Kid Nation - Episode 5

Morning, day 14: the pioneer journal tells the town council it is time for them to face elections. This makes Taylor, Anjay and Laurel nervous. Taylor, because she knows everyone in town except for the girls in the Yellows are fed up with her encouraging her team to sleep in and ignore their duties as the Cooks; Anjay, because the Blues, most of whom are bigger and older than he, typically ignore him; Laurel, because the Greens include Michael, Morgan and Sophia, 3 of the 4 gold star winners. Mike is the only councilor who has any confidence in his ability to win on his record.

The council announces that elections will be held; the town cheers wildly. Zach asks if they will vote for all 4 councilors and is told no, each team will vote for its own councilor. Uh-oh. As Zach mentioned in the previous episode, Taylor has good leadership skills, she just uses them in the wrong direction. From the scenes we’ve seen of Zach entering the Yellow girls’ bunkhouse each morning to try to get Taylor to get up and get to work, it’s clear she has the support of the other Yellow girls. They know that if Taylor goes, their slacker days are over.

The kids are given some time to think about whether they want to run for council. Laurel, a straight forward kind of kid, gathers the Greens and asks if they want to replace her. Given that the Greens have come in dead last in 3 of the 4 challenges, meaning they have spent 9 of their 14 days in Bonanza as the hard-work-low-pay Laborers, one would think her position would be precarious. But, no – the team is happy with her leadership and they acclaim her as councilor for a second term. Is the harmony in the group despite or because of them consistently having to accept being the low group on the producers’ social totem pole? And, in light of the fact that her team has 3 gold star winners, what does this tell us about those who pursue leadership compared to who makes the greatest contributions to social well being?

The campaign begins. Mike’s speech shows his confidence in the leadership skills he’s displayed to date. He seems to think his team will acclaim him, the way the Greens acclaimed Laurel and he is shocked when Guylan throws her bandana into the ring.

Anjay’s main plank in his platform is, I’ll try harder. The floor is opened for anyone in the Blues to challenge him. I’m half expecting Greg’s sidekick Blaine to step up. Yeah, if you’re on council you take yourself out of the running for a gold star, but I’m thinking Greg is clever enough to get Blaine on the council to increase his chances of getting the $20,000 gold star. But no – it’s Olivia who comes forward.

Now for the main event, Taylor vs Zach. Taylor starts by saying, “Even I call myself lazy these past couple of days.” Eye rolls and groans from the town. Everybody knows she’s been lazy since day 1. She concludes with the same line she uses in every town meeting (which always include criticism of her leadership). “Please give me another chance.” Zach steps up, to loud cheers. He’s the only candidate to have prepared his speech, and it’s a good one. The town’s enthusiastic response makes it clear they want Zach to be the leader of the Yellows. Taylor’s response? “Yeah, that was a good speech, but it’s not like it was the best I’ve ever heard.”

Before the election there is a final challenge competition under the leadership of the current regime. The producers have hung 300 piñatas from wires strung across a field. Some of the piñatas contain pictures of U.S. presidents. One at a time, team members break open a single piñata. If it contains a picture they run it back to the team leader, who must assemble 7 pics in correct historical order. If there’s no picture, the contestant must race back and give the next team member a chance. As per usual, a reward awaits the town if all teams finish the task within a given time limit, in this case, 30 minutes.

Green and Yellow get 7 cards at almost the same time. It’s a race to ring the bell. Laurel blocks Taylor and rings in first. But Green's presidents are not in the correct order and Yellow’s are, thanks to (who else?) Zach, making them the Upper Class. Green corrects the order of their pics and takes second, lifting them out of the Laborer class for only the second time and making them Merchants.

Cut to Yellow team member and Taylor supporter Kelsey: “Yes, we won with the help of Zach, but just because he knows his presidents, it doesn’t mean he’s the best leader. I mean, look at George W. Bush. He’s not smart at all but he was the U.S. president two times in a row.”

Red takes third to become the Cooks and, for the first time, Blues are the Laborers.

The reward is a choice between barbeque (hot dogs, hamburgers and ribs) or dental care (tooth brushes, toothpaste, mouthwash and floss). The protein-starved kids scream for the meat. The council – in a move no adult politician would make with an election on the line – chooses the dental care. Hurray, kids.

As the town meeting approaches, the campaign heats up. In the Taylor – Zach race, it’s pretty simple: if all the girls vote for Taylor, she wins. Zach, bright boy that he is, can do simple arithmetic. He knows he has to get at least one of the girls to vote for him. He tells Randi, an 11 year old Yellow whom we haven’t met before, “I just want you to understand that if you want Taylor to be your leader because she wakes you up late, you can do that. But if you want me to be a leader because I can make this town better and clean this place up and make it a good place to live, that’s your choice. I just want you to understand that.” With that he walks off, in a display of great natural timing. Randi applauds quietly as he goes, looking somewhat smitten.

There is an ugly scene of 12 year old Red team member Markelle tearing down Taylor’s campaign posters (slogan: I’m Taylor and I’m no Failure). While you can understand his frustration at not be able to vote out Taylor himself, somebody needs to talk to him about the Constitution. Leila, 9, who made the poster is upset and there’s a sweet scene of Greg, who has been in the background this episode, comforting her.

At the town meeting Greg finally gets his gold star. He tells the town, “This means I’m going to college.” Sappy as it sounds, it’s moving to watch.

Time to vote. Laurel is officially acclaimed leader of the Greens. Anjay, who has handled the whole election with amazingly poor grace, beats Olivia 7-3 to retain his seat. Olivia returns the favor and handles her defeat as ungraciously as he handled her candidacy.

The only vote Mike gets is his own: Guylan beats him 10 -1. He is devastated, burying his face in his arms to hide his tears. I think DK, who voted against Mike for no more reason than that he wanted to see what life would be like with a different team leader, speaks for a lot of the kids when he tells the camera, “I won’t say I was overjoyed to see Mike go. It was kind of sad, really.” And finally, Randi’s vote ends Taylor’s reign 5-4, to the delite of nearly everybody. And in the end, she is remarkably gracious. It's going to be interesting to see how she functions for here on out.