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"The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" is the thirteenth episode of Season Six, and the 92nd overall episode of South Park. It aired on November 13, 2002.[1]

Synopsis

The boys are on a mission: return "The Lord of the Rings" to the Two Towers Video Store in Conifer. But this is no ordinary copy. Butters, the evil sixth graders , and the boys' parents all try to steal the tape from the boys.

Plot

The episode starts with Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny (currently possessing Cartman) playing "The Lord of the Rings". Stan's parents have rented the movie, The Lord of the Rings, and tell Stan, Kyle and Cartman to bring it to Butters' parents, as they had asked to borrow it. Still caught up in their game, the boys see this assignment as a "quest", and set off on their journey. When the boys leave, Stan's parents try to watch Back Door Sluts 9, a pornographic movie described as the most "hardcore" porno ever and the "single most vile, twisted, dark piece of porn ever produced." It is said that Backdoor Sluts 9 makes Crotch Capers 3 look like Naughty Nurses 2. To their horror, they discover that Randy accidentally got The Lord of the Rings video and the pornographic movie mixed up, and realize that Butters is now watching it at his house.

The two drive to Butters' house, and come across the boys returning home, having already delivered the tape. Stan's father plays into the boys' imagination and sends them on their greatest quest ever: retrieve the tape - but to not look at it - as it "holds an evil power." Excited, the boys eagerly comply and set off toward Butters' house. They arrive and take the tape, but not before discovering that Butters, though not realizing the nature of it, has watched the movie and becomes obsessed with it. Denied the video and excluded from the boys' game, Butters' becomes steadily more insane, and remains secluded in the basement, muttering about his "precious" and generally acting like Gollum (From Lord of the Rings). At this point the Marshes, who have grown worried that the boys have not returned, show up. Distraught at Butters' behavior, they assume that the boys now have the tape and are watching it. Contacting the other parents, they go on a desperate search to find the missing children and "put it into context."

Returning home, the boys run into some 6th graders, who look inside the box and realize that the tape is actually a pornographic movie. Although they try to take the tape, the boys are able to escape and decide to take it to the council of the High Elf of Faragon (Clyde Donovan). At the council, at which most of the fourth-graders are present (in The Lord of the Rings costumes), it is decided that to determine the tape's power, they should send one of their own to watch it for a few minutes. Talangar the Black (Token Black) is volunteered, and steps inside his house for a moment. He soon comes out, expressionless, and announces that he's not playing anymore without an explanation. Now truly convinced of the tape's power, the council decides the tape must be returned to the Two Towers video store "from whence it came", and forms the "Fellowship of The Lord of the Rings", which consists of Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Craig Tucker, Jimmy Valmer, an unnamed kindergartener, and Eric Cartman, who's possessed by Kenny McCormick.

The boys go to the store and, after avoiding a run-in with the 6th graders, in which their party loses Jimmy (who oddly doesn't query the fact that it was a porno-tape when confronted by the adults), they join Butters, who offers to guide them to the store in a thinly veiled attempt to get the tape back. Soon all the boys wind up at the Two Towers, and with the 6th graders in hot pursuit they desperately try to return the tape to the drop box. When Butters refuses to let go of it, Kyle throws him and the tape into the drop box. Angered at losing their movie, the 6th graders threaten to beat the boys up, but flee when the parents arrive. The parents then go into a long discussion with the astonished boys about sex, touching on such subjects as 69ing and double penetration. The boys (who never actually watched the movie that their parents are so graphically describing) are speechless. The episode ends with a view of Butters, clutching his "precious" among a pile of other returned tapes in the drop box.

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