Review: South Park “Splatty Tomato”

Hard to believe Mr. Garrison used to be a school teacher.

Overview (Spoilers Below)
President Garrison, after nuking Toronto, is lurking around South Park scaring the children, asking about his approval ratings. Meanwhile, Kyle, lamenting over his role in the nuking of Canada, is at odds with his adopted Canadian brother Ike. In the background of this, PC Principal and Strong Woman’s relationship is blooming quite nicely as they deal with the conservative parents of South Park.

President Garrison’s approval rating continues to drop and his presidency is considered a “Splatty Tomato” on the popularity scale, and the Canadian prime minister calls for him to be brought to justice. In a full-on parody of Stephen King’s “It” and the popular 80s nostalgia mystery show “Stranger Things”, the South Park kids gather together with Stan’s dad, Randy, to deal with President Garrison and his lurking behavior.

As tensions rise, Ike decides to take matters into his own hands and search for President Garrison on his own, while PC Principal and Strong Woman try to maintain their relationship while hiding their love from a world they believe won’t understand them. Kyle and friends head out into the woods with some “kickass 80s music” in order to find Ike. The adults of South Park also take their own stand against President Garrison, by just ignoring him and hoping that he’ll eventually leave South Park alone. But the “White” family, who still supports President Garrison, sabotages their efforts by leaving sandwiches out for President Garrison to find and keeping him away from the traps the police lay out for him to fall into.

Kyle’s efforts to find Ike turn up short, but the search brings up some tension between Cartman and Heidi, who believes (Correctly) that Cartman isn’t treating her as well as he used to. Meanwhile, the adults of South Park find President Garrison’s supposed hideout in the woods, where, in a surprise twist, PC Principal and Strong Woman are canoodling. Their relationship is exposed to the adults of South Park, who all collectively vomit at the notion of two coworkers dating each other, validating the worst fears of PC Principal and Strong Woman. Heidi, meanwhile, begins to realize how much her relationship with Cartman has changed her into the monstrous person she is now.

In a turn of events, President Garrison is caught by Ike, who, with his inherent Canadian “mountie” skills, catches President Garrison and turns him over to the town. The Whites draw a gun on the townsfolk in an attempt to save President Garrison, but their complaints fall on deaf ears. Heidi steals the gun and confronts Cartman about his manipulative behavior and self-victimization, and realizes that she needs to break up with him. The episode ends with her walking away from Cartman as he threatens to kill himself if Heidi doesn’t come back, and we see that President Garrison has managed to break free of his bonds and is on the loose again, and it’s up to the White family to stop him.

Our Take:

As far as this episode goes, I’ve definitely enjoyed it more than the other fare that this season of South Park has produced. There’s a lot going on here with at least three different plot lines being explored, but the trouble is that this scatters the shot in too many directions. South Park is best when its focused when it can take the time to shape out and explore its rich parodies and absurd depictions of our world. But an episode like this feels too frayed out to really make me laugh or excite me. It’s not that the episode is bad or insulting in its quality, just that it’s lukewarm. Its treading water, and in a veteran show like South Park, which is known for breaking the mold, that’s really quite disappointing.