Episode 3

Beauty and the Geek 3, Episode 3: Drew a Blank by Dale Sherman -- 01/18/2007 Down to six couples and the guys finally get a makeover with some radical changes in the offering. Also, with the help of the beauties, which geek will win the “A Date with a Geek” auction? Most important of all, who will go to the Elimination Room and who is leaving this week? That – plus our Geek Peek of the Week – just a click away. Last week’s show came in last for the hour in the ratings, but still carried a solid 2.6 with a 4 share, so CW isn’t complaining. Nor should our readers as we slide into our next (drum-roll, please) … GEEK PEEK OF THE WEEK: Our definitive look at recent items that would make even the most-closeted geek openly drool turns this week to Star Trek. What with Drew being our designated Star Trek geek on the show, the program was bound to come up here, and no right-thinking Star Trek fan would pass up the Holy Grail of DVD releases that appeared right before Christmas 2006. Yes, I’m talking about the recent release of Star Trek: The Animated Series! Of course, this isn’t the first time the series has been released on video – there was a complete series of two-episodes-per-tape VHS releases as well as a laserdisc boxset of the entire series (yeah, I had that – shut up!), but the new boxset is probably the best we’re ever going to get on the lamented series. This goes back to the mandated decision – through series creator Gene Roddenberry – that the animated series would never be considered canon to the fictional history of the multiple series in the Star Trek universe. To give an example, Khan can come back from the television series and appear in the second film, because both are considered part of the “real world” for these characters. However, Spock could never refer to using the Guardian of Forever to go back to his own youth, because that event occurred in the animated episode “Yesteryears” and therefore did not really “happen.” Because of this, many fans feared that the animated series would never benefit from a DVD boxset as the other ST series have. Fortunately, that turned out to not be the case, and the new DVD boxset not only has all 22 episodes of the series, but also documentaries and closed-captioning/English subtitles for the first time in any release for the animated series. The best part? After all this talk about the series not being canon, the documentaries have people connected to Star Trek in one way or another happily (or grimly) admitting that several parts of the animated series has become canon over the years. That made the DVD boxset worth every penny, and congrats to Paramount for begrudgingly allowing the debate to be featured in the documentaries on the set. If you’re a fan and haven’t gotten it, you’re missing a treat, and one that’s fairly inexpensive compared to what some of the other series have cost in season-length boxsets. But buy that boxset later, as we still have an episode of Beauty and the Geek to look at! Last episode saw Piao and Sheree leaving after being placed into the Elimination Room by the blondes against the other brunette in the house, Andrea. As mentioned last week in the program, the competition has evolved into more about the women vs. the women than anything to do with the guys and it shows, as Andrea and Matt head back up the stairs to rejoin the others. Andrea doesn’t really even want to see the other beauties, as she feels they don’t like her. That may not be completely true, but the others certainly don’t know what to say to her upon returning to the room, with one and all happily greeting Matt, but only the geeks really talking to Andrea at all. As Andrea looks for all the world like a wallflower at a party, Cecille can be heard giggling over Sheree being gone. Andrea states in an interview cut-away that she figures she and Matt will have to win the next challenges or they’ll end up in the Elimination Room “every time we don’t win.” The next day, the couples enter the study to find fun-lovin’ Mike Richards there to tell them about the next challenges. As with previous seasons, they are told that the geeks are about to get a makeover, with new clothes and hairstyles. Nate isn’t happy with the news; he likes how he looks and “takes pride in not conforming.” Well, society is no place for a lone wolf, No. 6. As for the women, they are to study marketing and business for their challenge. Richards suggest that the women immediately begin working with their partner on fashion ideas, because the men will be leaving within the hour to go shopping and will have only thirty minutes to buy their new outfits. The couples head off to talk about what to wear. Drew adamantly states he will buy a watch with a calculator in it if he gets the chance. Niels wants shoes that will stand out, like white alligator skin or maybe white shoes with red flames, but is told by Jennylee that it’s a cheesy idea. Nate admits that he has never worn deodorant to Cecille. Actually, he just comes out with it like if he were talking about wearing glasses or how the sky is blue. Although Nate says he perspires a lot, Cecille looks surprised to hear he doesn’t wear deodorant, which would lead one to suspect Nate must not sweat much at all, sweats the fragrance of roses, or is one of those evil people who thinks that bathing in Musk is the answer to all of life’s smelly problems. I used to run into that all the time when working at a comic-book store and it would take hours to get the reek out of the place. Terrible memories. If it’s the last option, then I’m afraid Nate is now my bitter enemy and will be forsaken in this world. Oh, yes. Yes. Eh. Let’s just assume he doesn’t sweat that much. Nate jokes about getting a mullet, which Cecille immediately shoots down. We next see him and the other guys at Kitson Boutique in L.A. and he is worried as he usually shops for clothes at the second-hand stores and thinks paying more then $10 for a shirt is too much. Matt is also worried, as he spend the first ten minutes in the store trying to remember what Andrea told him to get. Niels remembers to get jeans that make his “butt look great” and slim, snug shirts. A leather jacket is fine, but he is told that the orange with the jacket doesn’t really work. He decides to go with it anyway. Mario knows what he wants, but is having trouble finding anything that he thinks is cool in his size. Probably a lot of women nodding during Mario’s experience right there. He winds up getting clothes, but doesn’t feel confident about the situation. Back at the pool… okay, it’s the mansion, but you just know the girls have to be at the pool like clockwork every day. Anyway, the girls study for a time before getting bored. They start asking who they think is going to turn out to be the cutest of the geeks when they come back and everyone leans towards Nate, while Jennylee says so with a little more enthusiasm than the others. She readily admits that she finds him cute even as he is now. Camera cuts back to the guys as they make their way to Gunther Salon and there’s a brief montage of the guys getting their hairstyles changed before we cut back to the mansion for the reveal of the makeovers. Feet-stompin’ Mike Richards is there to introduce the guys as they come through the curtains for the women waiting. Niels is first and goes over pretty well with a look that he says is making him feel like a “rock and roll peacock.” Scooter is next, revealing a shaven face and cropped hair that forces Megan to jokingly remark that they may be “pushing the beds back together” after she sees him. I assume she was joking at least. Drew looks quite impressive in his outfit, and cleaned-up he actually reminded me a bit of a young Chris Barrie from Red Dwarf in the face. Mario comes out without glasses and in a suit jacket. Considering what he went through to get to his look, he comes off fine. Matt is also fine, but Nate just blows away everyone by looking not only completely different, but rather a fine long gentleman. Maybe not quite GQ time, but Nate could probably swing a couple of heads around at least with the look. Headbangin’ Mike Richards then informs the couples that the winner of the upcoming beauties’ challenge and her partner will pick two couples to send to the Elimination Room. The challenge will be for the women to auction off their partner for a date in a live charity event. The women are seen busily working with their guys in making a good appearance on-stage. They don’t really seem to be doing anything that involves marketing or business, however. Well, one could say that a good presentation in front of the audience would be a form of marketing of their product, but it seems a bit weak in the women’s challenge this time around. That’s okay, though, as it balances out the weak challenge for the geeks last week. The only two moments that really stand out from the footage of the girls working with the guys is that of Andrea trying to teach Matt to smile, while Nate steels himself and actually uses deodorant for the first time in his life. He is amazed how slimy it is. I can’t think of anything to respond to that one. Skirt-chasin’ Mike Richards is emceeing the Dentyne Bachelor Auction in L.A. for the guys and there is a room full of young ladies there, ready to bid on the now-classed-up geeks. Mario is really worried until he gets up on stage and discovers the Lennon Method: as John Lennon found out while playing with the Beatles, without his glasses, he couldn’t see a thing and was able to avoid stagefright and perform. Even though he gives it his all, Mario only gets $10 total. Scooter is next and helps to drum up his bid by doing push-ups. He ends with $15. Matt comes out and gets some responses after Andrea announces he is a virgin. The fresh meat gets $15 after all said and done. Drew ranks up an impressive $22, thanks to both his look and coming across well on the stage. Nate wows them with a final bid of $29, but he may have put them off a bit by laying the silly poses on a bit too thick. Finally, Niels arrives and does well with “sex sells” and showing off his hard stomach. Two women in the audience begin a bidding war over Niels and after some looks of pleading from Niels, the bidding ends at $32. Niels and Jennylee win the challenge and Niels is happy that Jennylee won. It is only as he talks that he realizes it had as much to do with him as with her, funnily enough. With the auction over, Andrea is worried. She knows that she’ll end up in the Elimination Room again and that it will be up to her to “break up the blondes in the Elimination Room.” Not that it’ll be up to her and Matt, but just her. Keep that in mind. The women who won the auction come out to have drinks and what appears to be finger-food with the guys they won as their “date” for the evening. Not really quite the romantic dinner for two promised, but then again, who was expecting dinner at the Ritz for $10? Drew is doing fine with his date, calmly discussing things in a friendly manner, until they get to the topic of films. The woman with him asks what kind of movies he likes and Drew doesn’t know what to say. In an interview afterwards that is played over the event, Drew knew he could have talked about Star Trek “…and this character and blah, blah, blah,” but also knew that it would be a mistake. Instead, after a brief pause, he says that he likes comedies. My, it appears that Drew is finally growing up. No, I don’t mean that he needs to not like Star Trek or give up his Star Trek uniform (well, maybe he could put that away from just the masquerade at the conventions), but Drew earlier in the series talked about how he would prefer Star Trek over women. Now we see him picking a woman over Star Trek. Perhaps he realized that it’s okay to not focus so much attention on his hobby when talking with someone. After all, everyone has something they love and could talk to the end of the earth about, but who wants to listen to someone do exactly that? Especially when you’ve just met them? A nice glimpse of maturity on Drew’s part and while I was going to make a wisecrack earlier about Drew and his Star Trek obsession, I didn’t feel that it was proper anymore to do so. Nate looks to be okay with his date, but it is just random chit-chat, while Scooter looks uncomfortable and when he tries to explain in a rather long-winded fashion just why he didn’t care for the date, a scroll across the bottom of the screen tells us that what he is saying in the interview was still MUCH more fascinating than anything he had to say on his date. By the end of the auction dates, it is the guys who haven’t dated that do better than the more experienced ones. One thing that probably helped them out, of course, was that it did not turn out to be the romantic dinner promised and was instead just a few minutes in a big room with the cameras on. With no further expectations to the outcome of the date, the men felt more confident and the women didn’t feel any pressure. If this had been an actual date, they would have been instructed where to go in their area for further dating procedures. This was only a test. Back at the house, Nate lectures Megan and Cecille about the term “Geek” and how the term wasn’t proper for any of the guys. Rather, they were actually just very complicated people. As editor Mike DeGeorge stated after the episode aired, “You’re in a band singing songs about Star Wars. You’re a GEEK, dude.” I couldn’t think of a better way of saying it, really. Anyway, Megan has a look on her face that says she thinks it is cute of Nate to get so upset over the word. Cecille, as always, looks a little bored and upset that she is getting a lecture from Nate. Elsewhere, Niels & Jennylee have to decide who goes to the Elimination Room. They both would be happy to see Cecille leave, but neither is thrilled with Nate going. Niels see Nate as a good friend now, while Jennylee is developing a small crush on the guy. Niels feels that at this point they needed to think of people they can win against and so they should pick Nate & Cecille. Jennylee tells Niels, “I don’t care. You do what you want!” She is then seen in an interview stating that Niels is acting like a child. Niels, on the other hand, states in an interview that he believes Jennylee is not used to guys having the guts to stand up to her. As the camera cuts back to the room, Niels tries to explain his reasoning in a calm way, while Jennylee frantically moves about the room in anger. In fact, she’s so angry that she throws a room-straightening tantrum over Niels’ decision. Don’t believe me? Watch it again as Jennylee fixes the curtains, moves stuff around and looks about ready to get a broom and dustpan. Any angrier and they would have been able to eat off the floor! The time has come for Niels & Jennylee to announce the two couples to go to the Elimination Room. Heartpoundin’ Mike Richards is there to ask Jennylee who the first couple is that they picked. It is Andrea & Matt. Andrea confronts Jennylee on why they were picked and Jennylee scrambles for an answer, but Andrea isn’t buying anything Jennylee says. Andrea finishes the moment by saying, “We’ll be back and I’ll get my turn!” Not “WE’LL get OUR turn,” but “I’LL get MY turn.” Again, keep that in mind. Niels gets misty-eyed as he picks Cecille& Nate for the Elimination Room and has to blow his nose. It is on a Larry Fine level of nose-blowing and it breaks up everyone else in the room. It doesn’t stop Andrea’s anger over being picked again, however. Later, although it is not very clear, it appears that Jennylee meets Andrea in the upstairs hall and wants to have a heart-to-heart talk with her. Andrea makes the first misstep by claiming Jennylee just wants Nate to stay because “you’re in love with him.” With that low-blow, Andrea then tries to switch gears by telling Jennylee that even if she leaves, she does feel that the other women should try to spend more time with their partners instead of going around the house acting brainless. Jennylee doesn’t take kindly to the remark and tells Andrea that she prefers to be cool than to be playing chess like Andrea does. Andrea begins to walk off and Jennylee keeps pressing the “I’m cooler than you” button as if they’re twelve-year-olds at a sock-hop. The argument does neither any good – making Andrea look like she was just pushing Jennylee’s buttons with the “Oh, gosh! Oh, gosh!” and Nate comments, while Jennylee comes off as incredibly vapid with her whole “I just want to be cool” generalizations. They stomp off in different directions. Cecille & Nate and Andrea & Matt go into the Elimination Room where ass-whoopin’ Mike Richards is waiting with questions on marketing and business for the beauties and men’s fashion questions for the geeks. Andrea misses both of her rather easy questions; while Cecille gets both of hers correct (the spam question was, admittedly, rather easy as well). Nate nails his first question and thus Cecille & Nate get to stay while Andrea & Matt have to leave. Matt states in the last interview on the show that he has fond memories of his time on the program and feels that he and Andrea have become friends after a difficult start. Andrea concludes by saying that she feels Matt has learned something about himself from the experience and she is happy for him. One could ask, what did Andrea learn? After all, and despite her common protestation, the point of the show is that the beauties learn something about themselves from the geeks, just as the geeks learn from them. It doesn’t appear that much sank in for Andrea, however. Every episode has seen her talk about how she was going to have to carry the ball for her team in order to win. Twice in this episode she even pointedly stated that it was going to be up to her to get what she wanted. With that, it made Matt look like just an occasional tool for her to use on her way to winning. If she did spend time playing chess and trying to learn from the men, as Jennylee threw out near the end of this episode, we never saw it on the show; so perhaps there is more to what Andrea did than meets the viewers’ eyes. Either way, it appears that Andrea & Matt never had much of a chance as they never really connected as a couple – as a unit – that needed to win instead of one pulling the other towards victory. Next week, the remaining five couples go on a mini-vacation, while Cecille is rapidly wearing out her welcome with everyone else in the mansion, especially Jennylee.

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