Review: South Park “Sons a Witches”

Get your pointy hats ready, its time to party with Randy and the gang.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This week’s South Park kicks off with a spooky version of their classic opening theme; a refreshing twist in the opening that’s a delight to see. After the opening, we see that Randy is getting ready for a week-long celebration he spends with the other dads of South Park leading up to Halloween. A celebration he and his buddies dress up like witches, go to a secret hill in the woods and, of course, get drunk…and smoke crack, apparently. But this Witch’s mass of bro-dads takes a turn for the occult when one of the guys brings out an actual spell book he got from Salem, Massachusetts, which promises black magic rituals from the Devil himself. Randy and pals, naturally, are all for it. Meanwhile, Cartman is at his wit’s end trying to get his girlfriend, Heidi Turner, to make it to the pumpkin patch in time to get a good pumpkin before they all get taken. Despite his profane, exasperated efforts, they don’t make it on time.

Cartman’s pumpkin patch visit coincides with the black magic ritual Randy and his witches are performing, which actually works! Randy’s friend reading the incantation is possessed by ghastly-looking witch which flies on a broom and proceeds to terrorize South Park with exploding pumpkins. This puts a swift end to Cartman’s evening as the pumpkin patch is burned to the ground,  and leaves Cartman the only boy in his class who doesn’t have a pumpkin. Randy and his friends get grief from their wives about still wanting to be witches when an actual witch is out there murdering people, but declare it discrimination against all of them just because of “One bad witch.” All the while Cartman decides that the only way to get out of his relationship with Heidi is to murder her, taking things too far as always.

Cartman decides to take advantage of the witch situation to set up a trap for Heidi at a fake Halloween party, as Randy and the witches pull together in song to try and win over the kids of South Park and continue their 20-year-old tradition without fear of discrimination. But Steven, one of the dads, wants to confess to the public that they were smoking crack during their witch time. Randy responds by calling the other witches and telling them they have until morning to sacrifice Steven to the Devil. Cartman then enacts his plan by luring Heidi to the woods as bait for the witch to come by and kidnap. The plan works, and Cartman is questioned by the police about Heidi’s kidnapping. On the other side of town, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Butters find out President Garrison used to be one of the South Park witches, so they give him a call and ask him for aid.

The episode comes to its dramatic conclusion when the witches try to sacrifice Steven, proclaiming him a “bad witch” so Randy and the others can save face, but are interrupted by the real witch coming down and making them all look bad. But then, President Garrison flies in on Air Force One and shows the bad witch what real power is by assassinating him with a laser fired from a sub-orbital satellite. The day is saved and all is returned to normal as Heidi is released from the Witch’s clutches and Randy goes to a party with his friends and President Garrison on Air Force One.

Our Take

This episode has a lot of good things going for it which make it one of the more quality episodes of the season. Randy’s deadpan sensitivity to an actual witch slaughtering people in town is gold, and I love the absurdity of their sacred ritual where literally all they do is smoke crack and drink Jack Daniels. It feels like classic South Park, with a silly, but an entertaining premise that is never too needlessly consistent. It’s the kind of episode that’s more fun than it is funny. Part of me thinks that’s just what South Park is trying to be these days; a loud, ever-witty chuckle comedy more focused on the fantasy at hand than comedic hilarity. Regardless, I enjoyed it. It’s a pretty fun ride and one of the better episodes in the season.

Score
7/10