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Wednesdays @ 8 PM ET on CBS
Previous episode reviews: 1, 2

Fast Stats
Episode title: “Deal With It!”
Awarded the gold star: Mallory, blue team
Left town for home: No one
Episode favorite: Colton, yellow team
Days elapsed this episode: 3
Total days elapsed: 10
Remaining residents: 39

Greg (blue) started off this episode cursing loudly, slamming doors, and throwing an all around temper tantrum because he wasn’t awarded a gold star when he felt he deserved it. It got so bad at one point that his friend, Blaine (blue), had to pull him off another kid. Can you say “needs anger management”?? A lot of the other kids were concerned for the younger children (the 9 and 10 year olds) and mentioned that Greg shouldn’t be using that kind of language with young people present or nearby. Later in the episode, the town suffered through a sand storm; Jared went down the main street screaming, “It’s a twister! It’s a twister!” An unfortunate side effect of the storm was that all the outhouses tipped over, so some of the older kids (Greg and Blaine included, among others) had to go out after the storm passed and tip all the outhouses back up so they could be used. A lot of the toilet paper was ruined and much of the excrement spilled out onto the ground. How very sanitary, don’t you think? But, in a town like that, what’re you gonna do?

The challenge this episode was 5 minutes of sheep wrangling in which each team had to find the three sheep with Ace cards tied around their necks in that team’s color among the other sheep in the pen. Yellow won, blue was second place, green third, and red last. They did, however, complete the task in the time allotted and were awarded with one of two choices: 40 piping-hot pizzas or a microwave and cocoa. When the council chose the microwave and cocoa, a lot of kids groaned and complained, but most were happier the next morning when they had hot chocolate to drink in the cold.

At the town council, the residents expressed their continued dissatisfaction with Taylor and her leadership of the yellow team. She again said that, since they were the youngest team they should be left off the hook once in a while, but that didn’t fly this time around. Instead, some members started called for re-election and made her begin to cry. When she said she’d do better, they prompted her for real commitment; she said she and the yellow team would help clean up the next day. Even though I don’t like her much, I’ve gotta give Taylor credit: she doesn’t take shit from anyone; her catchphrase has become, “Deal with it!” Mallory (blue) was awarded the gold star—winning out over contenders Greg and Morgan (green). Greg was again pretty peeved and later said that she only won because it was her birthday that day.

So my questions have been relatively consistent through these three episodes. First, in the challenges, why don’t the other teams help the last team complete their part so that they’ll all get the group prize? Is helping not allowed? Or has it just not been thought of yet? What about the gold star? Is there more than one? What happens to the star once it’s been given out? What if it gets stolen? Does the town council have to follow the suggestions given in the journal? They know that the whole thing’s been set up, right, and that they’re not really reading a journal from the 1880s?? Well, whatever the answers, we’re already 10 days in—only 30 more to go. I’ll keep you posted.