'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Kid Nation: Not Even Close to Fair
by Jackie Schnoop, posted Nov 14th 2007 10:58PM
(S01E09) Have children grown more apologetic since my days as a child? The kids of Kid Nation are often as cruel to each other as I recall but then they go and apologize. What's up with that?Well, they don't always apologize. Feelings get hurt; tears get shed. Maybe it's cruel, but the kids will eventually find out being an adult isn't all it's cracked up to be at all times, either. I think I've seen adults apologize a lot less often than the kids on the show. Perhaps they have some sort of super-strain of kids there -- intelligent and mature beyond their years.
Some of them, anyway. And some of the solid ones are starting to crack a bit.
I must have been blind not to notice that the green district, led by Laurel, has been awarded a disproportionate amount of the gold stars awarded so far. I guess I fell in with liking the choices and wasn't thinking along district specific lines.
But the kids noticed. The green team started getting a bit cocky about their wins. However, if memory serves, these kids also were the laborers more than any other district. So it's not like they've cornered the market on winning everything. Jared and many of the others think it's unfair -- the districts aren't evenly matched and some will always win.
Then the 1855 journal came into play with its magical powers of seeing into the future. Now the journal is getting outright pesky and antagonistic to a point. It advised the town council members to shake up the districts claiming that they lost many members of their town due to districts not working out. Of course, the journal has claimed to have lost many townsfolk for several reasons. It's a shock anyone survived to write the entries!It turned into a verbal brouhaha before the town council leaders even finished discussing it. Laurel was pleased with her own district and didn't want any changes. Guylan and Zach felt the power players and muscle weren't evenly distributed. And poor Anjay tends to freak and panic a bit under pressure.
"This is dynamite waiting to happen!" exclaimed poor panicky Anjay.
Now, I can see valid reasons for switching up the districts. But I wonder what would happen if the town council kids ever just said no to the journal. Would it be allowed? Is it in their contracts that they must do the bidding of the journal?
In the end, Greg and Blaine, the two biggest and strongest boys on the show, were finally split up with Zach taking Blaine into the yellow district. Blaine reacted very well to the change -- he even thought it would be good for him to get out of under Greg's shadow and "be his own man." He would have the chance to prove himself.
Guylan decided his red district needed more brain power, so he chose Nathan. That didn't go over so well with the others in his district. Mike got nasty to Nathan, Markell told us Nathan was weird. Eventually Mike came to his senses, remembered that he himself had been picked on and how it felt, then apologized to Nathan and welcomed him aboard. Huh? That's not like any kid I've ever known -- not unless an adult made them apologize!
Anjay went with a different idea. He wanted to have a challenge and change someone. He chose Emilie to join the blue district. She had a reputation on the red district for being lazy and not cooperating with others. Anjay said he made his decision for the town's good, not his own district. I think that one ended up being for Emilie's good, too. She all of a sudden had a chance to start over and prove she can be a valuable team player. Woohoo.
But it was far from clear sailing for poor panicky Anjay. Greg blamed him for the loss of Blaine. As it Anjay could have stopped it! Sheesh, Greg! He can be the sweetest kid on earth at times, but other times he definitely needs to control his temper and his mouth. He made Anjay cry and was really nasty to him.Laurel skipped by and didn't take anyone from another district into hers, thus she didn't give up any of her members. The others picked up on the fact that Laurel wasn't thinking about the town as a whole, just about her own little world in her little district. Uh-oh, I see a crack in the ever solid Laurel, don't you? Things are going well within her district and she wants everything to stay the same even though the other districts have all made changes. It's all but saying no to the journal.
Guylan's district was just as rough on him as Greg was on Anjay. Jared yelled, "Lock your cell door tonight!" Then Jared proceeded to lock himself in a cell. Um ... Jared, didn't you mean Guylan? Even Alex complained that Nathan sings in his sleep.
And that's how they all went into the showdown.
As always, it tied into the theme of the show. Since this week the big themes were fairness and equality, the showdown put their loyalty to the whole town to the test. The districts had to load rocks into a mining sled and drag it through an obstacle course. The first district to cross the finish line would win upper class and so on. The hitch was that all of the teams would have to lug a total of a ton of rocks to earn reward. It was their choice whether they wanted to load a few rocks and win or take as many as they could.
They didn't win the reward, but I think they made an honest effort (all districts) to lug as much as they could. The blue district arrived at the finish first (upper class) with 480 pounds, the yellow (merchants) had 460 pounds with Blaine busting his butt, the green (cooks) only had 420 pounds, and the last across the finish line was the red district with the most -- 485 pounds.
From there it turned into a lot of finger pointing with some kids thinking other districts just wanted to win for themselves.I don't know. It wasn't like any of the districts tossed five rocks in their sled and ran to the finish line to garner a better place in the enforced caste system in play on the show.
But this is the winter of their discontent ... or something to that effect. I think the kids are probably getting a bit antsy. They've been away from home for going on a month at this point. They have dirty faces and chapped lips. They also could have really used those real beds which were part of the reward.
The strife went on. Sophia humiliated Guylan almost to the point of tears. I doubt this kid will ever run for public office after he finishes with the show. He found out being a leader isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Like Mike, Sophia want and apologized later to him and seemed very sincere about it. I still think he will avoid being elected for anything ever again anyway.
Then Greg showed his soft side as did Taylor as they tried to comfort a homesick Randi. Well, Taylor may have been slightly self-serving as Randi is her friend and she doesn't want her to go home. But Greg carried her to her bed, was sweet to her, and tucked her in. He had nothing to gain. The kid is a teenage paradox, I tell you.
Since it started a few weeks back, the council leaders have been asking the kids to vote on the gold star. I guess we'll see it awarded that way for the rest of the season. This week the kids were all for either Hunter or Blaine. I didn't notice Divad, but she might have put her own name in there again. She wasn't spotlighted at all this episode.
Then there were 37.Despite Greg's comforting and Taylor's tears, Randi chose to leave the show. The kids cried, the heavens rained. Me? I barely saw the kid before tonight. I didn't get too emotional about it. Maybe I'm growing hardened to the tears of children.
She was no sooner out the door even though Taylor screamed and blamed Zach then it was time to award the gold star. Blaine got it -- both he and his best buddy Greg were thrilled.
But we didn't see him in the spotlight with the star too much because the kids were asked if they were happy with the job the town council leaders are doing. Uh-oh. Thanks to the journal instigating unrest, the only happy kid was Blaine.
We hit a "to be continued" after some of the kids volunteered to go up for elections in their districts. Most notably, Michael wants to go up against a shocked Laurel and Greg wants to take over Anjay's spot. Uh-oh. I see turbulence ahead!
| Michael | |
|---|---|
| Laurel |
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