‘King of the Nerds’ season 3, episode 2 review: The birth of the Secret Six

Last week we saw the “King of the Nerds” premiere set the bar pretty high for this season as we were introduced to a very nerdy cast, saw some complex challenges that got us thinking and watched as Jacob and Ori faced off in the nerd-off dressed as Godzilla. Our prediction of Jacob taking the whole thing was crushed as once again the person we predicted to win went home first (you can read our interview with Jacob over at the link here), but there are some others that proved themselves to be contenders for the throne that we are very excited about.

House Hooloovoo – For Friday night’s Nerd War, we saw a tremendous challenge revolving around a cosplay battle, complete with a story. Superficially, we were all about Hooloovoo and their ability to rock this out. After all, they had both Lily and Raychelle! Lily was a little (as in a lot) controlling about the costumes, and to be fair, they were outstanding. She was even smart enough to try to appeal to the sensibilities of one of her guest judges in Yaya Han.

What they seemingly forgot about was to really instill some humor and some fun to go along with the morality play that they were presenting. It felt a little too preachy perhaps, and we feel like society is starting to shift a little from that to finding more unconventional means to hand out the same message.

Team S.M.A.S.H. – A wonderful job by S.M.A.S.H. brothers (we had to do that) and sisters in knowing their weakness (costumes), and really finding a way to make up for it. Jonathan was all sorts of awesome in here as the twerking programmable oft-evil robot. He may be our favorite robot since GLaDOS from “Portal.” They used humor, fight choreography (a nod to Ori for that), and really giving their characters individual attributes in order to tell the perfect story.

Winner – Team S.M.A.S.H.! It was a true underdog story, and Lily had a pretty major meltdown afterwards, feeling like she should have won because of the mentor. No doubt her costumes were great, but the team probably spent so much time trying to please what they thought the judges wanted that we wonder if something was sacrificed in the process.

Strategy – Amanda has impressed us very much with the formation of the women’s alliance, and with Jonathan and Ben being added to it tonight, we have a six-person, cross-team powerhouse otherwise known as the Secret Six (apparently, this is no longer just an alliance on “Big Brother 14”). This is great for them, and while it was wonderful to watch tonight, we do worry about if we are going to have a straight-up Pagong situation like on “Survivor: Borneo,” where everyone on the outside of the alliance gets picked off week after week. It’s smart strategy, but not the greatest TV.

The Nerd-Off – Thomas was selected by Hooloovoo, most likely due to getting distracted and probably not bringing enough to the table. As for his opponent, think Kaitlin. She is the Terminator of this show, and she terminated Thomas here. To be fair, he did an admirable job, and was one right answer away from advancing to the next round in a riddles battle. We loved the Nerd-Off; we would have been all over this “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” inspired battle of wits.

Thomas seems like a very nice guy, and hopefully something great does come from him being on this show beyond just making some good friends. He just fell victim to being perceived as a weaker player in a numbers game.

Episode grade: A-. We’re a little concerned about the strategic implications moving forward, but the rest of this episode was wonderful.

What did you think of tonight’s episode and are there any stand outs that you are rooting for to become the king of Nerdvana? Looking for more news on “King of the Nerds”? Then head over to the link here where we will have previews, reviews, weekly podcasts and interviews with the cast all season long. Also if you want more great TV news sent your way, then be sure to sign up for the CarterMatt newsletter. It comes out every Sunday and is stuffed full of great TV scoop! (Photo: TBS)