Honestly, after taking another look at Put It Down, I can’t credit it as a bad episode. The A plot and B plot tied together perfectly in such a South Park fashion that I’m once again excited for this season.

Matt and Trey have had enough time with the continuity formula that they can pull off some great episodes in comfort. Season 21 was a flop because Trump’s victory fucked up their entire storyline (should’ve had a back up plan but I digress) but they’re getting back to making some great episodes. Put it Down was a prime example of this. 

First we have Tweek freaking out about North Korea missiles and then we have a seemingly irrelevant plot about Cartman and Heidi’s train wreck of a relationship. 

Tweek is upset at Craig because Craig isn’t offering him the comfort he needs to calm down. Cartman is upset that people are paying attention to people who are already dead instead of paying attention to his suicide threats. 

And while we’re at it, I know people are upset about Cartman acting like a shit after being nice for so long, but I’m ultimately VERY happy. Because this IS Cartman. This is the Cartman formula. 

Cartman begrudgingly (even though it was out of desperation) goes back to Heidi, and to save his ego, he says he’s only doing it because Heidi is threatening to kill herself if he doesn’t. Which turns out to be projection when Stan finds out that Cartman was threatening to kill HIMSELF.

Fake or not, having all his friends laugh at him is a serious blow to Cartman’s ego, and like he always used to do, our boy does some serious tryhard shit in order to twist the situation in his favor. 

Did it work? It’s debatable. It certainly got people to stop laughing at him and instead be annoyed by his presence, and ultimately he was allowed to perform as a bridge in the school’s production. I think that’s enough for his delusional little kid head.

But the point is that’s exactly what he does in this situation. And I’m frankly glad to have the OG back.

Back on track, even though to some extent Cartman’s argument makes sense, save the people that are still alive, not people who are dead, he’s not accounting for the fact that the awareness of what’s causing the accidents can prevent further deaths as well. 

But the heart of his argument is “They’re already dead, don’t waste time on them.”

It’s logical. The same way Craig is logical about everything, but being logical does nothing for emotions.

The way they were able to tie these two plots together in a single sentence by Heidi, in a very well placed scene in a cafeteria, ugh, that’s perfect. 

The best part is, Plot A and Plot B are both starkly different relationship problems. But it doesn’t bash you over the head with the whole “Craig’s a better boyfriend than Cartman” concept. That would’ve been so fucking easy, and to do that for a whole episode would be so yawnworthy.

Instead they tie the subplot’s SUBPLOTS together, NK is scary, Suicides > Death, in such an intricate way that you don’t even see the theme solidify as related until Heidi says those words. 

It’s not like it’s obvious, but it’s very subtly there. If you’re an incredibly observant person you might be able to see it through all the mania going on in the episode, but I sure didn’t until the very end. I literally went “OHHHH” when the theme was verbally stated and was ashamed that I hadn’t seen it sooner.

That’s good writing.

Tweek and Craig’s relationship is fucking beautiful by the way. I fucking love that this isn’t a touchy feely relationship. 

Near the end where Tweek felt so incredibly thankful and comforted by Craig Matt and Trey had every chance to do the “-music swell- and then they run up and share an EPIC HUG and the camera pans around them from all different angles” but they didn’t. It doesn’t suit any of their characters to do this. Tweek is too anxious to do anything of the sort, and Craig is practically robotic. This does some real justice to their characters and I’m very thankful that Matt and Trey aren’t hamming this up. Show’s the care they put into these two and this episode.

That’s how you write a ship.

THATS SOME GOOD FUCKING WRITING.