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Coming off its most controversial and highest rated season in years, South Park had high expectations to meet with its season finale. Given how infamously down-to-the-wire its production schedule is – showrunners Matt Stone and Trey Parker often don’t start writing scripts until the week they’re set to air, working up to the 11th hour to turn in a completed episode (a method that caused them to miss a deadline earlier this year) – there was some question as to whether they would be able to tie everything up at all, let alone in a satisfying manner.
Most viewers were probably anticipating a giant, apocalyptic climax to the various long-running storylines – chief among them Donald Trump’s attempts to kill his and his lover Satan’s soon-to-be-born spawn. Instead, Stone and Parker swerved expectations, delivering an introspective and ultimately melancholy climax, one that managed to balance hope and despair in equal measure, alongside the outrageous shock humour for which they’re famous.
Only one of South Park’s main foursome appears in tonight’s episode. Stan Marsh, depressed over the horrible year he’s had (his father lost the family weed farm, forcing the Marshes to move in with their grandfather at a senior living facility), seeks solace in school guidance counsellor Jesus, only to find the son of God has joined Maga and “became all Christian”. (The darkest joke of the episode revolves around Jesus hitting rock bottom – literally, as he has begun physically abusing his girlfriend, Peggy Rockbottom.)
Rebuffed by Jesus, Stan attempts to conjure up his old pal Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo (last seen in a season 22 episode from 2018). His prayers are answered not by the friendly sentient turd, but instead the Woodland Critters, a group of adorable forest animals whose cute and jolly demeanour belies a satanic taste for murder and mayhem. They have come to usher in the birth of the antichrist in what they’ve dubbed “the crap out” (also the episode’s title).
Meanwhile, their master, Satan, has uncovered the truth behind Trump and Vice-President JD Vance’s schemes to kill his baby, along with their recent sexual trysts, thanks to help from Towelie, the weed-addicted talking towel given to Trump earlier this season by a ketamine-crazed Randy Marsh, Stan’s father. Towelie, who has suffered the horrible indignity of being used as the president’s semen rag, has his own desire for revenge, so just as soon as he gets high, he and Satan pursue Trump and Vance looking for payback.
Trump and Vance, of course, have come to South Park to bust out of jail the secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, and the billionaire antichrist expert Peter Thiel. All parties converge in the town square for a showdown, only to be thwarted by Jesus on behalf of Trump. Satan’s water breaks and the action moves over to the local hospital, where doctors pronounce the child has died in the womb, the result of a suicide suspiciously similar to Jeffrey Epstein’s (the foetus supposedly hung itself, although there is a minute of ultrasound footage mysteriously missing). Once again, Trump has skirted all responsibility, avoiding any reckoning for his evil ways.
As Trump parties at the White House and a devastated Satan packs his belongings and heads back to hell, Jesus sees the error of his ways, apologising to Stan and bestowing upon him an actual Christmas miracle in the form of his former family home. It’s the first time in several seasons that Stan’s house has been seen (his bedroom, replete with his Mad Max-inspired movie poster, is a sight for sore eyes), marking this as not just a season closer, but something of a reset.
The episode is loaded with references to the show’s past, foremost among them the various references to “the spirit of Christmas”. That was the title of Stone and Parker’s two short films that served as the genesis of the show more than 30 years ago. South Park and Christmas are inextricably linked, so it’s only fitting that the finale to this already iconic season should also serve as its latest yuletide special.
At the same time, Parker and Stone are clearly looking to the future, including their continuing fight on behalf of freedom of speech (when, late in the episode, Jesus declares: “Go ahead and sue me, I’m not going to be afraid any more,” it’s clearly Stone and Parker making a stand).
Since this season kicked off with the pair’s $1.5bn (£1.1bn), 50-episode deal with Paramount, we know there are 40 more episodes of South Park remaining (with nothing to indicate Parker and Stone won’t sign a new deal for future seasons later). And while it’s a fool’s errand to try to guess what next season has in store, we can probably assume the duo are not finished with Trump and his cronies. The destruction those in office have wreaked on the US has clearly inflamed the duo more than anything else in years, while, somewhat ironically, bringing those same characters into the show has also breathed new life into it.
English (US)