Camp - Recap: Problems and Bigger Ones

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It says a lot for this show that I worry about Kip (Thom Green) and the possible return of his cancer as I might worry about a friend. But that's exactly the feeling that washed over me when Kip, while helping Cole (Nikolai Nikolaeff) win his darts bet with Roger (Rodger Corser), went to the bathroom and began vomiting blood. The show has done a remarkable job in building Kip's vulnerability, not only in the emotional sense, but also physically. It isn't just that Kip is frail, he looks that way too, and it all has to do with how Thom Green carries himself in the role, in addition to the loose-fitting way the costume department dresses him. I feel like Kip shares duties with Mack (Rachel Griffiths) as the heart of the show. When Kip is rushed to the hospital, everyone forgets the personal differences that have separated them throughout the episode, united under their mutual affection for a friend who may or may not be dying. Roger sets aside his feud with Little Otter to call in the best doctor he can find, and we learn that his empathy is rooted in the loss of a childhood friend to cancer.

Of course, the byproduct of Kip's collapse is that the entire camp now knows about his past bout with cancer, and we get a poignant look into how his fellow campers deal with the news. Chloe (Natasha Bassett) pretty much breaks down, her near-death fetish suddenly not-so-appealing. Marina (Lily Sullivan) also struggles to keep it together, realizing that Kip is her best friend here, and that she doesn't want to freeze him out anymore. Buzz (Charles Grounds), meanwhile, doesn't know how to process what's happening. It seems like he's caught between genuine fear for Kip and the need to remain strong for others. In many ways, it's reflective of how Mack acts, putting on a brave face through the entire issue, even grilling Cole for taking Kip to a bar in the first place. The episode revolves around Kip, but not in a way that detracts from the ability of the ensemble to participate in a meaningful fashion.

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As much as I disliked the first half of the episode, in which Kip resents his father, Larry (Paul Gleeson), for being overprotective, while Larry resents that Kip doesn't want to spend time with him, that first half is necessary to set up the drama of the second. Larry and Kip may have been at odds, but they're still family. Beyond that, they simply need each other. Call me sentimental, but I teared up when Larry kept vigil at his son's bedside, and then delivered the triumphant news that the cancer isn't back, it was simply food poisoning. Everyone goes in to visit Kip, and there's a feeling of genuine friendship here, that these people nearly lost something irreplaceably dear to them. Once Kip recovers and he finally takes the dive off the cliff into the lake with his father, it's a rare moment of triumph that makes the entire grim business proceeding it worth the trouble.

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However, the same can't be said for the subplots. There's a sweet, if insubstantial, story involving the flirtation between Buzz and Zoe (Carmel Rose). They develop a bond after Buzz defends Zoe's beauty to her hard-nosed pageant mother, and then offers a sympathetic ear when a crying Zoe confesses that her father may have fooled around with Marina's mother, Crystal (Kellie Jones). They have a brief makeout session with the promise of more when they meet up later at Cabin 13, but to get there, Buzz has to abandon his mandated punishment for the ATV mishap from last week, in which he's tasked with essentially babysitting a bunch of kids in the camp daycare. He nearly gets to second base for his troubles, but as with any storyline involving Buzz, his luck quickly runs out, as they're discovered together in the cabin, prompting Zoe's parents to remove her from the camp. Mack is furious with Buzz for leaving the children with an inexperienced camp helper, but Buzz is too heartbroken over the loss of Zoe to be as angsty as he usually would be in this situation. There's also the whole matter with Kip that interrupts the mother-son argument. And thank God for that, because this segment of the episode just didn't do much of anything for me. There's a decent way of exploring the drift between Mack and Buzz, but this is an episode already overstuffed with parents and children gradually drifting apart.

Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC

Such as Marina and her mother, Crystal. Marina is furious that her mother keeps dating terrible men, only to become completely dependent upon them. She's been dumped by her latest, bodybuilding boyfriend, and as a result, they now have nowhere to live. Marina convinces Crystal that they should get a new start somewhere, telling her mother that she should finally break away from her dependence on men. And Crystal seems to agree with the approach, but things quickly go awry when it's implied that she's hooked up (or at least flirted with) Zoe's mother, inadvertently getting a job offer in Denver in the process. Marina is disgusted with her mother, and lashes out at her for her morally-dubious lifestyle, saying that Crystal gave her wine at eight years old, and encouraged a lifestyle that led to her losing her virginity at 13. They remain at odds with one another until, once again, the Kip issue comes up. Crystal states that they should be at the hospital with Kip if Marina truly does care about him like she says she does, and that act breaks down the barrier between mother and daughter, to where they reconcile, with Crystal telling Marina that she won't turn out like her because she's far more intelligent than she ever was as a teen. "You're the best thing I ever did," Crystal tells Marina, and she more or less vows that she'll do her best to do right by her daughter.

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While I wasn't crazy about the latter plot, it's still better than the tired business with Sarah (Dena Kaplan), Miguel (Juan Pablo Di Pace) and Robbie (Tim Pocock), which embraces all of the worst contrivances of a soap opera love triangle. Sarah (who is apparently 21 and not 18, despite talking about applying for colleges like she's fresh out of high school -- my bad, there) gets jealous when she sees Miguel at the bar with his attractive book agent. When she confronts him, he reveals that he's moving back to New York to further pursue the novel that his publishers are crazy about, and he invites Sarah to his cabin for a farewell dinner. She resists at first, but eventually she accepts the invite. Little does she know that, at the bar, Roger has inadvertently let slip that Sarah has been over at Ridgefield quite often. Robbie becomes suspicious and decides to head over to the rich camp, where he discovers Sarah and Miguel together. He immediately goes on the offensive, lashing out at Sarah for her betrayal and demanding to know when this all started. She states it's only been a week, and she also admits that she and Miguel knew each other when they all met one another at the bar. But Sarah insists it's all over now. However, it's too little, too late, as Robbie declares he doesn't want to know Sarah anymore. He storms away, leaving Sarah in a puddle of tears and heartbreak. It just feels like a bit much for a show that's been relatively restrained about its soap opera leanings in the past, although I suppose this storyline has been building for six weeks now. It stood to reason it would end with a big blow-up.

"Parents' Weekend" is the weakest of the six episodes so far, but the storyline with Kip keeps it from being unsalvageable. In many respects, the show is at its best when it finds meaningful ways to bring the ensemble together, as opposed to sending everyone off into their own disconnected story. Camp is still one of the summer's most fun shows, and one episode is hardly going to change my opinion on how enjoyable the series can often be, but even the most pleasant shows have a skippable hour here and there.