It appears this new cycle starts out just like all the others.  Getting a bunch of girls together with crazy personalities is always what is up and creates a touch of drama, of course.  The beginning hour was just like all the others and really didn’t show anything spectacular, other than the clash of personalities.

The Makeovers

The girls all gather on Melrose Place and are headed to a premier salon to get their “thai-overs”!  What is a thia-over, you ask, well, just like Jay said, it’s a makeover in chinatown!

The makeovers were going on and each girl is getting more nervous with what Tyra is going to do.  In the meantime, we get to hear what the models think of eachother in the cut scenes.  It appears that Bianca, who is NOT here to make friends, is quite bitchy and was not liking her eyebrow bleaching of a makeover.  Since she didn’t have any hair, there is really nothing for Tyra to change.  Taking the eyebrows away was the best thing for her.

Nicole, who got more hair and more red, really looked good.  I didn’t think that Rae needed to go MORE blonde, but since it’s Tyra’s show, we’ll let her decide what looks nice.  Laura just got a bit of extra highlights, which is nice for most girls, but she wanted more of an edge.  When she sees people get their haircut off, like Courtney did, she would most likely be thankful she still has most of her hair.

The Home

For the most part the makeovers seems to make a difference and there wasn’t really any model with a bad attitude, other than Bianca and her almost gone eyebrows.  After the makeovers, the girls are headed to their new house.  Of course they are all screaming and getting all weird trying to pick out room, etc.  I thought the funhouse mirrors was something cool and the decor is really starting to get crazy cycle after cycle.  There is a pool, hot tub, bar and a ton of fun decorations.

Now, we have all kinds of girls living together and the personalities start to come out.  You can tell right off the bat that Bianca is going to start some trouble.  Lisa, came back after getting “booted” because Amanda could not continue on in the competition due to personal reasons, and she feels like she is extra lucky and knows that she is going to have to try 2x harder than the rest.

The FIRST Photo Shoot

Having to do an editorial type shoot based on some baby photos of the models.  The shoes that Rae had to wear were just unreal.  With her feet pointed straight at the ground and an 8 inch heal, I think they were effect because her baby photo was ballet like, so I guess it went ok.  Her photo turned out pretty damn good too!

Bianca is still complaining about her non-eyebrows and of course the makeup they chose for her was just not her style.  She liked Sundai’s makeup (boo whoo).  I think she might make it a couple of weeks, but her attitude is going to get her dumped quickly.

Brittany was starting to look “hoochy” and when Jay mentioned that, it got worse, lol.  There is always one model that keeps the hooch in each shoot, but the Jay’s have been able to break them of the bad habits.

Overall, the models have something to learn as they go, which is normal.  I guess we’ll see which ones turn it on and which ones  won’t “get it”.

Back at the House

Bianca starts trying to get into others heads and is really trying to get Nicole to say something, but I am not really sure what it is.  That is all they show at this point and the next portion is the elimination/critique, etc.

The Elimination (with guest judge Chanel Iman)

Lots of talk about making these girls appear taller than they are.  We all know they are under 5′7″, but Tyra is going to be giving the leason to appear taller more often.  Kara is getting the “you look good in profile shots, but nothing special from straight on” talk from Tyra.  She has a huge smile, but she cannot do much with it.

Courtney looked awesome with her red hair, looking into the mirror.  I think she has a tone of potential here and I am going to claim her as my all-the-way-to-the-end-model, for now.

Best photo went to Rae, which surprised me, but Chanel Iman loved it.  It was qutie WHITE and really caught the eyes of the other judges.

Final two were Bianca and Lisa and guess who got sent home?

I wasn’t happy to see Bianca moving on, but it creates a bit of a stir on the show.  Adding drama brings in viewers, it was just really sucky to see Lisa called back for a 2nd chance, then booted anyways.  Stay tuned for next week!

What’s Up Next?

According to the previews one model gets dumped halfway through the show and a photographer can’t seem to get a good photo from any of the models.  I think it might be a tactic to see how the models react, so we’ll see.

I apparently don’t know a thing about modeling, because I cannot choose the bottom to the last 3 weeks.  Of course, I really don’t know much about modeling, other than what I learn on the show I am so addicted to

The Challenge

Two words, Celia did NOT win!  Ok, it was more than 2 words, but that isn’t the point right now.  The models were learning to samba and Celia did NOT do the best, but Paulina thought she was just perfect.  Aminat was just amazing and she can really flow and pose even while dancing!

I am not going to say that Paulina is a bit racist or anything like that, but Twitter was full of comments exactly like that.

The Photo Shoot

The photo shoot was with Tyra, and we all know that adds a nice bit of nervousness to the whole crew.  The models were all dolled up like birdy lookin’ people in the Brazilian jungle.  The shoot must have taken most of the day because Teyona was running out of daylight at the end of the day, but still had a killer shot.

Allison has another great shot and sort of finally looked like a model.  I really wasn’t impressed with the photo shoots up to this point, but this week was pretty cool.

In the Mean While

Of course everyone is stressing out now because next week is the final show.  Celia was given a dose of false hope because she “won” the challenge, but was sent home.  Allison and Teyona don’t really know what to do unless they are told with specific instructions, so that looks bad for them.  I would have to say that after all of this, Aminat might be a slight favorite over Teyona for this years show.

Well, I am sure that you have all seen the disappointing episode where this cycle’s favorite, IMO, was sent home.  Yeah her photos took a dive and she didn’t really seem to what the heck was going on, but c’mon.  She is much better with her personality than Allison and Aminat, at least.  Since I was completely wrong on the bottom 2 prediction, I will try harder this week to keep on eye on the things the judges have their eye on.  Remember, it’s not all about being pretty.

The Challenge

This week the models had to get their butts in gear to as many GoSee’s out of 5.  Fo did get to all of them, but was NOT booked because of her height, boo hoo.  The others made it to most of them and were actually booked for various reasons.  Teyona and Aminat killed the GoSee’s with their beautiful faces AND runway walks.  Poor Allison is still struggling with her walk, but she is kept and I think the judges still see something, although I am not sure what that is.

The Photo Shoot

This week’s shoot was entertaining in that the models had to be in bathing suits and “stand out” in a crowd of people on the beach.  At first I figured it would just be a random crowd, but they had staged 5-6 others on the set.  The typical body builder, fat guy sleeping and random others were included to add to the nervousness of the whole thing.  Not to mention that Nigel was the photographer so that made the models nervous before they tried on the next to nothing bikinis.

Teyona kicked major ass and really seems to be picking up the modeling thing quite well and if she keeps delivering top model pictures, she can be on top.  Fo just looked grouchy and all scrunched up in her photo, by far her worst to date.

In The Mean While

Celia was freaking out for some reason and I thought it was a bad play on drama for the producers.  She hasn’t been doing badly at all and has not even been in the bottom two.  All of a sudden she is freaking out and her shot has to be the best ever just to continue.  It was hard for me to believe that she actually thought she was doing worse than Allison or Aminat. 

That all went away when her photo shoot went poorly, but Fo’s was 10x worse.

Bottom 2 Prediction for Next Week:  Allison & Celia

This week is was sad to see Natalie get sent home and mostly because she was so good lookin!  But we all know that you will not be a model just because you are pretty.  When the judges went through ther photos, they all looked the SAME.  I am not sure why I didn’t see that the first time around, but she really only had ONE look.  We know the judges hate that, so she was sent home.  My predictions were wrong, again, but I think I have next week pegged!  Let’s move on.

The Challenge

Now that the models are in Brazil, they got to see some of the sites, but as soon as they got off the plane, it was challenge time.  The models were taught a thing or two, but first they had to collect flowers from a shop and delivery them to the Botanical Gardens.  With the girls teamed up and address in hand, they rushed to a cab and proceeded to race to the flower shop.  After a little back and forth and when all is said and done, Natalie and Fo where the winners.

There was a second challenge, which was a photo shoot involving Capoeira.  This was to teach the models how to move and there were to pose at the same time.  The models didn’t do all that great, well, accept Fo of course.  Teyona really didn’t grasp the whole concept and her photo looked like crap.  I think she has over stayed her welcome., but what do I know.  Needless to say, Fo won this competition and she was able to gain 50% more photos, by taking them away from someone else.

Can you guess who she chose?  Yup, Teyona and man was she pissed.  Fo felt slighted in last weeks challenge, but Teyona made it 110% clear as mud that she was not upset to have 50% less frames.

The Photo Shoot

The shoot was centered around the chiquita banana lady.  The models had fruit hats and were staged in parts of Brazil that resembled a certain poor quality of life.  With make up on and lighting natural, the models tried their best to give the impression they were the chiquita banana lady, without doing exactly that.  I know, I was just as confused and it sucks because Fo was just as confused and ended up having a real bad shoot, even with extra frames.

Allison, on the other hand, did awesome and for once, she didn’t look like a doll froma horror film with her mouth wide open.  It was nice to see a good shot of her for a change and, she was the number one photo of the week.

In the Mean While

All Natalie did since arriving in Brazil was complain.  She acted like being in the hottest location for models was no big deal and really just wanted to find a pool.  This and that was annoying her and even when she was being critiqued for her poor photo performance, she blamed it all on Jay who “told her everything looked great”.  That was sad and I think that her arrogance really was showing at that point.  Oh well, she had a shot, but now we are down to 5 models.

Bottom 2 Prediction for Next Week:  Allison & Aminat (again)

I am sure that after this weeks show, you are wondering why London got sent home, right?  Well, I didn’t think she should have gone home either, but the weight issue she had was troubling for the judges.  I am not in any way saying models need to be stick thin (I actually think that’s disgusting), but if she cannot control her weight, what’s going to happen when she is going out for a shoot and none of the clothes, picked out in advance, fit her?

The Challenge

The models had to be the creative director of a photo shoot and basically set each other up for the shoot.  Hair, makeup, clothes, lighting and position.  I think the challenge was a good one, finally, and most of them did real well with setting up the shoot.  The issue came when they had to choose the ONE photo after all was said and done.  The shots that were picked most of the time, didn’t match the one that Jay would have chosen as the creative director.

Teyona won the challenge and a photo shoot, with 2 friends, for an editorial for Seventeen magazine.  She chose Celia (her model) and Aminat to go with her.

The Photo Shoot

R&B star Ciara joined the girls for the photo shoot.  They were to be caught up in the “web” of Ciara while she was on stage.  The hair and makeup was done at the house (something new) and at 5:30AM.  After all the zombies woke up and get all “done up” – they headed to the shoot.  I thought some of the photos looked awesome including Natalie’s!  Her huge afro hair was kick ass.

Allison tried her best to get a “new” face and came up with a snarling type look that was ok to say the least.  Fo has an amazing shot, of course and Aminat just seemed “lost”, at one point her back was to the camera.

In the Mean While

The tension in the house was a bit less, only because Sandra was one, IMO.  Allison and Celia were talking about how to get a new face and look.  London was concerned with her weight gain and, of course, the others tried to make her feel better.  You know that Aminta and Allison were cheering because that pretty much gave them one more shot.

My 2 Cents

I really didn’t think London should have gone home.  Aminta has no clue was she is going and doesn’t really seem to be listening to anyone that is directing her.  London should have at least been given the pass to the next week over Allison or Aminta.

Bottom 2 Prediction for Next Week:  Allison & Aminat