Fridge / Camp Camp

WARNING: Untagged spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.

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Fridge Brilliance

• Most RL magicians wear long sleeves in order to better hide things in them and aid in their magic tricks. Harrison wears short sleeves, and would have a hard time hiding anything in them—a hint towards actual magic ability, perhaps?
  • Harrison's parents sent him to magic camp in order to figure out his "abilities".
  • Think all the way back to season one, episode two—Harrison conjures up a rabbit but is unable to bring it back once it disappears. He says he doesn't know how to magically bring it back, and "that's kind of why [he's] here". We assume he means he was sent to Camp Campbell to get better at magic tricks; in the season 2 finale, we find out Harrison's parents sent him to camp to learn to control his abilities after he made his own brother disappear. He wasn't sent to camp because he was bad at magic, but because he was too good at it!
• Look closely at all of the Camp Campbell campers—every one of their outfits contains the color yellow. From the episode "Campboree," we find out that David's neckerchief is actually an old yellow Camp Campbell camp shirt. In the same scene, we see photos of David's time as a camper—all of the campers wore the same yellow camp t-shirts. It's heartwarming to see that, despite the fact that the new campers didn't work together as a team unit initially, they all still belong at Camp Camp.
  • Dolph doesn't wear yellow though.
    • His redesign now includes a gold necklace and a yellowish apron covered in different color paints, one of which is yellow.
• In "Mascot", David's original activity was to make hand-made ice cream. Why? Possibly to make Gwen feel better as she was "sick".
• During the 'Camporee' events, Nikki is the only one of the Camp Campbell Campers who successfully makes it through the Flower Scouts' first challenge. Why does this suddenly make sense? Nikki is a former Flower Scout.
• Besides the "Devil Went Down To Georgia" vibes, there's another, subtler reason Daniel's instrument of choice is a fiddle. Throughout the episode, Daniel's proven himself to be an expert manipulator, easily swaying everyone to his side and convincing them to like him within the span of a couple of hours. You could say he played them like a fiddle.
  • Further solidifying the "Devil" parallel—notice in Daniel's part in "Better Than You," although he makes the movements like he is playing his violin, no actual violin music is heard while he's singing. Similarly, in "Devil Went Down to Georgia," the Devil's fiddle solo doesn't contain any fiddle music. This may be unintentional, but if not it's a neat connection.
  • David's song is called "Better Than You"—one of the first things the Devil says to Johnny is to bet a fiddle of gold "...that says I'm better'n you".
• Even if Daniel didn't accidentally drink the poisoned punch, David could get rid of him legally because before that happened, Daniel basically confessed he was planning to murder all the campers.
  • Not to mention he was also clearly a wanted man. The authorities clearly knew he was responsible for what happened to his last camp.
• David insulting Jermy without realizing seems like an Out-of-Character Moment at first, but after the next episode shows that he used to be a troublemaker who called people names, it comes off more like him momentarily slipping back into old habits.
  • In "Jermy Fartz", Pikeman makes a bet with David that the Camp Campers are incapable of being nice. When they fail to be nice to Jermy for 24 hours, they suddenly pretend Jermy is their favorite camper so that Pikeman will take him away. In other words, since they rid themselves of Jermy, they arguably won the bet... and did it by being nice.
• David being a troublemaker in his youth adds some depth to his relationship with Max. He probably sees a lot of himself in Max and hopes that one day, Max will turn around and love Camp Campbell, and become more idealistic too, just like he did back in the nineties.
• Tabii with two i's? Not anymore.
• Cameron Campbell is known to get people's names wrong, namely Gwen, Sasha, and Max. These are all people who didn't have anything to do with the camp until after he started taking a more hands-off approach. Conversely, he remembers David, Jasper, and the former counselors' names because they were around when he was directly in charge of Camp Campbell. He doesn't remember people's names because he's past the point of caring.
• In the very first episode, Max makes a snide remark that camp is where kids end up when their parents don't want to deal with them. It sounds just like every other bitter thing he says until "Parents' Day", when it's revealed that his parents only sent him to Camp Campbell to get rid of him for the summer. In hindsight, it's clear that Max is really upset about this - he's just so bitter in general that it's impossible to tell.
  • Despite all the times he's tried to break out of Camp Campbell, Max has never mentioned where he intends to go.
  • In "Anti-Social Network", his present from his parents is a half-assed postcard and a hoodie identical to the one he's already wearing. Max tosses it immediately.
  • In "Eggs Benefits", Max sarcastically suggests that they ship their egg off to summer camp so strangers can raise it. Even worse, Nikki obliviously tells him that would be a horrible idea.
  • He even brags that his parents won't bother showing up to Parents' Day because they don't care about things like that. It's implied that they've never paid any attention to anything he's cared about.
  • Throughout the episode, Max is constantly reminding everyone that his parents don't care enough to come. He's doing the same thing he did when he lost his teddy bear: making a big deal about something supposedly not being a big deal.
  • When Space Kid tells him that his parents couldn't make it, Max suddenly becomes sympathetic towards him. He then snaps back to his usual self when Space Kid says his uncle is coming instead.
• Dolph's main gimmick is his unsettling but ultimately innocent resemblance to Adolf Hitler. He came to the camp for its art program, while Hitler's Start of Darkness really started rolling after he was rejected from an Art Academy in Vienna.
• Neil's father being a philosophy professor actually makes a lot of sense since philosophy is sometimes described as the "father of science". It also explains Neil's embarrassment; despite his supposedly great intellect, he's obsessed with hard science and facts, whereas Philosophy is a more fluid sort of study, and built upon rejecting old values and learning new perspectives. In other words, nothing that can be proven. Like magic, it upsets Neil's worldview.
• The reason why David beat the crap out of Jacob, Bonquisha's new lover, is because he is angry that he was replaced so easily during the week that they are apart.
• In the Christmas episode, Max claims that he's expecting "a fidget spinner at best" as his gift. Max's parents have been established as being neglectful towards him, so they probably wouldn't bother to put a lot of thought into getting presents for him beyond "whatever's popular with kids these days"...which, in this case, would be a fidget spinner. Not to mention a fidget spinner would be pretty inexpensive so they wouldn't have to put much money into the "gift" either, something neglectful parents would appreciate.
• There were many people directly and tangentially responsible for Campbell's arrest, so why did Campbell swear vengeance on only David? Because Campbell can never remember anyone's name, and David is one of the few people whose name he can consistently get right!
• Since Max's parents didn't specify a camp for him to attend, it can be said that he was sent to camp camp.
• Throughout his time, we see Preston raise his vocal volume up several notches when upset or making sure he wants to be heard. It makes much more sense when you meet his apparent guardian, his grandmother, in "Parents Day". Presuming he's her charge or living with her in some capacity, he seems to have become used to screaming things loudly at his hard of hearing grandmother to ensure she's heard him. Which makes his previous screaming make much more sense. He's accustomed to yelling everything important he's trying to say to ensure he's heard and understood.
• Between seasons 2 and 3, Preston's VA changed, meaning that he suddenly speaks with a British accent that the show doesn't bother to hide. And why should it? Preston is a theater kid; anyone who's spent time around drama majors knows that spontaneous British accents are inevitable.
• At the beginning of Nikki's Last Day on Earth, Neil tries to make a potion that will lower his voice to sound more commanding and successfully tests it on the platypus, but when he discovers that Nikki also drank it everyone fears it poisoned her. The end of the episode reveals that the symptoms she was experiencing were nothing but menstruation and the potion apparently had no effect on her. However, it's pretty coincidental that she just happened to start her period after drinking it, unless Neil accidentally created a chemical that made her hormones skyrocket and jumpstarted her puberty.
  • Beyond that, the potion was supposed to lower the voices of whoever drinks it- specifically so they wouldn't be bullied for their shrill tones. That is, another effect of puberty, albeit mostly in males. It's possible that Neil's potion had the effect of jumpstarting the puberty of whoever drinks it- which would result in the intended effect.
• At the start of Dial M for Jasper, David sees Jasper's ghost and is nervous and frightened all morning. It doesn't help that Nikki says she's hungry enough to die, and Max says he looks like he's seen a ghost. At the end, it's revealed that David never knew that Jasper died. Max's line about ghosts would upset him, but Nikki's line about death seems less relevant. Except in the previous episode, Nikki almost died. He's still scared for her.
• Jasper and David's falling out over Campbell makes more sense when you remember that they only recently held the opposite attitudes. They both think that they've seen the light and realized what idiots they were, so they're projecting onto each other.
• In the Halloween Episode, Max is more upset when Ered is infected than when his friends Neil and Nikki are. This isn't out of nowhere; in Mind Freakers, the first time Max coughs up the flags, Ered is the only one who looks worried. Max remembers that.
• In "Ered Gets Her Cool Bank", Neil predicts that the next adventure may be "A love quadrangle" or an "Engineered Public Confession" - sound familiar to Season 3?
• The first step of Max's plan to save Camp Campbell by wreaking havoc is to pick Harrison up from Magic Camp. It's not just because Harrison can cause a lot of destruction with his magic, it's because he can cause a lot of untraceable destruction with his magic. He doesn't need any equipment to start fires, so he can't be searched. The only eyewitnesses are kids, who are infamous for Cassandra Truth. And as a stage magician, he knows enough sleight of hand to not get caught.
• The kids by the end of Season 3 are close enough to ditch their specialized camps, ones they've been yearning for the entire summer, in favor of Camp Campbell. It's not just because it's not an underfunded hellhole if your friends are there; they're close because it's an underfunded hellhole. The poor schedule and busy counselors leave the kids on their own for large periods of time without any entertainment but each other. Neil teaches science camp and Harrison puts on a magic show to entertain the others.
• Max's reaction to David's apparent anger about being attacked with water guns in the Season 3 finale actually makes psychological sense as does his overall personality and behavior. Children who suffer neglect and/or abuse frequently act like little jerks to test the limits of the adults around them so they can mentally place limits on their behavior. Max's reaction in the aforementioned squirt gun scene is the result of him being confused and concerned that he apparently hit a limit where he didn't expect one to be; it also explains why he relaxes again once David reveals he isn't angry, since that was just proof everything was normal and safe.
• In "Arrival of the Torso Takers" David does not blink once until the real David is found. Who else doesn't blink on the show?
• Nerris shares both her A Day in the Limelight episodes with someone else. As a roleplayer, she creates stories with other people, advancing both hers and theirs.
• In "Arrival of the Torso Takers", David gets into a pretty harmless and ridiculous slap fight with Daniel after the latter goes after Max. Badass Decay from when he beat up his replacement as Bonquisha's boyfriend? Actually no. When he beat up Jacob, Max was clearly shocked by this which David might have interpreted in retrospect as Max being scared by said beating. So since Max was present when he attacked Daniel, David consciously chose something less intimidating to ward off the cultist so Max wouldn't be any more distressed by the situation.
• Given what is implied so far about Max's parents, it makes perfect sense that even at ten years old he doesn't know how to swim. It's very unlikely his parents would have bothered to teach him themselves, or to to shell out money for lessons (unless, of course, they could foist him off on a camp for a few months).
  • It could also partially explain Max's uncharacteristic attachment to his teddy bear. If we extrapolate that Max may have received little to no physical affection from his parents when he was younger, it could easily be concluded that Mr. Honeynuts was potentially his sole source of comfort during his formative years; hence, his current attachment even past the age when many kids have set aside old comfort objects.
• Some commenters have pointed out that camping requires a lot of equipment, so David's exceptional skill in survival with almost nothing couldn't have just come from camping. Given that David got lost in the woods as a child, and his best friend almost died several times, it would be natural that David learned a lot of extra survival, just in case he got lost again—or one of the kids.
  • Young David also took to heart the 'lesson' that he thought Campbell taught him: you don't need modern technology to camp. Surviving with nothing but what nature provides and the clothes on his back embodies that ideal.
• In "Who Peed The Lake" Nurf seems unusually fixated on power plays to prove how great he is when he hadn't shown these traits before. Remember that the last episode showcased his softer side and he renounced bullying which the other campers witnessed. He may have gone back to bullying but they know he's just insecure now so he's going for other tactics to not let them see his weakness because they will use their knowledge of it if he tries his old ways on them.
• Cameron Campbell is exactly the right person to give Gwen and the campers a speech about failure.
  • The only other person present, David, can't relate because he got exactly what he wanted in life: to become a camp counselor. Campbell fell from the top and working at Camp Campbell was never his endgame, but he still accepts it.
  • Campbell can and will yell at the children to be quiet and listen, and listening is exactly what they need.
  • Campbell's been shot at by police, ran out of Thailand, had assassins from countries he scammed, and cheated out of money, and yet he still remains optimistic about the future.
  • Nikki and Neil's specific fears were that they need to pick one thing to make a career out of. Campbell's been in and out of so many jobs.
  • Campbell is happy digging up his time capsule. He turned an activity the kids hated into a huge success.
• Max is actually perfect to attend Camp Campbell
  • He was never given a camp activity
  • He has shown the most prowess in various miscellaneous activities
  • He definitely embodies the violent nature of Camp Campbell
• Meta example: Towards the end of "The Lake Lilac Summer Special," we see Jermy Fartz tasting food out of the Platypus's bowl. It makes sense that the ever-gross Jermy would do something so Squick-y; however, the fridge kicks in when you realize that Jermy is voiced by Jordan Cwierz; the same actor who provides the Platypus's "muack" sound effects.
• In the episode "After Hours", Space Kid mentions that one of his uncles went to prison. If you think the "uncle" he's referring to is Buzz Aldrin, you wouldn't be wrong, as he was arrested for “disorderly conduct” whilst he was a used car salesman back in the 70′s.

Fridge Horror

• The strange box in the Quartermaster's Store makes Space Kid say (in backmask), "The Master must not be made whole again." After Quartersister disappears in the Mess Hall Fire (supposedly absorbed into Quartermaster as suggested by his hook hand switching sides), he says "Two down, one to go." Counting Quartermaster, that would be four people - of which the Quartermaster and Quartersister were, originally, quarters - meaning Quartermaster's name could mean he's, quite literally, one-quarter of The Master the box spoke of. And this also raises questions about the "tontine" they're competing for.
• The fact that Cameron Campbell did not hesitate to kill Davey for witnessing Jasper's assumed death and his actions that can qualify him as a Villain of Another Story makes his threat to David not-so-empty.
• Doubles as a Tear Jerker, Max in the episode "Into Town" talks about how he wants to break David so he'll cry himself to sleep like everyone else. This may indicate another part of his home life in that he's had times he's cried himself to sleep.
  • Doubled with the events of the Season 3 finale. Sure Max has definite True Companions in Nikki and Neil, likely True Companions in the other campers and parental figures in David and Gwen but the whole point of Max's subplot in the episode was that summer will end. Meaning he's going to leave his newfound support system and go home for the next 9-10 months (depending on how many months Camp Campbell runs for) to people who, at best, want to care for Max but don’t know how, and at worst, outright ignore him (and if any part of the Fanon is accurate, are even worse, possibly even dangerous). Even if it doesn't make him completely revert back to his start-of-the-series self, going home would NOT be good for Max.
• The Fanon about Max's parents being less than stellar and purposefully so is given some merit by Max's reaction to David's apparent anger over being sprayed by squirt guns. His expression isn't an "Uh-oh; should I apologize?" look; it's a look of genuine worry that David is furious with him. Which means that even after everything he's seen involving David, his first reaction to an apparently upset adult is to worry that they're going to take it out on him.
  • On the lighter side, however, Max would never have worried about making David angry at the start of the series, so it's more likely he's actually starting to respect and listen to David.
  • On the other hand, Max's reaction, coupled with his generally unpleasant personality and behavior, would indicate that he's been pretty messed up by the neglect (putting aside the possibility of actively Abusive Parents) since said reaction and behavior are consistent with neglected and/or abused children testing adults' limits for their own safety; in this case, Max might have been worried he had hit a limit in David that he hadn't been able to discover otherwise, which would be worrying.
• On the "Max is the victim of Parental Neglect / Abusive Parents" front, some fans have analyzed the shot in the theme song where Max, Neil and Nikki have their food trays. While Neil is scrutinizing his food instead of eating it, he clearly got a decent amount and Nikki's tray is piled with the stuff; Max on the other hand has an empty tray and given that there are no crumbs, it's unlikely he ate any of it, meaning there wasn't any on there to begin with. This means that A) he's not used to eating and is precocious enough to realize that if he gorges himself, he'll just make himself sick or B) he's worried his parents will find out about him eating more at camp. And even if there's no neglect or abuse involved in why he doesn't eat, that's still not healthy behavior.
• Daniel returned and his entire plan was to murder Max and make David watch. Putting aside all of his comedic failures, he outright states that he has no other reason to murder Max than because he enjoys it. Let me repeat that; Daniel actively enjoys the idea of murdering Max painfully in a Revenge by Proxy scheme against David.
• In the season 2 episode "Space Camp Was a Hoax," after Max sends Space Kid's "rocket" to Spooky Island, Gwen reacts saying, "Do you realize how much paperwork I have to do for a dead camper?" To which the proper assumption that Max came to is that Gwen has had to deal with that before. Meaning that at least one other kid has died at Camp Campbell since she started working there. This also shows off that Gwen can have some Skewed Priorities.
• In the season 4 episode "Campfire Tales", Space Kid's story has a part where a horrified Max hides in his tent so a pair of creatures won't find him. Astute viewers might find this a sadly typical occurance within Max's household.

Fridge Logic

• In episode 7, David's Tinder profile reveals him to be 24 years old. Assuming that the episode takes place in 2016 since that's when it aired, that would mean he was born in 1992. Then comes season 2 episode 5, which takes place in 1994. David is likely somewhere between 8-10 years old during that episode, so how old is he really?
  • Maybe he's lying about his age. People on dating sites have been known to stretch the truth about themselves.
  • Cameron Campbell bragging about being the Richest Outdoorsman of 1994 doesn't mean the episode is set in 1994. Jasper's comment about the "recently announced Star Wars prequels" would most likely set it in 1997, making David around 5 years old at the time, which isn't too unbelievable for this show.
  • The show may be set earlier than 2016. For example, if David was born in 1989, he was 8 in the flashback in 1997, which would mean that the show takes place in 2013.
    • However, multiple references to both Donald Trump and also modern things like fidget spinners have been made. Fidget spinners didn't really become a thing until 2017 meaning it must be set around then.
• How come David and Gwen never knew that Max's parents did not sign him for any activity prior to Parents' Day?
  • Maybe the counselors don't really handle that paperwork? Remember back in the pilot how David didn't really seem to know that Neil wanted to go to science camp, and figured Neil was at the right camp. Maybe there's other paperwork that lists their needs, like allergies, medications, etc.
  • But they handle camp activities; why wouldn't they know which camp each camper was in? Or does the camp just run general activities while advertising itself as a multifunctional camp for all subjects?
  • At this point, for all we know, we could put it down to Gwen being particularly lazy the day his paperwork rolled in?
  • To be fair, it has to be difficult for Gwen and David to keep track of the various camps and camp activities that they have to set up. The kids just participate, the counselors actually have to plan and such. In "David Gets Hard", David has to ask Gwen what camp he was in before they could go about figuring out activities for it to do. As with the ordeal with Space Kid in "Space Camp Was A Hoax", David was unaware of the caveat in Space Kid's camp which was vitally necessary to complete unless the camp was to lose money for it. And with all the trouble that Max, Nikki, and Neil get up to on a near daily basis, plus other antics and taking care of the rest of the camps in the camp, it may be that they were too distracted to look at what Max's camp was supposed to be that summer. (It was implied that Max was at Camp Campbell in previous years, but it's possible that he's been up to his antics for that long to the point it's only David who really bothers, and was still too distracted anyway).

• How are the Wood Scouts allowed to just move up their popcorn sales one month early with no issue? At least as far as cookies, speaking as a former Girl Scout, you are only allowed to sell within a specific season in accordance with the local council, and attempting to sell anything earlier than that and getting caught will get the entire troop banned from being allowed to sell that year. So why are the Wood Scouts allowed to move up their sale date so arbitrarily? Unless this is something more analogous to a specific practice by the Boy Scouts and not scouts in general.
  • Given this troop regularly kidnaps new members, either the Wood Scouts as an organization has very loose rules or this troop already regularly breaks them.
  • In addition to the above, it was mentioned that Wood Scout Troops nationwide had the issue with the Flower Scouts and their cookies outselling them. Could be that the Sleepy Peak region's troop called the central location with the idea and were given the Okay to try it.
• In the second episode, when David says Gwen is feeling "Under the weather," Nikki says it's "Lady sickness" which her mother gets, implying that Gwen is on her period and Nikki knows about it. However, in "Nikki's Last Day on Earth," when she gets it for the first time, she doesn't seem to recognize the symptoms until Gwen tells her about it. Is this a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, or did Nikki just not know all the details?
  • Considering the likely less-than-stellar adult supervision Nikki probably gets from her mother, she might not have known all the details. Furthermore, all girls tend to experience it differently, so Nikki's mom's symptoms may not have quite been the norm.
  • Considering Candy brushes off Nikki's traumatic experiences at the hands of the Flower Scouts as nothing to worry about, her only knowing that "lady sickness" exists and doesn't affect kids with minimal at best knowledge of the details is actually believable.
• So, Max is trying to prove that people can't change by using Cameron Campbell as an example (mostly because Max doesn't want to admit that he himself has changed for the better). Except, how is showing that just the one person is still terrible going to prove his point? Even is Max is right, Campbell would probably be the exception and not the rule.
  • Max says it himself in the episode: by resorting to sneaky, underhanded means to keep Campbell falling back on old habits, he not only shows that Campbell hasn't changed, but that he himself hasn't changed - two birds with one stone. He focuses on Campbell because it was the argument on whether or not he could change that led to everyone talking about how Max had changed. Max is ten, he's not thinking about whether or not his "evidence" would stand up to scientific scrutiny.
• What would have happened if the Flower Scouts won Camporee? Did the Wood Scouts have to be 1st place in order to take over Camp Campbell, or would 2nd place have sufficed if Camp Campbell got last?
  • Presumably the latter. The Flower Scouts have no real endgame for this besides the general first place prize and being able to show up the other camps, they have no stakes in the bet. If anything the Wood Scouts would likely argue for their victory if they took second and Camp Camp took third. So it wouldve likely been up to that.
• I know it's for story purposes but why exactly has Max made it this far without learning how to swim? It seems unlikely that "Swim Camp" was never a thing given the "and more!" part of Camp Campbell's advertising and even if that was true, Swim Day would be an easy and cheap activity to have the campers do if other plans fell through or it was a free day.
  • Given Max's general attitude, he couldve easily sat out or skipped during any swimming days or lake activities that required him getting in the water and revealing he couldnt swim already. And with all the other campers to wrangle, it would be a waste of energy trying to force Max to get in a swimsuit and get in the water when he doesnt want to.