Cold takes: S27E5 Conflict of Interest
The episode begins with gender assumption, and I'm personally proud of Kyle refusing to take any part in it. He is my favorite of the boys for a reason.
The OG main characters are back! I personally like their divergent character growth and all of them finding different friend groups, but after four episodes of anything else, it's nice to see them for a change. Jesus's no phones rule is not implemented at all, though.
Seems like the students don't believe in the girl's soccer team.
Also... Eric said he didn't put this one up. But then... Who did? He could be lying, but there is no real way to tell.
Last time I asked some questions about Satan's child, and believe me its gender is the least interesting thing about it. It could be literally anything, even genderless.
Jimmy liking insensitive humor is expected, but actually betting? Shame on you, James. In our context his nonchalant reasoning was pretty funny though.
At first I groaned, but as it went on, the Looney Tunes side plot became amusing. I don't have much comments to make on it, it's basic slapstick. Yes, Vance is evil and plotting, I'll probably write about that if it's relevant in a later episode.
What I didn't like and surprised me, was Kyle being manipulated by Eric. At this point he should know he can't trust anything he says, right? Although to be fair, Eric did truly believe that Sheila would NOT strike Gaza. But he still exploited the bet and Kyle should have known it.
The friend group of Sheila, Linda, Laura and Harriet is back! This specific clique was first established in season 23 and I hope they show up more times after this. If you're new to my blog, Harriet Biggle is my absolute favorite South Park character, and this desperate housewife is as sneaky and shameless as always.
I guess it was kind of expected that South Park will have to address the antisemitism regarding the Israel-Palestine situation. I personally support the common people of both countries and neither of the power-hungry politicians leading those people in the war. I like how the episode put Sheila in the right, she's really come a long way since the movie, and I enjoy her being a flawed, but still heroic character.
Ike betting on her implies a questionable relationship between them at best. Gerald's been real quiet ever since season 20. But really, all four of the Broflovskis are interesting characters on their own and I'd love an episode further exploring their family dynamics.
Of course, Eric's antisemitism got the better of him, he started to believe the lie he wanted to spread, and that lead to his demise. He actually supported Kyle taking down the bet. Although nobody really won this episode. Kyle and Sheila are still misunderstood. The episode ends with Kyle still thinking that Eric helped him out of empathy, and nothing implies that Eric blew the cover after he learned the truth.
Sheila visiting Netanyahu's office and giving him a piece of her mind is awesome, because as a civilian, this is the most she can do. Use her words and put him in his place. Are they saying that Netanyahu put up the poll, as a metaphor for making life impossible for American jews? That's how I interpreted the ending.
