Episode Report Card Potes: B | 48 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Everybody Hates Chris
By Potes | Season 20 | Episode 12 | Aired on 11.03.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The ongoing motif of this episode is that everybody hates Chris. They start off by hating him really hard for what they think was a fake reaction to Nina's elimination, and Renee goes so far as to say there's a special place in hell for people like Chris. Chris balks but no one else really disagrees. Even Cory yells that Chris treated Nina like shit, and brought her down by encouraging her to take on all his stupid crap. Good thing Chris isn't here to make friends, since he has none. He tries to confide in Marvin, who really wants to stay out of the whole mess, and most emphatically does not want to be Chris's BFFL. Rather, he wants to focus on his relationship with Renee, in which actual feelings are now involved! Whoa!
The challenge has to do with physical fitness, and the show basically turns into The Biggest Loser for a minute, complete with medical emergencies. Cycle 19 winner Laura is there to remind us that she exists, and she and Rob lay out some rules by which the guys and girls are asked to do a variety of workout challenges, culminating with them running 197 steps up a mountain. The first guy and first girl to the top of the mountain win the challenge, and will get to be in a "Fierce Workout" video. Renee takes it in the female bracket, in part because Jourdan temporarily loses her vision and sort of collapses on the ground. A medic is called, and then I guess she's fine. It was VERY dramatic for about 45 seconds, though. Marvin wins among the men, and as a bonus prize he and Renee get to have a spa treatment together. Renee tries not to let all this romance distract her from the competition, but Marvin is all in, evening telling us that the experience massaged his heart. MASSAGED HIS HEART, PEOPLE!
The week's photo shoot takes place in Bali's Bat Cave Temple which, you guessed it, is filled with bats. Marvin is scared, since bats are basically rats with wings. Not only do the models have to pose amongst the bats, but they'll be hanging upside down and wrapped bat-like in some sort of cloak. The bats seem to be the least of the challenge, as many of the models struggle to get an interesting pose while hanging from their feet. Marvin does well, though, and even takes a cue from Cory and tries a few poses that are more androgynous. Jourdan is strained at first but eventually gets it and does well overall. Renee gets a head rush while hanging upside down and becomes our second medical emergency of the episode. She passes out while hanging upside down, but after attention from a medic she seems to be just fine, if concerned about her photo shoot performance. Cory gets the same old "too feminine" critique, while photographer Jez Smith has to clarify for Chris that this is a fashion shoot and they're not actually asking him to just hang there and look like a bat.
Jourdan and Marvin both get great marks at panel, and are the first two to move on to the finals. It's a double elimination, leaving Renee, Chris and Cory to sweat it out amongst them. After Rob gives Cory flak about being too feminine, Cory takes a minute to speak up in his own defense, saying that he owns his androgyny and works it, and is on the cusp of a sea change in terms of what male models should be or look like. Tyra and Kelly both speak in Cory's defense, and he's the third model to move on to the finale. This of course means the end of Marvee, which somewhat tempers the dance of joy that everyone is doing to see Chris eliminated. There is also something to do with "booch blue," "sunrise smize," and "fierce fuchsia" beads, because introducing an element of the nonsensical massages Tyra's heart.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We begin post-panel, as the contestants return to their Bali house and see Jourdan's best-of-week photo displayed as digital art. Renee tells us that she does not like Jourdan's picture one bit, and thought her own very similarly posed picture was better. Renee plans to whip Jourdan's ass, as she plans to do every week. Hope is kept alive because of that one time she succeeded during the go-see challenge. Jourdan's own happiness at being in the top slot, meanwhile, is tempered a bit due to Nina and Jeremy's double elimination. She reminds us that Nina had best photo for two weeks but still managed to get cut, which shows you that you are never safe from the whims of Tyra Banks. (And I know there's the scoring system and all that, but I think we can still dole out both credit and blame to Tyra alone when we can muster up a care about it all). Jourdan invites Cory to share in the Tyra Suite with her. They're not particularly close, but Cory says that they both shared an authentic friendship with Nina. And if you can't bond over Nina's big-eyed child-like ghost, what kind of people are you?
Speaking of Nina, as the group sits in their home Renee says aloud that Nina did not deserve to go home, and neither did Jeremy. Chris stands there with his hand on his chin and asks, "So you think I deserved to go home?" Yes. Yes she does. Renee, who was never a Chris fan to begin with, was really appalled at his reaction to Nina's elimination, which was a bit overdone and, she thinks, fake. Jourdan agrees, saying that Chris has been treating Nina like crap and so all of the other models think that it was a big act. Cory also agrees, telling us that Chris was fake-crying and rubbing his eyes until they were red. They all haaaaaaaaate him with the passion of a thousand blowtorches in a thousand ovens all embedded on the surface of the sun, and Cory goes so far as to say that it's not right that such a heinous person made it this far. Renee then tells Chris that there's a special place in hell for people like him. Whoa! I guess everyone else feels the same way, as Cory says that he wanted to give Chris the benefit of the doubt but what he saw was a performance. I am just WAITING for someone to call bullshit on Chris's family sob story, too.
Chris is puzzled by all the hate coming from Cory, as the two of them have more or less gotten along (or at least not fought) during the competition. But then Cory goes off, saying that Chris brought Nina down throughout the whole competition by forcing her to take on all of his crap. And, I mean, part of that was on Nina for having a savoir complex and not realizing that this guy is a toxic tool who was distracting her from her mission of staring huge-eyed into the camera. Chris starts to say that he grew very close to Nina, and Renee interrupts to say that they're done feeling sorry for him so he should cut the bullshit. Chris dismisses Renee and turns his attentions toward Cory. Cory admits that Chris is a good model, and tells him to rely on that and stop putting on a show. He reiterates that Chris treated Nina like crap, which seems to come as a surprise to Chris. Cory brings up Chris's "betrayal" of Nina, which I guess happened that time on the boat when she couldn't participate in the challenge due to her exploding lung and Chris opted to giggle with Jourdan instead of comforting Nina in her time of need. I mean, that is indeed a dick move but I don't know that I'd go so far as to call it a betrayal.