The Real World

Originally aired on Tuesday, 08/15/2006 Episode Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5) Episode Overview: The house prepares for a last bash: "Fantasy Fest" is here at last! But the festivities are bittersweet as they will all soon be leaving MTV's THE REAL WORLD for the actual one.
Episode Highlights:

• As the countdown to departure begins, there is some minor drama when the roommates have conflicting priorities.
• The roommates say their farewells to the Mystic Tan salon - and are rewarded for their hard work.
• It's time for tearful good-byes as each roommate leaves THE REAL WORLD.

Recap: Hurricane Wilma certainly wreaked havoc throughout the Florida area, but it had one unexpected positive outcome for the roommates of THE REAL WORLD. The inclement weather meant that "Fantasy Fest," the big Key West event whose debauchery is supposed to be second only to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, was postponed. It is now coinciding with their last few days together as roommates. In addition to saying goodbye to each other, they will also have to say goodbye to the Mystic Tan salon, and Ricky, the vice-president/mentor. He's developed good relationships with THE REAL WORLD kids, and Janelle Casanave takes a moment to pull him aside to thank him for his encouragement and example. She was originally planning on attending law school upon her return to her normal life, but because of his inspiring attitude, she thinks she might make a go of make-up artistry which was her first passion. John Devenanzio seems to be channeling all of his anxiety or sadness at their impending departure into making the Mystic Tan "Fantasy Fest" float. He has an ambitious design but not a lot of assistance. Tyler Duckworth was supposed to help, but drifts off, easily distracted. John is irritated, but Ricky comes by to help him make headway. That night, the group heads out to party, mostly dressed in bedsheets for a toga party. The one exception is Tyler, who's decked out in a Bob Marley-style dress and ridiculously large afro. He's entered a stripping contest, but has decided to start the striptease in drag. Midway through the evening, Jose Tapia tries to rally the other roommates to head over to the bar where Tyler will be performing. John balks and seems to convince the others to go to a different club. Jose is irritated, and heads over to support Tyler alone. Tyler puts on a spirited performance, giving bouncy high kicks while valiantly trying to keep his ginormous bobbing afro on his head. He's SO spirited, in fact, he high kicks himself off the stage and bounces right onto his butt. The show must go on, so he picks himself up, and completes his act with some pretty impressive splits. He's disappointed that the others didn't show, because audience response would determine the winner. Despite the fact that he's only got two personal fans cheering him on, he won enough strangers over to come in second. The next day, he quasi-confronts the others about it, but perhaps knowing that their time together is limited, a situation that earlier probably would have erupted into all-out conflict seems to blow over relatively quickly. The festivities continue the next night, but this time, it's John's turn to be left out, as the plans seems to have come together while he was out working on the float. Everyone else in the house dresses up in '80's-inspired gear and heads out to compete in another bar contest. The group actually wins, and splits the $1000 prize money between the six of them. And John is odd man out yet again during the completion of the Mystic Tan float. Although he's made an impressive faux misting booth, complete with light show and fog, he still needs to bulk up the area surrounding it. He's racing to finish, but despite a rather stern phone call to THE REAL WORLD house from Ricky himself, the other roommates are more focused on getting into costume than heading over to help. Janelle seems to feel John brought it on himself by not asking earlier for help. Zach Mann and Jose arrive to the float at the scheduled time, dressed in geek gear (the theme for "Fantasy Fest" is "Freaks, Geeks and Goddesses") and are able to help out finishing up the float. The girls and Tyler, on the other hand, primp until the last possible minute and arrive an hour late and just barely hop on the float before the parade starts. John is irritated, but the night is for friends and for fun, so he puts it behind him as the float makes its way through the streets of Key West. They throw glitter and beads and a grand time seems to be had by all. The next day, it's time for good-byes to the salon. Ricky tells them all how impressed he is with their dedication and perseverance through two hurricanes. Although there was only about $1000 in the books when Svetlana Shusterman closed them out, Ricky's made an adjustment. He's added $35,000, which means they each receive $5000. Needless to say, they are thrilled. They celebrate their windfall with one last group dinner. Despite all the drama throughout the season, the group seems especially tight this evening, and everyone appreciates everyone else as family: they might drive you crazy, but you love them and are loyal to them. That night, they all fall asleep on the couches together. Paula wakes in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep. As she packs, she finds a poem she wrote when she first arrived. It conveys her feelings at being in THE REAL WORLD house, the way she felt her defenses crumbling as she saw herself reflected by these "strangers." Paula reflects on how far she's come because of this help, this "kindness of strangers" who became like family. She types up the poem, and leave a personalized copy for each of her roommates. The next morning, the roommates prepare to leave. The first taxi pulls up, and when the driver asks for Zach, it seems to hit everyone that this is really happening. Tears and hugs all around, as there are for each of the following departures. Paula is finally left by herself in the house, and she again reflects on the experience. She says she doesn't know if the others realize it, but they saved her life. There's been some skepticism - from this recapper as well - as to the wisdom of having someone so clearly troubled on a reality show. Despite my trepidation, I have to concede that although it could just be editing, the dark cloud that seems to hang over Paula through the earlier episodes of THE REAL WORLD really does seem to have lifted. Here's hoping she can keep this sunny outlook out on her own. One thing seems certain - as each of them remarked at one point or another - because of this show, she now has six new friends-for-life she can turn to if the dark clouds return. -BuddyTV Staff Columnist