Review: Camp Camp “Operation: Charlie Tango Foxtrot”

Delta Alpha Foxtrot Uniform Quebec?

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Max and Neil awaken to a new day, discovering the Wood Scouts announcing their proud victory…while tied up in the flagpole. They each give overlapping and conflicting accounts of what happened, but what it comes out to is:

While getting medication from the local vet, Pikeman learns that Camp Campbell has made an appointment for their platypus, and thus it will be caged up and easy to steal, as well as making an opportunity to prank the camp hard. They sneak onto the campground simply enough, but find the platypus is out of its cage and must go into the woods to find it, leading Snake to track it down and seemingly kill it. Next, Petrol suggests they go to town elaborately covering the camp in toilet paper, very nearly avoiding detection by Max, Neil, and Nikki. Finally, they plan to take down the Camp Campbell flag and replace it with their own, giving the replacement to Jermy to hold onto. Unfortunately, when Jermy’s Irritable Bowel Syndrome acts up and there’s no toilet paper around, he must use what is available. As he tries to explain the situation, he pulls on a rope, which binds them all together and puts them in the predicament seen at the start of the episode.

And it turns out the platypus isn’t even dead, so besides the TP-ing, the mission was a complete failure (although personally, I think having a shit covered flag probably would’ve worked in their favor).

OUR TAKE

Ah, the tried and tested “Rashomon” story. This is basically the type of episode which begins with characters in the aftermath of a huge messy incident, and each one must give their own version of events that are all weirdly distinct. It’s a storytelling device that has lent itself well to film and television since its use in the Kurosawa film “Rashomon” in the 1950’s, and has continued to be used over the years in shows like Codename Kids Next Door, King of the Hill, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, and so on. With that in mind, Camp Camp makes use of it as well as can reasonably be expected.

Pikeman and Snake have egos, so their versions have each of them portrayed as badasses with incompetent underlings. Petrol is the Boomhauer of the group with the unique way of talking, so his version has everyone talking in his form of grunts, making for the funniest part of the episode. And lastly, Jermy shows everyone far more compassionate about his many bodily inconveniences than they ever would be. Though I am a little disappointed we didn’t get to see this whole thing from the platypus’ perspective to cap it all off and everyone with platypus heads or all going “wenk”, but that might’ve been overkill.

It’s also pretty nice to see the Wood Scouts get their own episode this time around since they hadn’t before now. The Flower Scouts got this treatment last season about this point, and that allowed the apparently oversimplified prep girls to differentiate themselves from one another, which was later added onto and expanded earlier this season with the dance episode. The Wood Scouts individually already had plenty to set themselves apart as a group, but it’s still interesting to get into their heads a bit more and see how they all function and hold the episode together just with their dynamic alone. Plus, more Snake means more Dante Bosco, and if I ever say we have too much Dante Bosco, I want you to shoot me in my non-metal foot because there is NEVER too much Dante Bosco.

All in all, another solid episode with more interesting focus on side characters who certainly deserved it. Two episodes remain, not counting the eventual holiday specials, so we have one more episodic adventure leading into double length finale. Just keep at the level of this and we should be smooth sailing to the end.