Halloween in South Park: Final episode destroys Trump for tearing down the White House | South Park

TThe second episode of South Park’s surprise 28th season was supposed to air last Wednesday (the immediately preceding Season 27 was only five episodes) but it ended up being pushed back to Friday. This worked to the show’s advantage, since tonight’s episode, titled “The Woman in the Hat,” is very Halloween-specific.

After the closing of Tigredy Farms, the Marsh family finds themselves rudderless, living in hotels while patriarch Randy looks for work (thanks to the federal government shutdown, he can’t return to his former job as a government geologist). Out of desperation, Randy moves his family to a seniors’ home where he hides his elderly father.

This leads a bitter Stan Marsh to lament, “South Park sucks now… and it’s because of this political bullshit.” Remembering the simpler times when the boys used to do things together, he teams up with his best friends Kyle and Kenny, as well as Kyle’s stereotypical New Yorker, Cousin Kyle, to launch a new meme coin. Cousin Kyle uses “clever Jewish jutsu” to “rob a lot of people of their money.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., President Trump oversees the destruction of the East Wing of the White House. Even though he promised his beloved Devil that the remodel is for a new nursery for their upcoming beloved child, he fully intends to build another festive space for himself. Trump’s plans are derailed when he receives word from his inner circle—including brown-nosed Pam Bondi (her face covered in literal feces, or “rectum”) and ogre Stephen Miller—that unknown forces are conspiring to kill him and Satan’s child. Despite trying to force an abortion himself, the already paranoid Trump is horrified by the news, and finds himself haunted by the ghost of wife Melania, who appears as a ghostly character from a Japanese horror film, along the lines of The Ring or The Grudge.

(The real murderous mastermind behind it all, J.D. Vance, continues to conspire with co-conspirator Peter Thiel, who keeps a demonically possessed Eric Cartman on ice.)

These disparate threads come together when Cousin Kyle seeks White House approval to offload cryptocurrency to the boys, only to find himself part of an impromptu seance alongside Trump, Bondi, Miller, Vance, Don Jr., Kristi Noem, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr (still nursing injuries sustained several episodes ago). A ghostly fury descends on the party, threatening to expose Trump’s ties to Epstein and Vance’s power grab until Cousin Kyle, wracked by guilt, admits that “Cryptocurrency is just a money laundering scheme for the rich to get richer!” Cut to a blatant alert on Fox News announcing that Bondi — her entire face still covered in feces — has accused Cousin Kyle of cryptocurrency fraud. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Bondi vows to “charge anyone who says bad things about our amazing president.”

Back home, a defeated Stan realizes that “there is no real return to the way things were before.” Kyle tries to console him, promising that things will go back to normal at some point, but the dark and bright note that ends the episode casts doubt on this.

Another solid building block in what, when all is said and done, promises to be South Park’s most ambitious season (or two) yet. Although the series has always dealt with current events, it has never integrated them into long-term storytelling in this way.

At the same time, series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are clearly aware that the intensity of the political satire in these final seasons is alienating some of their longtime fans, who likely feel the show has gone too far in that direction. This episode’s self-mockery may not placate these critics, but it puts Stone and Parker’s point into sharp relief: As the world changed, so did South Park. According to Kyle’s voice of reason, there’s no point in trying to go back to simpler times – all anyone can do is “make the most of where we are.”