This episode took me right back to my childhood at sleep-away camp. The little girl who had shown up a few weeks earlier with no friends to speak of now in a puddle of tears at the thought of leaving the people she now felt a deep kinship with. This show has been that for me during quarantine. Unsure at first, but getting to know this cast and never wanting the summer or this season to end. As with all good things though, it must, so let’s get to it.
Instead of talking it out between each other, Sophia heads off to bed and Adam airs his grievances to Gavin who seems totally lost. He was just playing, like guys do, poking at a weak spot for a laugh. He denies having any feelings for Sophia and wishes Adam had just said something earlier. I saw a lot of people giving Adam a hard time on Twitter last night. He even joked that he was watching through his fingers, but I actually get where he’s coming from. When you put yourself out there, you’re at your most vulnerable. All your emotions are amplified and you start looking for ways to validate why you shouldn’t put your heart at risk. To me, that’s what’s going on here.
Adam leaves early the next morning on his own, so resolution won’t happen before next weekend. It’s the last weekend of summer camp and a lot of the guests will be previous visitors returning for one last hurrah. That will lighten the load some for the coordinators when it comes to keeping the party going, but they’ll find they have new horror-related roles to fill as the camp celebrates Halloween.
We get another montage of the crew’s life during the week. Glen regaling tourists about the frequency of proposals at Rockefeller Center during Christmas, Neely teaching bearded Adam what a burr oak looks like, and Monica and Sophia in the Garment District browsing through a rack of clothes I wore during high school. Next time, ladies, just ring me up. I’m a total hoarder.
Everyone is back at camp for the Fall Finale and things seem good on the surface, but my spidey senses are tingling. As Sophia tells Nile she’s going to say “Hi” to Monica it’s eye roll city from him, but when Monica comes in the room later he offers her a hug. What’s real and what is for the cameras has been a running question for me this season. Considering Monica was working at the camp well before the cameras arrived, I’m not laying this in her lap. And much like Forrest Gump…that’s all I’m going to say about that.
The opening night party is a flannel fest and Glen has to borrow one from Neely because since he’s been out of the closet, flannels don’t reside in his. We get to see familiar faces from the season including professional wing-woman Erin who is making a match for Randall with a nice Jewish guy. Dreams might be coming true, people!
Nile and Glen bond by the water by symbolically opening themselves up to the universe. Glen’s happy he let Nile in his walls. Quickly realizing how that sounds he revises it to being happy he let down his walls for Nile. It’s nice to see that true camp friendships aren’t just restricted to being made while we’re young.
The next day after assignments are handed out Randall meets up with Erin to find out when her match will arrive. In a confessional she rattles off a laundry list of wants in a man including looking like Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid. Not the worst of the Disney Princes, but literally two-dimensional. To ensure her karma is good (and to avoid picking up sweaty yoga towels) she sits down to try and help Sophia work through her Adam problem. Sophia has a hard time talking about it and is brought to tears. Randall then gives my favorite line of the episode, “One minute you’re in love and then you’re crying and that’s camp.” Perfect summary, Randall, at least from my experience.
Nile beats out Gavin in the camp football game. It was 6 to 0, so not exactly a blowout. It was fun to watch Randall and Glen getting their game on though. Randall’s participation trophy comes in the form of karma finally showing her some favor. Erin introduces her to Eddie, and it seems to start off well. Whether they’re beshert or not remains to be seen.
A couple who doesn’t seemed destined are Adam and Sophia. They finally sit down to talk and it looks like the luggage they’re bringing from their past relationships aren’t matching sets. I don’t put the blame on either of them. Unless you’re blessed enough to marry your first love and live happily ever after, you’re bound to haunted by the ghosts of lost loves. Add in the fact that it would be a long distance relationship and it becomes even more difficult. Maybe in another time and another place, but sadly not now. They choose to go back to being friends.
It’s time for Claire’s favorite part of the weekend…the haunted house. It was originally created by Pete, the former groundskeeper. Sadly Pete passed away and since then Claire has taken it over. She’s been doing it for the last eight years, but she’s convinced that Pete is still in the boathouse and he’s the one who’s really in charge. It takes weeks to prepare and it paid off. Randall barely made it through the walk-through without freaking out. Pete would be proud of both Claire and Gary and the coordinators did a great job in their roles heightening the spooky level.
Glen plays us out with an original song roasting all of his co-workers and it was hysterical. The next morning brings us to the end. Everyone reminisces on what the summer has meant to them. What it’s meant to me is that I feel like I got to know a lot of great people who entertained me immensely. It may have been a roller coaster, but it’s one that I would ride again in a heartbeat. I sincerely hope Bravo gives them a Season 2, because summer won’t be the same without them. If you need an extra fix of Monica and Gary, head over to Instagram and check out Monica’s video from last night. I actually stayed up and watched it LIVE. If me awake four hours after my bedtime doesn’t prove my love for this show, then I don’t know what will. Thank you all for watching with me and reading along. XOXO
