsight through a freak accident involving a retroactive spider.

Cultural references

The episode alludes to Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange when the Coon attacks Mosquito and Mint Berry Crunch, using the same music from the overture of The Thieving Magpie by Gioachino Rossini. Captain Hindsight advises the NFL about Brett Favre, a football player accused of sending pictures of his penis via mobile phone.

The creatures emerging from a dimensional tear resemble those in works by H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King's novella The Mist, including Cthulhu. Mosquito covers his nose with a vuvuzela, which were used in protests of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The episode also references earlier South Park episodes by showing Willzyx the killer whale and Tom Cruise dead on the Moon.

Reception {{anchor|Ratings}}

When it first aired in the U.S. on October 27, 2010, Nielsen reported that 2.755 million people tuned in, a small decrease from the prior episode. The broadcast earned a 1.7 rating and a 3 share overall, while among adults 18 to 49 it pulled a 1.6 rating and a 5 share. For men aged 18 to 34, the numbers were a 3.6 rating and an 11 share. Critic Josh Modell of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, calling it "pretty one-note."