Episode Report Card Potes: B | 10 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Paint It Wack
By Potes | Season 20 | Episode 7 | Aired on 09.13.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.It is another week in the Top Model house, and Chris still feels bad about punching people in the nuts when they first moved in. He tells us he's going to play it cool now, because if there were ever a guy who was well-suited to play it cool… well, it's definitely not Chris. Also not playing it cool is Marvin, who is upset about the elimination of close friends Jeremy and Kanani and just cries and cries. The folks in the house are very caring and try to comfort him through his abandonment issues, except for Cory who is basically like, "Get it together, girl."
In this week's somewhat convoluted challenge, the models go to Melrose Avenue where Kelly Cutone administers a trivia challenge with some pretty basic questions about fashion. For each question they get right the models (who have stripped down to their underwear right in the middle of the street) get $25 on a MyEveryNeed.com gift card. When the quiz is over, they use those gift cards to go shopping at nearby stores and clothe themselves, and the winner gets another gift card from MyEveryNeed.com, which I still have trouble believing is a real thing. Most of the contestants have at least $75 on their cards, but poor Phil is stuck with only $25, which apparently only buys you a pair of ripped up women's leggings and a t-shirt. He is told he looks like a cross-dressing Neanderthal, and Kelly lectures that this is not a comedy contest. Don charms guest judge Monica Rose with his lady killing ways and wins the challenge. In addition to the gift card, he gets to go out for ice cream with two friends, and chooses Marvin and Renee, trying to convince us in the process that they have a flirty thing going on. Though I guess Renee was kind of charmed that time when Marvin licked her face.
While Jiana freaks out about her low challenge score, Marvin gets really sullen about the fact that Chris got a better score than him, calling it unfair since Chris used feedback that judges were giving other contestants to change up his look before he was evaluated. Apparently Marvin has been getting a wee bit aggressive, which is another sign that he might not be mentally tough enough to survive this competition. Chris and Marvin argue, with Marvin talking about Chris's acne and Chris calling Marv a monkey. So much for playing it cool. Chris also pisses off the ladies by showering in their bathroom, and basically is annoying the crap out of everyone per usual.
For their photo shoot, the models go to Lanark Art Gallery where this exhibit of Tyra posing as other supermodels is up. Today they will be living art installations, which means they'll wear very little as buckets of paint are thrown on them. And it is a LOT of paint. It's actually a pretty cool shoot, though the models who are doused in red paint have to be fierce while trying not to give Carrie realness. While Jourdan, Renee and Nina do an amazing job, Marvin, Jiana and Phil struggle. And poor Phil -- he gets a beard trim to make him look less like Jesus, but then is put in what looks like a diaper. He lands in the bottom two with Jiana, who has been on a downswing lately and also has trouble with the paint since she hates being sticky. And with these maybe-lovers on the chopping block together, it's Jiana who is sent home by one-tenth of a point.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We enter with the models in their post-elimination shuttle ride home, reminiscing about the elimination of Jeremy and Kanani. While a somber Don says that they all should help to keep each other strong, Chris pipes in with the rather odd and out of context comment, "I don't think one person means to hurt anybody." It turns out he's still feeling remorseful about how he hit the guys in the nuts when they first moved into the house. Ah, memories. Chris tells us that he wasn't himself at first, and was just acting foolish. In retrospect, he's disgusted by his ball-punching actions. From here on out, claims Chris, he's just going to play it cool. And if ever there were a human who was constitutionally unable to play it cool, it's Chris.
Meanwhile, poor Marvin. He starts weeping, saying that he misses Jeremy, and that just when you get used to people being in your life they're gone. So…okay. I mean, deep scars and all, but Jeremy is a fellow competitor on America's Next Top Model that you've known for a month and a half. Pull it together, kid. Marvin tells us that his world was turned upside down, and that he lost the two people who genuinely cared about him and were real. He cries even harder as he says that he also almost lost Phil, who I guess is some sort of delinquent deadbeat dad figure? Cory is worried for Marvin, saying that he likes him and wants him to do well, but also: buck up and keep your head in the game. In the limo, Cory says this is still a competition and they just have to be mature about it -- in other words, stop crying all over my merino sweater, you baby.
Back at the house, Jourdan's best-of-week photo is displayed as digital art. She claims to be conflicted about it, since on the one hand she gets evil looks from haters who are sick of her doing so well, and on the other hand she's a bald-faced narcissist. Renee tells us that Jourdan is a great model and she's happy that she's doing so consistently well -- this way, when Renee finally beats her the victory will be so much sweeter. To get us even further on Team Renee, we hear Jourdan exclaim, "My eyes look so cool!"
Meanwhile, Marvin holds a note that Jeremy left for him, including a portrait drawing, and starts crying again. He should be crying because of Jeremy's poor sketching skills, but Marvin sees the whole thing as a sign of caring, and says he genuinely loved the kid. And then Marvin delivers the most powerful soliloquy of the season thus far: "I think it is the fact that I'm losing everybody, and I can't adjust as fast as other people can adjust. I'm from a place where I'm always surrounded by people and then the room is getting empty, and then the house is getting empty, and I don't have anyone here…to play with or…like, have, I don't know, talk to. [Sob.]" Can we get DeNiro to reenact that, maybe?