Review: Camp Camp “After Hours”

Helping campers by moonlight, fixing the cable by daylight.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

During the night, David discovers that someone had ruined the relay race that had been set up for the following day. Gwen can’t help him re-set everything because she has a Lizards of Love fan-fiction group meetup to attend. At the same time, Quartermaster needs to go into town with Gwen for supplies, so the only adult left to watch the kids is Cameron. However, throughout the night, the all kids show up on the cabin doorstep for one reason or another (had a bad dream, missed their parents, got sick, etc.) so Cameron let them all inside while attempting to fix the TV.

While David is revamping the relay activity, he finds evidence of who might have tampered with it in the first place. Following the trail of scattered supplies, he treads into the forest and trips a trap — causing himself to be tangled in a tree’s net. In town, Quartermaster guides Gwen into an alleyway where he buys his supplies. Appearing before they are three punks, who want baby doll heads/parts in exchange for camp supplies. Quartermaster leaves (to see who triggered his tree trap) and Gwen is left to barter. She offers all sorts of random things but gets no luck in bartering for actual supplies. Then, it is revealed that one of the punks is her online Lizards in Love associate. He tells his buddies to give her any supplies she needs.

Finally — after David and Quartermaster witness the squirrel uprising which triggered the relay destruction — all the adults reconvene at the cabin, where they’ve discovered Cameron has fixed the cable for the campers. David smiles and gets excited to wake the campers.

Our Take

A plots and B plots and C plots — oh my. Eight episodes into the season and it seems like we’re only just getting an episode that focuses on the adults — which is a little weird, considering that one of the adult characters (Cameron) seemed to be set up as the main point of contention last season. While this episode didn’t really focus on that, it did give an overdue spotlight to the counselors.

The C plot where David and Quartermaster witness a squirrel army was cute, but it…didn’t really explain what they did with the supplies. The squirrels were never shown holding the stolen supplies — they just kind of…marched off. The leader looked like David, which was funny, but it still didn’t explain what on earth exactly went down. Did they just wreck the relay for the sake of wrecking it?

The B plot with Gwen and Quartermaster’s alley deal was fine, but Gwen’s expository dialogue to Quartermaster during the car ride felt forced as hell. It would have been a lot funnier to have Gwen’s “secret plans” revealed to the audience, rather than explained. As mentioned many times: Camp Camp has a major problem with telling but not showing. Expository dialogue is killing this show.

The A plot with Cameron’s interactions with the kids was great because it establishes at least some emotional attachment he might get to the campers (even if he was more focused on the TV.) They very well could have done away with the C plot and just expanded on the kids-and-Cameron stuff. Gwen’s night into town (featuring David and Quartermaster, of course) would have made a perfectly fine B plot on its own.

Gripes aside, there were little things that were very welcome. David and Gwen seemed to be more in sync with their friendship, Space Kid’s emotional openness was moving, and the end of the episode showcased a spark of that endearing optimism that’s hidden under the layers of the show.

With that optimism in mind, maybe we can get more of the sentimental moments that make Camp Camp great.