Kid Nation Season Finale Recap

The last episode of Kid Nation takes us through a myriad of emotions; from sadness to happiness, tinged with a touch of bittersweet melancholy.  We’re finally left with an unmistakable feeling of hope – for the future, for these kids, for life itself.  Let’s get to it!

While walking through the town for the last time during the first light of day, Mike discovers that the job board’s on fire.  Everyone races to get water and put the fire out.  The children are all left feeling lost and without direction.  What does this mean?  If there’s no job board, then there are no classes.  If there are no classes, then there is no work.  If there’s no work, then what do they do?  They’ve decided that they can do either nothing at all, or whatever they want to do.  Yes, all hell does break lose in Bonanza City.

In addition to the job board, the journal is also burned, which leaves some of the current and former Town Council realizing the seriousness of not having these resources to help direct them.   While the journal may have, at times, represented responsibility and work for the inhabitants of Bonanza City, it also represented order and common sense and learning.  Something that, even for children, is sometimes in short order.

 As expected, the town riots – they steal candy and other stuff from the dry goods store, and basically trash the place.  Through it all, the kids learn a lesson about the importance of government and order.

No journal, no classes, no rules. 

With the encouragement of the former and present members of the Town Council, the kids then set about cleaning up Bonanza City and are quite ashamed about the mess they made the day before.  They just lost it; even kids can go crazy sometimes, right?

No showdown, no classes, no job boards.  But, there is a reward.  The Town Council needs to determine who should receive the last Gold Star.  Laurel nominates Sophia for another Gold Star.  DK expresses that he doesn’t want to be part of deciding who gets the last Gold Star, knowing that no one else can get one after this What a soft-hearted, great kid he is!

Zach is the final Gold Star winner! So sweet, he says he never thought he’d win, never won anything so big, he’s overwhelmed.

Taylor and her friends exclude Emily from their bunk for the last night.  Emily gets upset and Migle helps calm her down.  Migle goes long way toward calming the hurt feelings.

 

Challenge!

The Reward: Three HUGE $50,000 Gold Stars!

The kids need to cook, decorate and clean the whole town in one hour in order to win the reward.

1.They have to make spaghetti from a huge amount of pasta and tomato sauce from a huge vat of tomatoes. They can only win if they fill a huge jar with piping hot tomato sauce. 

2. They have to build a picnic table; which was not a very difficult for Greg, because he’s built a picnic table before. Mike is really annoyed about that. 

3. Trash must be disposed of (buried) – with 2 minutes to spare.  DK almost costs them the reward. His knees give out; poor thing, he’s way too young to have bad knees!

 The reward!

The kids get a special gift: their parents come running down the hill and give each of them great big bear hugs!  It was so emotional and the kids were so happy to see their families… no one could watch this without crying!

The final Town Hall meeting had the express purpose of determining who gets the last 3 gold stars worth $50K.  The Town Council has to decide who gets these gold stars. 

Sophia gets the first one.  Her mother gives her the biggest hug and she’s so obviously proud.  Sophia is “flattered and appreciative that people her own age really looked and saw what she did.”

Morgan is next: she is overwhelmed and her parents are even more overwhelmed for her!  She says she doesn’t deserve this gold star.  Greg tells her and her parents that they are privileged to have had her in their town.  These kids!

Migle gets the last Gold Star: she’s so obviously shocked and the town council says she “contributes a lot of kindness to the town.”

Time to say goodbye…

The kids explain, “We have brains, we have opinions, we have real minds.  We’re not just kids we’re more than that.”

The tears, the tears!  What a great show!

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