“Kid Nation” ep.6 review
by V.E. on October 31st, 2007
filed under entertainment, recap/review
Official | IMDb | Wikipedia
Wednesdays @ 8 PM ET on CBS
Previous episode reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Fast Stats
Episode title: “Bonanza is Disgusting”
Awarded the gold star: DK, red team
Left town for home: no one, but DK almost did
Episode favorite: Greg, blue team
Days elapsed this episode: 3
Total days elapsed: 19
Remaining residents: 38
Woo hoo for trash! This episode involved cleaning up Bonanza City and burying the rat-infested trash heap outside of town limits after hauling it all the way out there from the designated trash area. The new leaders take a crack at leading their city, and the showdown this week was disgusting. I kid you not. The Book lead the council to the city’s trash; they decided to pick a few members of each district to help shovel all the garbage into wheelbarrows and then haul it all out to an area of town that’s not really part of town at all—way past the water pump—to bury it. Greg, Sophia, and DK were (among others) chosen for the job because of their work ethic and willingness to create a better Bonanza City. Taylor and Leila were both chosen because they haven’t been doing anything to help out the town at all since Taylor was ousted from power. Instead of helping, they hid in one of the buildings, and when Laurel and others came to find them, they refused to budge. After giving up on getting them to help with the trash thing, the other chosen people and the council went out past the water pump to bury the town’s garbage.
Guylan had a hard time doing his part of the digging the hole for the trash, and he spent most of that part of the episode moping under one of the wheelbarrows. He felt really bad for not being able to do his part, but he helped make up for it later during the showdown. Leila decided half way through to go and help because she didn’t want the entire town angry with Taylor and her, so I think she was at least somewhat redeemed. Taylor, unfortunately, was given a serious punishment: to refill the town’s water supply all by her onesies. That involved carrying two metal buckets to and from the water pump, getting herself and the full buckets up the ladder, and pouring the water into the water tower that is featured in the show’s beginning credits. And then repeating that over and over until the tower was full. Seeing as the tower was nearly completely empty, that could’ve been an insurmountable task for Taylor to complete, even if she’d wanted to. Never came to that point, though, because halfway back from her first trip to the water pump, she set the buckets down and intentionally tipped them over… obviously indicating that she wasn’t going to take shit from anyone—even if she deserved it.
So, she and Leila were given dish-washing duty, which they didn’t do either… Taylor’s work track record is extremely low, I must say. She certainly doesn’t take her own “advice” well at all (to just “deal with it!”). Zach finally threatened to withhold her pay and make sure she never earns the gold star because he was so fed up with her non-compliance. Soooo… thus is the Taylor drama.
The showdown focused on recycling, but with a twist. The kids had 15 minutes to find as many colored tin cans as possible while wading through a large “pan” filled ankle-deep with 1600 gallons of baked beans and 30 live pigs. (The following borrowed from Wikipedia:) Only one kid from each district was allowed in at a time and they couldn’t return until they found a can. The team that found the most cans in 15 minutes was awarded the upper class and so forth for the other job classes. If all four districts accumulated at least 75 cans, they would be rewarded with either a choice of all the fresh fruits and vegetables they could eat or two dune buggies and an unlimited supply of gasoline to operate them. The goal was met, and the council selected the fruits and vegetables for the town… (End borrow.) The whole thing was soooooo disgusting. I’m not even kidding. It made me want to shower just watching it. So gross. Ooooh, soooo gross. Greg got my vote for favorite of the episode because he dove right into the challenge—literally. But, man did they need to be hosed off afterwards. Sheesh, it was disgusting. I cannot emphasize enough how disgusting it was.
For the first time since the first episode, the red team won the right to be upper class (at least until the next showdown). The green district remained the merchant class, yellow went back to being the cooks (as they have been most of the season thus far), and blue was stuck with being laborers for the lowest pay. Later, while enjoying their “new” class, two members of the red team were rough housing in the street and when one of them got hurt, DK stepped in and straightened things out. I have to admit, he was a little harsh with them, but I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t have done the same thing in his position. I mean, the stress can get to you sometimes, you know? It’s not right to displace your frustration on other people like that, but they did need to stop messing around before someone was seriously injured. Anyway, DK almost went home because of the drama/stress/issues in dealing with the other residents, but Guylan convinced him not to. Good thing, too, because the council had unanimously decided to give him the gold star earlier in the episode and just hadn’t announced it yet.
I think sticking it out is a positive quality, but not at the continued expense of one’s mental health. If you know better things are coming, then by all means, stick with it. But if you already have for a fair amount of time and things still aren’t getting better, you might want to think about changing your behavior or some other aspect of your life so that you’re happier in the long run. My personal test is this: I ask myself, “Will I regret quitting/leaving/failing?” If the answer is “no, I won’t regret it” (and it sometimes is), I quit. I don’t have time to waste on things that I don’t care enough about to stick out. I learned that late in high school when my then-therapist and I were talking about my Pre-Calculus class. She asked me why I was still taking a math course when [1] I had already completed the required math courses to graduate, [2] I knew my career wouldn’t have much (if anything) to do with the subject, and [3] I didn’t like it?? Good question. Why was I still taking a math class? I didn’t know. I guess I felt like I needed to be well-rounded or something… even to the point that I didn’t like what I was doing.
Okay, so I didn’t mean for this review to go off on a tangent about my personal life like that, but it sorta applies to DK’s situation. If he really wanted to go home, I believe that Guylan wouldn’t have been able to convince him to stay. If things don’t get better, however, DK may need to rethink his place in Bonanza City—for his own health if nothing else.
