Next week there's apparently going to be an election.

I'm predicting that the yellow team wimps out and re-elects Taylor because they've grown accustomed to being lazy.

How will Greg get screwed out of his star next week: the council will recognize Zach's mutiny efforts.

Taylor will suffer absolutely no consequences for her incompetence and Micheal will deliver his own version of the Gettysburg address and get elected on the Green team's council.

niceboo wrote:



And the kids will choose the Constitution because that's the "enlightened long term choice". Yawn.

Mike will do his best to keep Greg from getting the star and Taylor will do her best to keep Zach from getting a star. I think that Greg is more likely to get a star then Zach at this point.

Taylor will be dethroned, and the new council will lock her in an outhouse and not let her out until their butts are shiny...sigh, probably just wistful thinking on my part.

Since we're talking speculation:

At the end, any kid who hasn't won a gold star will get one anyway.

Taylor's "let them eat cake" attitude is planned,
either by TPTB for the drama, or
by her parents as a form of an audition for acting roles in the future.
(maybe even a combination of the two)

Ah, Bonanza City elections. Can't we just have a shoot-out instead?

There will be more tiresome discussions about American presidents, past and present, as they young'uns get to watch democracy in action, complete with speech-making and mud-slinging. I also suspect that the election with be geared to focus on some "us" vs. "them" differences that have already marked the show: younger vs. older, boys vs. girls, charismatic leaders vs. those presumably motivated by gold stars.

Sophia will try to become a council member, with her campaign promises including cooking and keeping Yellow out of the kitchen.

If it has to be one council member for each team, then I think Anjay might be up for re-election. (On another thread, didn't someone notice that there was "Anjay rules!" grafitti on buildings?) I don't think Mike wants it, and I think Laurel wants it but would be willing to step down (not only to share, but to earn her gold star). Taylor wants it, will fight for it, but be ousted by Zach.

Alex will be in charge of counting the ballots.

Mike will grudgingly admit that Greg has made more progress, but Greg won't get the gold star this week. My money's on Zach, with Greg mentioned, and possibly Alex. That might break up the previous pattern of gold-star consideration being pretty balanced with boys and girls, though.

With the election focus, my money's on Zach if he can manage to oust Taylor without too much animosity/divisiveness, which is going to be difficult.

Alex seems too low-key to attract the attention needed.

Greg might jump on the opportunity to use his age to calm people down and /or keep things from getting too out of line. He has done some cheerleading in the past, so he can manage it. Or he might just play with the newly acquired markers - so many more options than just plain chalk.

Assuming the gold star is awarded after the new council comes on board, I think a reward/thank-you might be in store for one of the former members, probably Laurel.

I'm thinking lots of talk about kids voting in real elections and how much their opinions matter and stuff like that. I think Taylor will definately be out of office and most likely Zach will be elected. I'm not sure about the others. I'd like to think Laurel will stay because she seems like a good leader but she has a team with a lot of good leaders and under her lead they've struggled with all the showdowns.

I agree that Laurel is unfortunately susceptible to re-election which would be a bad move on her teams part. I don't think it's a coincidence that Green has been racking up the Gold Stars. I think Laurel is often able to make that difference in voting and in highlighting the positive aspects her team members bring to the community. She picked her team for that reason and has been working hard to reward them in that way.

I think we'll likely see 2 new council members and 2 incumbents just because the power of incumbency matters, even in Kid Nation. I really hope that one of those two new members is Zach over Taylor.

Its hard for me to tell what's actually going on with the Green team. We know that Sophia is a rable-rouser, but I'm not sure if we've ever seen her attack LAUREL. Most of her venom is towards the council in general, and Taylor specifically.

As for the issue of how much Laurel is responsible for the dominance of Green team Gold Stars... that's also not clear. She may be. She's certainly been conscientious in suggesting their names. But I think Mike has actually been very pro-Green team as well--I'm not sure he likes his own team half as much. And Anjay has also certainly had a version of the same thing--clearly he's never been willing to get enough behind a Blue team member to fight for them to get the prize.

One reality we have to consider that's different from the real world is that council members can't get Gold stars. So running for council would seem to have a cost, except for those who have already been rewarded with a Star (the show doesn't say it explicitly, but I'm betting there's an understanding that no kid can win more than one Star). Also, consider the flip side. A CURRENT council member might opt to leave the position to be eligible for a Gold Star, assuming that's within the rules.

The Gold Star, in at least one of those two ways, if not both, DOES skew the elections.

Maybe we'll see Yellow come in last in a Showdown because they're down to 9 kids. I think having only 9 kids has hurt Green in Showdowns. The only one where they didn't come in last was the challenge in which only a few kids from each team were participating (the sheep showdown).

Taylor will probably lose the election, but it might not be a landslide. I think she might win the votes of some of the girls who hang out with her.

Green could have a new leader even though her district seems to like her. They have several leader types like Michael and Morgan. One of their Gold Star winners could take over and make Laurel Gold Star eligible.

Speaking of which, I'd like to see Blue consider Gold Star eligibility and make Mallory their leader! Olivia might run because she's opinionated. It's hard to see who'd replace Anjay, because I think the stronger personalities (Greg, Blaine, Olivia) would be divisive figures. I also doubted Greg wants to run. Folks may not want to vote for the little kids (Alex or Mallory). One of Blue's "redshirts" might rise up to win a council seat. Blaine could run to try to advocate for Greg on the council.

Jared, DK, and Markelle seem to like Mike's leadership, but his a bit neurotic so he could get knocked off. Guylan's running, and he seems to have a lot of friends.

I don't think Mallory would be a good council member. I understand little kids can do big things but at eight years old I don't think she'd be able to handle the harsh criticism that comes with being a member of the council. I also definitely don't think a team with a couple exceptions the oldest kids would elect an eight-year-old. And Mallory has yet in my opinion done anything truly remarkable. She doesn't allow negotiations over prices at the store and had a birthday. And did that cute little stuffed animal babysitting business. I can’t see her able to make major decisions for the town.

I think that's half their problem in the showdowns actually. I especially noticed on the puzzle challenge that they seemed to have a lot of people shouting and trying to do the same thing at the same time with no coordination. Sophia also alluded to it after the pipe challenge.

That may be the biggest advantage to the Blue team having Greg - he usually starts out with "I know how to do this and here's how" and the other kids tend to listen. His experience, age and size all work in his favor.

Actually, that's one place where Taylor is useful, too - most of the other Yellow kids listen to her and she sure likes to tell them what to do.

Hmmm, maybe they will institute a court system to punish crime? I'd love some form of kiddie jail or something.




That is a problem. I hope the next leader of the yellow, fingers crossed but I think it's Zach will be able to maintain authority as well as her, without the evil act.

Personally I can see a scenario where Taylor keeps her council seat. I mean if it is only Yellow team voting for their leader, there are only 9 kids in the yellow team left so even only Zach runs against her she would only need 3 other kids to vote for her. With the laziness of the yellow team I don’t think that would be too hard for her to get, especially if Zach’s platform is “Work, Work, Work”. If more than one other person runs against her (unless it is one of her supporters) it would split the vote even more and she might be able to win with 2 other votes.

Even if the Council members are voted on by the people in their districts, there will be pressure on the members of the Yellow district to remove Taylor. Lots of peer pressure could make things interesting. I don't think that she will loose in a landslide but I do think she will loose.

What would be interesting is if there is some type of re-districting before the election is held. If the kids are forced to move to another district Taylor is a goner.

If they redo the districts she will be destroyed, no chance of her winning. But if they keep it within the yellow district, she could win. I mean she always seems to have a couple of little hangers-on following her around and laughing at all her jokes. So on top of that all she would have to do is at most convince 2 more kids to vote for her and she would have the majority of the yellow team. If she ran on the idea that she is the fun leader, and with Zach there won’t be any fun I think she could easily turn two people. This is especially true when you remember that her team is mostly little kids, a lot of whom might not see the big picture and why a good leader is important.

Taylor's out. No more need be said except that if they don't redo the districts, Zach is going to be stunned at how difficult it'll be to lead a team that's been so badly spoiled.

I suspect Laurel's out too. I can see a "no hard feelings, but see ya" kind of a thing happening because they've never been anything but Cooks or Laborers. If Laurel goes I'm sure Michael will be the new council representative because I don't see Sophia wanting it - she's awfully cynical about almost everything, and I'm sure government is no different. I think Michael will be a disappointment as a leader. He speaks well and he's charismatic, but I don't know that he's going to be any more effective than Laurel at mobilizing the Greens and getting them out of the Bonanza City sewers and kitchens.

Michael and Anjay will both stay, Michael because he quite brilliantly picked a bunch of friends for his squad and Anjay because he's simply the best leader on the council. Besides, who's going to challenge him? Greg, who rightly either inspires disgust or terror in most of these kids?

That all changes if they redo the districts. Then all bets are off. I'd think Anjay might keep his seat though, if he wanted it. He really is the best leader in the town.

I think Michael would actually be the most effective leader the council could possibly have. For as little screen time as he's gotten, it seems that he would turn things far more democratic than the other council members, IMO. He seems to appeal to the kids' moral and ethical senses rather than mere authoritarian rule ("This is to prove that kids can make this work" or whatever it was he orated when the council was trying to get everyone to be quiet) and he clearly is popular amongst the kids--and let's face it, popularity translates into a willingness to follow one's lead. Michael's bio suggests that he'd be a fairly good leader, as I think he seems very thought-out and intelligent in his responses to questions, and he seems sensitive to the plights of other people ("I could be in Ethiopia" being his response to Probstette's asking him how he felt about losing the challenge on Ep. 2); empathy is among the most important traits in a leader, I think, because it generally means they're willing to listen to other people rather than just handing out edicts like Taylor and Mike, both of whom have said that the council makes the decisions and people have to deal. Being a council leader is about a helluva lot more than getting your side to win challenges; it's really about trying to make a system that works, and Michael's effectiveness at appealing to the other kids' better natures via convincing oration has saved the council's asses more than once.

Michael might well be a good leader in a purely democratic environment, but as a council leader he'd be responsible for bringing the Laws down from the mountain. Err, from the book in the church. Considering how unpopular some of that stuff has been, I think it would require more "deal with it" than Michael can muster up.

I'm assuming, of course, that there's something we don't know about at work here that requires the council to try and follow the book, and I think there is.

True, kuromaku, but since the implementation of the forced concept seems to be somewhat up to the council, maybe Michael would bring democracy to that aspect of the journal--ie. instead of saying, "Ok, deal with our nondenominational spiritual good time freeforall," he might've been more inclined to allow something more organic--like what Morgan eventually did--to take shape. I have no real evidence for this, of course. Michael just happens to be my favorite, and I fully admit bias.

But if the kids on the Yellow team are already lazy and spoiled to begin with, what reason would they have to give up that lifestyle? Kids aren't generally good at seeing the big picture so if one person tells them they can have fun and drink root beer and the other tells them they will be doing dishes all the time, it will be a lot easier for them to vote for root beer (think of how many adults will usually vote for the person promising a tax cut, even if it might be clear that cutting taxes is the wrong thing to do)Plus as I said above with only 9 kids on the yellow team Taylor wouldn't need that many votes to win, especially if there is more than just Zach running against her.

I'd love to see someone mention Clinton and then Greg (most likely) blurt something out about Monica Lewinsky. Sure, that may be before his time, but I'm sure he's been cued up to all the juicy details by now. Heck, I learned about Marilyn Monroe and JFK before I ever heard the name "Oswald" in school.

With that said, I think Zach will definitely make a great leader if he's managed to get elected. He's shown initiative, has a voice and, for as we know, a pretty smart 10 year old. I think many will listen to him since he's not so in-your-face demanding, but rather tries to reason with the group.

I think the power of peer pressure will be a major factor in the Yellow district's vote this week. Sure, Taylor offers them the chance to sit and around do nothing, but at the expense of being disliked by the rest of the town. The other districts banded together in last week's showdown to try and force Yellow into the Labor class, and they weren't being quiet or subtle about their intentions. I think that Taylor's utter indifference to being hated is fairly rare, so I can't imagine that the rest of Yellow is happy about it. IMO, pressure from the rest of the town will cause a change in Yellow's leadership. Just my two cents, of course.

Now that Greg got his star and Zach is on the council, I don't think anyone who's been mentioned in previous episodes as a Gold Star finalist is still eligible.

Now, it seems like competition for future Gold Stars is wide open. Anyone wanna lay odds on who will win a Star. I'm pegging Taylor as a 1000-1 shot.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mike won a gold star. Well, they might not vote for him due to past experiences, but I'd place a bet that he'd at least "deserve" one.

My money is on the book of wisdom telling the kids that the town fell apart due to free loaders. Maybe they should not pay people who are not willing to work to prevent freeloaders from destroying Bonanza City today.

That could be interesting if they actually let the kids decide what to do with the surplus cash (ie if one of the cooks doesn't work how do you divide his or her ten-cents). The problem is the historical journal will probably tell them exactly what to do, so they won't even have to think about it.

Hmm - I was just browsing through the videos on the CBS site and one is a clip of Guylan and Zach discussing what they want to do on the council. First suggestion is a judge and jury or council court. I'm not sure if Laurel would go for it, but I bet Anjay would. This could be interesting, especially if The Book plays into it. And you know it will sooner or later.

I'm predicting that "The Journal" will mention a prison or evicting people out of town. First casualty=Taylor.

So there's a talent show coming up.

We know that Jared's doing Shakespeare and Greg is apparently dressing up as a girl.

I would like to see someone play those guitars they just got.

We've seen Eric play the piano, so maybe he'll do that.

But most of all, I'd like to see Nathan sing. Apparently it's his thing, so he's probably pretty good.

Taylor plays guitar and sings.

Yeah, I could see Mike getting a gold star, too.
He took "being a leader" a little too seriously at first...had a little too much "Barney Fife" in him. But he did mellow out a good bit, and improved a lot. The one thing I give him credit for is that he's been a hard worker...both as a council member, and after his landslide defeat. And that is always the very first requirement of leadership...

TPTB set a trap for the council and everyone but Laurel fell for it. Laurel probably would have fell for it too had she not been so selfish. The journal encouraged the council to experiment by swapping kids from one district to another. Anjay, Guylan, and Zach did indeed do what the journal suggested. There was a huge backlash against them. Plus, I'm not sure how winnable the weight challenge was either. If it was TPTB's intention to stir up turmoil and anger this week, it succeeded. And how conveniently, TPTB has called for new elections at this time.

It seems like the council was setup to fail and to conveniently have to face the wrath of angry voters. They've gotten the drama that they wanted.

I definitely agree that they were set up to fail, but Laurel ended up "falling for it" sort of, anyway, since her choice to do nothing got backlash, as well. I don't even remember this council getting much criticism at past town meetings, so I think most, if not all, of the anger directed at them is over this in particular. I really think no matter what choices they made in swapping the teams around, they would've pissed off enough people to be fucked in a sudden ~surprise~ election right afterwards.

Once Michael, DK, Greg, and Blaine get voted in (no spoiler, but come on, they totally will) I feel like we'll find out how much of the journal crap they have to follow. A bunch of older kids would call bullshit on its dumb advice right away, so if we still see them reading it like it's gospel, then obviously they pretty much have to follow it.

Amen! With the older kids finally in charge we might see some independant thoughts coming from the council. Will Blaine continue the "no work, no pay" strategy set up by Zach? Will DK tell Mike to stop being such a fucking douchebag? I know it's wrong, but I so wanna see Greg punch Anjay. Anjay has been dissing Greg almost from day one.

I know I was kind of hoping for a tusstle last episode. I wonder if A) the fight would invalidate Greg's gold star win B) the producers would step in break up the fight or C) a combo of both. We need some action on this show, not empty threats! Viva la LOTF!!

Can someone list the kids who have won gold stars. And the kids who haven't? I have to pick my favorite and I'm having trouble picking someone who hasn't already won. Thanks for your help.

All this and a wealth of other information can be found at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Nation

Thanks, DownsideUp. I've bookmarked it. Now, as for who should get the star. I don't know. I'm thinking Anjay, for having survived his time on the council. He really suffered through it. For some kids, being put in the position of council leader is a challenge that they enjoy. But for others, like Anjay, leading requires a huge effort. It does not come easy. And I think he tried his best. If not Anjay, then Migle. Migle has to go through life saddled with a very difficult name. Upon seeing it in print, one does not know whether it belongs to a male or female. So Anjay or Migle.

I wish we were introduced to Migle much earlier on because I think from the brief scenes of her interacting with the town this week, she looked like she was a positive influence on BC the entire time. Just like Hunter, who apparently has been working hard since day 1, we didn't get to know them until near the very end. I assume that if Migle got the "edit" this week, she was nominated earlier as well, they just chose not to show those nominations since the episodes were focusing on other kids.

I think she has a good chance since she had her "introduction" this week, but I also think Zach is going to be in the running, outburst withstanding. I thought he was a shoe-in for this week or the finale before the tears and subsequent outburst but I think they included that in their edit because they knew he was going to win next week. I would hate the council to give him a sympathetic win, but we've seen them do that before with Mallory (which I still believe was entitrely unwarranted).

If I look past the self-nomination and focus on non-CouncilZach, he's definitely in the running along with Migle, and perhaps another random red-shirt we have yet to see. I'd love if we get introduced to Brett for the first time next ween and he walks away with a gold star!

I have a question that I can't seem to identify a good thread to post in... so I'll go with a recent high traffic post and see if anyone has an answer for me.

Have they ever addressed the bathing/shower issue?

The outhouses were a big plot point, and I was pretty surprised to see they didn't have really adequate dental products (especially considering all those braces!), but I can't recall cleaning facilities being brought up.

And when people speculate on off-camera shenanigans, I wonder where off-camera would be. There has to be someplace for these kids to change and clean away from cameras (and potentially engage in private activity), but I just can't remember it being addressed.

Obvious answers or speculative thoughts, anyone?

In the link I posted above referencing the contract, it mentions that they would be free from camera's when they were changing in specially marked changing areas or in the bathroom, assuming they are using those facilities for that reason (I guess rather than just hiding out from the cameras. Which begs me to ask the question, how would the camera person know if someone is in the changing area but NOT changing???)

I guess it's safe to assume that BrettGiannaJasmineSophie must be doing A LOT of showering, which must explain why we never see them :)

There was a post in Media (I think) about 3 of the kids on Ellen who said they had regular showers and that wasn't shown or mentioned.