Greek 3.18: "Camp Buy Me Love"

“And that’s not enough? You want a different girl every night of the week or something? Way to be greedy!”

-Beaver

“Camp Buy Me Love” seemed to involve a lot of second guessing and indecision and wheel spinning. This would have seriously annoyed me if it weren’t for the fact that it seems like a few changes in status quo had finally taken place by the end of the episode. I also appreciated that the episode was limited to three major storylines. That said, I still didn’t love this episode- merely tolerated it, really. Rusty’s drama was kind of silly, although I was glad that he ultimately went to Ashleigh for advice instead of Beaver. Casey and Cappie’s plot was emotional, but I’d rather see happiness than drama with those two.

So, like I said, the episode begins with everybody dithering and second guessing choices they made recently. Rusty asks Dana out, but then accepts a date with Katherine to an 80’s party at Dobblers. So now he’s conflicted. Does he stick with Dana? Does he go back with Katherine? Does he try to date both? Rusty goes to the KT house looking for Cappie, but he ends up getting advice from Beaver instead, which is of course to try and date both of them. Rusty tries lying to Dana about breaking up with Katherine and how angry it made Katherine, but luckily Rusty comes to his senses. Although he doesn’t tell Dana the truth, which come to think of it, kind of irritates me. More on that theme later (telling Dana the truth, that is).

Casey and Cappie haven’t really spoken since their big blow-up at the Mardi Gras party. After a heart-to-heart with Ashleigh where Ashleigh says she hopes she was wrong when she said Casey and Cappie wouldn’t work out, Casey decides to try and talk things out with Cappie. All of their discussions are circular, though. Casey wants to talk about the future, and Cappie wants to put of the discussion until they know whether or not Casey is going to CRU Law. Or at least until graduation in May. Casey wants Cappie to start thinking about the future, and Cappie makes it perfectly clear that he intends to stay at CRU indefinitely.

After finding out that Rebecca cheated on him and chronically self-sabotages her relationship, Evan is really regretting giving her that necklace, especially considering he risked his standing in the Omega Chi house to do so. Calvin agrees to help him sneak into Rebecca’s room to get the necklace back. The two also enlist the help of Dale, who is still working as ZBZ house hasher. Dale can’t stand Evan, but between Evan and Rebecca, Evan is the lesser of two evils in Dale’s world.

Rusty makes a marginally better decision to go to Ashleigh for advice after he starts feeling guilty about stringing both Dana and Katherine along. It’s better because Ashleigh isn’t Beaver and has some concept of other people’s feelings. It’s only marginally better because Ashleigh has been watching a steady diet of 80’s brat pack rom coms for a class, and she’s basing all her advice off of her movie viewing. First she tells Rusty that Dana is the perfect girl for him, and he should stick with her. Rusty goes to Katherine’s dorm room to break it off, and Katherine says she’s sorry it didn’t work out because she had been so happy to find another “amalgam”- a Greek who was also a geek.

When Rusty starts thinking about what Katherine said, he starts regretting his decision. He manages to convince Ashleigh that Katherine is the right choice, and Ashleigh is determined to get Rusty his rom com happy ending. Ashleigh thinks Rusty should go to the 80’s party and try to win Katherine back. This ends up failing miserably. First because Evan had already bought Katherine a drink, and when Rusty confronts Evan, Evan punches Rusty in the face. Which Rusty sort of deserved. Second because Rusty has yet another epiphany that Dana is the right girl for him after all.

Meanwhile, to make the Casey and Cappie tension even worse, Cappie’s parents are in town. They are hippies who never quite made it out of the 60’s. They’re very impulsive and fun loving. When Cappie’s mom suggests that they all go on a camping trip, Casey balks at first. She changes her mind, however, when Cappie’s mom says that the purpose of the trip is to discuss the future. Little does Casey know that the discussion isn’t quite what she had in mind. Cappie has won enough scholarships that Cappie’s parents aren’t at all about to force him to leave CRU any time soon.

The camping trip is quite awkward at first. All four campers will be sleeping in the same tent, and Cappie’s mom tells Casey not to worry- they fully intend to give Casey and Cappie some private time. Awkward! Casey is barely tolerating it all, and then she and Cappie get into one of their circular future fights again. Casey takes a walk to cool off, and she ends up having a heart-to-heart with Cappie’s mom. This conversation gives a little more background to Cappie’s fixation with never leaving CRU. Cappie and his parents moved around a lot when Cappie was a kid, and the KT house is the first place where Cappie has lived for any prolonged amount of time. Cappie’s mom tells Casey that she and Cappie’s dad are separating, so Cappie is going to need Casey more than ever. Casey is shocked by this, and Cappie’s mom’s description f why they made the decision to split hits a little too close to home.

Casey ends up apologizing to Cappie for trying to change him, and she says that she won’t bug him about the future any more. They will deal with it as it comes. Back at the ZBZ house, Casey has a tearful conversation with Ashleigh. She and Cappie aren’t fighting any more, but that doesn’t mean things are okay. Even though she still loves Cappie very much, Casey doesn’t think that their relationship is meant to last forever. They just want such different things from life that it probably won’t work.

Rusty’s love life seems to be going better than his sister’s. He’s kicking himself for leaving Dana a voicemail breaking their date so he could go find Katherine at the 80’s party. Ashleigh has another rom com staple in mind. Rusty’s going to hold up a boom box outside Dana’s dorm, “Say Anything” style. It turns out not to be necessary. Dana meets up with Rusty outside the dorm, and she’s not at all angry. Rusty’s voicemail was kind of garbled, and she thought he was saying something about wanting captions for the presentation of their research project. And here’s where Rusty again lies to Dana and suffers no consequences. In fact, he’s rewarded for it. Rusty and Dana kiss while Ashleigh looks on happily.