It's time for the counselors to focus on Nurf's activities...BOOT CAMP! Overly cheerful David must finally learn how to toughen up, but can he grow a spine before Nurf's bullying gets out of control?
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: This time, we focus on Nurf.
- Blade Enthusiast: Nurf seems to have an never-ending supply of knives.
- Bait the Dog: Nurf seems to be fishing with a cat, only to use the cat as bait.
- Demoted to Extra: Neil and Nikki take a backseat in this episode, which is appropriately lampshaded.
- Don't Explain the Joke: When Nurf kicks Neil and Nikki's ball away.Nurf: Oops! Didn't see you there! ...just kidding, I was fully aware of the situation, I'm just acting out for attention. That said, I do think I need corrective lenses, my mom just won't take me.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Max may be billing himself as the only camper worse than Nurf, but he quickly realizes that Nurf's talents for cruelty and emotional manipulation outstrip his own by far.
- Expy: Scotty, the one-off camper who's basically a Carrot Top reference.
- Freudian Couch: Brought in when the counselors decide to get psychological.
- Freudian Excuse: Very, very literally in Nurf's case.Nurf: Oh, so we're doing the whole Freudian thing now? Everyone wants to fuck their own mom, get over it!
- For what it's worth, Nurf offers the excuse that he was once a good kid who chewed a pop-tart into the shape of a gun and was labeled a problem kid until he had no choice but to become one. Then again, it's Nurf, so who knows if anything he says is true.
- Hard Truth Aesop: In-universe example; David manages to get to Nurf by accidentally slapping him while falling, which causes the bully to realize how he's been treating others. David looks really disturbed when Max remarks, "Sometimes, you just gotta hit kids."
- Hidden Depths: Either Nurf actually suffered some real trauma that turned him into a bully, or he's just very, very skilled at gaslighting and emotional abuse. Even Max is stunned at the sheer depth of his issues.
- Innocent Innuendo: Gwen's first attempt at turning David into a DI results in a few of these.David: Gosh darnit, you're right! Today's the day I get hard.Gwen: Okay, maybe we don't phrase it like that-David: Oh no, rule one: no backing down! Look out world, I'm hard and I'm coming! Whether he likes it or not, Nurf is gonna let me in!Max: ...so does he wanna help Nurf, or fuck him?
- Sound-Effect Bleep: A big chunk of Nurf's dialogue is bleeped out at one point as though he's going on a 30-second tirade of profanity. It turns out it's just Scotty leaning on his keyboard.
- Unreliable Narrator: Nurf keeps dropping hints about the roots of his behavioral problems, but he's such a sociopath that it's hard to tell if anything he says can be believed.
