| “ | So watch as I identify the skill to show I qualify. Like keeping up this camp charade, and tricking kids to drink Kool-Aid. To sacrifice them-! Oooh, wait... | ” |
"Cult Camp" is the 1st episode of the second season of Camp Camp and the 13th episode overall.
Official Synopsis
| “ | Gwen puts out an ad looking for a new camp counselor, but is not happy with the results. Max suspects there is something off about the new hire. | ” |
—Episode description | ||
Plot
David is fast asleep with his morning wood on display[misleading] when Gwen bursts in and wakes him up. She tells him that she found a stash of cash, which she used to put out a Help Wanted ad in the news paper. David is skeptical about the idea of hiring a new camp counselor at first, but immediately changes his mind when, mere moments later, Daniel arrives. When Gwen greets Daniel, her enthusiasm at hiring a new co-counselor is immediately dampered as she notices that he looks and acts almost exactly like David. David hires Daniel immediately, without performing any sort of background check on the guy, and Gwen, severely creeped out, decides to use all of her vacation days. Thus leaving the entire camp in the hands of David and Daniel. Unbeknownst to Gwen or David, the next page of the newspaper reads, "enthusiastic cult leader leaves entire compound dead." The page after this one has a large picture of Daniel with the words, "WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT HIRE THIS MAN!!" printed next to it. But perhaps the most incriminating of all is the final page of that newspaper, which has an advert on it for Muffin Topz all you can eat shrimp and steak, which is only for five dollars. It may not pertain to the rest of the story, but it sounds suspiciously delicious.
After an incident in which one of the campers throws a grenade into the camp counselor's cabin, David gathers the campers around for a presentation on what is and is not a baseball and then introduces Daniel to the kids when Max asks who the fuck he is. Daniel tells David that he has some positive exercises for the campers that will help cleanse them of their negative emotions, to which David replies that the kids are in good hands, and leaves to finish the employment paperwork. Within minutes Daniel establishes his irrational beliefs on space, the Big Bang, purification, ascension, and the God Xemüg. This is enough to convince Max, Nikki, and Neil to that Daniel is actually a batshit crazy cultist who is going to brainwash and kill the entire camp.
The children try to convince David that Daniel is crazy but David remains skeptical, despite deciding to address their concerns and confront Daniel anyways. This, much to Max's dismay, does not go as planned. By the time the trio and David arrive at the Mess Hall all of the other campers have been brainwashed and Daniel has them preparing for an "ascension," party. Daniel then has Dolf escort the trio to the "purification," sauna. A sauna that uses high pressured steam und subliminal messaging to deconstruct the individual's psyche and reform it in a way that please the "ancient ones," of Daniel's religion. Max, Nikki, and Neil watch as their fellow campers prepare a giant bowl of fruit punch laced with rat poison, which Daniel intends to have them drink. Horrified, the kids go full panic mode. And that's when Daniel suddenly appears behind them and throws Nikki and Neil into the sauna, brainwashing them both. Max calls Daniel out on his crazy plan, to which he replies that he's just helping the kids to feel safe. David congratulates Daniel on making the campers happy, as ignorant to the situation as ever. Max realizes that David is too oblivious to see Daniel's insanity and murderous intentions and decides to take a page from Daniel's book by using an appeal to emotions on David rather than an appeal to logic. Max's speech about how inept David is at his job when compared to Daniel triggers a daydream about David and Gwen getting fired, which visibly disturbs David. David tries to comfort himself by saying not everyone loves Daniel, only for Max to intentionally get himself brainwashed and proclaim his love for Daniel, too. Completely shocked by this sudden change of character in his son, David decides to fire Daniel. Daniel refuses to be terminated, claiming that he has successfully met every requirement for the position and that David has no right to let him go. David then challenges Daniel to a Camp Song sing off. As they try one up each other through the art of song, Daniel, upon bragging about how he has infiltrated their camp and will sacrifice them all, gets too caught up in the moment and accidentally drinks the poisoned punch.
Daniel is promptly taken away by an ambulance although whether he survived the incident or not remains a mystery to this very day. Gwen returns to camp shortly after Daniel is wheeled away with her own choice for a new camp counselor, Jen. A blonde doppelganger of Gwen, who is as equally insane as Daniel. The episode ends with Space Kid happily greeting Jen.
Features
Main Characters
Supporting Characters
Minor Characters
- Nerris
- Harrison
- Dolph
- Nurf
- Space Kid
- Ered
- Preston Goodplay
- Jen (first appearance)
- Cameron Campbell (mentioned)
Locations
- Camp Campbell
- Counselors' Cabin
- Quartermaster's Store (mentioned)
- Mess Hall
- Jonestown (mentioned)
Objects
- poisoned Kool-Aid
- newspaper with the following ads:
- "Camp Campbell Help Wanted" ad
- "Join WOODSCOUTS" ad
- "Missing Wolf: Call QM" ad
- " 'Lester's 'Lectronics "Seeking Boy Genius" " ad
- "FBI Hiring!" ad
- "Muffin Topz: All You Can Eat Shrimp and Steak" ad
- "Enthusiastic Cult Leader Leaves Entire Compound Dead!" article
- "Whatever You Do, Do NOT Hire This Man!!" article
- Jen's "trashy magazine"
- David's "morning wood"
- David's guitar
- Daniel's fiddle
- Camp Camp mobile
- Box of grenades
- Campbell's stash of cash
Music
- "Camp Camp Song Song" (Opening Theme)
- "Better Than You"
- "Cult of Personality" (Ending Theme)
Trivia
- Like David, Daniel is shown to be skilled at handling at least one musical instrument. In his case, a fiddle.
- Daniel and Jen look exactly like David and Gwen, but both have lighter color palettes.
- During an RTX Panel, when asked if the animators got lazy in designing antagonists for the show, Miles simply replied that it just looked cool for a recolored David to be the villain.
- Daniel starts cracking his neck after he is antagonized.
- Throughout the entire episode, albeit squinting a few times, Daniel is shown to not blink.
- It is revealed that Mr. Campbell has hidden a stash of cash in the Quartermaster's Store behind a box of grenades. Assuming that he either stole it or is keeping it for future use.
- The whereabouts of Jen is currently unknown since she only ever appeared once in the series, near the end of the episode.
Cultural References
- Nikki and the Quartermaster both reference Jonestown throughout the episode. Jonestown was the location where Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple cult, instructed his followers to ingest poisoned Grape Kool-Aid in order to kill themselves, which Daniel attempts to do as well.
- The 555- four random digits trope is referenced in the episode as it was shown in the Camp Counselor Wanted ad written as Gwen's phone number.
- When Nikki yells "WAKE UP AND SMELL THE KOOL-AID!," It could be a reference to the opening scene of Half-Life 2, when G-Man tells Gordon Freeman to "Wake up and smell the ashes."
Continuity
- The newspaper that Daniel had has the following ads:
- Lester's 'Lectronics "Seeking Boy Genius" , referencing Neil in "Into Town" as he temporarily worked for Lester but never came back.
- Missing Wolf: Call QM referencing the wolf that Quartermaster released in "Camporee" for Nikki's cross-species communication round. The wolf which chased away the other camps, attacked David and was never seen again.
- Join WOODSCOUTS referencing how The Wood Scouts still lacks recruits and would do anything to gain new campers.
- David writes "Max + Positivity = Success" in his clipboard in the episode "Mascot", this is seen again but framed up on the Counselor Cabin's wall, seconds before Gwen smashes the door, causing it to fall over and break.
- The 555- four random digits trope was first referenced in the Pilot when it appeared as the Camp's phone number. It is referenced again in this episode as it was shown in the Camp Counselor Wanted ad written as Gwen's phone number.
Errors
- When Daniel answers Max after he questions Daniel's get-up, the rest of the campers that were originally behind Max disappears, aside from Preston and Neil. Although they all return on the next scene.
- The Counselors' Cabin door was a screendoor when it was a wooden door in every other episode.
- It opens inward when Gwen greets David but it normally open outwards.
- In one scene, Nurf's hair was facing the opposite direction.
Transcript
- The transcript for "Cult Camp" may be edited here.
Gallery
- To see the full gallery, go to Cult Camp/Gallery.
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