Beauty and the Geek: For the next-to-last episode, the teams traveled to wine country for an "I Love Lucy" challenge. They had to pick grapes, stomp them, and bottle grape juice--while tied to each other. Despite the disturbing sight of Big Dave and Little Jasmine hunkered over each other while stomping grapes, the pair won the challenge, prepared three bottles of grape juice laced with Eau de Foot, and guaranteed themselves a spot in the finals. (For the record, no one was forced to drink the wine as part of the challenge, making Beauty and the Geek one of the kinder, gentler reality shows.)

Since Northeastern Jen and William didn't make it and were still bickering, they decided to join forces a little bit and help each other study for the elimination room. But they were already marked for elimination, and it seems like they knew it, no matter how the editors tried to play it.

The real tension in the episode came from LARPer Dave's attempts to ask Nicole out on a date after the show. With Jasmine's help as matchmaker, Dave dropped a host of local references and asked Nicole if she'd like to go to UpStairs on the Square sometime after they get back to Massachusetts. He also suggested heading to Davis Square for ice cream, but if he really wanted to show off, he could take her for cupcakes. Nicole didn't exactly leap into Dave's arms with unbridled joy, but she didn't say no, either.

As expected, Jen and William were eliminated when Jen confused "oenology" with "ornithology." (Uh, Northeastern, what are you teaching them over there?) But all ended well for Jen. In an interview with Reality TV World, she said that she landed a gig as an extra in Bachelor No. 2. Kind of like everyone else in this town.

Recap of yet another exploitative Kid Nation episode after the jump. Image from TVGasm.

Kid Nation: This show has gone from terrible to nauseating--and that's saying something since it aired on Thanksgiving Eve. CBS producers forced the kids to switch team members mid-stream, which angered the kids who grew close to each other. Do they force children to switch bunks at summer camp for no good reason (minus bedwetting)? No.

But the arbitrary switch-up ticked off the kids, and the adult host announced all of a sudden that there would be elections. All the members of the City Council got kicked off, even Laurel, who was generally liked by her team and probably did a good job.

Two of the biggest, beefiest guys, Greg and Blaine, who have displayed obvious bullying tendencies (at least in the editing) made it on. Is this a subtle message that American voters have a thing for bullies? It doesn't take long before the other kids are calling one of the new council members "rude and disrespectful," and Greg and Blaine go all NSA on everyone, start spying, and get even douchier than Karl Rove on a bad day. And people wonder how totalitarian societies get started!

Poor Guylan, the Kid Who Loved Castro, scampered up to give a speech and squealed, "Guys, please vote me off!" Is that the way Fidel would have done it? All Castro jokes aside, do the producers have a staff psychologist who can patch these kids' psyches up a little? At least Laurel got a gold star out of the deal.

Survivor: China: Denise got the night off. CBS served leftovers. She did get in one good line: "I cannot believe how silly some people can be."