The latest South Park continues the Comedy Central animated series’ return to form after its heavily political 2025 run, this time with a plot built around South Park Elementary’s newest trend: aura battles. The 22-minutes of sharp satire also spoof the beauty retailer Sephora, the hit horror film Backrooms and the looksmaxxing trend, while including several callbacks for longtime fans.
The season 29 episode, titled “You Like That On Your Face?”, opens with Ike Broflovski, Kyle’s adoptive younger brother, in an aura battle at school. The Canadian tyke has a knack for the trendy public display of riz and ‘tude, and soon advances to face the school’s top pretty boy, Chad, who happens to look a lot like (and share an attitude with) scandal-plauged looksmaxxing figurehead Clavicular.
Meanwhile, Sephora has the town’s pre-teen girls in a tizzy. The store is packed when Stan and Wendy arrive, and he quickly loses her in a crowd of screaming kids at the garish makeup counter, where employees slop cream on the girls’ faces and ask the question that gives the episode its title. It’s crude, and it feels inorganic to the scene, but damn, it made me laugh, even when the gag returned later for a second round.
Searching for Wendy in the depths of the Sephora store, Stan watches his surroundings shift from slightly off, to off, to get-me-the-hell-out-of-here off. Yes, he has wandered into a Backrooms parody, and he eventually angers the store’s big bad: a larger-than-life makeup counter girl who chases the young heroes, face cream gun in hand and splattering everything in sight as many feet below, they flee Sephora, perhaps for good.
Meanwhile, Randy Marsh, Stan’s ever-adventurous father, decides to check out the looksmaxxing craze and has his face rated by users. His low score leaves him feeling pretty crappy. After some quick shopping at you-know-where, Randy undergoes a rapid and dramatic transformation, so much so that he appears to be fourth-grade age and is soon hanging around South Park Elementary, where the aura battle craze is everything. It’s so strong that, in a callback, Butters is seen “Faith Hilling” during his aura battle.
As the gag-filled, perhaps high-water-mark of the season episode closes, Ike’s aura battle appears to end in a loss. Then Lil’ Randy arrives and, in an act of violence many viewers have been waiting for, kicks the crap out of Chad, who again is a
“I’M SORRY, I THOUGHT THIS WAS SOUTH AMERICA!” Lil’ Randy shouts repeatedly as he is hauled off, a great ending to a pretty great episode.