Episode 3 Brings Aura Battles to South America

In the third episode of “South Park” Season 29, the gang gets stuck in Sephora’s “Backroom,” Stan’s dad shrinks himself using products from the beauty chain and aura battles take over South America (the newly named mountain town), meaning internet lingo like “mogging,” “maxxing” and “mewing” (along with “chad,” “cringe” and “rizz”) are plentiful.

In the episode, titled “You Like That On Your Face,” Kyle must try to help his little brother, Ike, win his live-streamed aura battle at school against Chad, though his concern over the practice means he isn’t of much assistance. (Kyle calls aura battling and looksmaxxing a “bad combination.”)

But it’s Ike’s lucky day as Cartman steps up to help him prepare. “I’m sure that deep down your brother wants to help. Okay? Maybe he just he just doesn’t know how,” says Cartman while comforting Ike ahead of the battle. “If I had a little brother, he’d be my special little guy.” So, Cartman takes Ike to Sephora, which the kids of South Park have overrun, to pick up some products to help. (It’s a nod to the ongoing joke that tweens spend ages in the beauty store; “Something not right in there,” says a man sitting in front of the store. “My granddaughter wanted to go to Brandy Melville. Then she asked if she could just stop in the Sephora. That was six and a half years ago. There’s something in there men can’t understand.”)

But while Cartman and Ike are in Sephora, they get enticed into going into the backrooms with an employee, which look straight out of Kane Parsons’ horror film. Earlier in the episode, Stan wandered into the backrooms himself, so he knows how to get them both out before the aura battle begins. All the effort to get them out was for naught, though, because Ike doesn’t win the battle — Stan’s dad, Randy (who is now the size of his son after going to Sephora and thus is forced to enroll back in school) does beat up Ike’s opponent, though, meaning his looksmaxxed face is no longer.

This episode notably lacked any nod to Trump, though mentions of the president as a whole have been brief compared to the previous season, when the president was the show’s focal point for absurd antics. Some examples include plot points like JD Vance seducing Donald Trump in order to dodge punishment for trying to kill his unborn baby with Satan, among a long list of others.

The premiere episode of the show, which aired last month, centered around Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny’s newfound love of e-bikes, while the second episode was a full-on phallic fest as Butters set out to rid South America of “billionaire weenies” — which, as it turns out, are literal penises — and their data centers that are affecting the area’s electricity. The episode also went in on anti-vaxxers, as Butters’ parents blame his anti-billionaire and AI beliefs on the measles vaccine he got. “I knew what that vaccination would do to him because I listened to podcasts,” yelled his dad. “But you couldn’t take time out of your precious day to listen to podcasts, could you? And now your son is a libtard.”

With Season 29, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are going full steam ahead with the “South America” name change, which was announced earlier this month ahead of the Season 29 premiere. The premiere — the first episode since taking on the name “South America” — hit 4.2 million viewers in three days, as previously reported by Variety.