‘King of the Nerds’ season 3 spotlight: Kaitlin Spak shoots beyond the moon
We love outer space, probably more than we can ever write here. We identify with Browncoats, we read super-wordy space encyclopedias as a kid, and “Mass Effect” to us is one of the greatest video game creations known to all humanity. We love it so much we’re even able to forgive the “Mass Effect 3” ending.
So when we learned that Kaitlin Spak of “King of the Nerds” had NASA connections, we were immediately a fan. We’re even more of a fan after watching her video, and she may ultimately be one of our favorites going into this season. She’s also somewhat of a mystery wrapped inside of an enigma, at least in that we haven’t found much of a social-media footprint for her. She’s doing a very good job of being the sleeping dragon of this season’s cast.
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Name – Kaitlin Spak
Age – 26
Hometown – Redwood City, California
Specialty – “NASA Engineer.” We suppose that there are a variety of things that being a NASA Engineer entails, but all of it is impressive. Obviously, she’s extremely intelligent in math and science, and also incredibly driven to actually fulfill what for many is just a dream that they have as a kid.
Nerd cred – Kaitlin knows that she’s smart. There is a cockiness about her, but it’s completely natural and not put-on for TV. She’s almost the equivalent of a final boss at the end of one of those old-school arcade fighting games; she knows that she is probably going to pummel you, and most of the time she does and you spend your lunch money for the rest of the week trying to beat her in great frustration. She’s very no-nonsense. We feel like there are some other contestants who are looking at this season as a fun experience, a chance to raise their profile online, or to meet like-minded people. Kaitlin’s coming at this like a heat-seeking missile. She seems to have a mission, and she wants to accomplish that at all costs. She’s like Abraham on “The Walking Dead” minus all the manliness, Eugene, and all of that super-depressing stuff in that flashback episode.
Also worth noting here is that Kaitlin claims that she’s a good chameleon, meaning that she can blend in without people knowing necessarily she is a NASA scientist. We don’t know if that means she’s going to try and downplay her accomplishments in Nerdvana, but it’s something to consider.
Weak points – Kaitlin has a fun side, but is she going to be too competitive to let that out? We worry that she is going to go through this competition so much in Terminator mode that people are only going to duck and cover for so long before challenging her in a Nerd-Off. While she’s obviously going to be a beast in the math / science portion of things, we’re not sure we can picture her in a costume contest, or doing an impression of Princess Peach while hitting someone with a frying pan.
End assessment – Kaitlin’s a great find by casting, and producers are fortunate that she decided to take part in the show since she’s probably going to be good TV. Ultimately, she feels like one of these people who will either go home a few episodes in, or make it all the way to the finale. She’s going to be hard to get rid, just because she is so competitive and intimidating.
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