Ginger, Dodie, and Macie take their annual trip to Camp Caprice, an all-girls camp. Only this time, they have some unexpected baggage: Courtney, who is trying to prove that she isn't high maintenance like Miranda said. Ginger meets a boy, Sasha, at the camp and she begins to have extreme feelings for him. Meanwhile, across the lake at a military camp, run by Miranda's father, Miranda and Darren struggle with the exercises. The two form a small bond. Back in Sheltered Shrubs, Carl and Hoodsey start a house-keeping service as a cover-up for their search for the town's mysterious dog-napper. It is revealed that Georgia (Principal Milty's new friend) is the dog-napper.
Part 1
Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: The all-girls summer camp is named Camp Caprice.
- Bait-and-Switch: The thief is seen breaking into a yard with a “Beware of Dog” sign on the fence. The dog in question ends up being a Shih Tzu-like puppy named Muffin.
- Boot Camp Episode: Darren gets sent to military camp for the summer, where he meets up with Miranda whose father is the Drill Sergeant Nasty that runs the camp.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The girls telling Courtney what Camp Caprice is like:Ginger: You know, bonfires and ghost stories?Dodie: Canoe races and s’mores!Macie: Mosquitos and the threat of encephalitis.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Carl and Hoodsey create a vampire-themed home cleaning service to convince their mothers to let them stay home for the summer.
- Ghost Story: Jed tells the campers a scary story around the campfire about a girl who went swimming in the lake and disappeared, her ghost haunting the camp ever since.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Carl and Hoodsey use their cleaning service as an excuse to be able to search people’s houses in order to find out who the neighborhood dog thief is.
- Lost Pet Grievance: Carl is determined to spend the summer trying to catch the dog thief that’s terrorizing their neighborhood in order to avenge the disappearance of his dog Monster a few years before.
- Precocious Crush: Macie has a crush on the camp “waterfront guy”, Jed.
- Rite of Passage: The girls in Ginger’s class consider going to Camp Caprice as a rite of passage and once Courtney finds out, she’s determined to take part in it.
- Summer Campy: Ginger, Dodie, and Macie are spending the summer at their favorite place, Camp Caprice.
- To Be Continued: As the first part of a three-part special, the episode ends with this line.
Part 2
Tropes:
- Clean, Pretty Childbirth: When Matilda, the camp cow, gives birth, the camera pans away for the actual delivery and then the baby bull is shown perfectly clean immediately afterwards.
- Crash-Into Hello: Ginger and Sasha bump into each other, causing Sasha to drop his archery supplies and a flirty exchange takes place.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Macie keeps calling Courtney "C.G.", much to her annoyance.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Carl and Hoodsey’s behavior while cleaning homes for their business is reminiscent of that of an old married couple; with Hoodsey as the disgruntled, overworked housewife and Carl as the lazy husband.
- Eating Pet Food: While showing the dog treats being used by the neighborhood thief, the reporter on the evening news actually takes a bite out of one of them and then spits it out in disgust before the segment ends.
- Hoodsey is later seen eating the same treats and seeming to quite enjoy them.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Sasha overhears Courtney telling Sarah and Cinnamon Ann that Ginger has a boyfriend and gets angry at her for flirting with him while she has a rich, popular boyfriend back home.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Darren and Miranda start becoming friends after suffering through military camp together.
- It's All My Fault: After hearing that Courtney is having a horrible time at Camp Caprice, Miranda bursts into tears and blames herself for ruining Courtney’s summer by challenging her to prove that she’s not high maintenance.
- Mosquito Miscreants: Courtney getting covered with mosquito bites is the final straw that starts making her feel fed up with camp life.
- Physical Fitness Punishment: As expected at a military camp, Darren and the rest of the kids are told to “drop and give me 20”. Amazingly, Miranda is shown doing one-handed push-ups.
- Punishment Detail: Darren and Miranda get punished for talking by being forced to scrape old paint off of the barracks.
- Skewed Priorities: While Carl is trying to figure out why Principal Milty would be stealing dogs, Hoodsey is more focused on the good swing finally being open at the playground.
- To Be Continued: As the second part of a three-part special, the episode ends with this line.
Part 3
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The 14th camp rule the girls get busted for breaking, along with using camp equipment and harboring a member of the opposite sex in their cabin, is chewing gum at an assembly.
- Continuity Nod: Miranda refers to Macie as "the little seal girl", a call-back to the episode "Come Back Little Seal Girl".
- Drunk with Power: Her role as Counselor In-Training goes to Dodie’s head and she starts ruling the camp with an iron fist.
- Face Your Fears: Macie finally accomplishes her summer goal of facing her fear of the Camp Caprice Lake when she jumps in to save Miranda who got a cramp while trying to swim away from military camp.
- Felony Misdemeanor: While the Navajo Girls did break some serious camp rules, Margie’s punishment was a little over the top. She called an all-camp assembly to publicly shame them, canceled the day’s fun activities for the rest of the campers and blamed it on them, and threatened to suspend the entire group from Camp Caprice.
- Fish Person: The boy in the horror movie the campers are watching at the beginning of the episode turns into one right before the movie ends with a To Be Continued.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When the police arrive at Milty’s house after the boys capture him, Georgia says “They’re onto me!” and runs out the door. This makes more sense shortly after when she’s revealed to be the neighborhood dog thief.
- "Home Alone" Antics: Carl and Hoodsey rig a trap in Principal Milty’s home using a net, a pulley, a chandelier, and an armchair to catch him and turn him in to the police as the dog thief.
- House Amnesia: Played with. After Milty is proven innocent, the police tell Carl that they’re going to have to let the principal go home. Milty then corrects them that he’s already home since the boys had broken in and captured him in his own house.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: After he hurts his ankle at the halfway point island in the middle of the lake, Darren tells Miranda to go on without him. She takes him up on his offer but says she’ll come back with help after she reaches Camp Caprice, much to his relief.
- Insistent Terminology: Hoodsey continuously corrects people that the dog in Milty’s house is named The Duchess, not just Duchess.
- It's Probably Nothing: When Dodie and Macie hear Miranda yelling “Owww! Owwwww! A cramp!” while swimming across the lake, Macie thinks it’s the Lost Swimmer of Camp Caprice from the story Jed told them. Dodie however, says it’s probably just a wolf.
- Karma Houdini: Georgia the dog thief is able to get away after stealing Principal Milty’s dog and faces no consequences for her crimes.
- Lame Rhyme Dodge: Ginger does this after accidentally saying “You’re so funny, Sasha” around her friends while she was half-asleep.Ginger: I said "squash…a"...I mean, that’s what’s in the mystery stew huh? Squash-a?
- Red Herring: Principal Milty certainly does seem like the dog thief, what with the dog toys, treats, and the actual dog locked in his basement. However, The Duchess ends up actually being his dog and all of the supplies he had were for her, he was just keeping her locked up downstairs because he didn’t want his girlfriend to know he had a dog. The real culprit ends up being Georgia, Milty’s dog-hating girlfriend, herself!
- Rule of Three: A Running Gag throughout this three-part episode is saying a word three times for emphasis: "Camp spirit, spirit, spirit!", "Lights out is lights out is lights out, Ginger" , "That is all, all, all", and "It's over, over, over!" as just a few examples.
- Serenade Your Lover: Ginger gets up on stage and sings the song she wrote for Sasha, sharing her true feelings for him with the entire camp.
- Show Within a Show: “Swamp Son” - a three-part horror movie that the girls at Camp Caprice are watching that features a Creature from the Black Lagoon Expy.
- Slumber Party Ploy: The night they plan to catch Principal Milty, Carl and Hoodsey both tell their mothers that they’re staying over at the other boy’s house. Hoodsey worries that one of their moms is going to call over to the other’s house and ask to speak to their son, but Carl assures him by asking when their mothers have ever done that before. Of course, this is the one time Joann calls over to the Foutleys’ house because she forgot to remind Hoodsey about his nasal spray and Lois quickly gets wise to their plan.
- Twisted Echo Cut: After Dodie gets the camp’s master key from Margie she says “The key!”. Then the scene changes to Carl saying the exact same line as he retrieves the key to Principal Milty’s basement.
