Hall of Mooms

## **Guide**

**Hall of Mooms** is the 12th episode of Season 4 of Summer Camp Island and the 84th episode overall.

## Synopsis

Hedgehog, accompanied by Oscar, undertakes a short expedition to acquire her first broom. In the process, she also excavates and overcomes a deep vein of intergenerational trauma.

## Plot

Hedgehog is arriving at Susie's Cabin for a magic lesson. Alice and Betsy are acting mysterious outside and Susie asks if they ruined the surprise, making her think she may be getting her wand back. However, Susie tells her she is going to meet the Broom Maker and get her broom. Hedgehog is less excited but still looking forward to flying. Susie gives her the broom order form and a map, and warns her that the Broom Maker is very unpleasant to be around.

Hedgehog and Oscar head to the Broom Maker's place, HH remarking that he must live alone due to his "self-indulgent" broom-themed lawn decorations which surround his tree house. Just then the Broom Maker appears on a branch overhead and affirms happily that he does live alone. This scares Oscar, who fakes a faint. Hedgehog explains to the Broom Maker that Oscar has been doing this and points out that he leaves one eye cracked open. The Broom Maker explains that Susie only finds him unpleasant because she's not used to gentleness and puts them both at ease. Oscar calms down and gets up.

The Broom Maker explains that magical inheritance ins matrilineal and asks HH what kind of broom her mother uses, which she answers saying that, as a professor, her mother never touches a broom. Broom Maker says this is fine, he lives for the fitting process, and they go into his tree. He sends Oscar to the waiting room (where he quickly gives up on crosswords and does spot the difference instead) and measures Hedgehog by: licking a stick and putting it in her ear, asking about her temperament at midday and midnight, the distance between each tragus, and having her bite down on a pencil. Her measurements reveal she has a particularly hard shell. This isn't bad or good, just part of her, and to compliment that she needs a soft wood- cedar, fir, or pine. Next, they go collect wood from her family tree, which has been left untouched for a couple of generations. The Broom Maker goes to make the broom and they meet at the flying test strip, which he calls "state of the art" despite it looking old fashioned and a bit rundown.

When Hedgehog mounts the broom, her body goes into a cramped hunched-over position that she can't seem to get out of and which makes flying difficult. Broom Maker puts a thermometer-like gadget in her ear and says she has a bad fearver. Oscar fakes another faint while Broom Maker explains that Hedgehog has a fear inside of her that she inherited matrilineally, and tells "The Chicken Leg Story," a story about how sometimes we do things just because we were taught that way, even when it may not be necessary anymore. To get to the source of this, he opens up her Hall of Mooms, Mooms being their word for the matrilineal line. Inside are all of Hedgehog's female ancestors. They range from pirates, knights, and adventurers, to proper Edwardian ladies, to blindfolded oracle types. Oscar has a great time talking to all the Mooms and wants his own key to the Hall, while Hedgehog goes from Moom to Moom asking them to hold her broom. After a while of everyone going into the same uncomfortable hunch without being able to explain why other than that's how they were taught, Hedgehog is disheartened. Oscar tells her to spot the difference, and after scanning the room she sees one Moom that sticks out: an extremely tall woman with long red hair. She says she sits like that because her red hair is very easy to spot, and she lived in the time of witch hunters. Hedgehog finally makes sense of the posture and says that since there are no more witch hunters, she doesn't have to worry about that, and lets the fear go. The realization dissolves the Hall of Mooms around them.

Back at the test strip, Hedgehog is finally able to fly. After a short test, she plops a sleepy Oscar on the back of her broom and takes off for home. She sees a vision of all her Mooms finally able to sit back up with her.

## Characters

* Oscar
* Hedgehog
* Broom Maker *(debut)*
* Susie
* Alice
* Betsy
* Hedgehog's Mom
* Hedgehog's Ancestors *(debut)*
	+ Hedgehog's Grandma *(debut)*
	+ Esther *(debut)*
	+ Margaret *(debut)*
	+ Red-Haired Moom *(debut)*
* Moon

## Trivia

### Continuity

* The key to Hedgehog's hall of mooms looks strikingly similar to her witch brooch.

### Cultural References

* This is a child-friendly story about intergenerational trauma. To read more about the realities of this, see: https://www.oliverpyattcenters.com/stories-of-survival-transgenerational-trauma-children-of-holocaust-survivors/ or https://www.vice.com/en/article/k78xyx/intergenerational-trauma-residential-school-survivors-indigenous orhttps://healingfoundation.org.au/intergenerational-trauma/ though note that these go into some detail about historic and recent tragedies and atrocities, so be aware.

## Production Notes

* Although this episode premiered on HBO Max on June 17, 2021, it was actually produced in 2020 according to the credits.

 Season 2
 Season 3