It’s down to only eight models on Make Me A Supermodel, five males and three females. This makes sense, considering that Bravo’s primary viewing audience is largely made up of women and gay men, and they are the ones responsible for deciding who goes and who stays on the show. The three models who were put up for the vote are Ben DiChiara, Jacki Hydock and golden boy Perry Ullmann, the latter of whom unexpectedly found himself at the bottom because the judges were fed up with his arrogant attitude and wanted to serve him up a slice of humble pie. The judges have not been impressed with Ben’s or Jacki’s unexceptional performances either, but it was left in the hands of Bravo viewers to decide who gets axed tonight. Will the men continue to dominate over the women? Or will the gender balance on Make Me A Supermodel shift towards equilibrium?
It’s snowy in New York City. The models wake up to a winter wonderland outside. Ronnie Kroell offers Ben a kiss to ease his nerves before elimination. We don’t get to hear what the answer is, though. Perry wakes up with a prayer to the gods of modeling. Ben, Perry and Jacki make their way over to the judges to hear the decision handed down by America. Ben and Perry are safe, but Jacki will not be going any further. Looks like the men are continuing to dominate as the women fall one by one.
The next morning, the remaining seven models go away for a winter weekend, leaving at 3:30 in the morning. Ouch. They arrive at the Windham Mountain Ski Resort, where they will have to show speed and motion in an exciting photo shoot, in which they will be playing the roles of “rich kids.” It’s very important that they do well in the shoot because the person who performs the worst will be sent back to the city immediately instead of enjoying a fun weekend with everyone else. As soon as Niki Taylor finishes explaining everything, Shannon doubles over and falls to her knees. She had been feeling sick all week, and is now feeling dehydrated. An EMT comes over immediately and takes her away after an initial examination.
We cut immediately to the photo shoot. Ronnie and Perry are paired together. Perry immediately has a hard time negotiating his little skis, and falls all over the place. It looks dire, but they eventually get a great shot.
Holly and Ben have to stand on an old-fashioned toboggan as it slides down the hill. In the middle of their shoot, the photographer gives them full champagne flutes to hold while going down the hill. Yikes. Nevertheless, Holly kicks all kinds of ass.
Shannon is back from the clinic and ready for the photo shoot. Along with Frankie Godoy and Casey Skinner, they are tasked to run down the hill together. Poor Shannon falls and bloodies her knee, but she still manages to be the best of the three. This was supposed to be the easiest shoot, with the lack of props and all, but it ends up being the most difficult one.
At the end of the day, the photographer chooses Frankie as the one who must go back to the city because his smile was uber dorky.
The models minus Frankie hunker down for a peaceful night in their cabin, but they are rudely awoken the next morning by their scary trainer Clay. They get into teams to compete in various physical challenges, and the losing team will have to clean their house with toothbrushes when they get back to New York. Ronnie is teamed with Perry and Casey, and although he doesn’t want to do cleaning duty, he considers sabotaging his own team for a moment just to ensure that Casey and Perry will have to clean. Ben gets unexpectedly competitive and starts calling the other boys gay for building a giant phallic symbol out of snow. Casey takes the comments hard, as does Ronnie who feels like Ben has betrayed their friendship by saying such homophobic remarks. Back in New York, Ronnie asks to speak to Ben and Casey. He tells Ben that his words really hurt him because he had to live through a lot of hardship as a young gay man. Ben says that he honestly didn’t mean to be mean, and everyone eventually makes up. I’m glad that Ronnie helped him see that even if you don’t mean any malice, it doesn’t mean that saying those things isn’t downright offensive.
Shannon has to go to the hospital again because she’s been up all night throwing up. She’s still determined to come back for the Make Me A Supermodel runway show. The rest of the models go to meet Niki to find out what their catwalk assignment is. They must strike three poses while standing on a spinning turntable. They will be wearing the 2008 fall collection by Ben Sherman, which is very mod and British and very awesome. Shannon does eventually come back for the runway show, but has to go back to the hospital afterwards.
Naturally, Holly does amazing. She wears her mod dress beautiful and hits her poses dead on. Ronnie rocks it too. Casey only does two poses and has a hard time stepping off the turntable. Shannon struggles getting on the turntable. She has to shuffle step a bit, but she doesn’t fall.
After the shoot, the judges chat with the seven models. Holly needs thicker skin. Frankie is stiff and blank. Ben doesn’t consider himself sexy. The judges are very impressed that Shannon sucked it up and showed up for the show despite being ill.
After the judges deliberate together, the models are brought back out again. Perry and Ronnie are safe, and Holly is the winner this week. Tyson Beckford gets to deliver the bad news that Frankie, Casey and Ben are up for the vote, the first all-male bottom three. Shannon is safe.
I think this time around, everyone should vote to save Casey. Ben hasn’t been showing any growth at all. And Frankie, despite his cute new ‘do, doesn’t have a range of expression. Casey may have done poorly this week, but he proved last week that he has potential. To vote for Casey, call 1-866-I-WANT-02.
-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of Bravo)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
