King of the Nerds 2x03 "To LARP or Not to LARP"

Oh man. As far as being painted as a villain, Zack has sure provided everyone an easy target. That's right, the tirade of whatever he calls himself, the Forsaken?, continued this week on King of the Nerds. I'm not saying I wanted to be right, but, I was sort of right? Throughout this episode, Zack's teammates kept trying to diffuse the tension, but he would just ratchet it right back up if he heard one astray comment. But that's enough talk about that, let's talk about some other stuff.

Gettin' IN to it.

This week's theme was the ever-nerdy LARPing. Live Action Role Play, for those who don't know. Though I'm not sure anyone who would be reading this wouldn't know what LARPing is, but I digress. The two teams were tasked with creating a world and characters based on four character archetypes provided, then had to enact their characters for the judges. This week, the judges were Kevin Sorbo, of Hercules fame, Yaya Han, she of the cosplay stratosphere, and Jon Heder, who you may remember as Napoleon Dynamite.

There was much drama on the yellow team, as previously mentioned, as they tried to get their act together, though I do wonder if maybe parts of the team weren't trying too hard in an effort to get Zack into the Nerd Off again in an attempt to get him out. But who knows if that has any merit! The purple team, on the other hand, were having tons o' fun coming up with their characters and story. Perhaps the team to get along best that I've ever seen on this show, which makes me wonder if they're going to mix things up with the teams soon, considering it's now 5 people to 3 on the teams.

Because, yes, Midas Touch Attack did indeed end up losing to the Titans of Rigel in the LARP contest. While they touted themselves as being the true LARPers because everything in their presentation was improvised, in the end the flash, spectacle and cohesiveness of purple could not be denied. I found it especially funny when they were like, um, she's not a monk, she's a forest nymph. Look, you don't have to be absolutely literal when you're coming up with stories. Forest Monks are allowed, I decree! Also, Xander was pretty hilarious.

Anyway, drama erupted again on team yellow when Zack and Mary Kate had a bit of a tiff that ended in Zack basically calling her stupid and not anywhere near his apparent genius. This got them both into the Nerd Off. Zack, voted in by his team (and himself), and Mary Kate voted in by purple because they are being rather diabolical and trying to keep Zack in to cause discord, and viewed Mary Kate as the weakest on the yellow team. You do know that means you're leaving yourself with stronger people to be up against later, if that's your view, right? Just saying. I did respect Kayla for wanting to put up someone else because she would rather not have the constant drama.

Fare thee well, Mary Kate!

But, that was not meant to be. The two were tasked with playing each other in a board game that was sort of like Battleship. They were both allowed to have an adviser, and this led to probably the only sort of redeeming moment for Zack on the show so far, because it became clear to him that no one wanted to be his adviser. He basically made a plea that this was mean-spirited and that because they are already part of a group that is somewhat ostracized in society, they should at least want each other. Which I think is maybe part of his problem, he feels he has to over-compensate because he's been put down most of his life for being weird. Mary Kate pointed out to him that to her, he was acting like a bully, and he did actually apologize for that, so perhaps this is a step in the right direction for him.

In the end, despite her very best efforts and near-win, Mary Kate lost to Zack due to, quite frankly, luck, which was kind of annoying. My boyfriend says he wondered if maybe her dice was weighted to make her roll smaller numbers, but that seems especially diabolical for the producers to do, but who knows. Mary Kate did tell Zack to basically think before he speaks and treat people with more respect as she left, so we can all hope he takes this to heart. As we did not see anything in the preview to indicate that one way or the other, who knows!

One more week down, and I'm still not quite sure who I want in the finals of this thing. I think until the purple team actually ends up in a Nerd Off, it will be hard to tell because right now they're getting along so well. But I do kind of root for Xander just because he's so funny. But is he the nerdiest of all? What about you? Anyone you are particularly hoping will make it to the end?

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