Reality Roll Call

(by Deb Porter-Jones)

Our newest episode begins with a recap from last week, which reminds us that the children of Bonanza City held a talent show in an effort to lift spirits. The Gold Star winner was an obscure, yet thoughtful child named Kennedy, the fourth Green District member to receive a Gold Star. This fact kinda swells the heads of the Green District members.

This week the town journal was consulted, and the previous Bonanza City’s comments suggest that the town was in need of some shaking up. It was decided that, for the good of the town, the districts should be redesigned. Some teams were largely made up of smaller children, leaving the team vulnerable in more physical challenges. Some teams lacked more of the intellectual children, and others consisted of a team full of slackers. The council was charged with trying to redesign the districts in an effort to create better balance, which, on its face, sounded to me like a pretty good idea.

The council leaders right now are Anjay (who seems to me to be the most mistreated leader ever), Guylan (the newbie), Zach (the president-in-training), and Laurel (Little Miss Boston who, up until this episode, has done a pretty good job on the Council). Everyone sacrificed and gave up a member of their district for the good of the Council; all except Laurel, who felt that her team was strong enough and didn’t need any changes. After all, her team has the most Gold Star winners than any other team in Bonanza City.

Anjay sacrificed Blaine, one of the strong Twin Towers with his best friend Greg in the Blue District. Guylan chose Nathan, the really smart kid who won the Gold Star a few weeks ago. Anjay’s team is really upset about losing Blaine. No one gets more pleasure out of seeing Anjay in the hotseat than the girl who ran against Anjay for his council seat (Little Hillary Clinton. You know, the humorless girl with the tiny little sister). She loves to see Anjay squirm.

Guylan chose Nathan, the really smart kid who won the Gold Star a few weeks ago. You remember Nathan – the serious kid who just lives to clean and haul water for Bonanza City (yeah, we predict lots of Prozac in this kid’s future). Nathan doesn’t want to be on the Red Team and the Red Team doesn’t want him either (after all, he sings in his sleep!). Guylan was threatened by the weird kid with the crazy hair, Jared. Even the kid with the big tooth, Nathan’s best friend, Alex (the other genius in the group) is upset about the change. Bonanza City is not a happy place.

Emily goes to the Blue Team. Everyone wants to see if she will pick up the pace and do some work when she goes to Blue. The Red District was really frustrated with her lack of ambition. To their surprise, Emily works out great and fits in well with the other Blue teammates.

After church services, Mike (the kid with the mannerisms like Richard Nixon – slumped shoulders, furrowed brow) recognized that he did not greet Nathan warmly when he was sent to the Red Team and he apologizes. Nathan accepts Mike’s apology.

Zach is getting heat for splitting up the Twin Towers (Greg and Blaine), although Blaine is glad for the opportunity to come out from under Greg’s shadow. He’s definitely not as upset as Greg (just a little creepy with this stalker-in-training attitude about losing Blaine as a teammate. We see lots of restraining orders in this kid’s future).

Challenge!

The challenge this week builds on the issue of teamwork benefiting the town as a whole, as opposed to only individual teams. The first team who gets a crapload of rocks to the finish line wins upper class. The trick is, the more rocks a team can transport help the town as a whole. Of course, the first team to get to the finish line is the Blue Team, minus Blaine. Anjay recognizes that their team may have had a whole lot less rocks when you take into consideration the size of most of their teammates.

Yellow District won Merchants, and the Green District won Cooks. Red Team came in last and won Laborers. All in all, the town did rise to the challenge and the kids missed out on real beds rather than smelly sleeping bags on the floor. Looks like several more days of roughing it for these kids is in store.

An obscure little girl named Randi, one of Taylor’s best friends, elects to go home. And, Blaine is rewarded with the Gold Star. Seems that Blaine has stepped out from behind Greg’s shadow enough to get noticed as a leader on his team. He deserved it; Blaine really stepped up since he was sent to the Yellow Team, showing more leadership qualities at times than Zach.

Next week’s episode suggests another round of elections – Michael (the handsome kid who surprises himself with words of wisdom) will try for Laurel’s spot on the Green Team, DK will try for the Red Team, Blaine will try for Yellow and Greg will try for Blue (Anjay’s spot). Poor Anjay – this kid needs a PR rep more than any other reality TV character I’ve ever seen. Everyone hates him; no one respects him. We’re curious to see if anyone else can do better.