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Going Native "Going Native" "A Nightmare on Face Time" "A Scause For Applause" A Scause For Applause
"A Nightmare on Face Time"
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Episode no. Season 16
Episode 12
Production no. 1612
Original airdate October 24, 2012
Episode chronology
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"A Nightmare on Face Time" is the twelfth episode of Season Sixteen, and the 235th overall episode of South Park. It aired on October 24, 2012.[1]

Synopsis

The boys are all ready to dress up as their favorite foursome, the Avengers, for Halloween. After months of planning their costumes, at the last minute Randy tells Stan he can’t go trick or treating with his friends. Instead, Stan has to pitch in and help his father with a new business venture.

Plot

SPW pic -- Spoiler Spoiler warning!
Plot details follow.

The episode begins with Sharon, Shelly and Stan carving pumpkins when Randy enters the house, excitedly, with three presents and a bottle of Champagne. He announces that he has bought out Blockbuster while giving the others their presents, claiming that the family is rich now. Stan and Shelly are confused as to why their father is the owner of Blockbuster, looking at their presents which are t-shirts that read "MY DAD IS THE OWNER OF BLOCKBUSTER! VIDEO". Randy explains that he saw it for sale the week before for $10,000, even listing the supposed pros of owning the business. On the drive down to the store, Stan mentions watching movies online is more convenient and that no one rents movies anymore. 

The family arrives to the dilapidated Blockbuster store. Randy gives the family a tour of the store, while the others show their dislike for the store. Randy defends the store. That next Friday, Randy and Shelly are working while Sharon and Stan are not. Randy asks Shelly how many copies of Meet the Fockers they have, Shelly responds angrily that they still have six, meaning no one rented any. The next day, Filmore Anderson loses his ball and Randy picks it up and asks Filmore and his friend if they would like to rent some DVDs, scaring the kids away.

The next Tuesday, Randy is walking in the Blockbuster store when he sees a woman with a headband in one aisle. The woman tells him she cannot seem to find "Turner and Hooch" and then dissipates. Randy is mad because Blockbuster is apparently so old, it has ghosts. Another ghost appears and tells someone named Emily that the war is over and that they should rent a movie from Blockbuster. Randy goes into a tangent, yelling at the ghost and jumping up and down. Stan, from afar, watches Randy yelling at nothing and tells his mother that he thinks that something is wrong with his father. Sharon agrees.

On Wednesday, it is Halloween and Cartman and Kenny run into Butters, who is dressed as Were-prechaun and Jimmy who is Gangnam style. Butters asks why they are not in costume and Cartman egotistically answers that their costumes are so cool that they have to put them on together at Kyle's house.

At Blockbuster, Sharon helps Stan put on his Captain America costume when Randy interrupts, saying that he needs everyone at Blockbuster because he has a big sale going on. Stan then calls Kyle saying that he cannot go trick or treating. Kyle, as Thor, comes up with an idea involving both of the boys' iPads. Kenny is dressed as Iron Man with a mask and voice-changer, and Cartman is the Incredible Hulk.

We find out that Kyle's idea is to use FaceTime, via Stan's iPad and Kyle's iPad on a skateboard, so that Stan can still trick or treat. Cartman rants that Stan has ruined their plans, saying that people wouldn't know who they were. At the first house, the man knows who everyone is except for Cartman, who he thinks is Bruce Vilanch, then the incredible Chaz Bono. His wife suggests that he is the incredible Harvey Firesteen, then the man finally suggests, the incredible fat and gay, skinny, straight man, which pisses Cartman off. At the next house, the man thinks that Cartman is Honey Boo Boo, infuriating Cartman even more. And all the while, Cartman blames Stan's costume for people misunderstanding him for someone else.

Meanwhile, near Blockbuster, a man and a woman are walking by, when the woman becomes frightened when she sees Randy in the window. They flee and Randy angrily mutters to himself. Later that night, Randy, hunched over, walks through Blockbuster, having mild outbursts. He sits at the counter and has a hallucination of renting a DVD of Robocop 2 and the director's cut of Bladerunner. The hallucinational Blockbuster Employee tells Randy that he may need to do something to Sharon and Stan. Randy looks over Stan while thinking and exclaims that he won't do it, scaring Stan.

In town, the boys are still trick or treating and notice that someone is breaking into a local Kum & Go, they decide to stop the person, since they are the Avengers. The plan backfires when they find a bunch of them and that they shot the store clerk and Kyle's iPad (Stan) is taken.

At Blockbuster, Sharon is on the phone with a friend while Randy watches from afar, then sneaks up on her, interrupting her conversation.

At the Kum & Go, the robbers interview Stan, who eventually cause the Robbers to cut the screen of Kyle's iPad and go to the a local Monster Mash, after finding Kyle's invitation brochure, while also getting "rid" of "Stan" by dumping the iPad in a field.

Back at Blockbuster, Randy is grimly staring at a TV that is playing Ted. Stan tries to call Kyle, but it seems that Randy has taken all the phones along with the car keys. The man and woman from earlier find the iPad (Stan) and take him to Hells Pass Hospital while the other boys are talking to the police at the Park County Police Station. The police find out that "Stan" is at the hospital, where Stan fills them in on what is going to happen at the Monster Mash. At the Monster Mash, "Stan" is undercover with Officer Peterson.

Meanwhile, Shelly burns down the Blockbuster.

At the Monster Mash, Randy takes control of Stan's iPad and, in a Frankenstein-esque way, terrorizes the town, angry that no one came to the Blockbuster. After rampaging through the town, Officer Peterson is fatally shot by the police while Stan gets in control of his iPad. The robbers are caught and Butters informs Kyle that "Stan" is "dying". Kyle tries to save Stan but Stan says it's okay and tells Kenny to "stay gold", then Kyle's iPad battery dies as if Stan were really dead. The boys are no longer able to communicate. 

At Blockbuster, Randy has gone completely mad and falls into some snow in the parking lot. The next morning, with Blockbuster completely burned down, Sharon tells Randy she spoke with the insurance company and tells they can some of their money. Sharon gets Randy some McDonald's while he sits there, frozen. Stan gives Randy his iPad with a movie playing.

Critical Reception

AV Club gave "A Nightmare on Face Time" a "B" rating saying: "If the riffs on Blockbuster’s fading glory felt muted, these smaller character moments still worked well. “Randy Being Randy” is always of my strongest parts of the show at this point. Shelly’s intense disgust and shame at having to stay in an empty store with her family felt true. Articulate Kenny is always a highlight. Sneaking these aspects into “A Nightmare On FaceTime” raised the quality of the lesser material surrounding it. Even if those moments couldn’t completely turn the episode as a whole into a classic, they did help elevate it overall."[2]

IGN gave "A Nightmare on Face Time" a "8.6" rating saying: "Having said that, "A Nightmare on FaceTime" wasn't exactly wall-to-wall laughs, but I'll take a comedically sensible storyline over a couple sporadic bursts of laughter any day. And that's not to say this episode was without its laughs -- there was a steady stream of chuckles throughout -- but this week was definitely substance over flash, and in a season that feels like it's been leaning on the latter for the most part, it's good to see an episode that actually feels like it had more than one week to develop. Of course, at the end of the day, you can't really go wrong with a bottomless well of Gangnam Styles to flesh out the background."[3]

References


  1612: "A Nightmare on Face Time" edit
Story Elements

BlockbusterKum & GoSouth Park Monster Mash (2012)The Redbox KillersBlockbuster Employee's Ghost • "Gangnam Style"

Media

ImagesScriptWatch Episode

Release

South Park: The Complete Sixteenth Season


Holiday Episodes
Christmas
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" | "Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!" | "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" | "A Very Crappy Christmas" | "Red Sleigh Down" | "It's Christmas in Canada" | "Woodland Critter Christmas" | "#HappyHolograms" | "Bike Parade" | "Christmas Snow"
Halloween
"Pinkeye" | "Spookyfish" | "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" | "Hell on Earth 2006" | "A Nightmare on Face Time" | "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers" | "Sons A Witches" | "The Scoots" | "Tegridy Farms Halloween Special"
Thanksgiving
"Starvin' Marvin" | "Starvin' Marvin in Space" | "Helen Keller! The Musical" | "A History Channel Thanksgiving" | "Black Friday" | "A Song of Ass and Fire" | "Titties and Dragons"
Easter
"Fantastic Easter Special" | "Jewpacabra"
Others
"Tom's Rhinoplasty" | "Credigree Weed St. Patrick's Day Special" | "Summer Sucks" | "Holiday Special" | "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus" | "Cupid Ye" | "Spring Break"
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