Review: Camp Camp “The Butterfinger Effect”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Commotion is stirred around the camp when Space Kid introduces his new hobby: racing. He has forgone his love of space in order to pursue a love of cars. This is odd to the kids, but Nurf especially, who notices that “Race Kid’s” newfound confidence is impervious to his bullying. He freaks out to the main trio, theorizing that because of Race Kid’s sudden character change, the social order of the camp is bound to change. Max, Nikki, and Neil dismiss it, though, and continue about their business as Nurf tries to figure out a way to get Space Kid back.

He attempts this by using Space Kid’s old helmet to remind him of his lame space persona but gets the helmet stuck on himself — causing Preston to make fun of him, turning him into a bully. Nurf goes to Harrison for help but realizes Harrison has adopted Max’s aloof persona. When Max realizes the slow change taking place in the campers — evident by Neil’s chaotic personality change similar to Nikki’s — he goes directly to Race Kid and attempts to talk him out of his new change in personality/interests. It doesn’t work, however, so he and Nurf devise a plan to get Space Kid back until Max overhears Race Kid’s solo lament about people not understanding that people change.

Max then gives an empowered speech about how it’s okay to change, finally accepting the new campers. However, his genuine friendship sentiment returns them to normal.

Our Take

…So what was the point? Or better yet — how did that make sense?

This is the pre-season finale, and if there’s one thing that’s been emphasized throughout the course of season four, it’s change. We see it in David as he seems to become a little more hardened. We see it in Cameron as he struggles to change his conniving ways. Finally, we get an episode all about change in the children, but it’s random and misplaced compared to all the other narratives the season has somehow developed thus far.

Max’s heartfelt speech about how close he’s grown with the cast was exactly the kind of emotional punch one would expect from a pre-season finale, but why did his words just make everyone go back to normal? The subtext of the episode seemed to be more about Max’s own changes as a character, but it seemed a bit redundant. Last season’s finale was blatantly all about how Max realized his true feelings for his friends and the camp. We didn’t need another episode to highlight that Max genuinely cares about them, because we already knew that.

One thing of note was how different and silly Space Kid’s voice truly sounds without his helmet. It was the exact kind of weird yet refreshing twist needed to remind us of how talented his voice actress is.

All in all, though, this pre-season finale left us wanting more. Will all of these loosely connected plot threads be tied up by the end of the season? We hope so — and we pray for the right change in tone.