Does anyone else feel like this whole season is about Queen Frostine (Ashley Nell Tipton)? Some of it is earned - she did win TWO challenges already - and part of it is pity. The first episode of the season touched on how Ashley always felt bullied and out of place in school, and this episode was all about it. Seemed to me like the "bullying" was mostly manufactured...or maybe Ashley's victimhood manifesting?
Tim and Heidi showed up on the runway wearing white bodysuits and holding paintball guns. They Let the designers pick their teams one person at a time: Blake went first and picked Swapnil, then Swapnil picked the next team member, etc. The boys all ended up on a team plus Merline. The girls all picked their roommates and besties until only Ashley was left. Sad? Yes. But then Heidi stepped up and defended Ashley and said that the team pickers were dumb since Ashley had already won two challenges. In an effort not to make this post all about Ashley, I will say that it was notable that Candace said she chose Amanda Returna first because Amanda had been in the bottom and she wanted to raise her confidence. Admirable? Sure. Smart? No - but as Heidi suggested, the girls' team did not choose wisely.
The teams went paintballing and each team had a chance to try to "capture the fabric" while the other team blasted them. The girls went first and had no plan. The boys went second and tried to get cool colors. Blake hid like a little girl so he wouldn't get shot. (and apparently Ashley has experience paintballing, so she was good...yet she still felt "unwelcome" on her team). It didn't matter that the girls had no plan this time because Tim told them that their fabric for the challenge was their paintball bodysuits.
Back in the workroom, the girls continue to have no plan. They start working on a textile with multiple painting techniques and multiple colors and end up with a tacky, "Easter egg print. The boys and Merline decide to go with blue and use multiple painting and dyeing techniques and work together on a 50s concept.
Yada yada yada Ashley doesn't feel like she's being heard on their team. Candace, who worked so well with Ashley last week, is self-appointed team leader, but is doing little leading. Tim tells them that they're all on the wrong track because everyone is coming up with their own individual design, not pieces in the same collection. Eventually the ladies realize that they need a unifying theme and go with purple and pleats. Recipe for disaster.
Then Laurie tells Ashley that if the team is in the bottom, the rest of the team is going to say that Ashley should get kicked off for working least well with the team. Since we only have her word for it, we can assume that the other competitors want Ashley off because she's the biggest competition (no pun intended - sorry, Ashley!). But then Blake starts calling Ashley's team "mean girls." And we have to wonder...
Finally, on the runway, the judges concur and the blue team is on top. They let Edmund win for a gown made of the bodysuits and painted with flowers by Blake. Is it cool? Sure. Should it have won? No way. I have no clue how Edmund has won two challenges so far. He is gonna crash and burn soon. Swapnil should have won this challenge for his clever use of the sleeves of the shirt as a belt and the shirt pocket fetchingly draped as a pocket on his dress. But whatever - the team worked together nicely, and Merline somehow skated through without comment.
Then on the runway, the purple team gets ripped for lack of cohesion. None of the looks are good, but Kelly's is especially tacky and Candace's is way overworked. Kelly Osbourne (bound to agree with Ashley because they are bonded by their purple hair) calls the girls out for not working together and they're sent away for judging.
In the end, the judges decide that Amanda Returna's tent dress is the worst look and she goes home (FINALLY). For the record, Ashley's design was terrible, too. I am sure she will have a comeback again next week, but I hope her self-fulfilling prophecies don't overtake her before the end of the competition! And hopefully the rest of the episodes can focus on other designers, because there are still some people who have skated by without getting called out.
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