So "Splatty Tomato." The tenth episode and the season finale of the twenty-first season of South Park. After the events of last episode, President Garrison is desperately trying to salvage his approval rating after basically deporting a nuclear bomb to Canada. Now with the President on the run, the people of South Park band together to retrieve Garrison.
OK, so season twenty one was okay at best. To be honest, this season was rather forgettable. There were some highlights in the season such as Eric manipulating his girlfriend Heidi into being more like himself; as a result, she became fat and cruel. One episode perfectly reflected how similar Heidi's situation was with Cartman to how the Cabinet was dealing with Garrison, who is by all intents and purposes, a stand in for Trump. Despite Garrison committing reprehensible acts against his own staff, they tried to continue the illusion that nothing was amiss. Which is pretty close to real life as the same can be said about a certain orange-haired man's current presidency. The circumstances that the staff face connects with Heidi. She finally realized how much of a negative influence Cartman was over her, and she dumps him. However instead of consoling her, Heidi's friends instead mock her by saying that they told her so. Because she refused to admit that they were right in their criticism, she instead swallows her pride and reinstates her relationship with Eric. At the very least, she realized finally that Cartman was a sociopathic monster (who would've guessed) and breaks up with him for real this time.
I guess what made this season kind of drag a bit was the real life circumstances behind the real life presidential campaign. Because it wasn't anticipated that Trump would actually win the 2016 election, Trey and Park simply are at a loss as to how to go about this turn of events. Really, what more can you say? Trump won. Any kind of jokes you could've possibly made about the plausibility of what a Trump-centered presidency would bring had basically come to realization. So in this episode, Garrison tries to get his approval up, but he ends up terrorizing the children of South Park instead. In some ways it is funny because of how over the top they play it, but you can get the impression that the writers are at a loss to do with Garrison at this point.
Now the references. They are actually pretty funny. The main ones are on Netflix's series Stranger Things and the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's It. They are funny in how they are used. For instance, one kid sees a red balloon with the words "Make America Great Again" which then pops, revealing Garrison to be behind it. And the other reference is how Ike goes to search or Garrison to avenge his native country Canada. It also poked fun at how 80s music was employed in It. That was one of my complaints with the film in how moments meant to be sinister or sad are often immediately accompanied by generic eighties music. It destroys the mood entirely. However, the references also work against the episode. Because they were alluding to two different works it made the storyline somewhat wonky, and it doesn't help that they also throw in a nod to Friday the 13th in one instance.
Some elements of the episode's plot didn't bode with me well. The episode felt as though it glossed over the events of what happened in last week's episode. For instance, Kyle seems to completely get over the fact that by talking the President into taking action against Canada, he was indirectly to blame for the bombing. While the bombing of Canada is mentioned, and it's what drives Ike to search for Garrison, it's mainly ignored in order for the search for the President to be in the forefront. And then you get the mini-plot of Heidi reminiscing on what her life was like before meeting Cartman, but that's pushed to the side until the last seconds of the episode. Then you have the White family, the stand ins for anyone who still believes that they were right with voting Trump into the White House. They don't contribute much in the episode, and it was blatantly obvious their purpose is for the episode. Basically the joke is that since they're a Caucasian family, they feel as if they are getting the short end of the stick. Look, I get it: it's not funny. Lastly, there's the subplot between PC Principal and Strong Woman that began in the previous episode, Nothing is done with the relationship other than how they take Butters out to a restaurant to excuse them dating each other because god forbid if anyone in the workplace are seeing each other. And Butters doesn't seem to care that much that his Canadian girlfriend very well could've been one of the many casualties.
Overall, "Splatty Tomato" was an okay episode, but as for a season finale, it was underwhelming.
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