Camp - Recap: Preggo House
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
Recap and review of Camp - Season 1 Episode 8 - Harvest Moon:
A little sincerity goes a long way. Luckily, Camp has tons of sincerity to spare. The plot for "Harvest Moon" is a bit inconsistent at times with its tone, it's still an hour of worthwhile drama that follows up on several lingering threads while allowing the overall narrative to move forward. Sure, Kip (Thom Green) and Marina (Lily Sullivan) might not be official, Robbie (Tim Pocock) might not be over Sarah (Dena Kaplan), and Cole (Nikolai Nikolaeff) is still working on getting past Mack (Rachel Griffiths), but the show doesn't feel like it's stalling, which is an important distinction to make. It's hard to draw out plots like this without agitating the viewership by making things tediously circular. Camp largely succeeds by taking a slow burn approach with its storylines that gives the impression of progress even when, eight weeks in, we're still hitting many of the same story beats. It certainly helps that the show is as light as it is occasionally substantial.
So the story this week sees Mack's mother and father visiting Camp Little Otter and causing a minor stir. Jack “Granddad” Jessup (Jack Thompson) is a natural troublemaker, and he quickly gets to raising hell by instigating a prank war with Ridgefield. In the middle of a presentation in which Roger (Rodger Corser) is announcing the upcoming development of an Alaskan branch of Camp Ridgefield, Jack, Cole, Robbie and Buzz (Charles Grounds) release a herd of livestock into the room and generally make a ruckus. An embarrassed Roger retaliates by stealing Little Otter's mascot, and things only escalate from there. Jack sneaks into Ridgefield and releases Roger's prized horse into the wild, and this is the last straw for the wealthy camp proprietor. He confronts Mack and demands to know where his horse is, but Mack isn't really in any position to answer Roger's questions. Nor, for that matter, is Jack.
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
Mack suspects that her father is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's, and it's a theory that is more or less confirmed by Jack's behavior, mistaking Mack for her sister, and Buzz for his adulterous father. It's a poignant storyline that's made all the more resonant by Roger's continued reformation into (or unmasking as) a genuinely good guy. When Mack asks him what she should do about her father, he gives her a sincere response: she should get him help, love him, support him, and be there for him. It's a rare moment of vulnerability for Roger, as he reveals that his biggest fear is growing old and deteriorating all alone. Mack, fresh off a troubling romantic mess with Cole, seems to suddenly regard Roger with something approaching genuine interest. This seems to only magnify when Roger shows genuine, child-like joy upon seeing Buzz and Grace (Charlotte Nicdao) returning his horse, having discovered it roaming in the woods. God help me, but I think I'm rooting for Mack to end up with Roger over Cole. As if sensing that he has no shot, Cole even approaches Roger about the possibility of getting a job at the Alaskan Camp Ridgefield, as he's familiar with the territory and is badly looking for a change. Given Cole's rejection by Mack, I hesitate to call this a love triangle, but there are still those elements in play, making for a complicated romance plot that could either soar or weigh the ensemble down, depending on how they approach it from here on out.
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
Another story that could really go either way in the next few weeks is the Kip/Marina pairing, as it plays nicely now, but it could easily become too sweet for its own good. That said, I do enjoy Kip as the show's most sincere character. When Marina tearfully tells Kip, after he's confessed his love and (surprisingly/humorously) asked her to marry him, "You're the best person I've ever met," it's easy to believe she means it. Marina as endured her fair share of jerks, such as Greg (Jordan Rodrigues), who is pretty much the biggest tool she could possibly have gotten involved with, as news of her pregnancy scare prompts him to deny that the baby is his. He then gets out of taking her to the drug store by telling her he has a series of classes to teach, although he does, at the very least, offer her the use of his car. However, Marina doesn't actually know how to drive, so she approaches Kip to take her to the store in Woodville, roughly 70 miles away. Things get awkward as they can't really address their own budding romance with the looming shadow of a Greg-fathered baby in the distance. Yet even if they could, those talks would have quickly been put on the backburner, as everything that could possibly go wrong ends up going wrong. It's sort of a good news/bad news situation with much of these twists -- bad news: Kip gets pulled over for a busted tail light and is forced to reveal that he only has a learner's permit; good news: the cop lets them off with a warning when he learns they know Robbie. Good news: the cop gives them a ride to the Woodville pharmacy. Bad news: it's closed. Worse news: it starts raining on them. Better news: Kip can afford a motel room with his earnings from the darts tournament with Cole.
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
It's only when left to their own devices, in a sort of vacation alone at the motel, with its hot showers, air conditioned rooms, and stocked fridge, that the potential couple has the opportunity to discuss their feelings for each other. Marina reveals that while she cares about Kip, she doesn't intend to do anything more than just lay next to him, at the moment. Kip, as usual, is completely understanding, saying that there's nothing else he'd rather do than help her. The next day, they venture to the pharmacy, but things go south almost immediately, as the place is robbed at gunpoint. What follows is the one development of the episode that I didn't particularly care for, as the robbers are revealed to be sympathetic to Marina's plight, and share some encouraging advice about the foibles of teen parenting.
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
It's such a jarring tonal shift that it almost derails the entire episode, but thankfully, things get back on track once Kip and Marina hit the road. They get into an argument over what Kip perceives to be Marina's terrible taste in men, and when she storms off into the woods to take the pregnancy test, he realizes his mistake in yelling at her. This leads to the aforementioned declaration/marriage proposal, and it would all seem really hokey if Thom Green didn't do such a terrific job portraying the earnestness behind Kip's character. When they get back to Camp Little Otter and see everyone participating in a campfire gathering beneath a Harvest Moon, they share a kiss, and it's a moment that feels genuinely earned. Whether or not they become a couple right away, I generally like the direction this storyline is taking, as we've now gotten the central couple together, and now we get to see whether they'll sink or swim.
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
Of course, not every storyline can be as compelling. Robbie is still pouting about Sarah, eroding whatever sympathy the people around camp have for him, particularly Cole, who is just about fed up with his moodiness. Cole smacks Robbie around and tells him to stop being a "bitch", saying that he needs to begin the process of moving on with his life, as Sarah has clearly done the same. Most of Robbie's angst comes from the discovery that Sarah has decided to work at Ridgefield after leaving Camp Little Otter. He thinks she's a coward for simply running away from her problems, especially after she admits that the reason she left was to get away from him. Robbie asks if she's still with Miguel, but she confirms that he's left and that things are over between them. However, she's unable to say, one way or the other, if she'd have continued cheating on him if Robbie didn't know and Miguel hadn't left. The only explanation Sarah is able to give him regarding her actions is that she cheated because she wanted to, which sends Robbie into a fit. It's an eye-roller of a storyline, but hopefully with Cole giving him some tough love, we can hopefully see Robbie start to move on and become involved in other storylines (his involvement with the prank war was a nice start).
Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC
"Harvest Moon" keeps up the trend of heartfelt storytelling that has become the signature of Camp. As the character arcs become more pronounced and the dynamics between the personalities become more familiar, this instantly becomes a much deeper series, even with its lighthearted nature. Hopefully, the show starts to branch out a bit more by exploring newer potential narratives between all these different personalities as the season rolls on.