Episode Recap: Beauty and the Geek - Season 3, Episode 8 REUNION SHOW

Episode: Beauties and Geeks Reunite Original Air Date: February 21, 2007 Ah, the memories. It seems like it was just last week... Wait, it was just last week! Yet, for some reason, CW expects us to waste an hour of our lives mostly watching old clips from this season of Beauty and the Geek. Probably 80% of the "reunion" show is spent reviewing footage we've already seen. For crying out loud, there were only seven episodes! What, have we all suffered short-term memory loss? It would be different if most of the show were spent filling us in on what the contestants have been up to the past six months since they finished taping this season. But maybe ten minutes at the most is spent on that. There are also a few minutes of "never before seen clips", but they aren't anything extraordinary. One particulary funny segment of the show dealt with the contestants' nightly confessionals in front of the camera. Nearly every contestant could perform at least one impression of someone else in the house. Nate had a pretty humorous impression of Drew, who evidently spent a lot of his time in the house trying to get people to join his investment club. I don't know if I would feel comfortable taking financial advice from someone in a Star Trek uniform. (Scooter tells us towards the end of the show that he does in fact plan on using some of his winnings to join Drew's investment club.) We don't get to see Nate's reunion with Jennylee until the last ten minutes of the show. They've kept in touch over the phone since the finale, except for two months which Nate spent in "another country" doing "research for school" (I don't know why he feels the need not to mention which country he visited. Did the whole country ask him not to mention them by name on TV? And what's this mysteriously unspecified "research", he's been doing? Does he work for the CIA or something?). It's obvious they still like each other a lot, but the reunion still seems a little awkward, maybe because it's in front of the camera. But they sure didn't have any trouble playing smoochie face in front of the cameras during the regular season. After a few minutes in the interview room, Jennylee takes Nate by the arm, and says, "Come on, let's go have some fun." And away they go. That's it. That's all we get to see of the big reunion between Nate and Jennylee. We spent the last two months of our lives watching this show for this. Thanks a lot, CW! Well, Nate and Jennylee were not the only two contestants in the house. Surely exciting things have happened to others in the house. Well, let's see, Megan got a little rat-dog. That's something. Actually, one exciting thing did happen to someone from the show. One contestant got married, and it is not who you expect. It was Mario! Super Mario said that being on the show made him realize that the "girl back home" was the one for him. This girl had been just a long-time friend of his prior to the show, but as soon as he got back, he asked her out. They got married not long after. At one point, Erin lists all the people she still keeps in touch with. She mentions pretty much everyone, and says, "That's everybody, right?" Not quite. One notable exception was Cecille. Cecille never changed throughout the entire show. But surely these past six months have given her time to think about her evil ways. And seeing herself on Television must have shown her just how much she needs to change. Don't count on it. She tells us every time she sees herself on the show, she thinks she's "funny". And the way the other contestants ended the show just proves how "scared" they were of her, and that they were "just jealous". Not one word is metioned during her interview regarding how she felt about her teammate Nate going behind her back and telling everyone not to vote for them. That seems like a pretty important question to have answered. Hellooo, producers! In spite of a disappointing reunion show, Beauty and the Geek remains my favorite reality show. My wife tells me it's because I probably relate to the geeks. That might be true to some extent. But I think it has more to do with the positive impact the show seems to have on the contestants (except for Cecille). Most contestants do seem to leave having grown as people, whether that growth is in the from of increased social skills, more self-confidence, or learning to appreciate people for who they are, instead of what they look like. You don't see that kind of payoff with other reality shows. The castaways on Survivor are often placed under so much stess that they are almost forced to show the ugliest parts of their personalities. In fact, backbiting, scheming, and manipulation are built into the game. In the Boardroom on The Apprentice, the candidates have no choice but to engage in character assassination of their fellow contestants just to survive. American Idol parades out the most delusionally untalented people so that they can unknowingly make colossal fools of themselves on national television, while Simon makes one hurtful, insulting comment after another under the guise of "being honest". The Amazing Race might seem innocuous at first glance, but how often do we see husbands and wives or long time friends reduced to yelling at each other? And it's all done for our amusement. These shows may go through peaks and valleys of popularity, but they are among the highest rated shows on Television. We are not forced to watch them. But we do watch. Human beings seem to enjoy witnessing the loss of a fellow human being's dignity. It's not hard to draw parallels between the audition episodes of American Idol and a couple of hundred years ago when the mentally ill would be put on display for the amusement of the general public. Ancient Romans would pack the Colliseum to see Christians and other helpless victims be hacked apart by gladiators or lions. Are we today much more enlightened? Would we still tune into Survivor if everyone got a long, The Apprentice if candidates were judged solely on their performance during the tasks and not on how vicious they can be in the Boardroom? Or would we even watch American Idol if only the talented contestants were shown, and Simon were nice? Probably not. The studios and networks know this, and so they purposely cater to the basest parts of our characters. Yet, Beauty and the Geek aims higher. Yes, the contestants are put through several embarrassing situations. And the footage is edited so as to glean the most laughs at their expense. But it is all done in good fun, not to humiliate anyone. There is no reward for insulting other contestants, or manipulating one's team mates. The contest is such that it inspires the best from the players, not the worst. A relatively modest cash prize is offered, but the ultimate goal is to improve as a human being. The contestants often say that it winds up not being about the money for them, but about personal growth. And I believe it. Sorry for the rant at the end. See you here next season.