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The Town Hall meeting continues where we left off last week, and everyone votes. Guylan abdicates his seat to DK. On the Green district, Michael unseats Laurel 6-3. Blaine takes over as the Yellow council leader 5-4, and Greg wins the Blue seat 7-2. In short -- total sweep, with Greg, Blaine, and two other 14-year-old boys on the Council. "Bonanza City's going to crash and burn," Laurel predicts. So let's get to it. The new Council's first move is to host a condescending "respect" and "communication" exercise. Michael's not down with it, but he goes along and ends up apologizing to his district in a conversation that becomes about how much Greg and Blaine suck, which Greg and Blaine spy on through the wall. This ends in a shouting match between the Green district and the rest of the Council in the middle of the street. Then the Council pulls together just in time to fail to motivate Taylor to work. In a pie-balancing/invention-ordering Showdown, the ranks are Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red, and the town wins its first reward in three weeks. Option one is a small fleet of ponies, and option two is letters from home. The Council picks the letters, and lets Taylor have hers despite having threatened to withhold her reward as retribution for her laziness. At the Town Hall meeting, Greg gets defensive, nobody goes home, and Laurel gets a Gold Star. So everything's all better. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Where were we? Oh, right, the Town Council meeting, where Jonathan has just announced that it's Election Day -- right now, this second. Jeez. Jonathan puts Zach right on the spot, telling Zach he needs to make his campaign speech, as in, immediately. This even seems abrupt to me, and I've had a week to get used to the idea. Zach starts out by saying that he loves his job. "You suck at it," Taylor volunteers. Zach ignores this and goes on to say that he's progressed, and will do better given more time. As the challenger for the Yellow district's seat on the Council, Blaine's rebuttal is about motivating, which he says he'll do better than the current Council does. For the Red team, Guylan's speech is simple: "Please vote me off." Guylan, you'll recall, has had a noseful of Council life. Jonathan says it looks like DK will be getting the seat, and no one objects. So that's DK on the Council, although he doesn't take the seat right now, from some reason. He interviews that he is all about teamwork. So we'll see how that goes. It's Green's turn. For her speech, Laurel perches on the Council table and says she thinks she's been doing a good job and hopes they all agree. Her challenger, Michael, comes up and says he just wanted to test himself, and thinks he can make Bonanza City a better place. Blue is last, and Anjay's speech is the speech of someone who's already been defeated; he comes off apologetic and desperate and begging for a second chance. As Anjay's challenger, Greg's speech addresses his own "bad past"; he says he wants to show that he's not a bad guy. "Vote for me," he summarizes. Sophia interviews that she's not a big fan of Greg, and was scared for the future of Bonanza. All twelve days of it.
So now it's time to vote. After the ballot boxes are filled, Guylan gives up his Council seat to DK, amid general happiness. Mike interviews that he was ambivalent about Guylan voting himself out; on the one hand, he was sympathetic, but on the other, he was like, "Yeah, not so easy, is it?" Jonathan gives the results for Green: Michael has won, 6-3. That's kind of a wide margin, considering how effective and popular Laurel has been. Everyone hugs Michael, while Hunter looks serious. But in case you think that means he's unhappy about the results, he interviews that he voted for Michael because he thought Laurel was losing her focus. Laurel looks pretty bummed, now sitting down there on the front-row bench with the rest of the commoners. The results for Yellow are close: it's 5-4, in favor of Blaine. As Blaine and Zach hug up front, Zach says into Blaine's ear, "This job sucks, but you'll love it." Zach interviews that he thought he was doing a pretty good job for a ten-year-old, but apparently not good enough. Kind of ironic how he drafted the person who ended up taking his seat. And the vote for the Blue district isn't a surprise; it's 7-2 for Greg. Olivia models a new bitchface. Anjay congratulates Greg and says he did what he thought was best for the whole town. And there's a second Olivia bitchface in scarcely as many seconds. She's awfully smug, considering that seven people total have challenged Council members in elections and she's the only one out of all of them who lost. Anjay gives up his seat as we get an interview with the other person who voted for him: Alex, who says that Anjay was dong fine. At least Anjay won the votes of all of Blue's intellectuals. From his new spot up front, Greg says he imagines that everyone's thinking, "Oh, my God, Bonanza City's gonna burn." And then he promises to try to be the best Council leader ever. Jonathan introduces the new Council: Greg, Michael, DK, and Blaine. "So now Greg and Blaine are both Council members," Mike interviews. "That is a scary thought." Fellow ex-Council member Laurel is even more blunt: "Bonanza City is going to crash and burn."
After the credits, let's catch up with Laurel and Sophia in the kitchen. Sophia is starting to explain how she feels, but finally gives up and says, "What else do I need to say? Greg and Blaine are on the Council!" Laurel agrees that the two of them together are bad news. "I feel like someone just won a presidential election with no background check," says Sophia. Believe me, it's not any better when everyone knows all about the guy and votes for him anyway.
And now Zach's mocking of the homesick kids from last week should really be coming around to bite him in the ass, as he realizes that the responsibilities of being on the Council were distracting him from how much he misses his own parents. But no one's around to make fun of him, so it would be kind of nice if he did it to himself.
That night, the members of the new Council are hanging out on one of the building's porches as DK says that one of the biggest issues they have is respect. He thinks people interrupt and cut each other off too much. I remind you that DK lives with six siblings, and is still somehow not used to that kind of thing. Still not seeing how that's possible. Blaine suggests an exercise he did at school, in which everyone gathers in the Saloon and takes turns talking from the stage, and if anyone interrupts, they have to start over. Greg's all over it, because it presents an opportunity for him to boss everyone around at once. Michael doesn't look like he's on board, but he doesn't say anything. Hey, what happened to the Pioneer Journal? Maybe the new, older Council went in and read it mocked it so mercilessly that the show didn't have any usable footage from the reading session. I would be okay with that.
On the morning of Day 29, Laurel is having trouble coming to terms with the fact that the sun rose on a Bonanza City that didn't have her on the Council. She's talking to Michael, DK, and Zach about how frustrated she is that she doesn't have a say in anything anymore: "I was a great Council leader and I'm mad. I have to leave, I'm sorry." And she does. It's hard for a defeated leader to be bitter in private and gracious in public when the public consists of thirty-six other people and a bunch of network TV cameras.
Anjay and Guylan are having a very different conversation about the same subject. Guylan feels like a train was lifted off his chest, and Anjay agrees that he won't miss all the responsibilities. As for the new Council members? "They have no idea what they're in for," Guylan cackles. Tell it to your past self, Guylan.
The Council members call everyone into the Saloon. Blaine -- his hair currently looking like he joined not only the Council but also Whitesnake -- explains that since they've been having trouble getting people to respect each other when they're talking, they're going to play the "communication game." Greg explains the rules, in which each person will come up one at a time to say his/her age, where he/she is from, and tell something about him/herself. And every interruption will result in starting the whole thing over from the beginning. The town doesn't look too impressed at having to go through what amounts to an exercise in remedial manners. Nathan interviews that maybe Greg and Blaine aren't the best people to be teaching the town about respect.
Too late: here we go. Greg goes first. He says that he's from Reno, and that when he gets home, he's going to sleep for a week. Blaine is . I see Michael rolling his eyes at this whole thing as Kelsey takes the stage. Natasha mutters, "Oh my God" during Kelsey's speech about how she misses her family, and Greg calls a halt. They have to start over now. "Let's hear it for Natasha!" he crows, clapping and whistling. Eric makes the point to Greg that that isn't so respectful right there, and interviews that Greg is pretty much the most disrespectful person in town. But he's one of the people in charge, so let's go again. Greg, Blaine, Kelsey, and then when Michael says that he'll be fifteen three days, Pharaoh can't suppress a "Happy birthday," so they start over again. There are plenty of reaction shots of kids looking like they're thisclose to walking out of there, and I can't for the life of me figure out why none of them does. Starting over. Greg! Blaine! Kelsey! Michael! DK! Laurel! And Pharaoh mutters something, and they're starting over again. Jared interviews, "The respect game...It sucked. Like. Cock." At least it sounds like he says "cock," but I think he's really just making a guttural gagging noise in the back of his throat. Markelle protests that it's not fair that they have to start over, and Greg says, "Life isn't fair," which is how you know you have right on your side. People start protesting, and DK snaps "Hey!" at everyone. Blaine tells everyone to deal with it, and Taylor smirks around the mouth of her soda bottle as her central governing philosophy comes one step closer to being enshrined in the Bonanza City constitution. DK lectures, "We did this whole thing so that you guys can learn a lesson that you probably should have learned in preschool." So be more respectful, like DK here. Going again. GregBlaineKelseyMichaelLaurelSophiaHunter. Migle: "I'm bored out of my mind right now, and...yeah." When it's Markelle's turn, he says it's pointless, and that the Council went about it all wrong. Someone asks to pee, and we never do find out whether the town actually gets through this.
That night, in the Green bunkhouse, Michael apologizes to his District for the whole fiasco, and regrets not having the guts to pull his group out of there. Laurel makes the oft-repeated point about Greg -- the most disrespectful person in town -- giving respect lessons. Speaking of whom: there he is, skulking outside the Green bunkhouse with Blaine as the conversation goes on. Literally, they're crouched under the window with their ears pressed against the wall as they hear Sophia saying that she doesn't support the Council, aside from Michael. They hear Eric call them immature. They hear Michael asking whether Greg even works anymore, and they hear Laurel saying no, since there's no point for people who've already got their Gold Star (present and recognized company excluded, presumably). They hear Eric say that he'd rather Greg just sat in the middle of the street all day being nice, even if he didn't do any work. Greg shakes his head angrily, and Michael says he's glad to have Green's support. Hunter says that's why they're the strongest district. Go Green! Greg interviews that people are going to regret things they said: "Better watch out." Ladies and gentlemen, your "best Council leader ever": someone who spies on his citizenry and hopes to punish them for things they said about him in the privacy of their own bunkhouse.
Day 30. Over by the water tank, Blaine and Greg tell DK what they overhead the night, except they claim that the Green team was shit-talking DK as well. Which may or nay not have actually been the case, but I certainly didn't hear DK's name come up in the part of the conversation we got to hear. Alas, DK buys into the whole thing. So here's their plan: they decide to take Eric at his word, and sit in the middle of the street giving out compliments all day.
So that's what Blaine, DK, and Greg do, with their asses parked in chairs from the Saloon. "Looking good today," they say to a confused Taylor and Leila. Natasha and Pharaoh go by, and the line in Blaine's head between "complimenting" and "catcalling" gets kind of blurred. It's additionally offensive because I'm pretty sure Natasha is Latina, and Blaine is calling her things like "mamacita" in a Cheech Marin accent. Classy.
Sophia comes up, and we see that Blaine, Greg, and DK have completely given up on "compliments" in favor of "sarcasm" as they remark on the shorts she's wearing. "What are you guys doing?" Sophia asks, unamused, as she's joined by other members of the Green team. Unfortunately for Eric, he's the one who says that they should be working instead of sitting and complimenting people in the middle of the street. DK just goes off on him, venting a whole lot of repressed anger that throws everyone for a loop. And that's when Greg says that they were there for the "whooole conversation." Surprisingly, nobody seems to call them on their spying.
A crowd is gathering as Greg and Blaine accuse each member of the Green team of calling them the most disrespectful people. "That's not true," says Morgan calmly, which just sends Greg off into a yelling tizzy. "Greg! Respect!" Michael tries to remind him, but that's a one-way street for Greg. He says that Michael disagreed with the respect game from the start, and Michael cops to it, and also confesses his regrets that he didn't say anything against the idea before. Greg keeps pushing, until Michael screams at him, "Let me talk!" Michael says that he was intimidated before, but he's not anymore. "You poor kid," Greg condescends. Michael vows that he's going to be an independent thinker from now on; he'll work with them, but he won't go against his own principles and values.
DK yells at the Green team for thinking they're better than anyone, and says that they need to come together as a town. Blaine accuses them of saying that he and Greg didn't deserve the Gold Star (which we didn't hear), and the Green team looks surprised that anyone thinks they said that. So now Blaine says they're thinking about giving the Gold Star to nobody. "What is this, like, a Nazi regime?" Sophia asks. Looks like the Council has some backers now, too, including Olivia, Mallory, and Jasmine, the first of whom looks shocked at Sophia Godwinning the debate. Sophia tries to continue, "Why do you fear so much--" but Greg would rather shout everyone down than have that discussion, so the Green district basically leaves, realizing they're not going to get anywhere with these people right now. As Kennedy drags Michael off, he calls back that he's sorry his fellow Council members can't see anyone's point. "Shut up, Michael, I'm tired of your crap!" DK screams at him. Of all the shitty things Greg and Blaine have done, tricking DK into making himself look like this much of an asshole is easily the worst. The Green team retreats and regroups, and Sophia tells them that if they have each other's backs, that's all that matters. Laurel points out that they're a town, not a district. "United we stand, divided we fall," Campbell mumbles into Morgan's sleeve. Wow, that was all actually kind of upsetting.
Aftermath. Pharaoh is telling Michael and Laurel that he'd rather give the Gold Star to anybody than nobody. Laurel still thinks Hunter should get it, but Michael thinks Laurel should win: "No matter what you say." He's realizing that he's going to have to find a way to work with the Council. I wonder what Laurel would say if he offered her seat back right now.
DK, Greg, and Blaine are sitting on hay bales to a corral, hollering for Michael. "Michael's not coming," says Greg. Then we see Michael walking to join his fellow Council members belatedly, telling us, "I'm a little nervous, I'm not going to lie. But it's something that needs to be done. We need to talk." Michael is really impressing me in this episode. Michael joins his fellows, and they invite him to take a seat between Greg and DK. Greg starts out promisingly, saying that he wants to put aside their differences, and that he was wrong to listen to Green's conversation. And he actually apologizes to Michael and his district. "It's no problem," says Michael, and they shake on it. So that's dealt with. Whew.
The item on the agenda is to start going around the town and trying to get people to work. They find Taylor and Emilie in the cookhouse, fucking around with biscuit dough in a way that looks like actual biscuits are still in the distant future. Greg asks what they're doing. "What does it look like we're doing?" Taylor asks. "Playing with dough," Greg says, with pinpoint accuracy. He wants Taylor to help haul water, and Taylor refuses. Greg interviews that Taylor thinks she's the princess of Bonanza, and he manager-speaks that he's been disappointed in her but wants to see her succeed. DK lays it out for Taylor: since she won't work, she won't get to share in whatever reward they win in the Showdown. "Okay, good, 'cause I'm going home anyway!" Taylor snots. Oops, pushed her too far. They ask her why that is, and she tearfully says that she promised Randi, "If she couldn't stick it out, I'm not sticking it out." Well, that sounds like a positive bargain. Positively made-up, that is. DK stops pushing and tells Taylor that it's not too late to change. So how does Taylor feel about that?" Not right now, no." Well, okay, then.
Showdown time. Even if the Pioneer Journal never lectured the Council about communication ("Here in 1885, people got tired of being interrupted all the time, so they started leaving"), the producers have still figured out that it would be a good theme for the Showdown. That, and pies. Here's what they have to do: each District will hoist six pies, one at a time, up to a team member positioned on a ten-foot tower. Then two other team members will use long poles to balance the pies, while walking along narrow beams to transfer them to another tower one at a time. The team member at the receiving tower will then push the pies down a slide to his or her waiting Council leader, who will find pictures of communication devices -- telegraph, telephone, typewriter, etc. -- printed on each pie plate. And then the Council leader has to put the pie plates in the correct order in which each device was invented. "I quit!" DK snarks. They have thirty minutes to finish if they're going to get the reward. DK interviews that in his first Showdown as a Council leader, he wants his team to know that he'll work hard for them. His District member Jared has a different strategy in mind: "I'm thinking, rush the pie and eat it." Not to spoil anything, but Jared's plan couldn't have resulted in a much worse outcome.
The Showdown begins. Everyone pretty much starts the same way, with one member running one pie from a big rack of different kinds to his or her team's bucket, where one or two people load it in to be lifted via rope and pulley. Then the person on the tower positions it atop the long poles with brackets that two of their teammates are holding aloft while standing on two balance beams that span the distance between each team's two towers. Zach and Pharaoh carry the first pie for Yellow, but they quickly drop it. Blue delivers its first pie to Anjay on the receiving tower, and that's Blue in the lead. Campbell gets Green's first pie, and Taylor sends Yellow's first pie sliding down to Blaine. Scraping away the filling, he sees a picture and the word "phonograph." "What the fuck is that?" he asks us. Bad sign.
The kids on the ground rotate positions. Green and Blue are tied at five pies each with twenty minutes left. Emilie is eating her pie before sending it along. "Are you that hungry?" Jonathan asks in amazement. "You're slowing your team down!" It's a cream pie, of course, and not a chicken pot pie. Green gets its last pie, and Michael is trying to get them in the right order with the help of Campbell on the tower above him. But Greg isn't far behind, and the person on the tower above him is Anjay. Advantage: Blue. Michael also gets some help from Hunter, and he's the first to raise his team's flag signaling that they're finished. Greg's right behind him for Blue. But accuracy counts more than speed and Green got it...wrong. They've got phonograph and typewriter switched around. You can tell because they've got all six items on the screen in subtitles in the order Michael put them, and the ones in the wrong places are Xed out. Because this is an educational show, after all. Laurel claims to have felt bad for Michael during the Showdown, although you can tell she's glad that someone else understands how stressful it is to be a Council member. This is the first time that came up? Jonathan checks Blue, and Greg has his plates in the order of telegraph, typewriter, telephone, phonograph, radio, television. Which, for future reference, is correct. So Blue is Upper Class again. The other teams look disappointed -- none more so than Green at having come so close.
The Showdown continues, and Green gets it right before Yellow finishes, so they're the Merchant class. Blaine struggles with the final step for Yellow, and he admits in an interview, "I didn't know much about my electronical history." Blaine decides that he's done as Red gets its last pie. Jonathan starts reading off Blaine's inventions. "Television first!" he notices right off. "Blaine, you're an idiot!" Greg yells. It's also worth noting that each slot on the little board is marked with a year, which means Blaine thought the television was invented in 1837. Let's just take a moment to reflect on what Victorian television would have been like. Mmmm, repression. Needless to say, all the rest of Blaine's plates are in the wrong slots, too. DK is still trying to order his plates, and Mike is yelling from the sending tower that he's positive the typewriter came before the telegraph (he's wrong; see above). There are only four minutes left.
Meanwhile, everyone on Yellow is yelling at Blaine, until Zach takes control and shouts -- clearly, deliberately, and apparently from memory -- the correct order. "I think Blaine is a moderately intelligent young man," Zach interviews. We see Blaine yelling back at Zach, "Radio comes before phonograph because phonograph had CDs!" Hee. "Moderately smart," Zach reiterates, and you can tell it hurts him to be that generous. DK raises Red's flag before Blaine raises Yellow's, but he's got the wrong order for everything but radio and television. But Yellow got it right, so they're the Cooks. DK seethes. Meanwhile, the rest of his team has put some spare pie plates in the right order, which they're sending up to Mike in the bucket so that he can relay them to DK. But DK thinks it's just Mike being wrong some more, so he's not listening. There's only a minute left. He interviews that he thought the job would be easy: "And that's a lie. It's the most stressful thing I've ever done in my entire life!" Greg yells at DK that they don't want to lose the reward. "I'm confuuused!" DK wails, holding the flag and not moving pie plates in any way whatsoever.
But when we come back from commercial and the time is up, Jonathan checks the order again, and this time it's right. Reward! After a brief celebratory pie fight, the kids gather up to learn what their reward choices are. In an interview, DK reminds us that they decided in advance that Taylor wouldn't be getting a reward because she refused to work. Jonathan explains that, in keeping with the communication theme, the first option is four ponies, as in Pony Express. He says that they can either use them for hauling or for looking cute. They look too small to ride, except for the nine-year-olds and maybe Taylor, who despite looking more excited than anyone about the potential equine additions to the town wouldn't get to have a piece of them anyway. Maybe she's forgotten. The second option? It's a mailbox full of letters from home. Actual letters from their actual parents, and wouldn't you hate to be a kid whose folks forgot to attach the proper postage? Jonathan sends the Council off to confer. Olivia's in lisp-enhancing tears at the very thought of hearing from home, saying that she really wants the letters, since this is the longest she's been away from home, and she's not a big fan of ponies anyway. "I like the ponies!" Mallory volunteers happily, because she is more awesome than Olivia on every imaginable axis. Although I suspect her parents might not have been too thrilled at being the only ones who had to write two letters and ended up having one of them be wanted more than ponies. Meanwhile, the Council is making its first reward decision, and this doesn't seem to be the no-brainer you might think. Michael frames it as a question of which will be a better cure for homesickness. DK says that they'll all be home in ten days anyway, and that the letters might make people more homesick. "This is a really tough decision," says Blaine.
When the Council returns, Greg announces, "We decided to take the ponies." The reaction is one of quiet shock, three seconds from open rebellion. "...and throw them out the window, 'cause you guys got the letters," Greg finishes. Everyone has a joyous freakout, and runs up one by one to get their letters from the Council. Taylor is jumping up and down on the spot, starting to look nervous and excited instead of just excited. Greg says that he has one more letter, and asks who didn't get one. Shot of Taylor, looking too tense and drawn even to bother with the crocodile tears she'd normally bust out in this situation. Jonathan calls Taylor up, and they make her look at them all hangdog for a long moment until Michael extracts a promise from her that she'll "continue to work up to that reputation that [she] recently set for [herself]." Taylor says that she will, and gets her letter. They all hug her, and Greg gives her encouragements as she rejoins the group. He interviews that once they found out what the reward was, threat or no, withholding a letter from home from a ten-year-old girl is more hardcore than they care to go. And I'm no Taylor fan, but I have to agree. That is not a meltdown I would want to see.
The Showdown must have been late in the day, because at full dark, everyone's tucked into their bunkhouses with their letters, still wearing their showdown clothes -- and the pie that covers them, as well as their hair and faces. Taylor interviews that Randi's going to regret leaving, and that she herself has decided to stay. Again. Laurel's letter from home makes a big deal about how surprising it is that her brother misses her. Olivia and Zach are both tearful, and Zach shares an excerpt from his dad: "It's not how many times you fall down, it's how many times you get up." Hunter shows us a primitive drawing and caption from his little brother, which reminds me of a story. It looks a lot like the childish, crayon-drawn picture-letters that my wife used to send to her brother when he was in the army. And I would help her draw them, because we were married by then. They were to her younger brother, you see. He'd have to open them in front of the whole platoon, and his CO was like, "Are they retarded?" Finally my brother-in-law called and asked us to stop sending them. Supporting the troops is hard sometimes. Speaking of which, Greg is the only one who seems to have gotten actual news from home; a cousin got shipped out to Iraq, and he won't be seeing him for a while. He calls it "disappointing," and tells the camera, "If you're watching this, Neil, I love you." Aw. What? I'm not made of stone.
Day 31. Laurel is telling Olivia and someone else from the Blue team that she misses being on the Council. She says that her team's against the Council, and that she's against some of them. "Then do something about it," Olivia advises. Laurel says that she can't. "You can, in your own way," says Olivia. "Stay away from the people who argue all the time." Oh, that's funny, because I thought Olivia was going to say, "Undermine your leader with snide comments and an endless succession of bitchfaces." Laurel interviews that she's tired of the whole thing and just wants to go home. Are we really supposed to buy Laurel as The One Who Might Go Home? Because I'm not buying it. My wallet's staying right there in my pocket.
Town Hall meeting, for the second time tonight. Jonathan starts right out with the approval poll, and roughly three-fourths of the town approves of the job the Council is doing. The other fourth? Is the Green district. Which we pretty much knew already. Hunter speaks for them, talking about the irony of eavesdropping after having a meeting about respect. "Why were you talking crap about us in the first place?" Blaine demands. Well, that's allowed, as Anjay points out, invoking the First Amendment. So the Kid Nation uses the U.S. Constitution? Nobody objects to Anjay's point, so I guess they do. Greg decides to make this all about him, and boasts that he gives "tough love." A lot of hands go up, and Greg, to his credit, wants to hear from Sophia first. Sophia says that was disrespectful right there. So Greg starts yelling, "Why was that so offensiiiive?" You can tell he doesn't actually want an answer by how long he stretches out the "iiiiiiiiiiiiive."
And here we go again with The Greg Show, as he filibusters that people take half the things he says as insults, "and they're not." Michael tells him, "Disrespect is not always an intentional thing." "I call it tough love," Greg says stubbornly. "Well, then, no more 'tough love,'" Michael says. Good luck with that. Mike stands and says that his problem with Greg is "pretty much whenever [he acts] like [he is] now." Natasha adds that he's "aggressive" and "violent." I don't see "violent," aside from that time he shoved Mike. Oh, and the other time he threatened to hit Anjay in the face. And all the rolling over people. And maybe some things we haven't seen...? Never mind, Natasha, carry on.
Greg, for his part, is really not seeing how he's been coming off. So people try to give him some more specific advice. Markelle tells him, "Listen, just listen." "Think before you speak," says Sophia. "Stop calling people names," says Leila. Greg jumps down her throat about how he hasn't done that. Because if he can successfully split a hair with a nine-year-old, he can continue to be satisfied with his own rightness or something. Michael tries to tell him to stop defending himself, but Greg's back to yelling at everyone. Thanks, Blue district, for ensuring that this is what every Town Hall meeting for the duration is going to turn into. It's so much fun to recap. DK: "Oh, my God, why don't you just listen to these people! These are the people you work for, man!" So Greg pulls a total martyr, drama queen, take-me-or-leave-me move: he asks how many people want him to leave, and says if it's half, he'll go home. His fellow Council members try to tell him that no one wants that, but he just yells over them some more and repeats his question. Colton (I think -- it's hard to tell when he's not smirking) tells Greg that they just want him to change. Blaine reiterates that, and interviews that Greg was acting immature: "He's my best friend, but he kinda overreacted." Jonathan decides that this has gone on long enough, and asks Greg if he's going to change. Greg cools down a little bit, and gives a half-assed speech about how he can "see where they're right in a way and see where they're wrong in a way." Dude, don't hurt yourself. It's not like anyone is going to believe you're gong to react any differently the time they say something about you that you don't like.
question: who's going home? No one. Laurel interviews that she's decided to stay. She was humbled: "Huge wake-up call. Gotta step up my game, be more focused, more dedicated." Is Laurel on a reality show or in the NFL?
And now it's Gold Star time, which is kind of weird, because there hasn't been any discussion that we've seen about who gets it, aside from the threats about not giving it to anyone. Greg stands and reminds everyone that they thought about giving it to no one, but that they don't think that's right. So they're giving it to Laurel. Who probably would have gotten one already if she hadn't been on the Council until now. Clearly, there must not have been any real dissension among the current Council, because we never got the act-out showing us the two contenders. Even Hunter, last week's runner-up, looks happy. Laurel and Jonathan hug up in front of the room, and she talks about how proud her parents will be. She goes up to the Council table for a hug, and tries to draw Greg into her group hug. Greg stays in his chair, holding out for an individual one, which he gets. He interviews, "I'm not gonna let a conversation ruin a Gold Star opportunity." Or a shouting match, as the case may be. If Greg let one of those ruin anything, there would be enough of them to ruin everything.
Laurel runs to the phone barn, Gold Star in hand. She emotionally interviews, "This is gonna be the best phone call I've ever had in my entire life." Laurel gets her ma on the phone, and breaks down. Laurel's mother asks what's wrong, and Laurel manages to say she's just happy. She pulls herself together enough to explain to her ma about the Gold Star, and of course her ma is thrilled, as anyone would be. Laurel's ma has her daughter's red hair, but a slightly different accent; Laurel isn't usually heard saying "twenty thousand dawlahs." Laurel's ma asks whether it's Bonanza City money (which, four hundred thousand buffalo nickels would buy an awful lot of root beer), and when Laurel assures her that it's not Monopoly money, her ma says, "We'll have to go to the mall." Laurel interviews that between the recognition of the town and her family's pride in her, this was the best moment of her life, and that she wouldn't care if the Gold Star were worth three cents. Not even a little?
Afterward, Laurel walks along with Greg, thanking him for the chance to talk to her parents. They hug again.
Under the closing credits, a couple of girls whose names we don't know yet dance around in the street with black parasols. Ah, youth.