The Scholar, Episode 6: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Welcome to the final episode of The Scholar! Looking back at the ratings for this week’s episode we see that The Scholar has nestled itself comfortably into fourth place. At this point it certainly doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing a Scholar 2, but it’s been fun while it lasted, and I’ve enjoyed discussing the show with everyone who has emailed.

As the show opens, we see the five finalists, Scot, Melissa, Milana, Amari, and SpongeLiz SmartyPants, standing together on the USC campus across from Rob.

Reminding them of the ultimate prize, a full-ride scholarship to the university of their choice, he immediately breaks down the first of the three parts to the final. The first part is an interview session with the Scholarship Committee. The Scholars will each be asked the same three questions. There are no right or wrong answers, only honest answers. They are to be interviewed one at a time.

Only three will be chosen to move on past the first round. Not knowing what the questions will be, my guess at this point is Melissa, Milana, and Amari. Though I do want Scot to win (not only is he humble, but he also appears to be the student with the greatest financial need), he’s not the best speaker. And this could seriously hinder him in the coming challenge.

Melissa tells the confessional cam that five of them have made it this far, and only three will go on. She knows that two will no longer be part of it and can’t even think of who the Scholarship Committee. will choose. Rob reminds the students that these are probably the most important questions they will answer in their lives.

As the students enter the library, Milana shares that all five of them are aware that what they’re sharing isn’t academic, it’s personal. Amari wonders, “What are the right things to say? What if I sound like a horrible person?” Scot is disappointed, because he was hoping to have an intellectual competition at this stage.

The interviews start with Scot. Peter asks, “If you could have dinner with any famous person – dead or alive – who would it be and why?” Scot pauses, sighs, and replies, “I would probably meet with Jesus Christ. His, um, preaching is so essential to our culture today.” He continues to fumble over his words as he tells them that he would like to ask Jesus precisely what He meant by the many different things He said.

Marquesa then asks, “What is your greatest weakness? How have you overcome it, or if you haven’t, how do you plan to deal with it?” Scot says when he was younger he didn’t have the passion to finish anything he started. He admits that it’s a constant struggle, but he feels he’s improved.

Peter asks the final question, “What keeps you up at night? Both a personal issue and a global issue.” Scot answers with “human laziness.” He says he believes that people are basically good, but it’s human nature to try to find the path of least resistance which causes corruption. They thank Scot and he exits.

Melissa is next. She fields the “famous person dinner” question from Shawn. “I would like to have dinner with Plato,” she says, relating the ethics class she took the previous semester. She learned about the cave theory and not knowing the truth. We then catch a confessional cam moment of her questioning herself over whether Plato said that or Aristotle. Don’t worry, Melissa, it was Plato. And you also did a good job incorporating your education into the question.

In response to the “what keeps her up at night” question, she says that she tries to think of how she can fix the world’s problems, especially in regards to diversity. We don’t hear a “greatest weakness” answer from her.

Next is Milana. In response to the dinner question, she says that she would choose her godmother who died two years ago. She says that her godmother became the first doctor in the family, which was quite extraordinary at the time, because it was simply something that didn’t commonly happen in the USSR at the time.

We also skip the “greatest weakness” question for Milana as Marquesa asks the “up at night” question. Milana talks about how important stem cell research is to her. She’s excited by the amount of scientific knowledge we have but is frustrated that society isn’t ready to accept it.

We see Scot and SpongeLiz on the steps as Milana joins them. They ask her how she feels. She says she doesn’t know because she thought they were the weirdest combination of questions.

Amari is the fourth scholar that we see. In response to the dinner question she says she would choose Barack Obama (the closed captioning here says Obamam for some reason). She feels that Obama is the classic American dream, coming from a humble background and getting to where he is today. He has an amazingly fresh look at politics that she thinks our country really needs.

Her greatest weakness is paying too much attention to what others think of her. She says that she has a lot of talent to share with people, and she shouldn’t be afraid to share it. Once again we miss a question, as we never get to hear what keeps her up at night.

The scene then flashes to SpongeLiz getting the dinner question. There’s a pause, and then she states very clearly… Angelina Jolie. What? Did she just say Angelina Jolie? As if to confirm my incredulity, the camera flashes towards a look of surprise on Shawn’s face, and the music suddenly sounds like Obi-Wan just died. Completely oblivious to her blunder, SpongeLiz follows with her reasoning that a lot of people choose her lifestyle for the sake of being famous and having a lot of money. But Jolie chooses to live by giving back to others.