| “ | Something's coming. | ” |
"The Quarter-Moon Convergence" is the 5th episode of the fourth season of Camp Camp, and is the 45th episode overall. It premiered June 29th, 2019 on the RT FIRST site, and July 6th, 2019 on the Rooster Teeth website.
Official Synopsis[]
| “ | Quartermaster takes the campers out for Astronomy Camp, but clearly has ulterior plans for the night. Neil tries to take the lead and finds himself ill-equipped. | ” |
—Episode description | ||
Plot[]
From the outside of the counselors' cabin, we see Cameron Campbell throw open the door and dash into the trees, covering his mouth and trailing a roll of toilet paper behind him. Inside, David loudly vomits into a bucket, and Quartermaster wipes the corner of his mouth with one of his hook-hand attachments; a rag on a stick. David thanks him and says it's a pity they all got so sick. Gwen, lying on her bed and clutching her stomach, adds that of course it happens the night they're supposed to take the kids out for Astronomy Camp. Quartermaster tells them he's up to the task, as the children must learn "the secrets of the night." David asks if he's sure because there's a lot to see tonight; "the scattered meteor showers, the planets will be aligned, and something called an Ultra Moon." Quartermaster tells them that he's well aware, has already prepared the pig's blood, and they can count on him to perform this "dark errand". David uncertainly accepts and Quartermaster stalks off after saluting Campe Diem. Gwen mentions his creepy wording, and David assures her he always says that about anything he is asked to do after 7pm. She then wonders if Quartermaster was being a little TOO cooperative, almost as if he wanted them to be out of commission for tonight. David says he's just being a team player, and that in the meantime they should just enjoy the chicken noodle soup he left for them, which is nothing more than an entire raw chicken floating in a pot, prompting Gwen to vomit violently.
Quartermaster leads the kids up a trail, looking around shiftily. Behind him, Neil is struggling to carry several telescopes on tripods, but he loudly assures the group he won't drop these delicate instruments. Nurf says, "Neil, you and I both know your 'delicate instruments' won't drop anytime soon," (in reference to his testicles, which is the kickoff of puberty in males) and high-fives himself for the sick burn. The moon is especially large this evening, and a few of the other planets can be seen scattered around near it. They stop at the top of the hill, and QM tells Neil to "emplace the far-seers", which he does while giggling excitedly. Max says "yawn" loudly, and Harrison immediately sees this as an opportunity to leap in front of the group and announce that he will provide tonight's entertainment. He asks for a volunteer and Max stops him, explaining that his "magic schtick" is getting old and childish, and Nikki chimes in that even she's moved on to more mature things, like doing taxes for her stuffed animals. Ered states it used to be cool in a "hey look at that weirdo being all weird, what a loser" kind of way, and Max suggests he should just go find a new identity before they talk again. Harrison is visibly shaken by everyone's words, but Quartermaster interrupts. "The duty has been bestowed upon us to watch the skies for signs of eldritch intruders and the like," and offers some vittles he's brought for the occasion. Max asks what's in the purple and pink patties filled with odd lumps and bugs that they have been presented, and QM informs them it has crickets for protein and cinnamon bubblegum. Nikki, who had swiped them while they were talking, immediately spits them out and wipes it off her tongue, grossed out about the cinnamon. Max throws his bar back at Quartermaster, asking if he's ever heard of regular snacks like granola bars, instead of weird shit like this. Quartermaster sighs and tells the group to take the easterly views, as he will monitor the other 4 directions. Neil arrives and plants a telescope on the ground, saying it's time someone took the lead and bring the focus back to where it belongs; scientific study. Because he knows the most about astronomy, he thinks he's in the most obvious and skilled position to lead. Space Kid leans in and says he should take the helm, because the stars are in space. Neil says it's funny he'd think the group would listen to him, and he replies, "I know, right?"
Down a path away from the group, Harrison watches Quartermaster sniff a rock and place it in his mouth. He comes up to QM and tells him to not let the other kids get to him, because they also tell him that his illusions are for "dumb losers" and that he won't reach the pinnacle of his craft because he is also a dumb loser, thus he can relate. "Did you say magical?" QM asks, and Harrison shows off the 'pick-a-card' trick, initially showing the wrong card from his hand but then revealing the correct one inside of QM's mustache. Quartermaster says he may have some need for the "arcane arts" this evening, and tells Harrison to come with him. Harrison is delighted that someone doesn't find his tricks to be childish and weird, but asks about the rest of the group. Quartermaster simply says wolves can eat their elbows, and Harrison asks if this means they're friends, to which QM's response is, "I don't suffer my enemies to live." Harrison says he'll take that as a yes and they wander off. There's an upbeat section of music as QM climbs up a tree and tosses Harrison a nest full of eggs, mumbling about how "white man thinks he owns the world" in response to Harrison's question as to whether he's more of a wizard or just into or illusions. He then asks what national monument QM would want to disappear, and he grumbles about wanting it to be the DMV because they took away his scooter license after he ran over too many nuns. Harrison wonders if he's qualified to be driving the camp bus, and QM says that any fool can drive a bus while hacking off a large chunk of a tree root. Now at a lake, Harrison asks if he'd rather fight 50 angry ducks or the platypus on a bad day, and QM simply says the ducks have a corkscrew penis. Harrison doesn't understand and asks if this means he'd fight the platypus, but is told this would be a "rookie mistake" as QM successfully harpoons an eel. Harrison wonders what they're gonna do with all this stuff, and Quartermaster plainly says "it's up to us to delay the celestial cataclysm for yet another millennium. Such is our burden" as the eel fails to shock him in self-defense. Harrison says there's no judgement from him, since they're outcasts together.
Back with the campers, Neil watches a meteor crash land in the forest and freaks out, asking if anyone else saw that. Space Kid is the only other camper looking through a telescope; the rest of them are all goofing off, including Nurf who's been piling pinecones atop Space Kid's helmet. Nurf then says, "you know we didn't." Neil insists that they have to go find the meteor as it's a priceless opportunity, and that he won't let this slip through his fingers the way he did with the presidency of the Rubik's Cube Society. Max perks up at the word 'priceless' and asks if they could make a profit from finding it, which Neil believes could be true in certain circumstances. After Max decides that maybe astronomy isn't a pointless waste after all, Neil says he'll take it and leads a search party out into the woods.
Meanwhile, Quartermaster and Harrison have found themselves outside of a cave with 'Danger Demon Cave' written on it in red paint (or possibly blood), and Quartermaster says they must make haste as a falling meteor crashes into the forest nearby. Harrison is afraid to enter the cave due to the written warning, but Quartermaster assures him, "it's no longer an issue." He lights up a torch with an odd-looking skull on top, then presses a plate in the wall to open a door, and Harrison uneasily follows him in.
The campers have now found a small flowery field, one of which is particularly big and yellow. Space Kid runs up and sniffs it, saying it smells like his helmet and names it Gary. Neil comes out of the bushes and says he can't wait to look at the meteorite under a microscope, and Nurf says he thought they were looking for a meteor. Neil informs him that a meteorite is the correct term for it now that it's on the Earth's surface, but Nurf doesn't believe him. Nerris asks if Neil knows where he's going, as the forest is treacherous and full of squirrels, Neil boldly assures them he knows where they're going, and leads them onward.
The door inside the cave has opened to reveal a room filled with tons of random knick-knacs on the walls and shelves, including things like dream catchers, chalices, weapons, diagrams, and things floating in jars. Harrison excitedly asks if this is Quartermaster's lair, but he says it's his just his thinkin' cave, and that "I come here when the weight of the air gives me the gout". He gazes upon a large framed portrait of a (presumably) female relative dressed in royal garb, holding a book and doing the Campe Diem finger-motion at the area of her lap, but just as a seemingly regal gesture, not as the traditional camp salute. Harrison says he understands, and that when he wants privacy he goes backstage to practice his illusions, as no one can find him when he wants to disappear. Quartermaster gives Harrison the exact book shown in the portrait, saying they'll need it, and asks if he'd like some pickled deer lips, pickled chicken eyes, or pickled pomegranate. Grossed out, Harrison says that none of those things should be pickled. Quartermaster hooks something out of the jar and slurps it up, then grabs a bucket labeled 'pig's blood' and the two make their exit. Harrison, holding the odd torch, says this night has been stranger than expected, but that at least it's calm and beautiful outside, to which Quartermaster finds this suspicious. Harrison is poked by a tree branch, which then chases him as he runs away from it, and upon catching up to Quartermaster there are now several branches that are seemingly alive and moving of their own free will. Quartermaster inhales deeply and says, "something's coming." There is a very loud roar and QM tells Harrison to run for it.
For the second time, the campers are back in the same flowery field, with Preston commenting he's having a strong sense of deja-vu right now. Space Kid happily greets Gary and says they should catch up. Nikki asks if anyone paid attention in Forest Navigation Camp, because she didn't. Neil says this is a minor hiccup and they'll find the meteorite, but Max decides this is a problem with Neil's leadership skills as he always leads them on cool adventures. Neil says he has everything under control, and Nikki asks, "what about those vines wrapped around your legs?" Unbeknownst to Neil he's been ensnared, and the rest of the campers scream upon seeing more vines pouncing up from the forest. As he's being dragged off, Neil declares that Space Kid is the leader now, but Gary has come alive and the center of the flower has now become a jagged mouth. As Space Kid gets snatched by the cape, he screams "Gary why?!"
Quartermaster and Harrison jump out from behind a bush, right at the crash site of the meteorite that Neil had seen earlier. The forest itself seems to be screeching and the vines are advancing on them, so Quartermaster hands Harrison a large knife to keep them at bay while he makes his preparations. Harrison uneasily says he can do that, and this is just a normal day of being an outcast. The vines scream and spurt green goo as he chops them, and Harrison asks if these things are alive. Quartermaster drowns the nest and eggs in the bucket of pig's blood, and tells him not to concern himself as they're only in excruciating pain. He tells Harrison to read page 67 of the book while he pours the blood onto the meteorite, and as he reads aloud in some unknown language, the meteorite begins glowing blue, as do Harrison's eyes, as they also develop large white pupils. The planets now align themselves around the moon and also adopt a glowing blue aura, then begin spinning out of control to create 4 smaller moons that are yellow, red, blue, and green (rotating clockwise starting at the 12 position). Quartermaster, now glowing blue and his one eye looking exactly like Harrison's, touches the meteorite, and extends his hook to Harrison, instructing him to "complete the circuit." Again, Harrison doesn't seem convinced but decides this is still fine, and touches the hook. Quartermaster tells him to "channel your arcane innards with a spell" and after a moment of pause, decides to try 'abra cadabra.' He is cut off mid-spell by everything suddenly turning yellow, which turns out to be his sclera as the camera pulls back from the extreme closeup. They are now sitting at a table, apparently set up for a tea party, floating in the void of space, and Harrison looks around in disbelief. Across the table, there's a grey octopus in a suit sitting on a tall stool, waving its tentacles around. He greets Quartermaster, "we meet again, Eternal Custodian. Tell me why your earthly existence should continue." Quartermaster is completely unperturbed and grunts that his stuff is down there. The Octopus hums his approval before asking Harrison the same question, adding that "this world is so cruel, don't you want it to end in a ball of cleansing fire?" as he pours a cup of tea onto his suit. Harrison is understandably gobsmacked by the entire experience and can barely speak coherently. Quartermaster tells The Octopus to pay him no mind as he is a weirdo, and Octopus says he can simply read the boy's soul. He touches a tentacle to the side of Harrison's face, and declares that "this will do" as Harrison does indeed have a good heart, and "do not let others' approval inform your self-esteem." Quartermaster and Harrison begin floating away from the table, being pulled back to Earth. As The Octopus sits there waving his tentacles he adds, "Oh, Harrison! Your brother says hi!" before everything fades to white.
Back at the field, the assault of the vines suddenly ceases against the other campers. Preston had been grabbing onto Dolph to save him from being pulled away, Neil was hung upside down and had his head smacked repeatedly against the ground, Nurf was strung up by a wedgie, Max was tied up and getting noogied, Nikki was tied up and getting punched in the face, Nerris and Ered were being slowly dragged off while Gary had swallowed Space Kid up to his waist. The vines turn grey and wither away to nothingness, for apparently no reason to them. Sporting a massive black eye, Nikki raggedly stands up and shakes a fist, saying, "and don't come back, ya hear?" Neil declares he fucking hates this forest, and they should get the hell out of here. Quartermaster and Harrison wake up on the ground, their bodies smoking, and sit up, still at the meteorite crash site. Neil pops out of the bushes and triumphantly declares that he's found it, and upon touching meteorite it just crumbles out of existence, not even leaving a pile of dust or anything. Nurf shouts, "oh my god, it cumpled under pressure! Just like you!" and high-fives himself again for his second brilliant zinger. The campers laugh and point at Neil as he walks away and sits on the ground, devastated at what just happened. Quartermaster slides up and tells Harrison he's done good today, and offers let him help stop another apocalypse that's going to be happening next Tuesday. Harrison yells, "Hell no! Look, I may get teased sometimes, but now I think that's because kids are insecure and too stupid to find healthy ways to deal with their fear." Nurf points at Neil, now lying down in a fetal position, and says "I'm definitely gonna focus on this and not the inexplicable terrors we encountered in the woods," and Max adds, "you and me both!" Quartermaster says that kids truly are terrible, and that one time a kid stole his identity and now he has no name. Harrison accuses QM of low-key kidnapping him and putting him in danger, and that despite being an outcast he still thinks highly enough of himself to not associate with - well, he doesn't want to say weirdo, so he won't. "You're a fuckin' freak, man. Do not involve me in any of your future activities, I cannot stress that enough!" Quartermaster says it's probably for the best and walks off, saying, "until we meet again, outcast."
Nikki walks up to Harrison and says she might've sprained her arm, asking if he has any scarves she can use as a sling. Harrison tells her there's one inside his hat, and she starts comically pulling out a long string of scarves, frequently mumbling "ow" over her injury. Unimpressed, Harrison sets his hat down and says he'll see everyone back at camp and walks away. Up in the sky, the planets have now moved out of alignment.
Transcript[]
{{Transcript}} would go here.
Features[]
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Supporting Characters[]
Minor Characters[]
- Gwen
- David
- Nikki
- Ered
- Dolph
- Nurf
- Space Kid
- Nerris
- Preston Goodplay
- Cameron Campbell
- The Octopus (first appearance)
- Gary (first appearance)
Music[]
- "Camp Camp Song Song" (Opening Theme)
- "Murder Cave On My Mind" (Ending Theme)
Gallery[]
- Main article: The Quarter-Moon Convergence/Gallery
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode that Jeff James wrote, as mentioned by Miles Luna in the "Camp Camp Waffle Watch-Along" live stream for the season 4 finale. Fellow writer Eddy Rivas referred Jeff, saying "if you need something weird, he's your guy." The episode is also among Miles and Jordan's favorites in season 4.
- Jordan states that exploring the mysterious powers of Harrison and Quartermaster was extremely interesting, and that some of the ideas they'd like to explore in season 5 is the whereabouts of Harrison's brother, the dynamic between Harrison and Quartermaster, as well as Quartermaster's story in general.
- Visible in Quartermaster's thinkin' cave is the Relic of Knowledge from RWBY. How the Relic left Remnant is left unexplained.
- With the events of this episode, the portrait of Quartermaster's royal relative making the Campe Diem finger-motion implies there is some deeper meaning to the gesture, rather than it being just a silly Camp Campbell salute. The unknown meaning may potentially come to light in a future episode.
- The book that Quartermaster gives to Harrison for his ritual is seen again in "Campfire Tales", during David's telling of a story.
- Also in "Campfire Tales", Neil mentions Cthulu in reading from the book, whom the monster on the cover bears a heavy resemblance to.
- The Octopus addresses Quartermaster as 'Eternal Custodian', which is most likely the title he holds in whatever protective order he is serving. We may see more of this in future episodes.
- At the end of their encounter, The Octopus says that Harrison's brother says hi, implying he is known to The Octopus as well. Harrison's parents had mentioned that he had made his brother disappear in "Parents' Day", though his exact whereabouts are still unconfirmed.
- Quartermaster says that one time a kid stole his identity and now he has no name. Mind you, the term "quartermaster" is akin to that of "groundskeeper", so of course this wouldn't be his real name either. His real name may be revealed in a future episode.
- This episode marks the third time Harrison swears, the last two being "Mind Freakers" and "Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak".
Cultural References[]
- According to Neil, he almost became the president of the Rubik's Cube Society. Whether the club is on a global scale or just local to his area is unconfirmed, but it does reveal that he is extremely skilled at solving Rubik's cube puzzles.
- A meteor (also known as a shooting star) is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small chunk of interplanetary debris burns up as it passes through our atmosphere. If any part of a meteoroid survives the fall through the atmosphere and lands on Earth, it is called a meteorite, so Neil is in fact correct in his explanation to Nurf.
- Quartermaster reveals he has gout, which is a form of inflammatory arthritis that develops in some people who have high levels of uric acid in the blood.
Continuity[]
- While Nikki is enthralled by Harrison's magic and studies as his apprentice to learn more in "Mind Freakers", during this episode she says that even she's grown tired of his shtick and moved on to more "mature things" like doing taxes for her stuffed animals.
- When Nerris mentions the forest being treacherous and full of squirrels, it's a callback to the squirrel attack that she experienced with Neil, Nikki and Harrison in "Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak."
- Harrison calling himself a "dumb loser" here is later referenced in "Squirrel Camp", when Squirrel Harrison declares he's not a dumb loser while fighting with Squirrel Nerris.
- The bucket from this episode is used again in "Preston Goodplay's Good Play", with the words "pigs' blood" crossed out and replaced with "tomatoes". Quartermaster makes use of it to scoop up splattered tomatoes that the other campers threw at Preston, with the intention of making stew.
- Said bucket also makes a reappearance in "The Butterfinger Effect", this time having both previous labels repainted and being used for collecting potatoes.
- While this episode hints at Quartermaster's immortality, it is later confirmed in "Squirrel Camp", as it shows he is somehow capable of regenerating beneath the waters of Lake Lilac if he is mortally wounded, allowing his old body to be abandoned in favor of creating a new one when needed.
- Interestingly, he did not regenerate his left hand, which indicates he may be incapable of doing so.
- The lake is also where his son Graggle was born (shown in "Something Fishy"), so he has a greater connection to the lake than what it initially seemed.
- This would explain how he drank a cup of rat poisoning in "Cult Camp" and was not affected. He also chugged a bottle of poison in "Escape from Camp Campbell" after declaring he was going on break.
- In "Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak", the camp is under threat of a volcano erupting, and Quartermaster had assigned Nerris, Harrison, Nikki and Neil to restore the balance of nature. Of course, all the subsequent questing they experienced were shown to the viewer as nothing more than the childrens' overactive imaginations, but Quartermaster does seem genuinely shocked that they goofed off instead of taking his warning seriously. The volcano erupts at the end of the episode with him shrugging it off despite it being "end times". Things are back to normal in the next episode, implying QM did something to stop the volcano, or at least kept the lava away from the camp.
- In "Something Fishy", Quartermaster says he may only have one hand, but it's been through 3 world wars. As there are only 2 world wars in earth's history, this implies he might've experienced at least one of them on an intergalactic level.