Review: Camp Camp “City Survival”

The City of Cityburg!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

David and Gwen take the kids into the city of…well, the city, to meet with Camp Corp in hopes of securing funding to keep the camp up and running. Max, in particular, is actually excited to show Neil and Nikki around, so much so that they all sneak off and Gwen has to face the corporate bigwigs on her own while David goes searching for the three kids. First stop is the food truck, where they dine and dash while Neil has an allergic reaction, then wandering onto a porn shoot, and run into a familiar looking drug dealer. The real Cityburg experience! After an equally shady experience, David and the other kids eventually find them at a rotating restaurant. They end the day at the park to reflect on their adventure, but all decide that they would rather go back to the camp. Gwen arrives soon after, saying that they won’t need to worry about funds…because they’re selling the camp. DUN DUN DUN

TO BE CONTINUED

OUR TAKE

Callbacks, callbacks, callbacks! This episode is brimming with references to other episodes to the point a lot are just going to zip over your head. Some notable standouts include the return of Neilbucks from this season’s premiere, the drug dealer who helped out the Flower Scouts in Episode 11 of last season (something he clearly remembers), and the flower coming out of the road only to be driven over by the bus, which is sort of an homage to the first gag of the series where the rabbit is snatched by the falcon. Different imagery, but the meaning is the same: something beautiful shown in the first seconds of the episode and then immediately crushed by a metaphor for how cruel life is to set the irreverent tone of the show.

This is also our third ever episode to take place mostly outside of the woods, with the first being “Into Town” in the first season, and the second being the second season’s “Cookin’ Cookies”. It’s also the first time the entire camp is thrust into these new surroundings, which provides for a lot of comedic potentials. Though what I found most curious was Max being genuinely excited and positive about going into the city, at least at first. As I’ve probably hammered in, Max has had kind of an overly mean streak for much of this past season, and even if that still comes out in this episode, it’s both strange and endearing to see him really trying to remain positive about showing his friends around and testing his supposed street smarts.

Next week is the double stuffed finale, and we finally know what the plot will probably be: The campers and likely David trying to stop Camp Corp from buying the camp, probably by trying to sabotage the deal and make the place seem even worse than it actually is (which is saying something). This will probably where Cameron Campbell will re-enter the picture to pay off him living in the woods for a few weeks now, and maybe even the other camps will join in on things too. There’s definitely a lot of irony in there, and irony is the lifeblood of comedy, but I’m drawing a blank as to how that could be resolved or how the status quo might be shifted. There’s been some fan murmuring this may be the final season, but I figured that would be something announce beforehand, so where are we headed with this? See you in a week to find out.