'Beauty and the Geek 4' cuts Shalandra and Joshua, reveals Final 3

Shalandra and Joshua had managed to avoid Beauty and the Geek's fourth-season elimination room until last night.


However all it took was one trip there to end their journey, as Joshua, a 26-year-old student from Princeton, NJ, and his partner Shay, a 26-year-old bartender from Little Rock, AR, became the seventh pair eliminated from Beauty and the Geek 4 during last night's broadcast of The CW reality competition series.

"I feel more ready for the real world than I was when I entered this house," commented Joshua following his team's ouster.  "It's easy to find ourselves in niches that accept us for who we are and how we act, but it's important to be able to branch out... The next time I see someone who I think is beautiful, I think I'll be able to walk up to her with more confidence, with the understanding that there probably is more to her that we'll be able to connect on."

Beauty and the Geek 4's eighth episode began with the four remaining couples returning to Los Angeles from their trip to Cancun, Mexico.  Despite his rocky relationship with his partner Jennifer, a 26-year-old waitress and model from Boston, MA, William, a 25-year-old server from Raleigh-Durham, NC, realized the competition was coming to a close and was focused on the $250,000 "monetary prize."

"I want to win this," said William.


Shay and Joshua were surprised to still be around, especially since both were deemed to be in the need of the biggest transformation based on the fourth season's first challenge.

"We came into this game being the underdog, and look at how far we've come," said Shay to Joshua.

The remaining couples then met host Mike Richards, who explained the beauties would be studying insects and animals for their next challenge while the geeks would be studying how to mix alcoholic beverages for a flare bartending show.  The geeks would receive a special instructional demonstration on flare bartending later in the day, while the beauties had to prepare for their challenge, which was that night.

The geeks met their mentor for the challenge -- competitive flare bartender Tim Plummer -- and the geeks immediately began to eagerly fire questions in his direction.  Following Tim's demonstration, William commented how he was "feeling confident" due to his good hand-eye coordination from being a self-proclaimed master of the Devil Sticks.

As Sam studied hard inside the mansion, Shay and Jasmine, a 22-year-old nanny from Columbus, OH, sat outside and made their best attempt at studying.  But they mostly ended up discussing their fear of bugs and were easily distracted, with their fears coming to fruition when they were harassed by a beetle.


Jennifer told William how she thinks she's "screwed" in the upcoming challenge, and he mocked her sense of confidence.  Nicole, a 25-year-old Tufts University musicology graduate student from San Francisco, CA who is serving as the nerdy girl, confronted William about "insulting" Jennifer.

"Will and Jen, there's still a lot of tension between them," said Nicole.  "I think that a lot of the people might come to realize that we didn't necessarily make the right decision to send John and Natalie home."

The beauties then traveled to Bronson Canyon Cave for their challenge.  Mike explained each beauty would have 10 minutes to transport seven creatures to their designated terrariums that bear the animals' scientific names, which were written in Latin.  The seven creatures were Madagascar giant hissing cockroaches; giant African millipedes; corn snakes; African bouncing toads; Hercules beetle grubs; pink-toe tarantulas; and emperor scorpions.

Since all of the female beauties seemed very uncomfortable when the creatures were revealed, the challenge seemed like a slam dunk for Sam, a 26-year-old party promoter from Davis, CA who is serving as the hunky guy.  Sam had won the two previous beauty challenges and had also won four of the seven overall beauty challenges.

While Sam thought he would have a problem with the Latin names, that was anything but the case, as he placed five of the creatures in their correct terrariums to claim yet another victory.  In comparison, Shay and Jennifer only correctly deposited one of their creatures and Jasmine didn't get any right.  Sam attributed his string of victories to "studying very hard."


"I've been winning a lot, and I know that it's probably driving everybody else crazy," said Sam.  "It felt so good to win, but I tried to hold it back so much."

Sam and Nicole were safe from the upcoming elimination round -- and since only four teams remained in the competition -- whoever won the geek challenge would also be safe, and the two remaining teams would automatically be sent to the elimination round.

Despite Jasmine's poor performance in the challenge, David, a 28-year-old fire department administrator from Somerville, MA, still said he was "proud" his partner was able to at least transport three of the creatures since she was so terrified of even touching them.  Jasmine was still nervous David would lose the geek challenge, so he continued to cheer her up as the two made brownies together.

"The brownies were a bit oily, and came out burnt and awful," said David.  "But you know what?  It doesn't matter.  The point of the whole exercise was not to make edible brownies -- the point of the exercise was to cheer Jasmine up -- which it accomplished."

The next morning, Jennifer wanted to help William pick-out attire for the upcoming geek challenge, but he was having none of it.  Jennifer noticed William was trying to push her away as she attempted to extend an olive branch. 


"I don't think anybody's going to give me any kind of competition right now," boasted William about his confidence in the upcoming challenge.

Sam thought William was being "cocky" (talk about the pot calling the kettle black).  Since Shay is employed as a bartender, she tried to help Joshua as much as possible, and even attempted to boost his confidence by styling his hair and applying some self-tanning cream.  Jasmine commented how she thought David had "flare" and hoped he'd be able to impress the judges.

"The only strategy I'm going to do is throw as much energy and enthusiasm into flare bartending as I possibly can," said David.  "Hopefully, that will make-up for any other inadequacies."

The geek challenge then commenced, and Mike explained each of the geeks would be mixing drinks for their partners.  Tim would judge the geeks on their style as well as how well they mixed the ingredients for their respective drinks.

Joshua went first and concocted a pina colada -- but all he really made was a mess -- and his demonstration quickly turned into a comedy routine.  Nicole tried her hand at mixing a cosmopolitan, however her demonstration lacked style, emotion and creativity.


William made a fuzzy navel, and while he dropped a few of the bottles during the demonstration and also almost dumped cranberry juice all over the beauties, he definitely out-performed Nicole and Joshua.  David went last, and dressed in a shirt and tie, he made Jasmine a sex on the beach.  He performed some impressive flips with his bottles and also made sure his personality was on display.

Tim said the decision came down between William and David.  Tim said William did a "great job keeping his composure" and David "made everybody laugh" and "had good eye contact."  He said David was the clear-cut winner of the challenge.

"It feels good... It feels damn good," said David.  William commented how he was "frustrated," and knew David beat him "on personality."

Shay and Joshua would be heading to the elimination round against William and Jennifer.  Prior to the elimination round, Shay cried and discussed her transformation with Joshua, who said the other couples were comparing them to an "old, married couple."  Both tried to have "confidence" going into the elimination round.

As Shay and Joshua shared an emotional moment, William and Jennifer just tried to keep from killing each other.

"I don't ever see myself hanging out with you in the future," said William.  The best compliment Jennifer could come up with was that if she ever saw somebody kicking William in the street, she'd stop them.


The elimination round then commenced, with the beauties answering questions about zoology and the geeks answering questions about mixology.  Both Jennifer and Shay answered each of their questions correctly, meaning it came down to William and Joshua. 

William answered his first question correctly, Joshua didn't know high-low was a drinking game, and then William sealed the victory by knowing a pony shot equals one-ounce of alcohol.  Joshua and Shay were booted from the competition.

"Coming into the house I definitely didn't think I was going to make a friend like Josh," said Shay.  "For me, it was just like [he's] going to be my special project and I'm going to work on him no matter what... Joshua taught me some patience.  That was something I did not have."

Beauty and the Geek 4's next episode will air Tuesday, November 20 at 8PM ET/PT on The CW.






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio