Kid Nation: December 2007 Archives

After a short recap of the more memorable moments, day 38 of the Kid Nation finale began with a burn. Mike, who had magically awoken pre-dawn, roamed out of his bunk and into town to find the town's team board on fire. He stood in front of the fire just staring at it (and giving the producers good footage) before running off to wake everybody up. The kids tried to put the fire out with buckets of water (or tin cups in Jared's case) but it was to no avail. The grownup gathered the kids in front of the still burning board and told them that the fire was no accident. The town is about to change in a big way. After throwing the journal into the fire, he told them that there would be no more job classes, no more money, and they can do whatever they want these final days.

Wahoo! Let's go loot the store! And that's what most of the kids did. They were absolutely mad as they stole everything they could while leaving behind a complete mess. I wasn't surprised at some of the kids who were doing this (Taylor and Laila) but I was shocked at others who were looting. Sophia, Jared, Guylan, Michael, and Laurel? DK and Zach were two of the kids that weren't participating in the madness and even began cleaning up the dry goods store because they didn't want to leave Bonanza City with the store in that kind of shape. Later at dinner, Michael announced to everybody that they were all going to pitch in and clean the mess up the next day.

Sure enough, on day 39, they began cleaning after they woke up. After that, the grownup gathered the pioneers and told them that this is usually when they'd have a showdown. There would be no showdown but there would be a reward though. He told the town council that it was time for them to award the final gold star. After a short deliberation, a crying DK told everybody the council chose to award it to Zach. Of course, Zach was speechless and began crying.

Later that night, there was a little drama going on in the yellow girls' bunk. Taylor, Leila, and Kelsey had gathered their favorite brown chickens and brought them in to the bunk to spend the night with them. Emilie came over and asked to bunk with them that night but they told her they didn't want her there. They wanted it to just be them three for the final night. A huge fight broke out between the four girls but then Migle came over to handle the situation. She managed to smooth things over and all was right in Bonanza City once again.

On day 40, the final day, the grownup gathered the kids together once again and told them that it would be a big day for them and that gold may still be in their future. He pulled out a giant gold star worth $50,000. He then told them that there were two more just like it. Before these stars can be awarded though, they would have to prepare the town for the 1st Annual Bonanza City Bonanza. They would have one hour to accomplish three tasks. If they could do that, the council would be able to award the gold stars.

Of course, they accomplished the tasks (making spaghetti, assembling picnic tables, and burying the town's trash) so now they get three stars and one party. The grownup told them that there would be special guests coming to the party and that they hadn't seen them in 39 days. Yup. Their parents run into town and everybody begins crying and hugging and hugging and crying. After they recovered, the kids gave their parents a tour of the town. Then Taylor rang the lunch bell. It would be their last meal together as a town. While everybody was eating, the grownup came out and interrupted them saying that it was time for the final town hall meeting and that there were three gold stars to give away.

The council awarded the first $50,000 gold star to Sophia, the second to Morgan, and the final star to Migle. All of them were really shocked (Morgan and Migle especially). I found it interesting that the council made up of boys gave the stars to all girls. I was also a little sad that Mike didn't get a gold star. Speaking of Mike, I thought it was wonderful that his mother stood up and told all of the kids that she was proud of them and believed in all of them. I was this close to crying when the parents stood up and gave the kids a standing ovation.

Of course, there was tons of crying and hugging when it was time for everybody to say their goodbyes. Their final sentiments seemed to be that they're not just kids and that they feel they've really built something in Bonanza City. Well, they built enough that CBS is casting for a second season of Kid Nation.

What are your thoughts on the finale? How do you feel about the show overall? Will you watch a second season?

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?