The Scholar, Episode 5: Pros & Cons

After a week off to celebrate the Fourth of July with everyone’s favorite Newlyweds, The Scholar returned to similar ratings. As it has done the previous two weeks, The Scholar once again came in fourth in its timeslot. Hey, at least it’s beating reruns of 7th Heaven. That’s worth something, right?

Before we begin, I’ll go ahead and make my prediction that two of the three finalists this week will be Alyssa and Max since they’re the only ones who haven’t yet had background sequences. As those backgrounds play out, I suspect the two of them will make the finals.

The show opens with Gerald sharing about the tense situation in the house. With six students left and only one spot in the final showdown remaining, the mood in the house has changed. Max says that he has no problem beating anybody in the house.

And just like that we transition into Alyssa’s background sequence. Alyssa tells the confessional cam that coming into the competition has changed her perspective. She went from being the top of her world to a place where people are a lot smarter than she is.

Alyssa says that she grew up in Yuba City, a small farming community. She’s Native American, and it’s important to her to keep that tradition. We also get a brief glimpse of her as she navigates onto a NASA web page. Nothing more is said about this, but since she mentions in the weekly intro that she wants to walk on the moon, I imagine that aeronautics and space exploration are fields in which she has a great interest. I wish they would explore that more. Alyssa’s mom talks about how proud she is of her, mentioning how Alyssa “does it all,” from her excellent grades in school to community involvement through volunteering and working two jobs. No wonder she has such a short fuse in competitions. She must be severely stressed from all of the work and activities she takes on herself.

We learn that Alyssa’s parents divorced when she was six. Her mom is brought to tears as she explains how Alyssa cried every time she had to leave her mom’s house to go visit her dad. Alyssa says it’s not fair for her to say “I trust people wholeheartedly.” She also tells us that she would like to talk to her dad, but there is an issue with broken trust.

There’s Alyssa’s background sequence. All we need is Max’s background and we’ll have two of our finalists set.

Back at the house we peek in on a conversation between SpongeLiz SmartyPants (see last article) and Davis. SpongeLiz tells Davis that she has an awkward question for him. She asks “Are we ever going to address the fact that everybody gets up and leaves the room when we’re talking and asks me about you?” Davis replies that he doesn’t feel like he has anything to deal with. SpongeLiz shoots back with a curt “okay.” In the voice-over Davis states that he has gotten close to SpongeLiz. And in somewhat of a non sequitur he explains that in order to make the showdown he’s going to have to be a winning team captain again. He says he has one more chance for the finals and that he is on the right path for it.

SpongeLiz then offers her view of their relationship, saying that she doesn’t think that the experience she and Davis have had would have been the same as if she hadn’t had a boyfriend. She then shares that she hopes she and Davis will get to see each other again.

The scholars leave the house and file into the library for the next Captain’s Quiz. Rob begins by welcoming them to the final quiz and reminding them of the standings for the final. He goes on to explain that this quiz is going to be a little different. First, those who already have spots in the final are going to sit down. He excuses SpongeLiz, Scot, Milana, and Melissa. I guess they didn’t want to leave the possibility of picking one of the finalists in the hands of the students. This makes sense. Even though Melissa did a good job being objective in the second episode, that doesn’t mean this week’s winner would be able to avoid any bias. Rob says the purpose of this is to focus on the six for whom this challenge matters the most. He reminds the remaining scholars of the importance of being able to “command a team to victory” and get an automatic spot in the final admissions showdown. He says that there is a lot at stake here, and that he knows they all know this. That is why a topic with which they are all familiar was picked – the Constitution’s Bill of Rights (Really? It seems geared towards Davis in my opinion).

Excerpts of each of the ten amendments must be matched up with their proper amendments. They are given 10 minutes to complete the quiz. The format returns to a play-along-at-home challenge, as the excerpts are given and the answers are slowly revealed:

“...trial by jury...” (Amendment 7)
“...freedom of speech...” (Amendment 1)
“...speedy and public trial...” (Amendment 6)
“...right to bear arms...” (Amendment 2)

Time is up, and to nobody’s surprise Davis gets them all correct in the fastest time. Amari is the second fastest, and even though she misses two of the questions, she still has a better score than the remaining four contestants. So the captains for this episode are Davis and Amari, which leads to a likely final of Alyssa, Max and either Davis or Amari.