Kid Nation: Where's Bonanza, Dude?

It's day 35 in the wonderful town of Bonanza City so let's see what the future leaders of America are doing. Why, there's Sophia claiming her stake of public property in the middle of Main Street and charging people to step foot in it. (I wonder if I'd be able to claim a little plot in one of the bigger intersections in my town and charge cars to drive through it.) And there's Sophia slapping at Colton. Easy there sheriff! No manhandling of the citizens allowed.

During journal time, the council is told to take a hike. Really! The old producers settlers even provided them with a map for their journey. When the council told the town that they were leaving Sophia in charge while they were gone, it was met with much enthusiasm. Nah, not really. Most of the kids thought Sophia would be a battle-axe without the council around but it really turned out not to be the case. Yes, she made them do all of their chores before they could go to the arcade and have fun but the kids wanted to go so badly that it didn't even matter.

The town council found themselves before teepees and Pueblo Indians at the end of their hike. While sitting around a campfire, they asked the elders for advice on how to run their society and control its inhabitants. Really, this part of the show was so cheesy I think the producers and writers had to have been partaking in mescal when they came up with this idea. But let's get back to Bonanza City where Jared and Alex are off taking a walk and playing with cow bones. Did you laugh too when Jared said, "Pelvis has left the building!"

Day 36 and it's time for the showdown but there's no council! Sheriff Sophia will be making any reward decisions should it come to that. In the showdown, the districts had to move their homestead (a house, chickens, an alpaca, and a flag) from one location to another. It involved tearing them down and building them back up again and if all of the districts could do it within one hour, the grownup would let them have a reward. There was nothing mental about this showdown -- it was all physical.

The green and red districts had no problems at all with this challenge and, respectively, took first (upper class) and second (merchants) class. With five minutes left, the blue district finally finished (cooks) so everybody was just waiting on the yellow district to finish. Three minutes, two minutes, ten seconds! Hurry up yellow! At the very last second, they placed their flag in the ground so they will indeed get a reward. What will it be though and how would Sophia make her decision?

The choices were: a Kid Nation monument on the land commemorating the show's existence or a hot air balloon ride over Bonanza City. With four days left, it was a hard decision to make. Sophia, thankfully, chose the hot air balloon ride and everybody will get their rides the next day. Until then, it was time to head to the saloon to toast to Bonanza City and their newfound friendships. I thought I was going to cry but I just had something in my eye.

The next morning, day 37, the kids awoke and ran to the most amazing thing they'd ever seen -- five hot air balloons! Everybody had a great time in the sky (even Mike who was afraid of heights) but eventually the fun must end. They spy the town council arriving and the fun is over.

At nominations, Alex was shown receiving the majority of the votes for the gold star with a couple for Migle and Jared thrown in as well. Then here comes Zach. Zach nominated himself and began crying during his speech which then caused Greg to remark about how he didn't think Zach's tears were real. The whole thing blew up into this outrageous ordeal leaving Zach roaming through the desert cursing and DK arguing with Greg. Eventually though, Zach came back to where the nominations were taking place and told them they were the most terrible people he'd ever met. Greg then apologized, they hugged, and DK called Greg a hypocrite. It was quite fascinating.

Before the gold star could be awarded at the town hall meeting, the grownup just had to mess things up and ask the kids how things were going. Some of the kids want to close the arcade because people are spending too much time playing video games and there's not enough bonding going on. I swear some of these kids are just too damned sensitive. So the town council closed down the arcade for good. I can only imagine how sappy the finale is going to be next week.

The winner of the gold star was no surprise to anybody watching the show this week. My cute little man, Alex, won it and was utterly shocked. Jared looked a little upset that he didn't get it but seemed to be fine otherwise. Alex was so cute when he said that his children and grandchildren might need that money some day and remarked on the price of gold going up on the market. That's a kid I would love to see what's going on with in 20 years.

After his talk with his mom (who told him that his microbes miss him), the arcade was locked down and the kids all sat around a campfire reminiscing about their time in Bonanza City and how much they would miss the place. It was really touching (seriously) when Anjay said that Bonanza City was the only place he felt like he fit in and then started crying. The kids plan on making the last few days the best days ever. Good ol' Jared closed the show out with him remarking on how big a scorpion was. He was hovering over it and checking it out while it crawled around and decidedly said that he wants one as a pet when he gets home. Watch out Mom!

Next week is the season finale of Kid Nation and it will have bigger challenges, bigger surprises, and bigger gold stars. At least that's what the voice-over guy said. Can the kids keep it together or will the world they built go up in smoke?

What did you think about this week's episode? Were you as happy as I was that Alex won the gold star?