When Randy points out to White all the things Garrison has been doing, White responds that Hillary Clinton would not have been any better. When Bright informs the public that authorities have set up a "fox trap" to capture Garrison, which is actually a fake interview with Fox News, the Whites help Garrison evade it by warning him. Randy and his neighbors search the woods, and when they find a campsite, they discover in the tent PC Principal and Strong Woman in bed together. The sight of two co-workers in a relationship horrifies Randy and the others, who vomit in response. Ike, wearing the uniform of a Canadian Mountie, captures Garrison and drags him bound and gagged back into town. This provokes Bob White to pull out a gun, but Heidi then grabs it and holds Cartman at gunpoint. She blames him for the person she has become, but Heidi later realizes that she has been engaging in self-victimization ever since she began seeing Cartman. He threatens to kill himself again, but Heidi, no longer moved by his attempts at manipulation, breaks up with him. As this occurs, Garrison escapes. Stan Marsh fears that Garrison cannot be destroyed, but Randy states that "it is up to the Whites". Dan Caffrey of "The A.V. Club" gave the episode a B- rating but did not like how President Garrison was used in the episode, commenting "Whenever a Trump/Garrison storyline goes nowhere, it's likely because Parker and Stone just don’t have that much more to say about him." Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave the episode a 7.9 out of 10 rating, commenting that the episode "didn't quite combine its many concurrent plot threads into a cohesive whole, but it did a better job of tying up loose ends than most. And in some ways, the lack of closure in the final moments only played into the larger themes and topical humor." Joe Matar with Den of Geek gave the episode a 3.5 out of 5 stars rating, stating in his review "I don't usually find "South Park" laugh out loud funny these days and Season 21 has been mostly weak, so 'Splatty Tomato' was a nice surprise in that it was well-plotted, had some clever gags, and ended with a clear moral for Heidi, Cartman, and the Whites: 'if you always make yourself the victim, you can justify being awful.'" Jeremy Lambert with 411Mania gave the episode a 6.5 out of 10 rating, stating in his review "The episode had some funny moments.