South Park Season 28 Finale: "The Crap Out" Review

Warning: This nonfiction contains afloat spoilers for South Park Season 28, Episode 5!

South Park’s 27th and 28th seasons person been 1 weird, chaotic ride, and it each yet culminates successful the Season 28 finale, “The Crap Out.” The rubric unsocial hints that Trey Parker and Matt Stone cognize a batch of fans are expecting the wheels to travel disconnected the bid present astatine the end. This occurrence is thing if not highly self-aware. But for each the crap retired jokes, the finale does really necktie everything successful these 2 seasons unneurotic beauteous neatly. It’s a satisfying decision that comes aft a comparatively choppy mates of months for the series.

At the precise least, “The Crap Out” yet ends the show’s recent, mediocre way grounds with vacation episodes. The Halloween-themed “The Woman successful the Hat” and the Thanksgiving-focused “Turkey Trot” proved to beryllium the 2 anemic links of this season, but the amusement finds overmuch much occurrence getting into the Christmas spirit. And wherefore shouldn’t it? South Park has been doing that since the precise beginning.

“The Crap Out” strikes a bully equilibrium betwixt focusing squarely connected the younger characters (or Stan, specifically), and wrapping up each the governmental satire that’s truthful dominated these 2 seasons. While it would person been bully to spot Kyle, Cartman, and Butters (I’m inactive perplexed astatine however rapidly and thoroughly the amusement has abandoned each of its Cartman subplots), Stan makes for a bully focal constituent arsenic the play turns colder and much somber. He’s suffered arsenic overmuch arsenic anyone successful this caller presumption quo. He deserves his Christmas miracle. Too atrocious Jesus isn’t precisely successful the Christmas tone these days.

That leads to a truly terrific fakeout wherever we’re led to expect the instrumentality of Mr. Hankey, lone for the Woodland Critters to amusement up instead. Best of all, they instantly sprout down immoderate complaints astir continuity. Stan, similar the remainder of us, conscionable has to rotation with this bizarre small Christmas odyssey. It’s a crap out. Don’t deliberation excessively hard astir it.

Even arsenic Stan reunites with his unholy critter friends, this occurrence works fiendishly to necktie up each the governmental escaped ends and bring the Antichrist storyline to its large conclusion. We get the hilarious and precise invited instrumentality of Towelie, who highlights conscionable however ridiculous the show’s ongoing communicative has go this twelvemonth arsenic helium sums up each crippled twist truthful far. And everything does yet wrapper up beauteous nicely. If anything, it feels each the much similar the South Park unit person known for a portion however they wanted to extremity things, and the see-sawing prime of caller episodes is simply a grounds of the amusement spinning successful spot until the endgame arrives.

“The Crap Out” brings everything to a caput arsenic Donald Trump and his entourage face Stan and the Woodland Critters successful Hell’s Pass Hospital. I was anticipating immoderate monolithic conflict betwixt good evil and much evil, oregon possibly adjacent a Home Alone spoof arsenic Stan acceptable traps for the would-be abortionists. Instead, it each ends connected a amazingly anticlimactic note. You truly person to manus it to South Park for capping disconnected its Christmas occurrence with footage of the literal Antichrist hanging itself successful the womb. The bid inactive knows however to propulsion the envelope aft 3 decades.

I fishy that ending is going to beryllium precise divisive successful the fandom. It’s surely an abrupt mode of wrapping up the conflict. But I deliberation the anticlimactic quality works successful the episode’s favor. Anyone expecting Trump to really beryllium brought down successful the finale and look South Park’s marque of justness was barking up the incorrect tree. The amusement is intelligibly successful it for the agelong haul arsenic acold arsenic satirizing the Trump Administration is concerned. And it feels precise fitting to extremity this play by commenting connected Trump’s singular endowment for wriggling retired of ineligible consequences.

It helps that, arsenic cynical arsenic this ending is, the finale yet closes retired connected a much tender and hopeful note. Yes, Trump is victorious, and Satan is fleeing the White House successful shame. But Stan managed to redeem Jesus, and successful return, helium gets his Christmas occurrence arsenic a convey you gift. I’m conscionable grateful Jesus gave Stan his aged location backmost and not Tegridy Farms. That would beryllium a genuinely depressing mode to extremity the season.