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"Pre-School"
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S8E10-Thumbnail
Episode no. Season 8
Episode 10
Guest stars Dante Alexander[1]
Production no. 810
Original airdate November 10, 2004
Episode chronology
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"Pre-School" is the 10th episode of Season Eight, and the 121st overall episode of South Park. It was aired on November 10, 2004.[2]

Synopsis[]

The kid who took the fall for the boys 5 years ago is getting out of Juvie, and his first order of business is revenge.[2]

Plot[]

SPW pic -- Spoiler Spoiler warning!
Plot details follow.

Stan, clearly panicked about something, comes flying around the corner and pulls Kyle and Kenny, who were talking to Clyde, aside, claiming that he needs to talk to them. Kyle asks Stan what the problem is, and he tells them that Trent Boyett, a classmate from their preschool years, is about to be released from Juvenile Hall on parole. Kyle and Kenny are equally horrified by the news, and they also begin to panic. A passing Cartman dismissively asks the boys what the problem is, but his passive behavior turns to fear when he is informed about the news. Kyle suggests that maybe Trent has forgiven them, claiming that they "were only in pre-school".

Preschoolboys

The Boys in preschool

The boys recall the incident from their pre-school days. In their flashback, they get the idea of playing "fireman", starting a real fire and extinguishing it. They just need someone to start it, so they ask Trent Boyett, the toughest, baddest kid in pre-school, who agrees when they tell him they know how to put out a fire. Butters advises them against, but he is ignored. When the fire first starts, the boys urinate on it, trying to put it out. Once they stop urinating, they claim that they, "saved the school" despite the fact that the fire was still burning. As the fire begins to grow out of control, Trent begins to panic and starts screaming at them to put it out. When their teacher, Miss Claridge, notices what was going on, she blames Trent and tries to extinguish it only to become engulfed in the flames herself. The boys then run over and urinate on Miss Claridge to try and put the flames out. Shortly afterwards, the cops arrive and instead of taking what might have been the easier route by saying it was an accident and risking getting into trouble, the boys use Trent as their scapegoat when they realize he was the one who started the fire. When approached by the cops, the boys lie and say they were not involved and call Trent a liar when he pressures them to tell the cops that it was just an accident. Trent begs Butters to come to his defense, but Butters refused as he feared he would be grounded for getting involved. As he is being taken away, Trent claims that the boys better pray he never gets out of Juvie. Kyle remarks to the others that Trent is going to be furious when he gets out, Cartman dismisses his worries under the notion of, "That's like five years from now", to which the boys agree. The scene cuts back to the present day where Stan remarks that now the five years are up, and Trent is being released. Cartman suggests that they tell their parents, but Kyle reminds him that they can't go to anyone for help because they lied to everyone, and no one knew that they were responsible for Miss Claridge being crippled. Stan quickly shushes the boys when he sees Miss Claridge approaching.

It is revealed that Miss Claridge is burned so badly that she is forever confined to a sort of iron lung/motorized wheelchair and can only communicate by using an electronic beep: once for "yes", twice for "no." Stan asks Miss Claridge if she is having a nice day, and she simply beeps once for yes. Once Miss Claridge is gone, Kyle suggests that maybe Trent has forgotten all about the incident. The scene cuts to a juvie in the desert, where Trent can be seen leaving and retrieving his things, clearly even more furious than he ever was after the incident. Asked by a guard about where he was going to go, Trent simply replies, "I've got some business to take care of."

Upon finding out about Trent's release, a desperate Butters plans to hide from Trent in his room indefinitely. His parents, Stephen and Linda force Butters to go out and play, locking him outside. Almost immediately, Butters sees Trent across the street, and he begins banging on the door begging to be let inside only to be cornered by Trent. Butters pleads with Trent not to hurt him claiming that he will give him anything he wants but Trent claims that the only thing he wants is to have back all the time that was taken from him when he was sent to prison. Trent further tells Butters that he is going to give him a five-second head start. Butters wastes two seconds trying to apologize to Trent for not speaking in his defense, but then Butters runs when he realizes that his attempts are futile. When Butters is caught, Trent dishes out a brutal, bully-style payback, resulting in Butters being hospitalized. Meanwhile, Miss Claridge's motorized wheelchair runs out of battery and stalls in the middle of the street. Since her drained battery renders her unable to respond by beeping, the South Park townspeople assume she has become despondent.

To avoid Trent doing to them what he did to Butters, the boys go to the 6th graders for help. When they arrive at the hangout, the 6th graders say that they will only defend them if they get a picture of Stan's mother's breasts. Stan, reluctant to ask his mother, even with Cartman's attempts to teach him how to reason with his mother, instead takes a photo of Cartman's buttocks with nipples drawn on them. The 6th graders fall for it and agree to help them.

However, when the 6th graders tell Trent to stay away from the boys, Trent severely beats all of the 6th graders. Now, not only do the boys no longer have defense, but Trent also knows they sent the 6th graders out to get him, which could possibly make him angrier. With no one left to ask, the boys ask Stan's sister, Shelly, to defend them. She agrees on the condition that they tell Miss Claridge that they were responsible for the fire, simply because Shelly wants to be the only one who beats the boys up.

The boys meet Miss Claridge, who is still stuck in the middle of the street and attempt to make peace with her. However, at this moment, Trent arrives to finish business. The boys try to talk with him, but Trent still does not want to settle. Trent claims that the boys had five years to do something proactive and he mentions some of the things he is missed out on, such as a talking Christmas Poo and fighting a huge, mechanized Barbra Streisand, and adds that once his retribution is over, the matter will be solved for good, and Trent will never come near them again. Once again instead of taking the easier route, Cartman takes out his mother's taser and fires it at Trent, but Cartman misses and shocks Miss Claridge. This recharges her wheelchair to such a degree that it goes out of control. The wheelchair spins in place and then crashes into a propane shop, causing an explosion which destroys the shop and sets Miss Claridge on fire. Ablaze once again, Miss Claridge then crashes into a pet store, and then a fire hydrant, where the flames are put out. The cops arrive, and since they already knew what ''Trent'' did to Miss Claridge five years prior, they all thought he wanted to get rid of her for good. Trent tries to deny the fact, but the boys call him a liar again.

The cops ask Miss Claridge if Trent tried to kill her again. She replies "no" with two beeps; the cop misunderstand, thinking she means "Yes, yes", causing them to once again arrest Trent. The boys are saved, and relieved that they would not have to worry about Trent for another five years. Cartman goes on to moon and taunts Trent. However, Cartman still has the nipples drawn on his butt. Just as Cartman does this, the injured 6th graders come back from the hospital and see the whole thing. Cartman thinks he is in trouble, as the 6th graders might find out the boys tricked them. However, the 6th graders are once again fooled into thinking they are breasts. They grab Cartman, presumably taking him into "the bushes", similarly to what they did with the picture.

References[]


  810: "Pre-School" edit
Story Elements

Trent BoyettMiss ClaridgeThe 6th Graders

Media

ImagesScriptExtrasWatch Episode

Release

South Park: The Complete Eighth Season

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