Kid Nation Episode 13

The council left town as instructed by the pioneers, leaving Sheriff Sophia in charge in Kid Nation Episode 12. Contrary to everybody’s fear, Sophia turned out to be a good leader, surely better than Greg and Blaine. As the finale approached, the kids were left to think about how little time they have left and how they shouldn’t waste it playing in the arcade all day.

The episode starts with Mike wandering around at daybreak unable to sleep because he’s reflecting on all the good times they’ve had and the fact that they may never see each other again. As he’s walking, he notices the job board… on fire. For some reason, they all decide to play firefighters, even if it is pretty obvious that somebody had to have set the fire and that nothing else is in any danger of catching fire from it. Jared grabs a tin cup and fills it with water to assist.

Jonathan comes out to tell them the fire was on purpose and that things are about to change a lot. The kids want him to burn the journal as well. They interpret this as an okay to raid the stores and all get massive sugar rushes. Zach and DK are the voices of reason and are disgusted. At dinner, the town council makes a pitch to rebuild tomorrow after the chaos of the day.

Since the job board’s gone, there’s no showdown, but there is a reward. It’s the last $20,000 gold star, which will be awarded now. Guylan suggests Mike. Laurel suggests Sophia should get another gold star because she just works that hard. After discussing it amongst themselves, the council decides that Zach should be awarded the gold star, a well deserved acknowledgement of what he’s done this season.

Yellow district girls want to spend the last night together. Emily’s not having it and wants to fight. Migle takes control and patches things up between them.

There are no $20,000 gold stars, but there are still $50,000 gold stars, three of them.

They must first earn them as a town. They will be throwing a bonanza to celebrate what they’ve done. They’re given one hour to clean the town from top to bottom. First, they need to cook dinner, making pasta from scratch. Zach’s happy to have the microwave, a prize much of the town was upset with originally, to help heat up the sauce. The next step is to build picnic tables. The final task is to bury the trash. They finish this with two minutes left but need to get back to the bell before ringing it. Greg and Blaine carry DK, who is having difficulty with his legs, back to the bell, and they arrive just in time to win the reward.

Also at the party will be their families, who they haven’t seen in 39 days. It’s a very emotional reunion for all. After the party, it’s time to pack up and head to the final town council meeting.

Sophia apologizes if she’s bossed around, screamed at, or offended anyone, but she’s really the most obvious person to get one of the gold stars because she did it to help the town.

The first two gold stars will go to previous gold star winners. The third one will go to anybody.

Sophia wins the first gold star because of her leadership and hard work. Morgan wins the second gold star because she’s been the mother figure of the group. The final gold star goes to Migle for the improvement she’s made as time has gone on and for her kindness. I was expecting this when she went from nearly invisible to a standout character in the past couple episodes.

Following the meeting, it’s time to say goodbye to Bonanza City.

Based on the show’s poor ratings, it’s unlikely we’ll end up seeing a Kid Nation 2, which is too bad because it’s a good concept. However, in the event of a prolonged strike, there may be hope yet. It probably just makes more sense to shop around and get Disney to pick this up, though.

Kid Nation Episode 12

Taylor became a useful member of society in Kid Nation Episode 11, or so we were told. Her contributions, however short-lived they may be, were the result of a reward, one which distracted almost the entire town, an arcade that people quickly became addicted to. In order to get things under control, there’s a new sheriff in town, Sophia.

Sophia claims land in the center of town and tells people they must pay her to go on that land, primarily in an effort to screw with their minds. This is why I like Sophia.

The journal tells the council to head west and explore to meet some people who have been there for centuries. While they’re all gone, they decide on a plan to keep the town running. Sheriff Sophia will be in charge. Nobody in the town is happy. The town council isn’t concerned with the objections.

They see some teepees and meet up with Native Americans.

Back in town, the level of fear of Sophia is fading, and people are happy with the job she’s doing. Taylor hopes Greg gets lost on a mountain and a pack of coyotes eat him so Sophia can stay in charge.

At the showdown, each district will have their own homestead, complete with a house (four walls and a roof), chickens, an alpaca, and a flag. They must move everything west. This very physical challenge is missing the council, some of the more physical kids there. Red district gets off to an early lead. Green’s pretty close to them. Yellow may or may not be dying. Green’s first to build a house, and now red’s right behind them. Green district gets back with the animals and flag and edges out red for the win. Blue district eventually get it together and are the cooks. Yellow district finally figures things out and finishes at the buzzer.

Reward is a choice between monument of their efforts that will stay in Bonanza City forever, or a hot air balloon ride over the town. Since the council is not around, Sophia will choose on her own. The town heavily supports the balloons. She decides to choose the hot air balloons because it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

The town council returns in time for gold star nominations. Jared, Migle, and Alex receive nominations. Zach nominates himself, but Greg just laughs him off. His initial reaction is to leave crying, but he returns to confront them and tell them they’re terrible people. Greg pretends to be sorry, which makes DK angry. Greg wants Alex to get the gold star because he’s smart, something suggested by the people they met on their expedition.

This meeting starts off the same as the last one. The arcade continues to create problems. They decide to close it for good. In its place, they all gather around the camp fire and discuss how they need to cherish the limited time they have left in Bonanza.

Alex wins the gold star. He has a message that age doesn’t matter and that a 9 year old shouldn’t give up when faced with older competition.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 13 We’ve All Decided to Go Mad, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Kid Nation Episode 11

A new town council was elected in Kid Nation episode 10. Michael beat Laurel, Guylan quit and gave it to DK, Greg beat Anjay, and Blaine beat Zach. They came up with a plan to teach Taylor a lesson for refusing to work, but they were not willing to be mean enough to carry it out, so she promised she’d try harder.

Taylor thinks all the ugly animals should die. The town council agrees that some chickens need to die. However, Greg wants to kill the brown chickens, which Taylor considers the pretty ones, which therefore should stay alive. To prevent complete chaos, Sophia lets Taylor choose which chickens should die.

The pioneers suggest that the kids need to study. Because the showdown might have something to do with the history books about Bonanza City, the town council supports this. Taylor hates school and reading. Laurel’s okay with it. Jared doesn’t want to be flipping burgers at the supermarket.

Leila and Taylor don’t care what the council says about studying. They take off and go to the chicken coop instead. So the council threatens them. Again. Leila’s willing to listen, but Taylor doesn’t budge.

As expected, the showdown is about the history books. It’s a combination pop quiz/slingshot competition. Green gets the first point, following yellow’s incorrect belief that Pinto is a native American tribe. Blue ties it at 1, then takes the lead with a second point. So when did the Ewoks settle America then? Yellow gets their first point, and green ties blue with their second. Red finally gets a point. Green district gets a third point to become the upper class, thanks to Hunter’s excellent shooting. Now that they’ve figured out how to use a slingshot, red gets their second point. Blue are the merchant class. Yellow gets a point to tie red at 2, then a third to take third place. Red district is laborers.

In order to win reward, they must conserve ammo so that they have enough to fill a jar. Red district wasted a lot of ammo, but it doesn’t matter since the other districts nearly filled it. Reward is a choice between a library (Taylor’s unimpressed) and an arcade. Greg and Blaine push for the arcade. Michael would prefer the library. They decide to go with the arcade and tell Taylor she’s not allowed to play any of the games.

Green district goes to play in the arcade, except Sophia, who builds a library to replace the one they didn’t choose. Hunter checks it out for a bit but then goes back to cleaning up the kitchen.

Red district must haul water first. Now it’s Jared and Mike’s turn to disobey, and they decide to go to the arcade without finishing their jobs.

Taylor says she just needs to be treated with respect. Oh, that explains it. In an effort to get in the arcade, though, she does agree to wash dishes. After the dishes are done, without much help from the rest of her district, they allow her to go in the arcade.

Sophia wakes up to a ghost town. They’re all in the arcade. Despite the fact that she’s upper class and the yellow district are all in the arcade, Sophia decides to cook breakfast for everybody on her own. She confronts Blaine about this, and he’s gambling instead of cooking. DK gets angry and begins to question the decision to get the arcade.

DK, Sophia, and Nathan don’t approve of the arcade. Everybody else is happy with it. DK suggests padlocking it, and the rest of the council supports doing this. The kids must get a certain amount of work done in order to get into the arcade. The council elects Sophia as sheriff, and she will be responsible for enforcing this.

Hunter wins the gold star, the sixth member of the green district to do so. I’ve been expecting that for a while. He says he’ll give a lot of the money to his father, who lost his job a year ago.

Next week, the town council leaves, and Sophia’s in charge. Someone’s gonna get a beatdown.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 12 Where’s Bonanza, Dude?, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Kid Nation Episode 10

The town council decided to shake things up in Kid Nation Episode 9 by trading Nathan, Emily, and Blaine to new districts. The town hated this. Laurel decided not to trade anybody. The town hated this, too. Except for gold star winner Blaine, everybody thought the council was doing a bad job. DK, Blaine, Greg, and Michael decided to run for election.

Zach says he’s doing a good job. Taylor’s still bitter. Blaine says he wants to be a motivator.

Guylan doesn’t want to remain on the council, as he mentioned last week, so DK automatically wins. Mike’s pleased with Guylan failing.

Laurel believes she’s been working to the best of her ability and doing a good job, which is completely true, and there’s no reason for her to have an opponent this time either. Michael, a walking PSA, gives a good speech as he usually does.

Anjay asks for a second chance. Greg knows people are praying for him to not be on the council, but he wants a chance to prove himself to be not a jerk.

By a vote of 6-3, Michael wins the election over Laurel.

Blaine is elected over Zach 5-4.

By the largest margin, Greg wins 7-2. Be afraid.

Sophia says “What else do I need to say? Greg and Blaine are on the council.” She and Laurel are concerned.

Now that he’s off the council, Zach starts to get homesick. Laurel’s just mad. Anjay and Guylan are fine with it.

DK wants to first address the issue of respect, which he feels is lacking from Bonanza. Greg and Blaine come up with a concept for a meeting. Nathan thinks they should work on themselves before they try to teach respect. They must announce themselves and where they’re from. If someone interrupts, it will result in having to start over from the beginning. Most people get upset over the hypocrisy and think it’s pointless, so it takes a while to get through it, with the entire town pissed off and doing what they can to disrupt and mock it. Did anyone actually get anything out of it? Nope.

After the meeting, green district gets together to complain about Greg and Blaine, saying they should sit in the middle of town and compliment people rather than doing any work. Greg and Blaine overhear this and take them up on their offer, grab some chairs, and plop themselves down in the middle of town. Somehow, DK believes he’s been lumped into this with those two, and Blaine takes everything he heard about Greg and applies it to himself, so all three are just hoping for a fight, and a fight they get. Green district goes to confront them about it, which leads to a shouting match. Greg and Blaine come up with the theory of just simply not bothering to give anybody a gold star in retaliation.

The other three call a meeting with Michael, and Greg apologizes for eavesdropping. Michael’s skeptical that they can be a team.

Taylor refuses to help with the water. DK tells her she won’t get reward when they win another showdown if she refuses to work, so she says that’s fine because now she’s leaving anyway.

The showdown is about communication. It starts with pies, six of which will be hoisted to the top of a platform. Then the kids will get on beams and transport them with two poles, one on each side. In the pies are pictures of forms of communication, which must be placed in the order in which they were invented. Blue gets the first pie, followed closely by green and then yellow. Eventually, green’s able to get their six pies first, with blue close behind (Emily’s more interested in eating the pies than winning). Michael misses the order with two reversed, though, allowing Greg to get his right and take upper class. Michael is next to take the merchant class for green. Blaine gets everything wrong, which lets red finally get close. DK misses, so Blaine gets another chance, and yellow district are cooks. DK flat out refuses to listen to his team, but he gets it right at the buzzer, so they win reward.

The first choice is ponies. Fun and practical, as they can be used for companionship, rides, and assistance with things like carrying water. The second choice is letters from home. The council chooses letters from home. They’re not mean enough to keep Taylor’s letter from her. Taylor promises she’ll try. For like the tenth time.

Like Zach, who gets even more homesick reading his letter, as DK had feared, Laurel decides she just wants to get out of there. Taylor, however, wants to stick around.

More people approve of the job the council is doing than at the last meeting, but there are plenty of people who don’t approve, especially in green district. Greg says it’s tough love. He’s the new Taylor, as the whole town’s revolting against him. He asks how many people want him to go home. They just want him to change, which he doesn’t seem to be getting. He finally realizes where they’re coming from, sort of.

Despite all the earlier threats, nobody wants to go home.

Laurel gets the gold star, which she’s earned by working hard throughout her time there.

Next week, the kids are determined to start a school, though there are some objectors, like Taylor, who hates school and reading.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 11 I Just Like the Recess Part, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Kid Nation Episode 9

In Kid Nation Episode 8, the town got fed up with being bored and had a talent show, blue district girls started to get as lazy as those in other districts, and Divad continued to believe she was worthy of a gold star but nobody else was.

I hadn’t realized this before Laurel mentioned it. 4 of the people who have gotten gold stars are from green district.

The pioneers have a suggestion: mix up the districts. I don’t see what good it would do. I do get Zach’s argument that yellow district could use older people, though. The two oldest council members hate the idea; the other two are willing to give it a shot.

Emily has no interest in doing any work. She says it’s because she hates her district.

Anjay wants not Taylor but someone like Taylor, Emily, primarily because he thinks he needs to prove himself. Zach says his district is just a bunch of girls, including the boys. Anjay wants to break up Blaine and Greg. Laurel doesn’t want to split up her very strong district. The town hates the idea.

Guylan tells his district he needs intellectual people. He invites Nathan (ex-blue) to the district. Anjay invites Emily (ex-red) as planned. Zach takes Blaine (ex-blue). Dumb idea. Greg’s more upset than Blaine, who’s happy to be out of Greg’s shadow. Laurel sticks to her guns and keeps green district the same. The town doesn’t like this.

Red district, as a whole, is upset with Nathan coming over to their team. They make it clear they don’t like him. He says he was happy with blue district but at least seems to be willing to give it a try. At their religious ceremony, Mike realizes he’s a hypocrite for not accepting Nathan just because he’s different. He apologizes and starts to patch things up.

Greg’s back to being an asshat like he was the first few episodes. Now he’s just looking for a fight. Olivia, who hates Anjay even more since he so easily beat her in the election, joins in on the attack.

Laurel says it’s too bad if people don’t like her decision and their own leaders should have stood up for them, too.

The showdown is a rock pulling challenge. Whoever crosses first wins, but in order to get reward, they must get a total of at least one ton. Yellow district’s got some muscle now, and Blaine takes over for them. His buddy Greg’s in control for his team. Blue district easily crosses the line first to become the upper class. Yellow are the merchant class. Green takes third, followed by red in last.

Blue: 480 pounds
Yellow: 460 pounds
Green: 420 pounds
Red: 485 pounds
Total: 1845 pounds

As had been supected, blue took a light load considering they’re the strongest district. Yellow pulled what could be expected of them. I’m not so sure the goal of 2000 pounds was particularly well thought out, as it doesn’t appear it was even possible. Guylan suggests that green was mostly concerned about upper class, which offends Sophia. Considering how far ahead blue was the whole time, this seems like a baseless accusation, though it wouldn’t surprise me if some people were indeed at least trying to get a class higher than what they would have gotten otherwise. She swore at him, and other people said they’d say the same. He gets really upset by this. She later apologizes, which he appreciates but says he wouldn’t run for town council again.

The reward they didn’t win was a choice between beds for everyone or a kid lounge that couldn’t fit everyone.

Hunter gets up early every morning and works while everybody (except Nathan) is sleeping.

Blaine goes around and gets his district working. They’re all sleeping, and he tells them that’s why they’re known as the lazy district. Yellow’s starting to get upset with Zach, who’s getting more of an attitude as time goes by.

Emily, who had been lazy with her old district, is showing some signs of improvement.

Taylor’s friend Randi is upset and wants to leave. As he was on a previous episode, Greg was around to cheer her up, talking to her, carrying her to bed, and tucking her in.

Morgan nominates Blaine, who people are a lot more impressed with now that he’s on his own, for the gold star. Sophia nominates Hunter. The rest of the town is split between those two.

Anjay wonders why he didn’t give Greg away and keep Blaine because Blaine’s behaving so much better.

Randi’s the next one to decide she wants to leave due to homesickness. Taylor blames Zach for this. Huh?

Blaine is awarded the gold star. I’d think it would have made more sense if they picked Hunter and let Blaine sweat it out for another week, but he does seem to be doing a great job now that he’s with yellow district. He’s the only person who approves of the job the council is doing. Most people are upset, including Laurel’s formerly very loyal green district. Everybody’s ready for another election.

DK, Blaine, and Greg throw their hats into the ring. Sophia says “Oh my god. We’re all gonna die.” Michael wants to run against Laurel.

What do you think? Is the town council doing a bad job, or is the town just whining too much?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Kid Nation episode 10 Let Me Talk, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Kid Nation Episode 8

In Kid Nation Episode 7, Divad campaigned to get a gold star, but the town council decided Nathan, who some suggested works too much, was more deserving.

Sophia gets really bored, so she lays down in the middle of the street. Pretty soon, a bunch of others follow suit. The rest of the town keeps complaining about being bored. I sense it’s time for a visit from the pioneers from the alleged 19th century (or is it the pioneers who are alleged?). DK rings the bell to call the town, and he thinks the town council needs to do something. As expected, the pioneers have some input. They suggest a talent show. The town is happy with this decision.

Laurel comes up with a plan to award the winner of the talent show a gold star.

Natasha and Migle are on a mission to outdo Taylor. As upper class, they decide to do nothing. The blue district guys get upset, and Blaine and Greg, who are working hard, consider throwing the showdown. They give the girls a heads up about their plan to get laborers on purpose.

Savannah starts to get homesick. Alex is there to cheer her up.

At the showdown, they will make art out of gumballs. Council leaders will take already been chewed gum from their districts and put it on a paint by letter painting. Yeah, it’s as disgusting as it sounds. In a confessional, Greg says he won’t throw a showdown but was just trying to scare the girls into not being lazy. Blue and green are neck and neck throughout, but in the end, green district gets their first win. Blue is the merchant class. Red district are the cooks. Yellow district is unable to finish in time, so they are the laborers. Reward, if they had qualified for it, was a choice between paint to paint the whole town or an all night block party.

Savannah seems to be getting worse, and she breaks down crying.

A lot of the kids feel pressured because they only gave them one day’s notice to prepare for the talent show. Kelsey plays the piano. Jared does a monologue from King Henry V, and he says “I wasn’t the worst.” Greg and Blaine, in dresses, do Romeo and Juliet together. Olivia does some standup, and the kids are surprised that she’s funny. Kennedy does some rapping/dancing, or so we’re told, which she hopes will cheer up Savannah. At the end of the talent show, Savannah says she has an announcement to make: she’s not going home.

Divad nominates herself for the gold star. Again. Michael nominates Olivia because of her standup routine, as does her sister Mallory. Olivia nominates Kennedy, as do Sophia and Savannah. Kennedy votes for Sophia.

At the town council meeting, DK says he wants Laurel to sing when asked about any other hidden talents. She reluctantly agrees and does a great job.

The gold star winner is Kennedy. She’s happy that it’s not necessary to be one of the cool kids to be recognized. Divad gets more bitter still.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 9 Not Even Close to Fair, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Kid Nation Episode 7

Kid Nation Episode 6 primarily centered around Taylor whining and whining some more, followed by DK stepping up, working hard, and getting the gold star thanks to Guylan talking him out of going home.

Divad opens a snack business with cheap prices so that anybody can afford it. Seemed like a good idea, but people complain that she’s selling food that she got from the kitchen that they could have gotten there for free. Jared’s opposed to her monopoly on the snack business and flips over her tables. Divad remains positive and says she’ll just make more snacks. He later apologizes, and they make up.

The journal discusses the lack of money, which some of them, particularly the laborers, are familiar with. They find out there’s gold. Laurel’s opposed to searching for gold because it will lead to greed, but the rest of the town council overrules her and says they need to at least check it out. After entering a cave with bats in it, the town council finds a treasure chest with 375 buffalo nickels, which is equal to every person’s pay. They come up with a plan to go to the store and buy things that will benefit the entire town, rather than distributing the money among the town itself. Despite the fear of problems this may cause, the town is pleased with the decision.

Sophia decides to have some fun with the situation. She fills a pot with a disgusting mess of food and puts 50 cents in the bottom. It’s not long before a bunch of grossed out kids dig through it for money.

Laurel’s concerned about Nathan, who she thinks is growing up too fast because he wants to work more than have fun. Greg decides to be a jerk and pick on him for trying to help them, but Nathan says he’s not going to go home just because of Greg.

Divad got splattered with oil when she was cooking, but she says it’s no big deal and that she’s the richest person in Bonanza because of her snack business. This is apparently the girl whose mom filed the (frivolous) complaint with the sheriff’s office about child endangerment and child labor, which sparked all sorts of controversy before the show even aired.

At the showdown, they must launch eggs across a field to people who must catch them on the other side without breaking them. Council leaders must guide their teams and come up with a strategy. Blue gets off to an early lead. Yellow does a decent job of figuring things out as well. They need 4 dozen total to win reward.

Blue: 38 eggs (upper class)
Yellow: 18 eggs (merchants)
Green: 6 eggs (cooks)
Red: 5 eggs (laborers)

More than enough to win reward, which is a choice between washers/dryers (20 cents a load) or brand new outfits for each of them plus (free) pioneer era washing machines. They decide to go with the free laundry.

Jared comes up with a better idea than destroying Divad’s business. He makes and sells necklaces. This turns out to be a great business idea, and he has no problem selling them in droves. Now he’s the richest kid in Bonanza.

Greg decides to apologize for being mean to Nathan and says he deserves the gold star. Divad comes up with the idea of campaigning for a gold star, and she makes signs and snacks for people. Sophia nominates Pharaoh, whose name’s been mentioned a few times this episode. Most of the town comes up with a name, but Divad just picks herself. They’re concerned that Pharaoh’s working hard specifically for the gold star, which is true, but they also feel he needs the money more.

The whole town approves of the job the council’s doing.

Laurel, speaking largely to Divad, says they don’t want to hear people talking about how much they’re working, since it sends a message they’re just looking for the gold star. Nathan wins the gold star.

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

Kid Nation Episode 6

In Kid Nation Episode 5, elections were finally held. Laurel’s district unanimously agreed to allow her to stay in power unopposed. Anjay also stayed in power. Mike got beat by a 9-1 vote by Guylan, whoever that is. Taylor, meanwhile, finally got a long overdue boot, as she was replaced by the yellow team’s best leader Zach.

When Zach rings the bell to wake people up, Taylor acts like a spoiled brat. So basically nothing’s changed.

The town trash bin is a big mess and has a lot of stuff crawling/flying through it. How timely, though, the pioneers have advice that they need to clean it up. The council selects a few people to carry the garbage a couple hundred yards out and bury it. Sophia, DK, Greg, Blaine, Leila, and Taylor are selected, the last two mostly to spite them. Taylor tries to get out of it, but Laurel tells her “Deal with it.” Both Taylor and Leila run off and refuse to help, but Leila decides she doesn’t want to be punished and returns to help. Guylan’s unable to get much done and walks away, but DK talks to him and cheers him up some.

The council takes great pride in delivering Taylor her punishment. She has to haul water back and forth until she fills up the now empty tank. She carries the buckets just to put on a show and then dumps them on the ground. Seriously, can we have a tribal council now and vote her out?

The council corners her in a room and refuses to let her leave. She throws a hissy fit, and they eventually do let her leave. She says she’s going home.

Mike, on the other hand, is handling not being on the town council any more maturely. He says he plans to work harder and focus on his job.

DK asks for volunteers to help fill the water tank. Most kids in the town help fill it.

The showdown is about pollution and recycling. There’s a massive pot filled with 1600 gallons of baked beans and 30 pigs. They must search for bean cans and find the right colored cans. If all districts collect a total of at least 75 cans, they’ll win reward. Most people are disgusted. Anjay hangs around in there for quite some time, as does Blue’s next candidate, Nathan. Taylor in this mess… now this is enntertainment. Red district’s crusing right along.

Red: 24 cans (upper class)
Green: 20 cans (merchants)
Yellow: 19 cans (cooks)
Blue: 17 cans (laborers)

A nice improvement for green, which is typically laborers. Reward is a choice as always. The first choice is all different kinds of fruit and vegetables, which follows on the heels of people complaining about the lack of variety of food and nothing but potatoes for veggies. The second choice is dune buggies with as much gas as they need to keep them running.

The council chooses the produce. Most of the town is thrilled. Taylor says she’ll hate Zach for the rest of his life.

Zach assigns Sophie, Leila, and Taylor to dishes. They want to make fruit salad for breakfast instead. He says he won’t pay them unless they do what they’re supposed to. He then says, “You can forget about the gold star… forever!”

Two of the kids were goofing off, and one of them fell into a barrel. DK jumps in and takes charge of the situation. After that, though, he says he doesn’t like the people there any more and doesn’t want to be there with them.

The town council is unanimous in their choice for a gold star, DK.

Even though she’s off the council, the town council meeting once again turns to Taylor not doing anything. She says she’ll try. Again. DK comes to her aid for some reason. We then find out why.

When asked if anyone wants to go home, DK raises his hand. This is really surprising because he’s stood out this episode as a strong leader. He reiterates that he’s sick of the people fighting and being negative. Guylan pulls him aside and tries to convince him that they need him there. When he gets back, DK agrees to stay.

With that, DK is still around to receive the gold star.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 7 The Root of All Evil, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.