| "Cartman's Incredible Gift" | |
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| South Park episode | |
 Cartman counts his money |
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| Episode no. | Season 8 Episode 13 |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Original airdate | December 8, 2004 |
| Season 8 episodes | |
| South Park – Season 8 March 17, 2004 – December 15, 2004 |
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| ← Season 7 | Season 9 → |
| List of South Park episodes | |
"Cartman's Incredible Gift" is episode 124 of the Comedy Central series South Park. It originally aired December 8, 2004. Though a minor part of the episode, it marks the last appearance of the seldom-seen South Park Elementary school bus driver Ms. Veronica Crabtree.[citation needed] The episode also continues South Park's critical view of psychics,[citation needed] previously seen in the episode "The Biggest Douche in the Universe". Most of Cartman's story in this episode — falling into a coma, waking up with "psychic abilities", searching for a killer, and being trapped by a psychpathic person — is based on Stephen King's book The Dead Zone, while the serial killer is a combination of Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill, but mainly based on Francis Dolarhyde.
Plot synopsis
Cartman attempts to fly by jumping off of his roof with cardboard wings attached to his arms. He goes into a short coma, and wakes up in the hospital, where he shares a room with a victim of a serial killer. The killer cuts off the left hands of all his victims. Just as the police are lamenting the victim's death, Cartman manages to guess the hospital food's dinner and a few other obvious, routine things, which leads the gullible cop Harrison Yates to believe that Cartman is a "child wunderkind" with psychic powers. Cartman is taken to the scene of one of the murders where he has "visions" of ice cream and Double Stuff Oreos (which no doubt have more to do with his own cravings than the actual crime). Yates makes the connection to Tom Johannsen, the owner of the ice-cream store, and he is brutally beaten, tazered, and publicly arrested. The left-hand murders continue, but the gullible cops believe these are copycat killings rather than being committed by a single killer (who is seen to be rather eccentric) still on the loose. Cartman ends up getting more innocent people arrested, including a group of rival "psychics", who threatened to sue him for his refusal to give them 10% of the profits he was making. At every crime scene a disturbed man in a blood-spattered rain slicker named Michael Deats (based on Ed Gein) appears. He says to Kyle, Stan and Kenny, "They're never gonna catch the killer, he's too smart," then takes out a female mannequin torso and speaks to it as if it is his sexually abusive mother before walking away.
Kyle realizes that Cartman is a fraud, and is frustrated by the police's stupidity. Though he has followed Deats to his home and obtained fingerprint and blood samples, he is completely ignored by the police. Deciding he has to do something to stop the killer, he imitates Cartman's attempted flight so that he passes into a coma, and when he wakes up claims to have psychic powers and gives the police his original findings. Yates is skeptical but goes to investigate the suspected murderer anyway, who, by this point, furious that Cartman has credited his work to others, has kidnapped him. Deats keeps Cartman in the basement of his house, and shows him slides of his travels (the scene plays on a similar one in the film Manhunter), all of which are particularly dull, and Cartman is quick to object.
When Yates arrives, he finds many hands on the killer's wall, but ignores them, claiming that they were right hands. He says that when looking at one's left hand (with the palm facing the viewer), the thumb points to the left. The hands on the wall are nailed with the palms facing the wall, making the thumbs point to the right. Although Cartman is gagged up in the basement, Yates cannot hear him and leaves the house unsatisfied, but he questions his own observation about the hands. He goes back to the station, and after a montage depicting running elaborate criminology tests, exercising, and even losing track of what he was doing, he figures out his mistake, and returns to Deats' house. He kills Deats just before Deats was about to kill Cartman.
Back at the hospital, Mr. Johannsen and the psychics are released from prison, along with Yates and Cartman, and praise Kyle as the real psychic. Kyle then tells them that there are no psychics and says that there is a logical explanation for every psychic story ever heard. The other "psychics", however, decide to reignite their conflict with Cartman, and engage in a "final battle". But just as they begin to gesticulate and vocalize as if acting out a psychic duel, Kyle yells at them to stop, at which point the light bulbs in the room explode and some electronic devices fall off their shelf implying that Kyle might really be psychic. Everyone is surprised but Kyle insists there is a logical explanation for what happened.
The Death of Mrs. Crabtree
This episodes features the death of the school's bus driver, Mrs. Crabtree. Trey Parker said he felt the need to have her "killed off" because fans had gotten sick of her angry nature and that she was pulling back on the potential for the show.
External links
| Preceded by “Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset” |
South Park episodes | Followed by “Woodland Critter Christmas” |
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