When Ms. Li decides that, in order to get the school sponsored by some organization, the students will go on a “voluntary” camping trip on a mountain. Helen bribes Daria into going, and Daria, in turn, bribes Jane into coming along for company.
Helen and Jake plan a trip to the same mountain to (surprise, surprise!) get the spice back into their marriage. They (meaning Helen) rent a cabin with no telephone, radio, television, electricity, or other connection to the outside world (“My God. What have I done? What have I done?”).
When the bus arrives at the base of the mountain, Mr. DeMartino assigns The Three J’s the task of carrying the supplies up to the camp. Quinn inadvertently brings about the apocalypse (Jane wishes) by having them carry her bags instead. O’Neill has an asthma attack on the way up and finds his inhaler to be empty. He passes out on the side of the path and, after a hilarious montage of clips from other episodes and a spin off of “Gone With the Wind”, Barch carries him the rest of the way. Then, they get slightly lost, it starts to snow, and Li finds out that O’Neill left Barch to go back to the bus for his spare inhaler, so she sets out to drag him back.
By now, the snow storm has turned into a near blizzard. DeMartino takes charge and finds the cabin, Quinn is nearly lynched, and he then orders Mack and Kevin to go search for O’Neill and Li, and he will go back for the supplies. Daria and Jane volunteer to go out with DeMartino rather than stay with their classmates and they set out for the bus. Almost immediately, Mr. D walks right off a cliff and OHs start apologizing to each other for everything from being a jerk about the Tom thing to the addition of those “ugly blue M&Ms” in preparation for the end.
Meanwhile, Helen and Jake are sitting by the fire in a flannel shirt and outside making a snow turkey, respectively. A frozen DeMartino stumbles into their cabin and they rope him into a game of charades. Mack has left Kevin at some deserted campsite with the promise of a (search) party, and finds Li, just as she finds O’Neill in a cave (“I hope he didn’t make any more flags.”). Just then, it stops snowing, and everyone meets back up and heads home safely. Except Kevin.
This is a great episode for fans of Peggy Nicole’s ensemble episodes. Mack and Jodie are finally getting some of the attention they so justly deserve, and Brittany getting stung by the bees and Kevin’s reaction was just hilarious. Also, in the background of this episode, there is a Janinie Garaffalo (?) look-alike.
~Robin
