Sarah, the leader, has to get a bigger advisory panel than her friends and former students.

That seemed to be the upshot of The Republic of Sarah Season 1 Episode 5.

Yet again, Sarah was reacting rather than acting, relying on her own big brain and knowledge of history and government to put out fires, rather than soliciting the advice of others who might have good ideas of their own.

Since most of them have just been sarcastically inspirational so far, probably not, but she'll never know if she doesn't ask for their suggestions.

When a problem pops up, be it an invasive mining company, closed borders, or greedy banks, Sarah thinks really hard and comes up with her own solution.

That's what she did again to deal with lawbreaking Lydon workers, although with much less success than before. And she chose to do this at the same time that she was being shadowed by a journalist doing a feature on Sarah and Greylock.

No wonder Sarah doesn't have time to teach anymore. She's busy trying to be the entire national government. So it's little wonder that she's starting to slip up.

Her agreeing to sell the land under Grover's house to Lydon Industries on The Republic of Sarah Season 1 Episode 2 wasn't a mistake, but just a hard choice. It was the only way to get the lights turned back on in Greylock, even if it did mean creating a rift with her best friend.

No, Sarah had to deal with the fallout of that agreement with Lydon. She was sadly mistaken if she thought that Greylock would only benefit by selling coltan to Lydon.

A mining operation moving to Greylock meant a lot of bored workers seeking amusement on their off-hours. Or, to put it another way, a lot of people doing drunk, stupid things.

Could you imagine how much worse things would have been if Lydon had carried through with its original plan, complete with more workers?

Danny made a reasonable proposal that Greylock should provide longer hours for such amusements as cinemas and bars. But Sarah was adamant that the town wouldn't have to change to accommodate the Lydon workforce.

Ramping up the pressure was the town clerk whose family hot-dog stand was flattened by a drunk worker driving to Wagner, sending her father to the hospital. She threatened to organize government workers in a sick-out if Sarah didn't do something about the out-of-control Lydon employees.

However, as its own nation, Greylock was no longer covered by U.S. criminal statutes but instead by its archaic town charter, which wasn't built to cover modern activities.

The charter allows the town's leader, Sarah, to issue executive orders to deal with problems as they occur. Such as bored, drunk workers.

At first blush, it appeared that Sarah had solved the Lydon problem, as her executive order said that newcomers convicted of a crime within six months of arrival could be deported from Greylock.

There were a couple of problems with this order, one philosophical, one practical.

As Luis pointed out later, the order was anti-immigrant, a very unAmerican stance to take. But it was popular among the Greylock residents who were protesting against the behavior of Lydon's workers.

The other shoe dropped when the first newcomer arrested under Sarah's new order was Maya. The town charter treated anyone over 15 to be considered an adult, and that included 16-year-old Maya, who wouldn't have been considered an adult under U.S. laws for such a misdemeanor.

It was impressive that Maya could operate a bulldozer well enough to knock over a row of portapotties. So the operator didn't take the keys back to the motel, I guess.

Sarah's idea of giving Maya a pardon backfired as a crowd of protestors greeted her. Apparently, they had no sympathy for a mistake by a teenage girl from away.

Then Grover inspired an answer to Sarah's dilemma. She convinced Danny to defend Maya to get Sarah's badly developed executive order thrown out. It was a win-win: Sarah appeared to be holding firm while Danny defended his rampaging Lydon workers.

Uncertain how to interpret the charter, the judge punted, pure and simple, ordering Maya deported.

Finally, Sarah was forced to admit she was wrong and to do the right thing. Her new order would force those convicted of a crime to perform community service. Losing their workers to community service forced Lydon to establish a code of conduct. There's a win-win for you.

Too bad Maya had to get caught in the middle. But, with Bella deported to boarding school and Tyler at a convenient cross-country meet, Maya got her chance to shine.

We discovered there was a lot of pain behind Maya's hard-edged exterior. She was so desperate to fit in that she hung on with the wrong crowd and paid for it. At least her relationship with Luis appeared stronger after the turmoil.

A couple of other characters got some nasty surprises.

Danny made a new acquaintance in Grover's nerdy friend Adam, only to find out he was Corinne's husband.

A.J. was feeling the weight of her affair with Alexis, and things seemed to be souring after she found out Alexis is pregnant.

To follow Sarah's uneven term as Greylock leader, watch The Republic of Sarah online.

Does Sarah need others to help her make decisions?

When did you determine Adam was Corinne's husband?

Will A.J. break things off with Alexis?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.