The Challenge
It was throwback week on America’s Next Top Model, celebrating the 15 years that the show has been on the air. For this week’s challenge ANTM vans voted on their favourite challenges from previous cycles and the contestants had to recreate the one that the fans chose, and that was the bubble runway from Cycle 16. But that wasn’t the only throwback in store. The previously eliminated contestants from this cycle were back! They walked the runway show as well, four of them would temporarily move back into the house based on their performance therein and one of them would be taking the spot of one of the remaining contestants to make up the “real final four.”
Rio didn’t give strong and powerful at all, as Kaimin and Stacey instructed. She was too afraid of the bubble and falling; she walked too slowly and gingerly. Jeana did well, obviously (she was one of the best walkers in the house), but her steps were still as deliberate and careful as Rio’s. In fact, most of the girls walked that way.
I was so disappointed that Khrystyana, from what we were shown, was one of the girls who struggled in the runway show the most. She stumbled so much. Shanice struggled as well. Kyla killed it, doing even better than Jeana in my opinion. Liberty, Christina, Kyla and Erin were the only ones who walked somewhat normally and Erin was the best; she made it look effortless.
There was no question that Erin would be the winner of the challenge amongst the comeback girls. Even amongst the girls still in the competition; she had the best walk out of everyone. I wasn’t surprised that Liberty and Christina made it back into the house as well. Beyond those three, I had no idea who would join them, but it did make sense that it was Jeana. She did struggle somewhat in the challenge, but she did better than most of the girls.
At The House
It looked like BFFs Jeana and Rio were on the outs since Jeana was eliminated. Rio seemed to have been shutting Jeana out. I expected that Rio would be happy to have her friend back, even if this is a competition, but that wasn’t the case. I did understand where she was coming from, however. Her apparent dismissal of Jeana has only made her respond in kind.
Rio was upset about the comeback in general, though, and the rest of the not-so-final four agreed with her for the most part (Kyla was kind of just there, lying down, looking bored). I got why she felt the way that they did. Especially since they weren’t made aware of the comeback at the start of the season. However, saying that the eliminated girls didn’t work hard was an unfair statement to make and the way that she went off in the confessional was…a bit much. She was disturbingly upset about the whole thing, to a level that made me uncomfortable and fear that she was starting to go off the deep end. In my estimation, that rage was either going to push her to do the best she’d ever done or the absolute worst.
The Photoshoot
Continuing the throwback, comeback theme of the episode, the girls recreated the tarantula photoshoot from Cycle 3. That wasn’t the only come back from Cycle 3, however. The one and only Eva Marcille was back! And the girls got to pose with her in pairs. Each remaining contestant was paired with an eliminated contestant; Khrystyana with Erin, Kyla with Liberty, Shanice with Christina and Rio with Jeana (which was hilarious given they’d fallen out).
Tyra wasn’t done yet, however. Even better, was the fact that Nigel Barker, one of the original ANTM judges and the hottest one on the panel other than Tyra, came back as the photographer for the photoshoot. Like Erin said, the man hasn’t aged a day.
Kyla and Liberty looked great on set. Khrystyana looked as fabulous as she usually does and unlike Nigel I didn’t see her fear, except in the moments when they weren’t shooting and she didn’t need to be “on.” Erin let her fear get the best of her and it was honestly frustrating, but she pulled it together when she got the spider on her face and started modelling. Jeana looked good and Rio was “blah.” Her rage and stressing out over the comeback seemed to be hurting her. Shanice, like Erin, was distracted and forgot to model at all. Unlike Erin, however, she never recovered.
At this point Shanice had my vote for being sent home, which was unfortunate since she’d grown so much and gotten so far in the competition. But she really did perform extremely poorly.
Judging
Christina outshined Shanice in their photo. In fact, I’d say she outshined Eva as well. The green hair helped, but my eye immediately went to her. She was sultry and looked beautiful. Her hands could have been softer, though. Shanice looked very pedestrian and boring. She has done so much better in the past and her photo was incredibly disappointing.
Jeana owned her and Rio’s photo. Her arm was a little too stiff and straight for my liking, but her face was gorgeous. She was elegant, poised, confident and fierce and there was no hint of fear in her photo. Rio just looked mad and something about the angle did her face no favours at all. She was just sitting there.
Kyla looked like the Queen Bee in her sorority and Liberty was her right hand. The photo belonged to Kyla, hands down. Her arm was also too straight for me, however, her pose made her look tall and like she really lifted herself up and straightened her back and it was perfection. Her face was amazing. Liberty was strong, but not as strong as Kyla. Next to her she looked kind of blaze, but I liked her face and her pose.
Krystyana was stunning. Her eyes really drew me in and her pose was relaxed and effortless. Her fingers on Erin were a tad awkward, though, but she looked good overall. Erin looked like a soap star and considering how terrified she was, I was glad it didn’t come across in the photo. I liked her face; she looked sensual and alluring and she was the only one whose hand was soft and delicate, to me. But she didn’t hit it out of the park. She was better than Shanice at least who, at this point, was still at the bottom of the pack for me.
Calling Order, Elimination and Comeback
Kyla really earned best photo this week and I was elated that she was called first. Khrystyana was the obvious second. I was shocked that Shanice was not the girl sent home. Not because I thought she did the worst, but because as far as I remember the judges loved Rio’s body of work more. I personally loved Shanice’s body of work more that Rio’s so for that reason I wanted her to stay, even though I thought she did the worst this week. I honestly thought that Shanice was going to go home.
In one of the most epic karmic twists of fate, Jeana was the contestant chosen to make a comeback. There was no surprise there. The fact that she came in and replaced Rio, who was so salty about the comeback that she stopped talking to her, just made it all that much funnier.
Random thoughts:
- Of course Rio was the only person that Jeana left a letter for and it’s perfectly understandable too.
- The last time that Rio thought the universe aligned something for her it didn’t go so well.
- Kyla and Krystyana twerking was adorably hilarious.
- Lol Kyla was the only one who got into the ball park of what the throwback was.
- Jeana will definitely be one of the four comeback girls in the house. She has the best walk. Unless the other girls got better in the time that they left.
- Rio is not happy! At all. She’s even dissing Jeana.
- This entire episode is proof that we need Nigel back.
- Rio is so hating in this episode and petty and salty and mean and ugly. Like, Jeana was her best friend and now all of a sudden she hates her just because she could take her spot?
- The hell is Jeana wearing?
- If Jeana gets back in when Rio is the one who got sent home…
America’s Next Top Model airs Tuesdays at 8 PM on VH1.
