'South Park' Season 16, Episode 4 Recap - 'Jewpacabra'

Last night's episode was a classic Cartman's comeuppance story, with a little twist: Cartman may have actually grown as a character. Well, maybe not "grown," but at least changed.

It all starts with Cartman questioning Kyle's mother about Passover, which of course puts Kyle on alert. It turns out that Cartman is collecting info so that he can fabricate a story about the Jewpacabra, a vicious monster that feeds on children. Why? Simple: so that he can scare everyone off and be the only kid at the Sooper Foods easter egg hunt.

So, Cartman catches the "Jewpacabra" on tape (it's probably a dog), and shows it to some cryptozoologists (guys who believe in Bigfoot), who corroborate his story. In fact, they believe so strongly in the Jewpacabra that they scare Cartman right back, telling him that the monster will be coming after him for capturing it on video.

That scares the owners of Sooper Foods enough (they're concerned mainly with fun and safety) to chain Cartman to a rock in a bunny suit and splash him with blood as a sacrifice to the Jewpacabra. Of course. And of course the cryptozoologists come by and mistake Cartman for a "three-foot bunny man" (which I guess he kinda is) and hit him with a tranquilizer dart.

With that, Cartman goes into a dream that has him going through the plagues of ancient Egypt, and seeing things from the Egyptians' side. It involves a duet with his father, the pharaoh, and the realization that God isn't kind and forgiving, but angry and vengeful.

Kyle, meanwhile, finally has a change of heart and cuts Cartman loose and takes him home. When he wakes up, Cartman sees it as a Passover miracle and announces that Christ didn't die for our sins, God is angry, and we should all convert to Judaism. Obviously this doesn't go over well with the crowd at the Easter egg hunt, so Cartman is booed off stage. He tells Kyle that he finally understands what it's been like for him, and announces that he's a Jew from now on.

Will this continue? If the move last season of Stan's parents divorcing is any indication, then it might for an episode or two. In any case, 16 seasons in, it may be time to have the characters make some big changes like this one. Especially if they're going to be stuck in episodes that use very familiar structure such as "Cartman comes up with a selfish plan, gets his comeuppance, and learns something by the end." Yawn.

What they're trying to tell us: The Jews have it right? Also, Bigfoot and chupacabras are total BS.