Episode Report Card Jeff Long: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Season 4 Finale, Part I
By Jeff Long | Season 4 | Episode 13 | Aired on 02.26.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.This whole Chris and Rami thing was actually kind of cruel, wasn't it? Up until the very last moment, I was thinking, "There's no way they let these guys work on collections for five months only to not let them show at Bryant Park." I was wrong.
The show begins with Heidi sending the designers on their way to make their collections. They'll get eight grand and five months to work.
Tim Gunn visits each of the designers at their homes, after they have been working on their collections for three and a half months. Christian lives in a shoebox. Granted, he has plenty of room because he's like the size of a shoe, but I think he hangs his bed on the door. Sounds wrong, I know. Tim actually has a few problems with Christian's collection. Turns out Sister knows a thing or two about creating a costume himself.
Then Tim visits Jillian and seems to like her collection, except for the stormy colors. He also visits her family on Long Island. They are lovely people, and a psychic apparently told her mom that her child would be famous.
In L.A., Tim visits Rami, who tells us about his childhood dreams of designing. There's much more than just draping in his collection. In fact, Tim finds some of the pieces to be too heavy. Chris, in New York, is using human hair in his collection. It disgusts Tim, and he likens Chris's fashion perspective to being in a monkey house.
Back in New York, Rami and Chris have to show three looks from their collection to the judges. Only one of the two will make it to Fashion Week. Rami has made some fabulous things, including a tailored coat. Chris's stuff is over the top and really beautiful. The judges seem to like it all. Though America disagrees with them on who should get to show (the Bravo poll was 58% for Chris and 42% for Rami), it's Rami who is in. And Chris gets to take home the entire collection that he made over the past five months. He's a much better sport about it than I would be. Or am. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously: The designers created art-inspired designs. Christian and Jillian were passed through to Fashion Week, while Sweet P was sent home. Chris and Rami were sent home to create collections for Bryan Park, though only one of them will be chosen to compete in the end.
The designers are at the runway, having freshly shed Sweet P. Heidi enters, holding the button bag, and tells the designers that their next challenge is to create twelve looks for Fashion Week. AND they have to create a collection for Fashion Week? That is some crazy rigor we are discussing. They are going to get $8000 and five months to complete their looks. Heidi reminds us that Christian and Jillian are guaranteed spots at Fashion Week, but Chris and Rami are competing to fill the other spot. The outcome will be based on the three strongest looks from their collections.
Heidi introduces "familiar face" Tim Gunn. He gets a round of applause and remarks that it is unusual for him to be on the runway. Not in my dreams, Mssr. Gunn. He tells the designers that he will be visiting them at their homes to check on their progress on their collections. I would totally make my mom's mac and cheese for Tim Gunn if he came to my house. He would never leave. He reminds the designers that, at Fashion Week, they will be showing to the largest and most influential audience in fashion. That is if they show at Fashion Week.
Heidi suggests that they celebrate with a toast on the rooftop of the New Gotham apartments. Then, Heidi and Tim leave in one direction while the designers leave in another. Heidi doesn't do little people. On the rooftop, Tim plugs Moet & Chandon as they pour the bubbly. Jesus, they don't give the man a break, do they? He's like that loudly dressed guy on The Price Is Right. Tim and Heidi toast the designers and their new collections. Christian interviews that he is very excited about Fashion Week. Then we see him doing his best Riff from West Side Story. He continues, "How 'bout that? Don't play games. And I'm 21 years old. That's fierce." I feel like that little poem holds everything wonderful and horrible and correct about Christian. It just does. I shan't try to explain. Christian leads the designers on a catwalk strut across the roof. Where's a pigeon with an upset tummy when you need one?
We see Jillian packing and of course everything looks fastidiously folded and in order. She says that she has worked her ass off and all she can see is winning. The boys joke about Rami's suitcase being bigger than Christian. I've seen colostomy bags bigger than Christian so I'm not catching the relevance of the joke, but we all have to try to relate to each other in whatever way we can. Christian struts away from the apartment (presumably to his apartment...across town. He's a New Yorker, yes?), saying, "Goodbye. I love you. Love your hair." Rami said that he thought the roller coaster was over, but there is still another loop. Very appropriate analogy. Rami says that he is aware that the judges are expecting more drama from him. Chris says that he is going to do the best that he can and will see what happens.