Last time on the Scholar, Davis alienated the world, Jeremy fell on his sword, and Margaret Mitchell of "Gone with the Wind" fame along with Good old Ernest Hemingway gave Melissa the first $50,000 scholarship. Time to give away more of Wal-Mart’s money to some needy kids.

Melissa and Milana have become very good friends. In fact so good that Milana says the competition will not step on their friendship. Oh, we’ll see.

A more interesting topic is brought up by Scot who mentions that if he won the $50,000 scholarship that he would make more money than his father does in 3 years. In response to this we find that most of the Scholars have family incomes in excess of $50,000 and better yet, Davis’ folks make $140K. Wait a minute, what happened to the old Robin Hood “take from the rich give to the poor” thing that this show had going on?

Jeremy possibly explained the problem the best when he pointed out that his family was punished for being middle class because he didn’t have enough money to pay for a top school, but that he had too much money to qualify for full funding and grants. Hmmm… maybe this grey area enlightens us to a bigger societal problem. Forget that, back to reality TV.

CAPTAIN’S QUIZ
Heading to the second Captain’s Quiz, the scholars are collectively worried because the topic is art. Only Scot and Liz seem to be confident. Understandably, Liz becomes a captain, but out of nowhere, Melissa takes first place with a perfect score. A few students are concerned that Melissa is doing too well and taking up the spotlight, but hey, that’s their job to stop her. With captains in place it’s time for the challenge.

Here’s a mini-quiz for you to try: Match ‘em up:

Answers at the end of the recap!

TEAM CHALLENGE:
We’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit how about you! Bring out the pom-poms because the scholars will have to drive up attendance at a USC volleyball game and produce a 3 minute choreographed halftime routine. Attendance will be measured by the number of fans that show up carrying each team colored flags which the teams must distribute. To make things a little easier, each team is given $500 on a USC cash card to spend on campus.

Bring on the schoolyard team picking. Melissa picks first and here are the teams in order...

Poor Jeremy is earmarked as the loser of episode two. Don’t worry, we won’t tell your parents. Moving on.

The Red team immediately runs to the bookstore to gets props costumes and supplies. Eventually Max comes up with the idea of waiting outside of the gym and handing out flags just before the game to people who are definitely going. This leaves plenty of time for the Red team to spend on their dance routine.

The gold team also traveled to the bookstore for supplies and costumes and as a result, all of America was treated to Davis in a skirt! Oh, the pale legs! Oh, the short cut! Oh, the tight fit! Ugh. I will now give you a moment of silence to cleanse your mind.
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The Gold team did come up with a good idea. Jeremy suggested writing numbers on the flags and creating a raffle for a $100 gift card. The team agrees, and Davis purchases the gift card for the prize. After the purchase the Gold team splits up with Amari and Gerald doing choreography and Davis, Liz and Jeremy passing out raffle flags.

As night arrives, it becomes clear that the Red team had the better plan as the lackadaisical college students didn’t show up with the Gold flags. Proof of the short term memory/just plain don’t care attitude of the average college student. Score: 49 Red, 16 Yellow.

Yet there are still performances and they can make all the difference. It may be hard to put into words what was seen, but the Red team ran throughout the crowd, chucked some candy and tried a brand of cheerleading salsa dancing. The Gold team pulled out the acrobatics and step dancing, and performed a much cleaner but less yell oriented routine.

Lori, the USC song and yell coach, gave the final verdict. While attendance was clearly in favor of the Red team, that was not their strongest point. The Red team got the crowd involved with the yelling and in your face interaction and the Red team wins!

Wait, we have a problem. That means that Melissa is going to the showdown, but she already won. While some may say she should get to play for another $50,000, The Scholar rules say that she must appoint someone else from her team to compete in her place. Bring forth the arse-kissing!

Ironically, there isn’t much as everyone seems convinced that Melissa is going to pick Milana. The Gold team discusses in the van on the ride home who they think will be picked by the scholarship committee. Fingers are pointing toward Jeremy and Gerald, but Amari is mad that no one considers her to be in the thick of things.

To Melissa’s decision. She had a hard time making this decision. She wrote down all of the pros and cons of each person. She even went and discussed it with Francine the R.A. As for her pick, she picked MAX, and Milana is pissed. No, not really, but they try to edit it that way.
That leaves the rest of the Scholars a round of interviews to earn their place in the Admissions Showdown.

Liz, when asked about her lack of leadership, says that she chose to be less forceful because her group would not have responded to being ordered around.

Gerald, when lambasted on only getting 16 people to the game even though he is a varsity mascot, was thrown into a tailspin and didn’t know what to say

That’s all we see, and back at the house, Milana confronts Melissa politely, and is relieved when she finds out that Melissa only decided not to choose her based on their butting of heads while trying to set up the dance routine. Milana has made a concerted decision to not be competitive so that she can maintain relationship within the house. Someone needs to remind her that this is her future on the line.

As the Admission Committee deliberates, they are happy that Melissa chose Max because they felt he earned his spot by taking Scot under his wing and aiding others while he contributed himself. They were also impressed with Scot for doing so well in a challenge where a home-schooled child would be perceived to have a distinct disadvantage. A third name was Alyssa who seemed to lead with a more even keel when Melissa and Milana butted heads during choreography, keeping the team on track. Finally, the committee suggests Gerald as a dark horse candidate because he excelled at his strength. (Wait, didn’t they just berate him for only bringing in 16 fans?).

The names are posted:

MAX
SCOT
GERALD

That means it’s guys night out and the topic is biology. Out of the 3, Gerald feels the most comfortable having taken bio and remembering most of what he learned. Max is worried as his high school cut their biology teacher, meaning that biology isn’t even taught at his school. Scot feels similarly nervous, worried that he will look like a stupid home schooled kid. All three study seriously, so only time will tell.

ADMISSIONS SHOWDOWN

The time is now.

Scot nails #1 knowing the spinal cord and brain are part of the nervous system

Gerald is correct in naming that the human heart ahs 4 chambers

Max know the femur is the longest bone in the body

Scot knows the stomach and intestines are parts of the digestive system. (Are you getting the feeling that a lot of the questions offer too many clues?)

Gerald when told veins take blood to the heart knows that capillaries take blood away from the heart.

And then, Max blows it not knowing that the dermis and the epidermis refer to the skin.

Two contestants remaining.

Scot knew that carbs begin to be digested in the mouth, after being told that proteins are digested in the stomach and that carbs are digested earlier. (Ok, forget clues. These questions are just plain easy.)

Gerald makes teachers want to cry when asked what attach muscle to bones after being told that ligaments connect bones to bones. His answer of joints is way off the mark of the correct answer of tendons.

Match Point Scot: What does RNA stand for? From his butt, Scot pulls out Ribonucleic Acid, and home school takes home fifty grand!

That’s it for the Scholar this week. Next week it’s community service and if the preview tells us anything, we might be getting some lip service as well. Until then, go pat yourself on the back, for every question in the showdown that you knew. Oh, I almost forgot, here are the answers for the art quiz. That should at least get you through a couple of days.