America's Next Top Model
Cycle 11 Episode 6
Original airdate 10/01/08

There sure was a whole lot of nothing going on last night. One ho-hum workshop/challenge and a theme photo shoot that left me bored to tears.

Before we get to the challenge, we get yet another douse of self doubt from our meek little mouse, Marjorie. Analeigh isn't playing along this week. She did well in the last panel and that has given her confidence a needed boost. Marjorie frets whether she doing well or not and this insecurity is wearing thin on some of the girls. Confidence is a necessary tool in the modeling industry and if Marjorie doesn't learn to control her doubts (or at least not voice them) she is going to be packing her suitcase soon. That isn't to say that that over confidence is a virtue. Yes, I'm talking to you Clark, because that character flaw can be equally damaging.

The girls are hauled over to a warehouse where they meet Paulina in an ill fitting, ugly blue dress/suit who warns them that their lives (not as a CoverGirl) will revolve mostly around catalog shoots and the clothes rarely fit. The girls don predictably pink hard hats and construction belts and head upstairs to learn how to fix the clothes to make them fit better. They are led to a rack of uninspiring everyday clothing that appears about 4 times too large and told to make it work. Oddly enough, Paulina doesn't give any suggestions on what to do other than telling the girls to look in their belts and around the room for things they can use. McKey is chosen as the challenge winner even though she could barely walk after her alteration. Her look was accomplished by sticking a water bottle in the waistband to keep the pants up and using a hair clamp and bulldog clip to make the pant legs more form fitting. There was some padding in the bust of her blouse to fill out the top as well. Samantha was chided as the worst repair job for altering the length of the shorts (she rolled them up) and the look of the blouse (used a rubber band to gather the material). At least no one got sent home for coming in last at this challenge.

We transitioned from the challenge right to the photo shoot this week after more looks into the insecurities of young, pretty skinny girls. Joslyn is losing her game and makes a call home to boost her spirits which doesn't appear to help much. A couple of girls try in intervention with Marjorie who just isn't wired like the other girls and thinks is has more to do with her cultural background rather than her belief in herself. Blah, blah, blah...

Since the challenge was so lackluster, I was expecting a really interesting shoot, but I didn't get it. Instead we get a Natural Disaster theme with the girls in 60s fashion. Yawn.

Brian Edwards is a photographer that has been doing work with Cycle 8 winner, Jaslene, and doesn't really say more that two words during the whole show. The set is a miniature city and the girls are supposed to be various natural disasters wreaking havoc on their surroundings. Samantha, Elina and Sheena were the only ones out of the bunch that really understood the concept and what they were supposed to do and gave the best shots of the whole shoot. Others like Clark, McKey, Analeigh and Lauren Brie just coasted on looking pretty and their photos were dull. Joslyn looked worse than last week and Marjorie was so bad Mr J had to get up and put her into position like she was a mannequin.

Panel was uneventful and the photos were selected in this order.

Samantha – She did a great job portraying a tidal wave. She gets her photo displayed in the house for the following week.
Analeigh – She was the Santa Anna wind
McKey – Heat wave
Elina – Earthquake
Marjorie – Traffic Jam
Lauren Brie – Snowstorm
Sheena – Sandstorm
Joslyn – Rockslide – almost gone
Clark – Blackout - goner

Although I agree that Samantha had the best photo of the group, I disagree with the rest of the list. My list would go like this: Samantha, Elina, Sheena, McKey, Analeigh, Lauren Brie, Clark, Joslyn and Marjorie. They stuck Samantha in the bottom two last week for her poor performance during a runway show. Marjorie had to be physically put into position to capture a good shot. If there is any poorer measure of performance for a model than that, I can't think of it.

I think Clark got sent home because Tyra wanted a good smackdown for this episode. Anyone who has watched this show for any length of time probably recognized Clark's cocky remarks as foreshadowing of the final decision. Paulina was backing Marjorie heavily this week. We'll all have to watch to find out if she can pull it together in the weeks to come.

We're down to 8.