Camp - Recap: It's A Nice Day For A Gay Wedding

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So the Mayor has legalized gay marriage, but it's being challenged, so Mack (Rachel Griffiths) implores Grace's two dads, Raffi (Christopher Kirby) and Todd (Adam Garcia), to take advantage of the ruling and tie the knot. Grace (Charlotte Nicdao) is overjoyed about the wedding, as she explains to Mack that this is her one opportunity to have something relatively normal in her life. Unfortunately, her desire to have that tiny slice of normalcy prompts Grace to become a complete bridezilla, barking orders at everyone and generally become a nightmare. A funny nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless. However, Grace has good intentions, and the entire camp pitches in to help meet those good intentions. Even Roger (Rodger Corser) offers to help, throwing Raffi and Todd a bachelor party (naturally, he's only doing it to up the profile of Ridgefield among the gay community). Raffi is much more excited about the ceremony than Todd, as he indulges the pre-wedding perks, such as mani-pedis, champagne and other freebies. He even announces his intention to take Todd's last name.

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As Camp Little Otter makes lavish preparations for the nuptials, everything goes relatively smoothly -- at least until the bachelor party rolls around, where Todd flips out on Raffi for becoming a completely different person. Todd confesses to Mack that he's terrified of the permanence of marriage. Without that slip of paper to make it official, there's always an escape hatch, the possibility that it's not forever. It's a strangely unromantic statement from Todd, yet it feels remarkably human and representative of the kind of pre-wedding jitters from which people suffer, even those who are most in love. Ultimately, the gay marriage ban is re-instituted and the wedding is off, but Todd and Raffi are able to make amends by talking things through, with Raffi admitting that Todd's "emotional claustrophobia" is a lot to handle, but he puts up with it because he loves him. They decide that, whether or not they have the legally-binding paperwork, they're going to get married anyway. What follows is a lovely little ceremony that illustrates the universal nature of love and family. In addition, the storyline has the added benefit of providing a context for some interesting dramatic developments among the other characters.

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It's been a week since their breakup, and Robbie (Tim Pocock) still refuses to talk to Sarah (Dena Kaplan). Worse yet, Sarah has been vilified by the entire camp for cheating on him. She's desperate to just talk with Robbie and sort things out, even if it means they don't get back together, but Robbie just wants her to leave him alone. Of course, Robbie decides the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else, an idea put in his head by Cole (Nikolai Nikolaeff), who looks more and more like a buff Neil Patrick Harris with each episode. Robbie goes to the bar and flirts with the cute bartender, eventually asking her to be his date for Todd and Raffi's wedding. Once there, he decides to rub the new romance in Sarah's face by making out with his date in front of her. When Sarah flips out, the bartender suddenly realizes she's simply a pawn in Robbie's revenge game and storms off. Infuriated, Robbie grills Sarah for her hypocrisy. "So you're the only one who can make out with other people?" Sarah responds that at least she didn't do it in front of him. "Yeah, you did it behind my back!" he roars, and tells Sarah, in front of everyone, that nothing will ever make her happy, not swimming and not a relationship. Before storming off, he declares, "You're just a sad, miserable person!" Devastated, Sarah makes the only decision that seems sensible in her situation: she decides to leave Camp Little Otter. Mack is heartbroken to lose her, and tells her not to be a stranger. But Sarah doesn't seem intent on ever coming back. With her car packed, she gets in and drives off, leaving her summer behind. It's the most sappy, melodramatic storyline of the series, but the strength of Dena Kaplan's and Tim Pocock's performances keep things afloat this week.

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Heartbreak is in no short supply, however, as Cole makes his play for Mack, despite being offered a lucrative job as a college baseball coach. Mack is supportive of Cole when he tells her he's taking the interview, but it's apparent to everyone, especially Sheila (Genevieve Hegney), that she's crushing hard on the camp handyman. When he meets with the scout, Cole realizes that he doesn't really want the buttoned-up career life, so he tanks the interview and returns to Camp Little Otter, where he hooks up with Mack in the store room. However, he ends up revealing that he didn't really want the job the scout offered him, prompting Mack to realize that Cole has no desire to get his life together. He might seem older than his 28-years, but she realizes that he's not nearly mature enough for her. "You're too young for me," she tells him. She then gives him advice as his friend, saying that while she treasures him and wishes he could stay at Little Otter forever, he really needs to get back on-track if he's ever going to have a real life (and find a woman with "something going on upstairs"). Cole is crestfallen, but Mack is firm and final in shooting him down, adding the former minor league baseball star to the roster of this episode's broken hearts.

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But not everyone is unlucky in love this week, as we get the moment that's been building since the pilot: the kiss between Kip (Thom Green) and Marina (Lily Diamond). The episode begins with both parties realizing that they don't want to be in their present relationships. Buzz (Charles Grounds) has no earthly idea why Kip would ever think of dumping a hottie like Chloe (Natasha Bassett), but after his brush with death last week, Kip feels he has a new lease on life, and decides he needs to start going after what he wants. For her part, Marina recognizes that Greg (Jordan Rodrigues) isn't really the right fit for her, and so she dumps him in order to spend some time alone getting to know herself better, without having a boyfriend. Newly single, Marina returns to her cabin and discovers a devastated Chloe, who reveals that Kip broke up with her on a boat in the middle of the lake (a scene that was terrifically uncomfortable to watch, as Thom Green does a great job communicating just how little Kip knows about the opposite sex, and relationships in general; this goes double for when Kip sends Chloe a bouquet of flowers in apology, and she misinterprets this as him asking to get back together, a development that necessitates Kip breaking up with her all over again).

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Chloe and Marina bond for a bit, and Kip eventually hears about Marina's new no-boyfriend policy, which puts a damper on his plans to finally tell her how he feels. He goes off to be alone, but Buzz decides he can't stand to see his friend hurting any longer (between this and his sweetly awkward attempts to comfort Grace after her dads' marriage is cancelled by City Hall, he's slowly becoming my favorite character). Buzz approaches Marina and tells her that Greg didn't write that song about her, Kip did. Marina confronts Greg and learns that he basically pulled the lyrics out of the trash, confirming Buzz's story that Kip wrote the song. She goes off and finds Kip, who admits to writing the song. He says he never told Marina because he always makes bad decisions, yet Marina insists that she knows a thing or two about bad decision-making: she dated Greg, after all. With everything finally out in the open, things quickly escalate: Marina checks Kip's face to make sure it's alright after Chloe slapped him, but it's really just a pretext for what she really wants to do. She leans in and kisses Kip, and maybe it's just because the music cue ("Stubborn Love" by The Lumineers) swelled at just the right moment, or maybe it's because Kip and Marina are such independently likable characters, but this was my favorite moment of the entire series so far. It perfectly embodies that feeling of triumph that young, reciprocated love can represent.

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There have been episodes I liked more than "The Wedding," but I'm not sure if there's actually an episode that's better. This was a representation of all the best elements of the series: its comedy and its relevance, its subtlety and its over-the-top melodrama, its poignancy and its heart. There have been better shows on TV this summer, but there have been very few I like as much as this.