The premise of this episode is on the idea of what if the internet where to stop working? How would mankind react to it and how different things would be if it did stop working. The beginning of the episode opened up on Stan and the Marsh family getting ready for bedtime by Stan’s mom, Sharon. Each member of the family is using rather a desktop or laptop to browse the internet for different things. Stan is checking social media websites and a site similar to YouTube, Shelley is iChatting with her boyfriend Amir, who lives in Montana, and Randy uses the last few moments to check a porn site for the story. Upon waking up Stan finds out that the internet is not working. Shortly after Stan’s father, Randy also tries to use Stan’s computer to no avail. The entire family tries to access the internet with different devices but it just does not work. They visit the Broflovski family to use the internet and it is discovered that they also do not have internet. When they leave the house in a desperate attempt to use Starbucks free wifi, the entire neighborhood seems to have found out that the internet is no longer among them. It becomes a race to Starbucks as the rest of the neighborhood is rioting because they do not have internet. When they do finally reach Starbucks a crowd of people are outside Starbucks and are told that the internet also does not work. The people try to think of a way to find out what is going on with the internet but have no internet to check the news. The towns folk run to the nearest electronics store to see the news on the TV, but that turns out to be useless. The anchorman apologizes about not being able to tell the news since there is no internet to find out the news. The anchorman calls another station on live television to ask if they have internet. Upon the discovery that the other station also does not have internet it is suspected that this is occurring nationwide. Even though its an entire town crowded around the electronics store, Randy Marsh says “Jesus, we are all alone.” This is due to it being a small town in the mountains. The rest of the world seems so much farther away and almost non existent to this small community. Eight days pass and still no internet. The Marsh family is just sitting around not knowing what to do anymore and decide to take some course of action. They decide to go to Califronee Way on rumors that they have some internet there. Much like the gold rush, people from all around the country flock to California in hopes of a better life, a life with cat videos as far as the eye can handle. The episode transitions into black and white as the Marsh family is staying at a transient camp with the other travelers. Dreams of what each person are going to do when they get some internet is traded amongst the people. Then the thought of “What if they do finally get some internet but it is so small you can’t do anything with it?” They reach Silicon Valley to find what can be assumed as a few hundred thousand people also had the same idea to go to Californee. The internet has to be rationed out and people are given tickets to use the internet. When the number is called, the person has only a few moments to use the internet. The Internet is discovered to be a giant router that is blinking orange instead of solid green. No one that works with the Internet knows how to fix it. Randy talks to one of the Red Cross soldiers in order to use the internet privately so he can jack off. As Randy states, “I haven’t jacked off in two weeks. Once you watch two Japanese girls puke in each others mouth, Playboy doesn't cut it any more.” When the Internet is shown on live television Kyle thinks of a way to fix it. Primarily due to its resemblance to common routers. He then sets off to fix the internet. It cuts back to the refugee camp as the Red Cross workers are putting away the internet for the night. Randy notices this and sees it as an opportunity to use the internet. Randy sneaks into the building through a window and proceeds to look for porn. He quickly browses through different fetish sites to get his fix. Due to the loud moans Randy is making, the Red Cross workers rush in to stop Randy but it is too late. Randy climaxes before they can stop him and blames it on the ghost. As well as claiming that the semen coated walls were because of a ghost and the the semen was ectoplasm.
It returns back to the Internet again because Kyle is going to try get the Internet to work again. Kyle simply unplugs it and plugs it back in and the internet works again. When it shows the people in the refugee camp rejoicing that the internet is working again, Amir finds Shelley in the crowd. Now that they are face-to-face they are unable to talk to one another even though they are “internet dating.” The final scene is of Randy holding a press conference about preserving the internet in case it stops working again.
One of the major things that I took from this episode is something I think about a lot. What happens when the internet or technology as a whole stops working. Can people still function without cell phones? Can people still eat food without taking a picture and posting it online? Can people find things out by talking to a person instead of a post? I'm not going to lie, I'm as hooked to technology as the next guy but for many it is all they can comprehend. Especially small children that are growing up now. A library is an archaic idea that wouldn't make sense without the plethora of computers in the corner. Give me a compass and a map and I will be lost for a few days trying to go to the supermarket. So I feel like something, not as severe but similar to what the show depicted is a possibility. People would just not know what to do with themselves and kinda just wander around in hopes to fill the void.