Stylista serves up another delightfully catty hour of fashion fun. Tonight, the fashionista wannabes are sent to Manhattan’s Chinatown to search for a hidden gem to feature in the Elle Living section. But the highlights of the episode are the huge fights between Megan and Ashlie. Oh yeah, and the awesome, awesome honest-to-goodness anxiety attack that sends one of the wannabes to the hospital. It’s so awesome.
Tonight’s Stylista begins with a huge confrontation between Chesty Larue, a.k.a. Kate. There’s a big house meeting giving Megan the opportunity to further bitch Kate out. Only Cologne seems to be on Kate’s side at this point.
The wannabes’ first assistant task today is to raid the Elle closet, which has a huge, heavenly assortment of shoes, bags, clothing and accessories. They need to pull items from the closet that have specific features and dress a mannequin with those items. The features are: something knit, something woven, an empire waist, a dart, a pin-tuck, a set-in sleeve, and a funnel collar. A lot of people are having a difficult time because they didn’t know what the words meant. Johanna had a hard time getting her mannequin’s arms back on. Anne Slowey tells Kate that her mannequin looks like it got dressed on crack and needs to go int the gutter. Kate’s response is a ditzy and high-pitched, “Eee!” It’s down to Megan versus Ashlie, who both get all of the fashion elements in their mannequin, but Megan is the winner.
As the winner of the assistant task, Megan gets to choose the teams for the editorial challenge. She punishes Ashlie by putting her with the weakest links, Kate and Devin. The second team is William, Cologne and Danielle. And Kate chooses Johanna, Dyshaun and Jason for her team. Megan later confesses that she thinks that Ashlie is her main competition, and she wants to do everything she can to get rid of her.
For the editorial challenge, the teams must go to Chinatown and find a hidden gem which they will feature in the Elle Living section of the magazine. Their hidden gem must be unique, it must be applicable to the Elle reader’s life, and it must have a unique story. Johanna thinks she has this challenge in the bag because she has studied Chinese for ten years and is fluent. I think it’s a reality TV trope to have a cast member fail in a big way after thinking that the challenge is theirs to lose.
William, Cologne and Danielle happen upon a bridal shop. Megan’s team goes to a wholesale pharmacy-type place where Johanna asks the owner in Chinese about the health benefits of the teas he sells. Jason is given the task of just taking pictures because nobody on his team has any confidence in his skills.
Ashlie and her team of underdogs seem supremely unfocused. Devin wants to feature a bubble tea shop, but Kate pitches a hissy fit about wanting to leave. Fortunately, they find a beautiful spa next for the centerpiece of their page.
After their excursion, everyone heads back to Elle where they have 90 minutes to layout their page. Jason’s team members continue to have absolutely no faith in him, and he starts breaking out in hives from the stress. I think this is foreshadowing for something big.
Back at home, Jason tells Cologne, Ashlie and Danielle about his rash, and he starts freaking out. Ashlie warns him that his team members are not going to stick up for him, which makes him freak out even more. Later on downstairs, World War III is escalating between Megan and Ashlie. It’s really awesome. Ashlie calls Megan “Satan’s little hand-foot maid.”
Two hours before the presentation, things go from bad to worse for Jason. He hides out in the bathroom and starts panicking. It is a full blown mother of a panic attack, y’all. It’s only the second episode and already Stylista is way better than any other reality show! They call 911 and an ambulance takes him away. You know what, though? If he has a panic attack because his team mates only let him do the pictures for the page, is he really cut out for a job at Elle? I mean, really? Haha, Kate wants to make him a card.
Fortunately, Jason calms down and comes back just in time for the presentation. Anne Slowey and Joe Zee, joined by Joann Pailey, file into the conference room to judge the pages.
Cologne, William and Danielle present their bridal shop presentation. They get mostly good reviews except for the placement of two of their photos.
Ashlie, Devin and Kate present their page featuring the spa, with a lot of sidebars showing the bubble tea place and other things. The page is unfocused, but not as bad as one would have expected.
Finally, the last team, Johanna, Megan, Dyshaun and Jason, show their page about the health benefits of a certain Chinese tea. Sadly for Jason, the pictures get ripped apart. Uh oh, and Dyshaun mixed up the captions for the sidebar photos.
The judges retire to Anne’s office to make their decision. They give Cologne’s team 100 percent for effort. Ashlie’s team gets points for their good ideas but loses points for a poor execution. Joe Zee deems Megan’s team’s page a disaster.
Cologne’s team is the winner, so the other two teams are sent into Anne’s office. Anne thinks that Ashlie’s team’s performance was less egregious, which means that Megan, Johanna, Dyshaun and Jason are all on the chopping block. Johanna and Megan are safe. Dyshaun, despite his grievous copy error, has earned at least one more week at Elle, but Jason is not the right fit. He must pack his desk and go.
-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
