WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for South Park's Season 23 episode, "Season Finale."
Season 23 of South Park kicked off with a bang as the premiere episode, "Mexican Joker," found Randy Marsh protecting his Tegridy Farms weed business by blowing up home-growers' gardens back in the small Colorado town. His actions led media and police to chase after a ghost terrorist they deemed to be the Mexican Joker, albeit this phrase was coined by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they felt refugees, particularly Mexicans, turned into killers once they didn't get their way in America.
But as much as we knew Randy was the culprit, leading everyone down a wild goose chase, "Season Finale" does reveal the true Mexican Joker and shockingly, it's indeed someone from across the border.
In "Season Finale," Cartman's trying to help the Whites, an innocent yet somewhat clueless and tone-deaf family, gain closure after their kid Jason was run over by cops in a freak accident. The Whites are hating on the podunk town because no one cares for a White kid, but Cartman sympathizes and takes them to the ICE detention center he sent Kyle to at the start of the season.
Cartman saw kids in need there and he's trying to make amends by getting them adopted from what's clearly an internment camp. He accompanies the Whites who look at several children being displayed. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker pull no punches by painting them similar to animals in an animal shelter, with the Whites opting to adopt a "pure-bred Mexican." The Whites names the boy Alejandro, and begin gaslighting him in the interest of the family.
Eventually, when Randy does go to trial for Tegridy's lack of integrity and animal cruelty, he admits he went about business wrong and wants a chance to fix his mistakes someday, which the Whites admire. But at the same time, Alejandro is having a torrid time adapting as he's been forced into this vanilla way of life. Alejandro ends up being scolded for attempting to make a call to Mexico on a cellular phone after 7 pm, their designated cutoff time for phone usage. It goes from bad to worse because Alejandro refuses to join the Whites in a protest in support of Randy as they love his cannabis, which leads to the Whites getting Alejandro a child of his own to adopt from the detention center, all so he could learn responsibility, parenthood, and relate to them.
As Alejandro tries to connect with his owners and let them know he wants out, it's pretty eye-opening, albeit with a comedic twist, as they respond with continued discipline of the young boy. The icing on the cake is the Whites keep responding with the Spanish statement: "Bien, gracias, ¿y tú?" (which translates to "Good, thanks, and you?"), showing they have no regard for his heritage. This makes Alejandro grow increasingly angry as he was forced to become a White, with his newfound family not even bothering to look beyond English and speak Spanish for the kid. He feels like a pawn and when he finally understands that the Whites are ignorant and xenophobic fools, Alejandro snaps.
Struggling to adapt to this new way of life and angry that he's being colonized in a sense, the refugee paints his face white and goes on a rampage like Joaquin Phoenix at the end of Joker. He sets off bombs in town and is seen standing on cabs seeking adulation just like the Clown Prince of Crime, making it clear he despises society for treating him with disdain. It's a carbon copy of Todd Phillips' conclusion with Arthur Fleck and seeing as he escaped the cops' gunfire at the end, future episodes will surely be looking at the hunt for Alejandro, the new master of chaos and true Mexican Joker.
Starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park Season 23 airs Wednesdays at 10 pm ET/PT on Comedy Central.