Summer Camp Island Review: French Toasting / We'll Just Move The Stars

"I'm not ready to share my finances."

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We're officially halfway through this batch of episodes, and Summer Camp Island hasn't demonstrated any signs that it's running out of steam. Even if these two episodes present a handful of issues, Season 2's going stronger than ever, and best of all, it's taking a lot of chances, especially on the front of further incorporating its supporting cast into episodes and finding new, exciting atmospheres to explore. For the most part, too, that makes those occasional issues pretty excusable.

"French Toasting," notably, is SCI's first concentrated effort to make an episode centered around Lucy's character, but like her last notable appearance in "Susie's Fantastical Scavenger Hunt," she's not really at the forefront of the episode. Instead, "French Toasting" unravels as a mystery told from Oscar and Hedgehog's perspective when, after reading a book on secret societies and noticing some strange patterns in Lucy, the former jumps to the conclusion that she's the member of a dangerous secret society on the island. That proves to be a bit of a double-edged sword.

The entirety of "French Toasting" is set up as a question—what is Lucy up to?—that inevitably gets answered by the end, and how vague it is creates the unfortunate downside of preventing Lucy from being able to do much as a character. It feels sad that what could've been a spotlight for her character fails to do that simply because she's not in control of anything that's happening; we get the entire story from Oscar and Hedgehog's perspective, and as Susie makes abundantly clear, the two are stalking her, like stalkers.

The resolution that there is no secret society on her part, and instead Susie and some of the other staffers on the island have set up a recreation of a New York hotel to aid in her homesickness, is precisely the type of sincere, inventive resolution that SCI succeeds at, but it doesn't really bolster Lucy's character that much. Even with that ending, she's sort of wallpaper in her own episode. It also doesn't help too much that, despite the episode's insistence on Occam's Razor—"The simplest answer is usually the right one"—being the code by which everything going on truly adheres, that becomes somewhat unconvincing when the show finds Lucy doing things that feel artificially suspicious and which go either unexplained, or too loosely-explained by the end in light of the nonchalance to everyone involved (even if them grimacing at Oscar and Hedgehog falling through the ceiling is funny enough in how unexpectedly muted it is).

With that being said, though, "French Toasting" is an unequivocal triumph as a sort of return-to-form for the Oscar-Hedgehog pairing. These past few episodes have, oddly enough, been splintering them off in favor of more individualistic character development, and as wonderful as those have been, it's great to see the two in their element as a unit again; their chemistry is absolutely infectious. It's both characters in peak form, with Oscar playing the naive but determined conspirator and Hedgehog, initially the skeptic, slowly succumbing to his theories in spite of herself. ("Pew, pew!") All of the ways that the episode works to differentiate how they handle everything, too—Oscar, best of all, is infinitely accident-prone and adorably clumsy, with his sweater unraveling across the entire episode until it's only sleeves—give the episode a vitality that its framework otherwise lacks.

Ultimately, for the missed potential I think the episode has, it makes up for it with aplomb with some of the sharpest and cutest work from our protagonists yet. Throw in a truly amazing and unexpected twist ending, and I'll happily call "French Toasting" a win, though with my fingers tightly crossed that SCI gives Lucy more to chew on in the future.

As for today's other episode, "We'll Just Move The Stars"... it was one that I had to warm up to. For every review I do, I watch it first alongside a friend, hash out my takes, and then I'll rewatch it days later and take more specific notes. The first time I saw "We'll Just Move The Stars," I didn't like it at all; it felt weirdly-paced, like its narrative amounted to nothing at points, and ultimately like the show in poor form... but then I gave the episode a second pass, and curse it all, I turned around on it. Everything is a game of understanding the episode's intentions, and considering that it wants to lead you on to some extent with Puddle and the King's marriage prospects, if you're not captive from the start it will inevitably lose you and hang you out to dry. If you can manage to key into that, though, it's pretty rewarding.

First of all, it's worth noting how goddamn cool it is to have a kid's show covering a marriage between queer characters, especially as nonchalantly as Summer Camp Island has. SCI's made no real comment on the nature of their relationship nor made a point of differentiating it from anything else; Puddle and the King just are who they are, and there's something kinda ground-breaking about seeing it so normalized.

That also plays into the general tone of "We'll Just Move The Stars": despite handling some pretty serious, allegorical subject matter with clear real-world parallels, it's winning in its subtlety, never letting any messaging take priority over crafting the episode. Instead, it carries out its message through an analogy with astrology; Puddle's and the King's marriage is interrupted by the revelation that they have incompatible star signs, so they decide that, alongside Oscar and Hedgehog, they'll move the stars around to rewrite Puddle's Gemini status as a Cancer.

There are some points of interest in that whole analogy, and some work better than others. The idea of astrology being something of a proxy for traditional values is interesting enough, and a smart way to put a decidedly SCI spin on proceedings. Perhaps one of the most crucial parts of the episode, too, and the hardest-hitting, is that their quest to move all of the stars is ultimately ill-fated, with the Moon informing them that he might not be the same Puddle after the fact. (While I was somewhat reluctant about that structurally on my first watch, I think it ultimately works in the framework of what the episode is trying to say.) Indeed, one of the more interesting tangents of the episode is our brief glimpse of the consequences of the King's and Puddle's actions, disrupting the balance and natural order of their planet through their planetary shift to catastrophic effect, but regrettably, it goes almost entirely unexplored despite being one of the episode's most conceptually intriguing offerings.

Additionally, I feel somewhat torn on the ending. The realization that even if the King and Puddle can't be wedded on their own planet, they can still hold a ceremony on a different one where their love is allowed is a legitimately touching moment, made all the better by them both putting pebbles in their shoes so that they'll always, symbolically, be on the planet. It's a sentiment that risks being cloyingly sweet but, through SCI's unceasing sincerity, feels remarkably genuine. In the same stroke, however, the ultimate ending feels like it takes away from the poignancy of that moment by showing their love ultimately overrule the law. "We'll Just Move The Stars" already feels like it's generally lacking in a  sense of adversity for the somewhat high stakes it has, with every issue being approached with so much ease that they don't feel fully assessed. I can at least excuse it somewhat as an upbeat ending for an upbeat show, and one targeted at kids, though I can't help but feel like leaving things a bit more open would have a more resonant effect.

At the end of the day, while both "French Toasting" and "Well Just Move The Stars" have issues, they get over by virtue of their individual strengths, folding well into the fledgling season as we approach the midway point. For all that it's worth, there are still few other shows that leave me as excitedly coming back for more.

FINAL GRADES:
"French Toasting": B+.
"We'll Just Move The Stars": B.

On Wednesday: Oscar finds a special comb, and body-swaps with a unicorn.

For my review of the last two episodes, "Tub On The Run" and "Spotted Bear Stretch," CLICK HERE.

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