Fridge / Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

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Fridge Brilliance

• At first it may seem confusing as to how Toro managed to survive his encounter with the Indominus rex, but according to tie in material for Jurassic World the Indominus rex is part Carnotaurus, so it could be a scenario where the Indominus rex was communicating with Toro like she would later do with the Velociraptors and set her free.
  • This scene also means that her ability to communicate to the Velociraptors wasn't something she quickly learned out of nowhere. She already had practice with Toro.
  • It could also be possible that despite Toro's vicious behavior and lack of experience outside the enclosure, even he knew having a scrap with a freak dinosaur four times his size was asking to be killed, and decided to make a run for it after the Indominus broke into his enclosure.
• Combined with Fridge Sadness, with Bumpy hiding in the bushes nearby the corpse of the dead Ankylosaurus that was killed by the Indominus rex could imply that maybe the reason Ankylosaurus decided to face off against the Indominus rex rather than run off with the rest of the herd was to protect Bumpy.
• The company name "Mantah Corp" sounds a lot like "Manticore", pretty fitting for an organization that wants to splice DNA to create their own theme park monsters, reflecting the chimerical nature of the manticore.
  • Possibly even more appropriate if Mantah Corp is one of the companies seeking to weaponize dinosaurs since Manticores are typically portrayed as vicious creatures.
    • Also, the monstrous hybrid that is the Scorpios rex possesses the physical traits of the mythological Manticore due to its short human-like head, ability to climb and leap like a lion, as well as using the quills on its tail to inject venom like a scorpion.
  • The etymology of "Manticore" is "man-eater", very apropos name for a company that seeks to create dinosaurs, some of which are infamously "man-eaters".
• Notably, in the episode "Brave", we only see Bumpy get bigger after Ben develops a backbone. In other words, Bumpy's growth reflects Ben's personal growth.
• In "The Last Stand", Sammy is the first to forgive Kenji for taking sides with his father. It makes sense, not just because she's The Heart of the group. Bear in mind that in Season 1 alone, she was working for Mantah Corp once upon a time, if reluctantly. Sammy's empathic and knows what it's like to be on the wrong side, if not to the same degree as Kenji.
  • Fittingly, back in Season 1, Kenji was one of the first to voice that Sammy deserved Forgiveness when everyone (besides Darius) was still leery of her. This time around, Sammy's just returning the favor by showing Kenji the very brand of forgiveness he gave her.
• Kenji's adoptive family is kind of an inversion of his biological family. On one hand, he had one father, but was missing a mother and was an only child with no one else to hang out with. On the other hand, his adoptive family may have recently lost a father, but he'll have a mother and two attentive brothers.
• In Fallen Kingdom's opening, it seems very convenient that Rexy just happens to be hanging around the mosasaur enclosure when Mills' men come looking for the Indominus remains. Season 2 makes this far more believable as she's turned her old enclosure into a nest and is clearly extremely territorial of the area.
  • This also acts as a very sensible explanation as to why the kids have to move into the dangerous jungle rather than stick to the safer and more well-stocked resort section of the park as she's made all of Main Street her main territory.
• Arguably overlaps with Fridge Horror: Darius warns Tiff that Compsognathus are venomous (a nod to the Procompsognathus in the first novel) and you have to drive them off before they bite. This actually explains how Dieter Stark was killed by a flock of Compys despite being a healthy, full-grown adult. Dieter was attacked when he was lying on the ground, dazed from his fall, and thus he had no time to drive the Compys off before they got a few bites on him. And because he was separated from the group, it was only a matter of time before the venom took hold and weakened his strength enough for the next round of venomous bites and then another until he no longer had the strength to fight back. The Compys knew that he was a dead man walking and simply bided their time…
  • Although this is somewhat of a surprise to veteran viewers of the film, especially when all of TLWJP's tie-in material treated the compys like land-piranhas with absolutely no mention of them being venomous.
• How did Chaos and Limbo, the last two Baryonyx, get onto Tiff's boat at the end? Well, the boat is extremely close to the shoreline, and Baryonyx are natural river predators. It's easy to assume that they just swam and got onto the boat that way.
  • I think the implication is that they jumped on board from the nearby rocks close to the shoreline. The show establishes earlier on during the bike chase that JW's Baryonyx are good at climbing and jumping rocks.
• In hindsight, each season of Camp Cretaceous pays tribute to the original movie trilogy and the first two movies of the World trilogy.
  • Season 1 is a tribute to Jurassic Park, both involving a group of survivors trying to be one step ahead of the dinosaurs hunting them.
    • The season also features a mole, sent to retrieve Jurassic World secrets for a rival company, though Sammy, unlike Nedry, didn't end up causing the crisis facing the characters.
  • Season 2 is a tribute to The Lost World: Jurassic Park, both involving a group trying to monopolize the dinosaurs through their own way, with our heroes being the only ones able to stop them.
  • Season 3 is a tribute to Jurassic Park III both involving our heroes trying to escape the island on their own while a Super-Persistent Predator with a grudge is stalking them.
  • Season 4 is a tribute to Jurassic World. In both works, we're introduced to an adult figure who's a dinosaur expert and works closely with them (Owen Grady/Mae Turner), only to end up struggling against a Mad Scientist who aims to turn the creatures they bonded with into killing machines to create profit.
  • Season 5 is a tribute to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Both works involved a Big Bad who's a Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to profit from dinosaurs through immoral means (selling dinosaurs to the highest bidder/forcing dinosaurs to fight each other), a catastrophic disaster that threatens to kill the dinosaurs on the island (Mount Sibo exploding on Isla Nublar/the geothermal reactor meltdown on Mantah Corp's island), a young Kid Hero who's Happily Adopted after losing their actual parent figure, and an epilogue that sees dinosaurs being set loose on the mainland.
• Both of the season 2 villains Mitch and Tiffany get their Just Desserts at the jaws of dinosaurs they previously hurt. In the finale of season 2, Rexy comes across and devours Mitch (who electrocuted her), and Chaos and Limbo pursue and kill Tiffany (who shot their pack-mate dead).
• The latter episodes of Season 3 is where the timeline catches up with the events of Fallen Kingdom, which explains a few things in that movie:
  • Blue helps the kids fight the Scorpios rexes in the old Visitor Center ruins, which explains why she is still quite familiar with the sight of friendly humans and it's why she didn't immediately attack Owen when he meets her again on the island after a long time apart. Also, her experience fighting the Scorpios rexes would explain why she's so effective at fighting the Indoraptor in the movie since both Hybrids are quite similar to each other and the Scorpios is basically the insane prototype of the Indoraptor.
  • The reason why Dr. Wu was so against Eli Mills' decision to sell the Indoraptor to the highest bidder at the Lockwood Manor auction is because the hybrid isn't finished yet, and this season explained why: he lacked the resources from his laptop, which was destroyed in the Ankylosaurus stampede in the final episode of Season 3, and he only has the skeletal remains of the Indominus rex to work from. Not to mention he knows firsthand how mentally unstable an unfinished hybrid is, considering he nearly died because of the Scorpios.
• Kenji holding a grudge against Darius in the Season 3 finale seems out of character for someone as laid back as him, considering he once convinced Brooklynn to forgive Sammy for stealing her phone and hiding the truth. But wait! There's a difference! He convinced her to forgive Sammy because he recognized she felt sorry for what she did! Darius, on the other hand, not only gambled with Brooklynn's life but (from Kenji's point of view) didn't show remorse for it either. No wonder Kenji feels betrayed by Darius.
• Rexy's ridiculously aggressive behavior at the end of Season 3 makes sense as the entire island is still riled up due to the Scorpios rexes, even with their deaths changing behavior back will take time if it will happen at all.
  • It probably didn't help that particular group were disturbing her territory as mentioned above.
• More like Fridge Tearjerker, but the campers being on the island for six months means that it's likely some of them have missed their birthdays and that their families have had to spend those days thinking they're dead.
• Season 2 answers two questions that some people may have had when watching Fallen Kingdom. First, did any poachers or trophy hunters illegally go to Isla Nublar when it was abandoned and attempt to hunt the dinosaurs and secondly, if so why weren’t there far fewer dinosaurs to save in the second film?
  • One, yes at least two known trophy hunters and their guide went to the island.
  • Two, because there were people still on the island.
• In the final episode of Season 2, the campers succeed in saving the dinosaurs from being shot by the trophy hunters Mitch and Tiff and the herd runs away from the waterhole, however the roar of the T. rex suddenly turns their victory into an "Oh, Crap!" moment. It seems odd that old Rexy would suddenly show up out of nowhere to cause a stampede… until you remember that she doesn't have a source of fresh water near her nest (only a saltwater lagoon housing the Mosasaurus) so she would have to come to the waterhole to drink.
• Bordering on Fridge Horror, there's a reason Yaz starts getting nightmares in season 4: Mosasaurus! Think about it, last time the Camp Fam saw this giant creature, it was securely in its pen. But in the first episode of Season 4 alone, it's inexplicably gotten out. As the audience, we know how it escaped, but the kids don't. So from Yaz's point of view, this has planted the belief a paranoia about when they'll see another dangerous prehistoric creature.
• Because the first episode of season four confirms that the campers were unaware that the Mosasaurus had escaped, this raises the question why they had not tried to free her themselves like the caged dinosaurs at the veterinary station. A possible answer is because as shown in Fallen Kingdom, the only known way to open the lagoon gate was a computer tablet used by the mercenaries hired by Eli Mills/Dr. Wu which was dropped and stepped on by the T. rex. They may have made several attempts to find a way to free the Mosasaurus but without the tablets or another way to open the lagoon gate, they had to eventually give up, maybe even coming to the decision days, weeks or even months prior to the events of season three.
  • Another possibility that goes into Fridge Horror is that the campers did find a way to free the Mosasaurus but came to the decision that it was too dangerous to be set loose, raising the question of what kind of damage a prehistoric apex predator could do to Earth’s marine ecosystems.
• When the campers get access to the investors suite and properly furnished rooms the only ones who do more than get cleaned up are Kenji, shaving his scruff, and Brooklynn, dyeing her hair back to her usual pink. They're still in the same dirty and disheveled clothes because Kenji's father never expected to accommodate teenagers, and and never got in teenager sized clothes.

Fridge Horror

• Do keep in mind that Darius's family is still reeling from the loss of the father and now, Darius has gone missing and likely has been declared dead.
• If the other kids had made it to the ferry on time, they would have likely told the counselors that Ben had died and they would leave, which would, in turn, doom Ben, who was actually still alive. As upsetting as it was for the teens to be left behind, that fact gave Ben another chance to meet up with everyone and survive.
• The end of Season 1 was a bit of a downer due to the kids being left behind by the last ferry, but it's going to get a whole lot worse when you realize what happens if they don't get off the island soon. Even if they do manage to escape Isla Nublar before the eruption, remember what happens at the end of Fallen Kingdom. These kids won't be able to catch a break, will they?
• After meeting the likes of Eddie, Mitch and Tiff, it'll be a miracle if (once they get off the island) Darius and his friends trust another adult figure again.
  • They luckily meet and befriend Dr. Mae Turner in season 4, making this assumptions jossed.
• Granted, in the 3rd season Ben felt he and Bumpy would be happy living it out together permanently on the island, but no one brings up the kid's grieving family and friends back home. Surely it wasn't his intention, but had Ben not changed his mind at the last instant, he would have left his human loved ones with an icy shard buried in their hearts for the rest of their lives…
  • On a lighter note, that's an epiphany he likely had - he did wear a momentary look of distress and tension before turning around.
  • Alternately, imagine if Ben actually had a really toxic family life back home - so much so that he was ready to leave them forever and stay on a dinosaur-ridden island all by himself.
  • Even in the possibility that Ben somehow managed to get through the next 2-and-a-half years on the island evading unfriendly dinosaurs, Mt. Sibo was inevitably going to erupt, and it's highly unlikely Ben could have evaded that.
    • Although hanging around with a herd of Ankylosaurus would certainly have given him lots of protection and when the eruption happened he and Bumpy could have snuck onboard the mercenary boat.
• Brooklynn using a cardboard cutout of herself as bait to distract Rexy is clever thinking on her part, but it unwittingly reveals a terrifying truth for old-time JP fans: Rexy can see still objects and register them as potential prey. Grant's theory that a T. rex can't see you if you stand still has been debunked here and it becomes evident that the real reason why Rexy doesn't attack motionless humans beforehand is that she isn't hungry and hasn't deemed them as a threat. Makes you realize just how terrible it could have gone if Rexy hadn't eaten the goat (and Gennaro) when she came upon Grant and Lex.
  • Unless she was following the source of Brooklyn's voice (the radio).
• In Season 2, Brooklynn's hair dye starts to fade and you can see her original hair color (brown) start to appear, but it's only slightly apparent. In Season 3, Brooklynn's brown hair is even more apparent and Kenji's even started growing facial hair. It takes about eight weeks for new hair to show under-dyed hair and around that same amount of time to grow facial hair. It means by the start of Season 3, these kids have been on the island for two whole months. Not only have they reached Eric Kirby's time stuck on an island full of predatory dinosaurs, but it seems like they will succeed that time. Even if they do escape, no amount of therapy is going to erase these two months of terror and horror.
  • The 9th episode of the 3rd season reveals it's been six months since the adventure began.
• At the end of Season 1, there was some hope that Roxie and Dave may come back for the kids. Why haven't they? Why hasn't anyone, not even Kenji's rich father, sent anyone to rescue the kids, even though Roxy and Dave told them they might be alive? Because realistically, everyone thinks they're dead. It's a lost cause to try rescue six kids they aren't certain are even alive. The kids have likely already been added to the Jurassic World death count. No matter how long the kids wait, it's likely no one will come to rescue them.
• The end of Season 3 shows that there is something hidden onboard the yacht with the kids with them none the wiser. That isn't even the worst part. The events of this episode took place after the opening of Fallen Kingdom, which means that Mosasaurus is now loose in the ocean, aka where the kids are right now. Even if they manage to deal with whatever's hiding onboard their yacht, they still have a high risk of running into a very hungry Sea Monster on their way home.
  • The Mosasaurus bit becomes Ascended Fridge Horror as they do run into it in Season 4 which destroys the yacht, once again stranding the kids on an island full of hostile dinosaurs.
  • And the thing on the boat turns out to be a harmless Compsognathus.
• Toro is conspicuously absent throughout the entirety of season 3. It could just be that he's been defeated by the kids often enough that he's started deliberately avoiding them, but considering what else is on the island during this timeframe, one can't help but consider a darker alternative...
  • Thankfully Season 5 confirmed Toro is alive and well, having avoided the Scorpios.
• The Scorpios rex is able to asexually reproduce, meaning there could be more than 2 of them out there by the time the Camp Fam encountered the two they did. What if one of them got on the boat and this new Scorpios rex is the thing trying to break through the door on the boat?
• The gondola Darius and Ben blew up went all the to the top before exploding. Which was established in the first episode of Season 3 as the Dimorphodon's nesting ground. Not only did it likely destroy all of their eggs, but it also attracted the Scorpios rex there.
• If the Scorpios rex is able to asexually reproduce, what's to say that the Indominus rex and the Indoraptor aren't capable of doing the same as well? Especially since Dr. Wu didn't know that before Brooklynn told him as such, meaning that there's a very real possibility that had the Indominus rex wasn't stopped when it did, it would've reproduced itself until there are dozens of them on the island and killed off everything else. Also, while Wu might have corrected this flaw within the Indoraptor, there's no guarantee if it would actually stick, and any potential future hybrids would be more likely to possess the same ability of self-reproduction as well, and now they're on the mainland. Dr. Malcolm was right. Genetic power had been unleashed, and it's gonna be catastrophic when it gets out of control.
• Yet another disturbing aspect among many of the Scorpios, and one that arguably (if only barely) pushes them into Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territory, there are a few clues that these things are in a near-constant state of pain due to their deformed and mismatched anatomy. As Kenji puts it, the initial specimen "breathes like a pug with a cold" which suggests possible respiratory defects, and its roar sounds disturbingly like a wail of absolute agony. It's not difficult to imagine that the Scorpios's murderous habits are at least partially an attempt to distract itself even momentarily from the physical torment it experiences just from existing.
• Claire wanted her nephews to join Camp Cretaceous on the day of the Indominus' escape. The few bodies at the remains of the treehouse after the Indominus attack? Claire probably sent them to evacuate the campers, which means if she didn't have enough to feel guilty about after the incident, Claire sent several regular staff to their deaths in a futile attempt to save the children she thought would be her nephews' playmates, who she then went at least six months thinking were dead.
• How is Chaos dealing with Limbo's disappearance? We saw when Grim was shot that Baryonyx are intelligent, social creatures capable of feeling grief and mourning. And, at least when Grim died, she had Limbo there to grieve with, and had a clear target to focus her revenge efforts on. But, with Limbo? As far as she knows, her sister just disappeared one night without a trace and never came back. And we all know what's coming in a couple years...
  • Combined with Fridge Sadness - there's dark and sad implications that the Baryonyx that had attacked Claire and Franklin in lava filled bunker is Chaos. At least three sisters can now reunite with each other in the afterlife.
• It's likely that Ben is spending the Epilogue with Mae on their secret dinosaur filled island, as part of an attempt to insulate him from an event that was likely to traumatize him: the Violent End Isla Nublar & the dinosaurs on it. He's surrounded with Bumpy & lots of other familiar dinosaurs, who are all safe. He's in a place where he can be as feral as he pleases, but also take a shower & is perfectly safe. He's in a place where he doesn't have to hear the blow-by-blow in the death of a place that was very impotant to him.

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