Beauty and the Geek

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At the staircase ceremony, Joshua and Shay had singled Dave and Jasmine out for not having enough positive improvement. Dave speaks to them about this, obviously upset after hearing their opinion. Joshua and Shay offer to help him any way they can. Dave talks to Jasmine late at night about how Joshua and Shay's opinion makes him feel like a terrible person, but Jasmine is really sweet and encouraging to him. They finally begin to bond.

The next morning, everyone assembles in the den with Mike Richards. It's the first Beauty and the Geek team challenge, which is going to occur at Comic-Con! All the geeks are excited to be going to Comic-Con, especially William who veritably wets his pants. The beauties don't know what Comic-Con is—Erin thinks it's “Comic-Tron.” For this week's challenge, the teams must create a comic book superhero for the beauties to be. The beauties will come up with what kind of powers they'll have, as well as a back story and an archnemesis. The geeks must design and make the costumes for the beauties to wear. The winning team will have the power to send both teams to elimination.

They get to work. Jasmine wants to be Princess Bed-Head and make her enemies fall asleep instantly. Coffee is her kryptonite. I kind of like it. It's Sandman meets Vogue. Sam wants his super-alter-ego to be himself, but better, and he wants his power to instantaneously impregnating girls who give birth to his babies in five minutes. Ha! Jen wants to have psychic powers and hypnotize people with her boobs, which honestly are very, very large. However, her partner William says that it's way outside the realm of believability and thinks all her ideas are stupid.

The geeks have a whole bunch of fabric and sewing materials to make their costumes, but sadly, nobody really knows how to sew or even to read a pattern. Nicole has decided not to sew anything, but just to superglue stuff to shorts and make Sam go shirtless, which he is more than happy to do. Throughout the course of the day, the geeks scamper upstairs with bits of clothing for their partners to try on. John, adorably, says he likes boobs after seeing Natalie in a black bustier.

It's seven hours into sewing and William still hasn't come upstairs to take Jen's measurements. Downstairs, William complains to everyone about Jen's ideas, and plans to make Jen look as fat as possible. And what precisely this is going to accomplish other than making a very strong girl angry, I'm not altogether certain of. Jen comes down and overhears this, and asks to talk to him privately. They have an argument, in which I side with Jen because William is acting like a little twit, and they agree to start fresh with new ideas.

After a long night of sewing, the teams are ready to make their way down to San Diego. William is so excited that he gets misty-eyed on the ride down. At the convention, he meets his idol, the head of Wizard Comics, and nearly poops his pants.

It's time for the challenge. Everyone is introduced to the panel of judges, who are various bigwigs in the comic world.

Joshua and Shay are first. Her alter ego is Steam, an elementalist whose enemy is Pluto. The judges ask if Pluto is less of a threat now that it has been demoted to planetoid. The judges are really funny, but I get the distinct feeling that they are laughing at the beauties' expense.

Erin is Aqualita Splash. She comes from the ocean and has a surf board, and I can't really tell if she works with dolphins or fights dolphins.

Jen is Venus the Hypnotic Temptress. She hypnotizes with her boobs, and prevents procreation of aliens by hypnotizing and killing them. She gets points with the judges for cartwheels and flinging little William around as if he were but a red-headed ragdoll.

Natalie is Vinity. She is a Lady Killer, that is, a lady who kills, not someone who kills ladies. She eats humans and has vines covering her body.

Sam is Metro-Man. He's a world-famous underwear model and wears a belt with a big M on it and a whole bunch of black eyeliner. He received his power when he discovered a bottle of tanning spray belonging to famous orange man George Hamilton at the greatest party of the year. Metro-Man's chosen method of combat is to break dance. This is where I think Sam's background in acting gives him an unfair advantage. He's clearly comfortable performing in front of people and has better ad-libbing skills than the other beauties.

Jasmine is Princess Bed-Head. A long time ago, her parents died and left her in Argentina, and she was so upset that she put herself to sleep for ten years. Her power is to put people to sleep with her hairspray. She can make people dream and confuse them.

Both the judges and I are very entertained by Jasmine's performance, which they choose to be second place. Jasmine is pretty adorable here, and really deserves her accolades. But the winner of the challenge is Sam and Nicole.

After the challenge, Jen is pissed off that William put so little effort into the challenge, but they get to studying. William quizzes her by the pool, but she is having trouble remembering key characters in Batman. I get that the beauties don't read comic books, but don't they go to the movies? I don't think I've ever read a Batman comic book, but I can identify all the characters from the movies.

At the staircase ceremony, Sam picks John and Natalie to go to elimination, and Nicole picks Jesse and Erin. The geeks will be tested on fashion. The beauties will be tested on comic books.

Erin is so sad to be parted from Natalie. Natalie is mad at Sam and Nicole for making her go against her friend. She says that whoever stays in the house will do whatever it takes to get Sam and Nicole out. It's so sad that these two teams have to go against each other because they are clearly very close friends. I like both teams and I'm not sure which I want to see leave.

As usual, the beauties go first. Natalie goes first. She knows that Captain America's costume is red, white and blue. Erin, who is clutching what looks like a stuffed bunny, knows what infallible means. Natalie knows that Wolverine doesn't have glasses, but Erin incorrectly guesses that Superman is more powerful than a rocket.

The score is 2-1, John and Natalie versus Erin and Jesse.

John knows that Gianni Versace designed suits for Miami Vice. Jesseneeds to get the next question right. Unfortunately, he can't identify Kate Moss, but he shouldn't feel bad because the girls watching from the viewing room couldn't either. This means that John and Natalie are safe for one more week on Beauty and the Geek. And Erin and Jesse must go home.


-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of The CW)