America's Next Top Model - Matthew Rolston - Episode Review
America's Next Top Model's editing this week was really obvious. There were three storylines: "Rhianna is afraid of not matching up to Ann," "Liz is difficult to work with," and "Lexie and Kacey fight." The first two plotlines get solved at the end of the episode and the third looks to bloom in the next episode.
While Lexie was in a do or die situation from being in the bottom last week, she manages to survive this week, but not doing amazingly.
Kacey randomly suggested throwing a barbeque and invites the male models from the Fallen Angels photoshoot. Unfortunately when the men showed up, it was awkward. Kacey was the only one who was trying to flirt and the rest left early as night hit.
The girls get a Tyra Mail hinting about their world turned upside down. Nigel and Miss J introduced the girls to Knotts Berry Farm and gave the girls a challenge: ride the Silver Bullet and deliver a fierce photo. Chris gives a "hell no" and panics until it's her turn. The winner got a photoshoot for Tyra’s website, shot by Tyra herself.
I'm a bit upset about the sheer difficulty some of the girls' emotion they had to portray. Liz gets a relatable/catalogue challenge. That was the easiest emotion to convey on a rollercoaster: happy to be on a rollercoaster. Kasey gets edgy, Lexie got jealousy-envy, and Jane melancholy. Kayla got “pout,” Chelsey was given "I have a secret," Ann gets intense-fierce, Rhianna gets "model fear" which is one of the stupidest sounding classifications. Chris was last, and shivering in fear. She gets a dramatic commercial cliffhanger but magically realized that she was going to go home if she didn't. She gets "distracted" but screams intensely throughout the whole routine. She was in tears when she got off.
Nigel announces that Liz was the winner, but in all reality Liz had the easiest photo. She gets time to hang out with Tyra, and picks Chris and Kayla to come with her. Liz basically gets to re-create a Tyra photo. Tyra and the girls get tea, cake and time to talk, but the shots were mostly Tyra eating cake.
Back at the house Lexie starts to snap at Kacey because of the drama she had during casting call week and the fact that she's messy in the house. The girls mysteriously are all in the same room and point out that Kacey's a fake bitch, leaving her a bit outcasted.
A Tyra-mail announced a photoshoot with "Beauty just under the surface." While all the girls assume it's a water photoshoot, the girls get a beauty shot with seafood. They are not actually going underwater, instead a panel of water above them will create the illusion. Their photographer Matthew Rolston suggested that the girls were undersea goddesses; he was all about the whole image, not just taking photos. He went through evaluation with the models, emphasizing things like adjusting brow or lip thickness. Chris gets criticized for her huge forehead (in Tyra measurement, she's probably a "six-head")
Kayla had elegance, Chelsey improved after softening up, Esther looked dreamy, Chris tried to be funny but managed to have poise, and Lexie had trouble with the water and started to get nauseous. Kacey gets horribly whitened which Kendal didn't get, leading me to believe it was to help Kacey's eye-bag problems. Ann looked great and it intimidated Rhianna, her shot kept looking the same as previous weeks. Liz's eyes were an issue because of the eye shimmer and contacts making her twitch.
The girls arrive at the judging panel with Matthew Rolston as their guest judge. Kacey starts first and gets criticized of her shoes. Kacey's mouth looks huge and she looks like a peanut. Kayla looked interesting like a sexy Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Esther gets compliments about old Hollywood. Ann got an amazing shot as well. Chris gets criticism of a big forehead (Tyra suggests tilting her head) Jane did great, but she had no neck. Lexie has warmth, but keeps posing head-on. Rhianna looked almost too relaxed. Kendal had struggle getting warmth in the mouth. Chelsey gets compared to a drag queen. Liz was last, but the photo was flat. Liz complained about the contacts and the judges shot her down for making excuses.
The judges make deliberations and they announced that this week's top photo was Ann. She was followed by Kacey, Esther, Chris, Kendal, Lexie, Kayla, Jane, and Chelsey. The bottom two were Liz and Rhianna. Rhianna was criticized for lacking versatility; Liz made too many excuses. Rhianna was eliminated.
I'm very happy that Tyra didn't back down and picked Ann for a third week in a row, but there has to be a point where she has to spread the love. Esther and Chris improved a lot and could have been contenders for top photo this week. As for Rhianna, she seems cool to hang around with all those crazy feather hats, but she started to get boring. Were you satisfied with the elimination?