User:DanTD/Sandbox/Sink or Swim (Kim Possible)

Sink or Swim is the 2nd episode of the TV series Kim Possible aired (11th produced). It marks the first appearance of Camp Wannaweep, and the villain Gill. It one of the few episodes where cheerleader Tara has lines.

Plot synopsis
An invitation to a cheer competition leads to a trip of the worst kind down memory lane for Ron when he and the squad become stranded at Camp Wannaweep, a now abandoned summer camp where Ron spent a traumatic summer involving rampaging monkey mascots, poison oak, and the unspecified terror of woodpeckers.

Ron's spirits are briefly buoyed when Mr Barkin, recognizing that Ron is familiar with the area, puts him in charge. However, they soon sink again when the squad realizes that Wannaweep isn't as abandoned as it first seemed.

As the people begin to disappear, and the scene begins to resemble the set of a teen slasher movie, the squad takes refuge in Ron's old cabin, aptly named "Cabin 13". Outside the cabin, Ron is confronted by a face from the past, Gill, a former camper who exchanged his Arts and Crafts slot for Ron's Swim spot years before, unaware that the camp's lake was polluted by runoff from a nearby Science Camp. The pollution of the lake caused Gill to mutate into a half-teen, half-fish monster.

After subduing the squad, Gill reveals that he caused the team to be stranded at Camp Wannaweep. He lured the cheerleaders to Wannaweep by sending out invitations to a fake cheer competition and sabotaging their bus outside the camp gates and that he intends to mutate them all as part of his revenge on Ron Stoppable.

With Kim and the squad out of action and Mr. Barkin rapidly growing a pair of gills, Ron is forced to rely on his own initiative and the skills that he learned in Arts and Crafts in order to capture Gill before it's too late.

In the end Ron pulls through, and even the caustic Bonnie is forced to admit that he did a good job.

Trivia

 * Throughout the series Camp Wannaweep is used as a running plot device to explain some of Ron's fears and phobias, specifically his fear of monkeys.
 * Although Ron is shown as the cheer squad mascot in this episode, he doesn't become the "Middleton Mad Dog" until episode 9, which was produced prior to Sink or Swim and is set chronologically earlier, but was broadcast later for unknown reasons.
 * Based on production order, Ron's fear of Monkeys and Camp Wannaweep was to have been introduced in "Monkey Fist Strikes". However, "Sink or Swim" was broadcast first.
 * Though never mentioned in this episode, Camp Wannaweep's mascot was named Bobo, a Chimpanzee. This makes it an ape, not a monkey.
 * This episode is one of numerous occasions where Kim isn't the heroine but rather a hapless damsel.