Warning: This article contains full spoilers for South Park Season 28, Episode 5!
South Park’s 27th and 28th seasons have been one weird, wild ride, and it all finally culminates in the Season 28 finale, “The Crap Out.” The title alone hints that Trey Parker and Matt Stone know a lot of fans are expecting the wheels to come off the train here at the end. This episode is nothing if not extremely self-aware. But for all the crap out jokes, the finale does actually tie everything in these two seasons together pretty neatly. It’s a satisfying conclusion that comes after a relatively choppy couple of months for the series.
At the very least, “The Crap Out” finally ends the show’s recent, poor track record with holiday episodes. The Halloween-themed “The Woman in the Hat” and the Thanksgiving-focused “Turkey Trot” proved to be the two weak links of this season, but the show finds much more success getting into the Christmas spirit. And why shouldn’t it? South Park has been doing that since the very beginning.
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“The Crap Out” strikes a nice balance between focusing squarely on the younger characters (or Stan, specifically), and wrapping up all the political satire that’s so dominated these two seasons. While it would have been nice to see Kyle, Cartman, and Butters (I’m still perplexed at how quickly and thoroughly the show has abandoned all of its Cartman subplots), Stan makes for a good focal point as the season turns colder and more somber. He’s suffered as much as anyone in this new status quo. He deserves his Christmas miracle. Too bad Jesus isn’t exactly in the Christmas spirit these days.
That leads to a really terrific fakeout where we’re led to expect the return of Mr. Hankey, only for the Woodland Critters to show up instead. Best of all, they immediately shoot down any complaints about continuity. Stan, like the rest of us, just has to roll with this bizarre little Christmas odyssey. It’s a crap out. Don’t think too hard about it.
Even as Stan reunites with his unholy critter friends, this episode works fiendishly to tie up all the political loose ends and bring the Antichrist storyline to its big conclusion. We get the hilarious and very welcome return of Towelie, who highlights just how ridiculous the show’s ongoing narrative has become this year as he sums up every plot twist so far. And everything does ultimately wrap up pretty nicely. If anything, it feels all the more like the South Park crew have known for a while how they wanted to end things, and the see-sawing quality of recent episodes is a symptom of the show spinning in place until the endgame arrives.
What We Thought About South Park Season 28, Episode 4
“After such a strong start to this 2025 season, it’s disappointing to see South Park stumble again with a holiday-themed episode. “Turkey Trot” has some entertainment value to offer as it lampoons Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, but too much of this episode relies on rehashing familiar beats and cycling through the same jokes ad nauseum. There’s especially a lot of wasted potential on the Saudi Arabia front. All in all, this isn’t a great way to set the stage for Season 28’s grand finale in two weeks.” -Jesse Schedeen, November 29, 2026
Click here to read the full “Turkey Trot” review.
“The Crap Out” brings everything to a head as Donald Trump and his entourage confront Stan and the Woodland Critters in Hell’s Pass Hospital. I was anticipating some massive battle between good evil and more evil, or maybe even a Home Alone spoof as Stan set traps for the would-be abortionists. Instead, it all ends on a surprisingly anticlimactic note. You really have to hand it to South Park for capping off its Christmas episode with footage of the literal Antichrist hanging itself in the womb. The series still knows how to push the envelope after three decades.
I suspect that ending is going to prove very divisive in the fandom. It’s certainly an abrupt way of wrapping up the conflict. But I think the anticlimactic nature works in the episode’s favor. Anyone expecting Trump to actually be brought down in the finale and face South Park’s brand of justice was barking up the wrong tree. The show is clearly in it for the long haul as far as satirizing the Trump Administration is concerned. And it feels very fitting to end this season by commenting on Trump’s singular talent for wriggling out of legal consequences.
It helps that, as cynical as this ending is, the finale ultimately closes out on a more tender and hopeful note. Yes, Trump is victorious, and Satan is fleeing the White House in shame. But Stan managed to redeem Jesus, and in return, he gets his Christmas miracle as a thank you gift. I’m just grateful Jesus gave Stan his old house back and not Tegridy Farms. That would be a truly depressing way to end the season.
