Green gets it right on the second try, meaning they finally get to be Merchants. After Red gets their last card, Mike puts them in order by himself, obnoxiously ignoring input from his team. He runs to ring the bell, and it turns out he was right. So Red is the Cooks. DK interviews, "Mike was excited because he knew all his presidents. But in the end, we did come in third." Oh, come on, DK, that's not fair. Blame Mike for the things that are his fault. Take your pick, even.

There's only a minute left on the clock when Greg goes out for the Blue team and finds the last card they need. Anjay arranges the cards, and the clock keeps ticking while Jonathan reads off the names. But somehow he resists waiting until zero before announcing to the town, "You've got a reward!"

Okay, let's do this. Mike interviews that he's worried about the reward choice costing him votes. Again, he's being overly optimistic; the town's so over him right now that it would cost him votes if he built them indoor plumbing powered by a generator that runs on kitchen scraps. Jonathan assembles the kids in front of a high-fenced corral and drops the front wall, to reveal the first challenge option: an entire meat buffet. They have ribs, chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs, all laid out on barbecue grills and looking like it'll be ready to eat as soon as those orange squares of plastic on the beef patties get a little more melty. How did the kids not smell all of that before now? Especially when they're probably to the point where they can barely look at each other without seeing each other on platters with apples in their mouths? "It's a political party, Bonanza City style," Jonathan announces, making it sound like a whole lot of fun and therefore something that they would be idiots to choose because that's how things work around here. Naturally, the kids practically turn into puddles of drool on the spot. But Jonathan thinks they "really need" option number two. Which turns out to be a whole town's supply of toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, and mouthwash. That answers two questions: the first being why they weren't allowed to bring toothbrushes, and the second being how they were going to make a meat-feast seem frivolous by comparison. "Not as fun as your political party, but better for your teeth than baking soda," Jonathan lectures. Hey, you know what else is good for your teeth? Not getting so malnourished that your gums recede and they fall out. Not that they're in immediate danger of that, I know, but the "need to have/nice to have" dichotomy kind of falls apart here. To their credit, most of the kids don't seem to be buying it. Mike interviews that the town wanted the barbecue, and so did he. Hell, I want the barbecue. That looks delicious. I'm getting something to eat right now.