Pamela the chatterbox
Pamela begins by asking clarifying questions about the task, wondering out loud if the act of breathing would count as a pause in the conversation (thus ending the task), or if it would be brushed aside as “a natural habit”.
She notices Pilvi clicking her stopwatch and immediately changes conversational tracks, demanding to know why Pilvi is fiddling with the stopwatch while she is clearly still talking, and insisting that Pilvi is not allowed to put gaps in her time. She attempts to get Pilvi to verbally clarify that the stopwatch was a mistake due to Pilvi being nervous, and was nothing to do with Pamela’s task attempt. Pilvi, as ever, remains stoic and silent.
Pamela continues to chatter, admitting that she’s bothered that there is nothing in the lab for her to talk about, other than Pilvi and her stopwatch.
After an undisclosed amount of time, Pilvi appears to make the decision to leave the lab, and Pamela follows her while talking about the fact that she is being forced to follow Pilvi and guess where Pilvi will go.
The two then sit in the living room, and Pamela admits that she knows she sounds “obsessive”, but because all she can see to talk about is Pilvi, she will continue to do so. She then says that Pilvi – who is in no way interacting with Pamela, instead staring straight ahead – is being “terribly boring”.
Pamela wonders what could be a good topic of discussion, then brings up the fact that both she and Pilvi are dog owners, but worries that since a lot of people have dogs, that it could actually be a boring conversational topic.
After some more time passes, the two women head outside and walk towards some picnic tables, while Pamela shares that she is disappointed in humanity whenever someone asks for help, and no-one steps up. This is where the initial footage of her attempt ends.
In the studio, Jaakko brings up the fact that Pamela kept talking, even though she noticed that Pilvi had stopped timing her. Pamela chalks up the entire incident to “interference”, and admits that she still does not understand why Pilvi had stopped timing her. Pamela is not provided with an answer until after the scores for the task are awarded.
After the other contestants’ attempts have been shared, more footage of Pamela’s is shown. She and Pilvi continue their walk towards the picnic tables, and Pamela points out that Pilvi still hasn’t answered her question about the stopwatch [note: as seen in the clips shown during the opening credits, Pamela had attempted to bring up this topic while the two were sitting in the living room, but this did not make the edit of her attempt].
As the two women sit at the picnic table, Pamela opens up, telling Pilvi that she lost her childhood innocence when she was told that Santa Claus didn’t exist. She says that it’s against her personal morals to disillusion children in such a way.
At this point, the camera pans over to the mansion, showing that the rest of the crew has now abandoned Pilvi and Pamela, and are heading back inside.
In the studio, Jaakko questions the ending footage of Pamela’s attempt, wondering if he really did just witness that “even the film crew couldn’t take it anymore.” Pilvi agrees, and says that she would have joined them, but she had been forced to sit and listen to Pamela.
Pamela’s total time is not revealed (Pilvi just says it was “endless”), but she earns joint first place.
(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)
(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by Karl Craven)
