Originally Aired Friday, May 5, 2006
Written by BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Episode Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)
Episode Overview: The two remaining teams enter their final challenge: renovating a South Central L.A. community center. The winner is then picked by a "surprise" panel - the eliminated players.
Episode Highlights: - The teams find themselves bonding in their final challenge, renovating a recreation room for a community youth center in South Central, L.A.
- The eliminated players return! And decide the fates of the remaining players.
- Each of the remaining four has to plead their case before the eliminated players.
Recap:
Only two teams are left: Rich Kid/portly jokester T.R. Youngblood, paired with Poor hottie Jim Perkins; and Rich Kid/occasional tool Hunter Maats, paired with Poor hottie/single mom Johanna Allio.
Host Hal Sparks tells the teams they will be renovating the recreation room of a community center called "A Place Called Home" that is in South Central L.A. The teams are under the impression that this will be the challenge to determine the winner.
The teams throw themselves into the task, painting the room and assembling furniture. After the big reveal of the room to the delighted kids, Hal informs the remaining players that they will have to, as individuals, make a case to the eliminated players as to what they've learned and why they should win. Then the eliminated players choose the winning team.
Hunter is first up. Despite his facilely glib persona, he loses the power of rhetoric in front of the others, and his argument can be summed up in: "It's probably not enough money to change the world, so I'm just going to say it would make me financially independent."
Johanna spends most of her speech doing damage control for Hunter, and says how impressed she was seeing him with the kids at the community center.
Jim is up next. He says he feels like he's matured and promises if he wins to "share the wealth with all you guys."
T.R. is last, and says that he has learned a lot and feels like he was a "loser" for his past couch potato lifestyle.
The eliminated players feel for Johanna as a single mom, but not enough, as she is linked with Hunter and his off-putting personality. T.R.'s speech and transformation seem to be a deciding factor for many players and he and Jim win the prize. Johanna is devastated, and breaks down sobbing.
There's one disturbing things about the results: did the pact to share the prize money between Marcus, Jacob and Jim affect the results? It's not to say that that is what happened here, but if this show gets another season, one hopes the producers can close this loophole.