WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the South Park Season 23 episode, "Basic Cable."
The latest episode of South Park takes a little time off from pummeling the Chinese government to focus on a budding romance between Scott Malkinson and the new girl in school, Sophie. Of course, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker still found ways to take shots at Disney+, continuing one of Season 23's overarching themes, but mostly the episode is about Sophie being the girl next door that everybody loves.
And so, as Scott falls in love with her, not only because she's diabetic like him or because she loves The Mandalorian, we quickly discover Sophie is South Park's new Queen Bee, and not even Eric Cartman -- the ultimate hater -- can resist her charms.
When Sophie introduces herself to the class, Scott is immediately smitten. The only diabetic student at South Park Elementary, he's been mocked by his peers; in his mind, Sophie is a soulmate, and just maybe his way to escape ridicule. When the other kids show an interest in Sophie, Scott freaks out, because he believes she's his one and only.
When Scott eventually brings Sophie to his home to watch The Mandalorian on an illegal stream, he's unaware his father, Clark, and the other employees of Park County Cable are taking down the town's internet infrastructure, because as they believe cable's the only way to watch television. As a result, Sophie hustles Scott over to Jimmy's house, where we see all the kids are in love with her as well.
Everyone, from Clyde to Kyle to Jimmy, makes a pass, but Scott becomes aggressive toward them. They can have their pick of all the other girls, so why should they turn their attention to the apple of his eye? Sophie starts to freak out at the unwanted attention, but the big shock comes when Cartman tries to woo her too. Earlier, when Scott asked him for relationship advice, Cartman told him girls would kill him just like diabetes will. Cartman spat on love in that conversation. However, now that he has witnessed Sophie firsthand, Cartman wants her for himself.
That comes out of left field, as Cartman has never liked any of the girls the other boys have crushes on. Even Stan is in love with her, setting aside his old feelings for Wendy, the former Queen Bee. Cartman hated on Wendy a lot, so it goes to show the impact Sophie has on them.
They're all doe-eyed for the geeky, dreamy Sophie, and try to backstab each other to get to her, which will surely draw the ire of the other girls in school. In the past, they've never liked when a new girl arrives and garners all the attention, so Sophie likely won't sit well with them. It remains to be seen whether Sophie will pursue something with Scott or if she'll let it go to her head. As it stands, though, she's digging Scott, but he realizes with all the boys head over heels for Sophie, trouble could be looming.
Starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park Season 23 airs Wednesdays at 10 pm ET/PT on Comedy Central.