Kid Nation Episode 3

In episode 2, the producers had the kids kill some chickens (through the “advice” in the “old” book), the yellow district continued to do nothing, and Michael won the gold star over a likely to be angry Greg, who found out pretending to be a hard worker for a couple days just to win $20,000 won’t necessarily work.

The show starts off with a party to celebrate making it through the first week. Lots of kids hopped up on sugar probably isn’t the best thing.

Those who weren’t smart enough to know not to stay up all night get a rude awakening early in the morning that they’re not ready for. The council rings the bell and screams, while Greg has fun banging pots and pulling people out into the street in their sleeping bags. Sophia confronts him about this, and he runs off and locks himself in the room. Mallory, 8, isn’t happy with the cursing.

The pioneers suggest some law and order, starting with a curfew, a pretty coincidental suggestion considering the late night partying the night before. The decision is that they must be in their bunks by 9:30. No questions asked and no discussion allowed.

The yellow district gets into a food fight, further adding to people’s wishes they be booted from the kitchen. They keep saying the problem’s their age, but Mallory is willing to step up and clean up after them.

It’s time for the next showdown to determine what the classes will be. The challenge is to work together to round up sheep. Council members will yell the names to their teams below. They get 5 minutes to catch 5 sheep. The whole thing is complete chaos with nobody being able to hear a thing. Blue gets off to an early lead as usual. Yellow catches up to them. Red and green are way behind. Yellow ends up winning, so they are the upper class, thanks to Colton’s animal background and fearlessness. This means the yellow district can do whatever they want, including nothing at all. So basically what they’ve been doing all along. Blue takes second to be the merchants. Green finally doesn’t lose the challenge, allowing them to get into the kitchen, where Sophia will take charge as she has been all along. With seconds to spare, red finishes last and are the laborers, but it’s fast enough to win the reward.

The choice is between 1) a microwave and a barrel of cocoa or 2) 40 pizzas with every topping. Mike wants pizza and is extremely vocal in his opposition, offering no support to his fellow town council members when the decision is announced. The other three go for the microwave and cocoa instead. Few of the kids are happy with this choice, whether it’s a logical choice or not. Some of them, however, realize that the pizza would be gone very quickly, whereas the cocoa and microwave would be useful for the rest of their time there.

Taylor may have dug her own grave by being so vocal. There were only a couple people who were upset with the council to begin with, but after no pizza and a curfew, there’s serious potential for her being overthrown.

Sophia tries to get a bag from Mallory for 5 cents, and Mallory offers a deal but isn’t a pushover. For her age, she’s proving pretty impressive at running the store.

Then a storm blows through town. There’s lots of wind and tipped over outhouses, but it looks to pass pretty quickly. Zach takes charge and gets the situation under control. The storm is enough to upset Cody, 9, and Mallory and make them homesick.

This time, the council is smart enough to get feedback from the others on who they think deserves the gold star. The main suggestions are Greg and Morgan, who has tried to step up and be the mom of the group to some of the younger kids. Olivia, Mallory’s sister, suggests Mallory, which does lead them to start looking at the kids who maybe aren’t old enough to pitch in as much as the older kids but are doing a great job in their own right.

As expected, nobody’s happy with Taylor’s pageant queen attitude. A lot of them are probably still bitter over the pizza party as well. She says she will work harder in the future, which buys her one more chance.

Nobody ends up going home this week. The gold star winner is Mallory, a happy 9th birthday present, which Greg says is the only reason she got it. I’m not sure he realizes if he finds a positive attitude and keeps working hard, he’ll get the star eventually, even if it takes a while.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.