The longtime feud between South Park's Kyle and Eric is a cornerstone of the series, but the newest special shows that that feud might be life long.
In South Park's Post Covid: The Return of Covid, the show explores the sad continuation of Eric and Kyle's feud into adulthood. The newest South Park special follows Stan, Kyle, and Eric in the future as Covid threatens to make its return, shutting the city down for another thirty to fifty years. The group struggles with their interpersonal fallout from the Vaccination Special in season 24 while also trying to go back in time to stop the pandemic.
During South Park the series, the feud between Kyle and Eric has been featured in most episodes. Kyle's sense of morality puts him at odds with Eric's brazen immorality, and Eric's general antisemitism and victim complex make him vilify Kyle. The two genuinely hate each other despite having the same friend group. In the future, it doesn't seem like their feud gets any better.
In the original timeline of South Park Post Covid 2, Eric has become a rabbi with a loving wife and three kids while Kyle has ended up a miserable school counselor. Despite their friendship falling apart in the Vaccination Special, Eric and Kyle seem to still be at odds as adults. Eric tells his family that "uncle Kyle" is trying to separate them and hurt them because they are Jewish, instilling a fear of Kyle in his family. While Stan and Kyle try to go back in time to stop covid from happening, Eric is simultaneously racing them to go back in time and kill Kyle. While this seems like another ploy because of his hatred for Kyle, Eric is actually terrified of losing his family if the timeline changes. In the end, they work together to save young Kyle and fix the pandemic, changing the future to the good timeline.
In the saved timeline, Eric's adult ending looks very different. Kyle has a happy family that Stan greets upon returning for the holidays. This future is Covid free, and the characters have all ended up where they're supposed to. Unfortunately, Eric's life is not as great as the others. Stan, Kyle, and Butters see him outside the Denny's Applebee's Max homeless and drunk, swearing at the building. The profoundly devastating scene proves that Eric had a right to fear the future being changed in the Covid timeline, as he never met his wife and had kids in the "good" future. Stan and Kyle lament that Eric was never able to do anything with his life, but Butters, no longer Post Covid's Victor Chaos in this timeline, says there was nothing that could have changed Eric's path.
These two conflicting timelines prove that Kyle and Eric will always be at odds. The two are unable to both be happy at the same time; one of them must be suffering in order for the other to find happiness. Eric was ready to kill Kyle to protect his family in the Covid timeline, and Kyle is uninterested in helping Eric in the good timeline. Unfortunately, it seems like the two South Park character's feud will always end in one of them losing.
