by Evan Fischer
The male adults of South Park are once again front and center this week as they relentlessly poke fun at male culture in a particularly interesting way in “Sons a Witches”. This episode focuses on the fathers of the town, who are some of the stronger characters in the series, along with another weak Cartman and Heidi subplot which unfortunately detracts from the rest of the episode.
Image from "Sons a Witches"
A witch-clad Randy leaves his house armed with a box of Jack Daniels to carpool with his friends, who also happen to be dressed as witches. It isn’t long before it's revealed that it is a yearly tradition for the men of South Park to dress as witches for the week leading up to Halloween while they sit around a fire, drink whiskey and of course smoke crack.
While the men of South Park are partaking in “Jack and Crack Witch Week” Cartman is trying to get to the pumpkin patch with Heidi. As Cartman urges her to hurry up, she seems to always find something she still needs to do. Unfortunately, this “joke” is used repeatedly throughout the episode despite it not being funny the first time.
The festivities of Witch Week are cut short when Chip Duncan produces a spell book he bought in Salem, Massachusetts. When he reads from it he turns into a real witch and rides into town to terrorize the people and steal children. What follows is an episode in which Randy and the rest of the men of South Park try to distance themselves as much as possible from Chip.
By the time Cartman and Heidi finally make it to the pumpkin patch, Chip has flown into town on his broom and burned the patch down. This leads to a promising future for the Cartman/Heidi plotline as Cartman’s rage towards her leads to him planning her death. Classic Cartman appears in these scenes when his dark side is shows and it is great. These scenes depicting how evil Cartman really is are a blissful reminder of who he was in the first place and, although the worst thing he does in this episode doesn’t even hold a light to past seasons, it provides a hopeful future.
Image from "Sons a Witches"
The parents continue their mission to convince the town they aren’t like Chip. Convinced the town is on a “witch pursuit thingy,” they go from school assemblies to sacrifices to the devil to convince the town they aren’t the town-murdering, child-stealing kinds of witches that Chip is. What follows is a fantastic showdown involving South Park’s surrogate Trump, Mr. Garrison, who is always a pleasure to see.
Overall, “Sons of Witches” provides another solid episode of this season. Unfortunately, the Cartman and Heidi subplot continues to disappoint despite the promise of a payoff. Although some of the jokes fall flat, the episode is an overall good time and is definitely worth a watch for a laugh or two.
Featured image from South Park Archives
