The contestants of Beauty and the Geek came one step closer to fulfilling the transformation that this social experiment strives for. Although tonight’s ever-popular “makeover” episode left something to be desired.

Tonight’s episode began with the return of Jesse and Erin from the elimination room. Last week they knocked off the powerhouse team of Will and Rebecca. Man-beauty Sam eagerly awaited the return of the winning team and hoped that it would be his love-muffin Rebecca walking through the door. Now, last week I had a lot of unflattering things to say about Sam. I will admit, however, that my thoughts on Sam have changed a lot since the last episode. So read on after the break to find out why. As was expected, everybody but Sam was happy to see Jesse and Erin enter the room and everyone celebrated with hugs and boisterous talking.

The next day, the boys and girls were informed that they would be going back to school for their next challenge, But first—the boys would get their makeovers. The makeover episodes are pivotal points in the B&G series—the way that the makeovers are in America’s Next Top Model. But honestly, the makeovers this season were pretty weak. The best makeovers were John and Luke, who came out looking like pretty normal dudes. They glammed up the girl geek Nicole a bit, and she looked cute too. Hell, even the LARPer, David, looked presentable in his new wardrobe. But at least they gave David some contact lenses—both Josh and Jesse got nothing but a hair dye job and some new clothes. The three pathetically unenthusiastic stylists didn’t even ditch Josh’s glasses. To the stylists’ credit though, they did get new frames. The worst makeover? William looked horrendous. Even his partner, Jennifer, knew it. All they did was dye his hair and throw on some new clothes. But William is one of those extreme makeover candidates—get some Proactive to clear up that skin, get a chin implant, tuck back those ears and grow in the hair. Instead, what he got was red hair and a new pair of Wranglers.

Seeing John bust through the curtains with his short hair, new clothes, contacts, and confidence was, in a weird way, inspiring—because you really do get a sense (as unfeasible as it seems) that these guys really are changing. So with new looks, the guys and their gals were off to an elementary school where they would be randomly assigned a subject to teach a group of kids. Following the makeovers the night before, Sam opted out of a hot tub rendezvous with the crew (imagine that) for a night in his room studying. Clearly a step in the right direction without Rebecca to distract him. The studying would come in handy during the lesson, as Sam blew everyone away with his outgoing personality, knowledge of the subject matter, and connection with the kids. Well, he had everyone beat but Shalandra. She used her visual, hands-on approach to snatch the win away from Sam. Shalandra and Josh will now get to send one team to elimination.

In the geeks’ challenge, they were to ask a beauty (while Nicole asked out a fellow geek) who was not their partner to be their prom date. It was sad to see poor David so letdown when his crush, Nicole, asked Josh to the prom instead. The other combinations were rather uneventful, although it should be noted that Sam was left home by default, and Shalandra was not asked by anyone and stayed at the mansion as well. The geeks were challenged at prom to mingle with all of the “normal” people at prom and gain popularity in hopes that the students would vote them “prom king.” Josh seemed to be the only one who struggled, while Nicole was at a distinct “prom king” disadvantage—you know, being a girl and all. John got a easy victory, seeing as how it seemed that no geek had the social skills he was displaying. It also helped that he no longer looked like a geek. John and Natalie would now get to send someone to elimination.

They chose to send Sam and Nicole to elimination. Sam quipped that he had better be going to elimination, otherwise his studying would be for nothing. Josh and Shalandra sent weird-faced Katie and her partner Luke, but warned David and Jasmine that they were considered due to “inappropriate growth” in the competition. David accepted the criticism and vowed to do better. Katie knew she was in trouble and began to say her goodbyes. You see, Katie bombed the teaching competition and admitted to not studying much for it. I found it curious that she cried about having grown so much—blah blah blah—when in reality, she seems to have not grown at all. Still a spoiled sorority girl. So the two teams headed into the elimination room where Sam handedly disposed of Katie, 2 questions to 1. Luke and Nicole entered, and while Luke answered his question correctly, it was too late for him as he was put at a disadvantage by Katie’s wrong answer. Which was, by the way - “what is the western most state?” Katie said, “there’s a whole lot of states out there.” Yeah, you’ve grown. So Nicole answered both her questions correctly and “Stupid” and the well-morphed Luke were sent packing. Nicole and Sam get to live to see another day.

And honestly, I’m glad they get to stay. Yeah, it makes for good TV to keep the new twist in the game, but I’ve also kind of taken to Sam. Sure, he’s not all there, and yes, he is definitely a mimbo—but he’s trying hard. It was hard not to like him after he worked so hard studying and then performed so well in the school challenge. I think it was a blessing that Nicole conspired to get Rebecca kicked off in elimination. And in this weird way, I think we are all hoping that Nicole and one of the other geeks fall for each other. Unfortunately for David, I don’t think he’ll be in the running. Only time will tell.

Tune in next week; trouble is brewing between no-chinned William and his beauty Jennifer. Perhaps she will break him in half.