David tells Max, Neil and Nikki of his own time at Camp Campbell, a tale of when he learned to love the camp, involving his fellow camper Jasper.
Tropes:
- Bears Are Bad News: Poor Jasper has a run-in with some ursine specimens.
- Call-Forward: Jasper has a pair of light-up sneakers, which he mentioned having in Episode 3 of Season 1.
- The two stuffed bears in Campbell's summer home meet their maker here.
- Character Development: Davey's experience saving Jasper with his knowledge of nature is what propels him from bitter snarky little kid to the enthusiastic camper he is today. Jasper's experience falling off a cliff and getting dragged off by bears is what pushes him in the opposite direction.
- Continuity Nod: The flashback starts with an "Order of the Sparrow" ceremony, the same ceremony David tried to do in the season one finale.
- There are a ton of callbacks to "Journey to Spooky Island" including Jasper's light-up shoes and the origin of the two stuff bears in Campbell's house.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Davey swears like this even as a kid, but everyone reacts as though "hooey" and "square" are full-fledged curses.
- Non-Indicative Title: Despite the episode's title, Jasper doesn't die. This is fairly fitting considering the book the title is referencing is also a Non-Indicative Title, though for a different reason note .
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Max does this when he realizes that David is about to subject them to a flashback/long and boring story.
- Secret Test of Character: Davey assumes that Campbell was so useless on their nature hike because he wanted to text Davey's knowledge and make him save Jasper himself.Campbell: Sure, let's go with that.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title is a reference to David Wong's book, John Dies at the End.
- Tempting Fate: Max, Neil, and Nikki are stuck with David on a long car ride, and Max warns his friends not to start David on any long boring tangents. Nikki immediately asks about one of David's old pieces of camp paraphenalia, which kicks off the episode.
- Time Abyss: The Quartermaster has not aged at all in at least ten years.
- Unreliable Narrator: At one point in the story, David declares why he needs to rescue Jasper, he says that one day he'll look back on the moment "while possibly telling this story to some kids in a car on the way to the hospital." Neil and Max both stop David at that point and call him out, believing he just made that part up on the spot, but Nikki just wants David to continue.
- The Unreveal: The episode briefly teases that Jasper fell off a cliff and died, but ultimately never reveals what happened to him.
- Would Hurt a Child: Cameron prepares to stab David In the Back to keep him from telling anyone that Jasper died. He holds off when it turns out Jasper's alive.
