SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Runway Challenge
The competition is on! The final 15 girls have been chosen and this week they had their first runway challenge and second fashion show. For this week’s challenge they were coached by none other than Stacey McKenzie. I really miss having Miss Jay on the show, especially his runway lessons and his funny comments and how he imitated the girls’s walks, but I do like Stacey so I’m glad they at least replaced him with someone I can get behind.
The girls were fine for the most part during their teach. Only two of them really stood out for me as amazing runway models already: Coura and Jeana. Liz was sloppy, messy and just all around terrible like all of us would have expected given how she walked in last week’s runway show and Ivana was, once again, disappointing. Honestly, right now the highlight of her performance on the show has been the auditions.
Once it came to the actual runway show though – in which the girls wore clothing from Baja East – it was a different story.
So many of the girls benefited from the lesson with Stacey. Most of them noticeably improved and I was impressed by how much better they got in such a short space of time. Erin didn’t walk as slowly as before, Liz was toned down significantly and looked put together and Shanice looked confident whereas she hadn’t before. Khrystyana owned that runway; she was fierce, powerful and commanding.
At least one girl has to fall or mess up in someway when it comes to the runway challenges and this week that was Brendi K. and Ivana. What with Brendi K? It looked like she meant to step off of the runway, not like she slipped. Ivana was stiff, awkward and uncoordinated and she didn’t even stop to pose!
Maggie didn’t mess up or anything but she seemed to do the opposite of the other girls. Whereas they got better after the teach she seemed to have gotten worse. She looked awkward and did this weird thing with her face. She just looks like she’s trying too hard.
In any case, I’m not surprised that Khrystyana won the challenge. From the second she stepped onto the runway there really wasn’t any competition.
At The House
More drama at the house! ANTM girls seem to have a thing about food it the fridge. Remember Alexandra and her chicken? I member. It was unnecessary of Brendi K. to make a big deal about the half eaten apple. She could have just ignored it. It had nothing to do with her, per se. At the same time though, they do live in a shared space and it’s necessary to respect the other people in the house and just be cleanly. I think that her growing up poor had more to do with it than just her having to clean up after herself though. It was a perfectly good apple and it was going to waste.
The Photoshoot
Putting prosthetic baby bumps on the models so that they could do a maternity shoot was a very strange concept. Especially because it had absolutely nothing to do with fashion. But this is America’s Next Top Model; strange photoshoots are a dime a dozen.
Drew said that what he was looking for from the girls was excitement in their photos; for them to glow. Most of the girls went for that on set and overall they performed well. Neither Rio nor Jeana went for what Drew wanted, but from what they were doing on set it was working more for Jeana than for Rio. Rio looked a little too stern. Liz kind of didn’t go for it either and, again, she was sloppy and messy. But I got the feeling that her photo would be a lot better than expected
I’m impressed that Rhiyan was able to pull it together even though the shoot triggered a painful memory for her. I would like to commend Brendi K for that as well, but she didn’t. She didn’t do as badly to me as the commentary from Drew made it look, but she still didn’t put her best foot forward.
The person who performed the worst on set, however, was Maggie. I was pretty upset with how she conducted herself. She said herself that the shoot wasn’t her and it looked like because of that she just decided not to take it seriously. She was a clown on set and she was being very disrespectful. I didn’t like how she carried herself at all.
My top two picks to go home at this point were Ivana and Brendi K.
Judging
The judges and I were way out of sync when it came to this week’s photos. Pretty much all of the photos that they liked and praised, I didn’t like at all.
Khrystyana’s photo was fine; she could have done more with the pose (which looks a little uncomfortable) and with her face. Rhiyan’s face in her photo was amazing, but her pose did not suit the kind of shoot they were doing; she looked like someone hunched over with exhaustion and kind of like a bro. Rio’s photo I didn’t like. I thought that the face and the pose were just blah and how the coat hung off of her bump made her look like she had some truly odd poroportions. Liz’s photo came out a lot better than it should have, but it still wasn’t very good. That being said, her legs were gorgeous and she looked confident. Kyla’s photo was beautiful, but a lot of it had to do with the styling; she did nothing with her face or with her body.
Jeana looked like a regal French aristocrat, delicate yet powerful, effortless, sexy and sensual. She was just perfection. I expected more from Erin given how she did on set. Her photo was kind of boring and you can’t even see her bump. The face is beautiful but the pose did nothing for me.The best part of Liberty’s photo was her leg. I loved how she created a line from her arm right down to her toe. Her face could have been stronger, though. Sandra’s photo was boring; she was just sitting there. I loved how Shanice extended her neck in her photo and kind of looked down her nose at the camera.
Brendi K’s pose was very awkward. She looked like she was pushing her pelvis forward, but that may have been the bump itself. Her arm looked dead and she didn’t look soft at all. She looked like she was playing American football. Again Christina looked scared, but even so, she looked like a South American princess. Like she was afraid but determined to do whatever it took to protect her unborn child. Her photo had a narrative and it was beautiful. Coura was just stunning. She looked like a ballerina and she wasn’t even on her toes. She could have put her legs wider apart, but other than that the photo was lovely.
Maggie’s photo was also beautiful. The face, the pose, everything. It wasn’t nearly as good as her audition photo and she didn’t look much like a model, but the photo was beautiful and she looked beautiful in it. Again, Ivana’s performance on set was better than her actual photo. The face is gorgeous, but the pose is meh.
The Call Out Order And The Elimination
I do not agree with Coura being called first. If anything it should have been Jeana or Liberty and Coura would have been third. Rio and Erin should not have been called before Jeana and Liberty, who should have been called before both Khrystyana and Christina and especially Liz, Kyla, and Ivana. I don’t mind Rhiyan being called before Liberty, but the other seven…no way. Sandra got called in the right place (third to last), but Kyla should have been down there with her.
I don’t have a particular order I think they should have been called in, but Jeana, Liberty and Coura definitely should have been the top three. Rio should not have been called second and Maggie had no right being in the bottom two! That was such B.S. Her photo was not bad at all and there is no way, now way she should have been sent home. Brendi K. did worse in the challenge and in the shoot. She was the worst model this week. She is the one who should have been sent home. Not Maggie. I suspect Maggie’s behaviour on set had something to do with it, but really she should have stayed.
Random thoughts:
- Did…did we just see their makeovers in the opening?
- I don’t know how I feel about Maggie’s “home girl-ness.”
- I swear Liz is this cycle’s Jael and a little bit of Lisa.
- I was pronouncing Jeana wrong this entire time.
America’s Next Top Model airs Tuesdays at 8PM on VH1.
