What a complete turnaround from last week’s episode. Not only does it almost hit on all its jokes, but if we are to take the show seriously as having mythology (and why wouldn’t we, we’re all fans) it maybe the most important episode of the show.
The comic book opening is something South Park hasn’t done before and it is both interesting and creative. They seem to be really embracing the superhero overtones in the story and the episode is much better for it. The boys are cornered by Captain Hindsight and we finally are told the identity of Mysterion... it's Kenny. That by itself is pretty crazy, but then we find out that Kenny has a super Power/Curse. We will get back to that later.
The Cthulhu and Cartman bit is funny, but it is a bit slow and juxtaposed to how dense the rest of the story is, which tends to stop the flow of the episode. Don’t get me wrong, I love a Neverending Story call back as much as the next guy, but too much time was spent on it. For that matter, Cartman is playing a pretty periphery role. In a story this epic and important to South Park you would think he would be more involved, but as we now know that it is at least a trilogy of episodes, he might be more active in the next episode.
Kenny not only knows that he dies a lot, but every time he dies he is resurrected the next morning, waking up in his same old clothes, and nobody else, family or friends, remembers that he died. This would make Kenny the most special and important character in the South Park universe. If we are to look back at past episodes there would definitely be some holes in this part of the cannon, Cartmanland being a big one, but I have to say I love this move. Trey and Matt like to make interesting and humorous episodes of the show they created with cardboard cutouts and sometimes they just want to tell an interesting story.
South Park has been on for a long time, fourteen seasons long in fact, and for them to throw such a curve at this point takes a lot of imagination and drive. Now I am not saying that the show will be forever changed by the information, but it could be. Next week we get the third part of the Coon story and if it is anything like this week’s episode it is going to be great. The best episode of the season, and the one we have been waiting for.
I leave you with an image I never thought I would see...
