Entertainment
South Park’s Holiday Episode Aims To Setup A Clean Payoff
By Robert Scucci
| Published
South Park has had one heck of a run of episodes since Season 27 premiered in July. Nine episodes later, we’ve somehow worked our way through four fifths of Season 28 with “Turkey Trot,” an episode that pushes both seasons’ moving parts into one cohesive place. There’s a lot to unpack in “Turkey Trot,” and it does the unthinkable by doing a considerable amount of heavy lifting on the narrative front without really doing much at all. Honestly, it was a refreshing installment that addresses most of the plotlines that haven’t yet been resolved in a single setting, and positions them for a payoff on December 10 that might actually land.
The 28th Annual Turkey Trot Brings It All Back
The meat and potatoes story in “Turkey Trot” revolves around the boys. Eager to win the $5,000 cash prize for finishing first in the Turkey Trot 5k (Sponsored by Saudi Arabia, and advertised through a hilarious live-action commercial), Cartman uses his self-proclaimed prowess in “race science” (get used to the pun, he uses it a lot) to recruit Tolkien Black and boost his odds. Not wanting to participate in the race, Tolkien doesn’t feel right about taking money from Saudi Arabia for moral reasons, even though Cartman assumes he’s a great runner because, in his mind, all Black kids are great athletes. Cartman reverse engineers his own racism, projecting it onto Tolkien, insisting that participating in the 5k is the most progressive thing he could do.
Using the Turkey Trot 5k as a framing device, Trey Parker and Matt Stone pull everyone back into the fold to set up their resolutions. Detective Harris is trying to keep Pete Hegseth at bay, who’s attempting to rescue Peter Thiel from jail so he can make it to Washington DC and help with Trump and J.D. Vance’s abortion plot against Satan’s butt baby. Meanwhile, Kristi Noem, now working for Homeland Security (and still shooting dogs), fights with Hegseth over their war strategy against South Park, who they believe is leading an Antifa uprising against the President. Their efforts are mostly ineffective because the only thing either of them truly cares about is cranking out more content for their social media verticals.
With the whole town of South Park congregating in such a big way, we get a Thanksgiving feast of setups for potential payoff in “Turkey Trot,” including Mr. Mackey’s unceremonious return from his stint with ICE. He’s desperate for the cash prize because he clearly failed to get his nut in Season 27’s “Got a Nut.” Casting a wide net to reel in all of the last two season’s disparate narrative threads, South Park is doing what it does best by letting every single storyline chaotically collide in one place before the run’s upcoming final episode.
A Great Way To End Such A Frustrating Run
As much as I’ve railed on Season 27 and 28 for leaning so topical that I’ll probably never rewatch the run again, it’s impressive how Parker and Stone have primed themselves to stick the landing with a strong conclusion. Acknowledging that they feel bogged down by the political plotlines in “The Woman in the Hat,” it’s clear they know leaning this hard into politics isn’t necessarily how they want to handle the show, but something they felt morally obligated to do.
By shifting the narrative back to the boys and the rest of South Park’s residents, we’ve had some strong episodes over the past several weeks, and it’s because we’re getting back to classic South Park territory where the focus is on small town absurdity, and the political stuff operates as the B story. When the boys are fully in the mix, and not just an afterthought, South Park always thrives, and hopefully this energy will carry into the season finale on December 10.
South Park is streaming on Paramount+.
