Before YouTube, recapping music videos is totally a thing and not a waste of time. Really..
PROJECT RUNWAY
Season 2 Episode 9: Flower Power
Previously, Zulema had a model walk-off, Nick acted as if his kidneys had been ripped out of him when Zulema snatched Tarah for herself and in the process brought up some very nasty things about Rachael to Tim, and while Nick created a wretched dress in an episode supposedly about inspiration, Zulema got kicked off for all sorts of reasons that had nothing to do with the quality of her design just as Dan won for who knows what reason. Thank heavens this wretched season with its six thousand contrivances and misleading editings that the show don't even bother to conceal are all wrapping up to an end.
Morning, the Apartments. Andraé squints at the pot of coffee he has just brewed, maybe he can see faces inside that speak to him. Nick announces that there is a new rule in the competition: "Do not go out like Zulema". Of course, this is his way of saying that nobody should poach another person's model because it is unkind and what not. Nick tells the camera that Zulema caused plenty of tension not just with him but also with the other Fashionistas so he is relieved that she's gone. Over at the ladies' apartment, Chloe takes photos on the Olympus digital camera that she was given in the previous challenge while she poses on her bed for the camera. Maybe that's what she meant two weeks ago when she told the other ladies that they had to do "it" naturally. She says that Zulema wasn't the ideal top three that she has in her mind - which would be Chloe, Chloe, and Chloe, I suppose - so she's not torn up over Zulema leaving. She thinks that Zulema's dress was the worst because it was poorly sewn and fitted. Chloe has never created anything that fitted poorly on Grace after all - never! Thank goodness Chloe doesn't go on about Zulema's dress being poorly designed because heaven knows, Chloe isn't the one to talk when it comes to creativity, being that she designs the same dress over and over and she has only her seamstress skills to boast of!
At the Runway, Heidi explains that the next challenge for the Fashionistas is to design an outfit for a garden party. Hey, that's the first challenge of this season's Project Catwalk! It looks like the shows are poaching each other's challenges now. Heidi tells the Fashionistas that Tim will tell them more when he takes them shopping the next day. For now, there's the matter of Zulema's model Tarah to deal with. Dan predictably chooses to stick with Rebecca and Tarah is sent back to the wardrobe. Nick tells the camera that Tarah's elimination is the "hardest" on him because Tarah looks up to him. Tarah may be upset that she has lost out on a measley photoshoot spread in Elle but she doesn't understand how much Nick is hurting, I tell you. Nick is hurting the hardest because someone who respects him is no longer there to look up to him! Nick says sadly when Tarah leaves the Runway, "She's gone!" Oh, Nick, nobody cares. Stuff it!
Since Tim will only be meeting them the next day, the Fashionistas return to their Apartments with plenty of time to kill. The guys decide to head up to the roof but before they do that, they decide to put their hands together and vow to remain friends forever and all that. Nick, shoulders swaying again to the cha-cha-cha only he can hear, tells the camera that there is some competitiveness going on among the men as well. And here I am worried for a moment that they may lose focus for a moment! Nick says that the men see each other as the competition. I can see where these guys get the idea, since they are the only four buddies that haven't been eliminated yet. Yet. Snigger. Enjoy the delusion while it lasts, Nick. As those guys drink and bask in the evening sun, Santino says, "Six designers left! Three to go!" To the camera, he says, "I'm not going to be happy until I'm the fucking winner!" The guys then all take photos of themselves as a group using their digital cameras.
Meanwhile, Chloe tells the camera that it is "shocking" that there are so few women left on the show. I don't understand her. Since she already has an ideal three in her head, why is she shocked that there aren't more women left on this show, considering that she previously thought that Zulema, Kirsten, and who knows how many others were correctly eliminated. She's not being sarcastic, is she? She says next that she and Kara are here because they have proven themselves to be talented and she hopes that the both of them will make it to the final three. If this is a Burnetto show, that will never happen since Chloe has said it to the camera, but since this isn't a Burnetto show, I guess I'll have to wait and find out if this is a foreshadowing scene. Chloe says that there should be at least one woman in the final three. Now, we can also easily counter that silly woman by saying that talent and gender aren't the same thing but come on, when Chloe says that, she's clearly thinking that the one woman is none other than Chloe Dao herself. Anyone else winning is clearly a wrong thing! Over at the guys' apartment, Dan wishes all nitey-night and switches off the lamp by his bedside.
Well, it's a new day. At 6:00 am, Tim knocks on Apartment 35D and Andraé answers the door and has a predictably exaggerated facial expression to greet Tim. He tells the men that they are all going on a field trip and Nick to the camera acts like he's never been on a field trip on this show before. His shoulders and chin are swaying nearly three-sixty in this confessional, by the way, and he looks like he's seriously being possessed by some demented ghost. He thinks that maybe they are going to those Park Avenue apartments where people are rich enough to actually have gardens big enough to hold parties in. Tim then goes over to Apartment 31H where Chloe pretends not to know that Tim is coming - remember, she always knows how to act natural for the camera - and answers the door. Because Kara and Chloe aren't gay guys, Tim curtly tells them to get ready for the field trip in five minutes. The Fashionistas then follow Tim along the street, always prepared to show the camera their best facial angles while making sure not to look at the camera. These people are amateur camera hogs, I tell you. Andraé tells the camera that he is hoping that they go to the Tavern-on-the-Green or "something" at Central Park that he is "dying" to visit. Dan tells the camera that he notices that there are no fabric stores in the area Tim is taking them through so he wonders what Tim has in store for them. I tell you, these guys must be repeating the same script that the Fashionistas from the first episode of the first season followed. Come to think of it. the Fashionistas of the first episode of Project Catwalk said the same thing too!
Tim ends up taking them to the Plant House, Inc, the address prominently captured on the camera for those of you interested to go shopping there one of these days. Nick and Andraé look too shocked, you'd think they have been taken to an abbatoir or something. Tim tells them that the Flower District is where they will shop for their outfit. Chloe tells the camera that her brain starts thinking overdrive about what she will pick and do when she hears the challenge, which is to design an outfit out of plants and flowers. And here I am thinking that the first thing she is thinking will be where she can find big blue leafs for that one dress that she will design yet again. Apart from the Plant House, Inc, the Fashionistas are also allowed to shop at Fischer and Page Ltd for orchids and Jamali for garden supplies. As usual, the Fashionistas have $100 and an hour to shop for whatever they think they will need for their design. Tim tells them to think creatively, use their time strategically, and "make it work". There are times when I think this show really expects too much from its contestants.
Nick gives a most delightfully acerbic confessional where he demonstrates how forced his smile is as he listens to Tim and explains that inside, he's like, oh that's great, he stayed this long into the show just to create something using flowers. But... but... didn't the Mighty Ogre say in the last episode that flowers are deep and complex and they inspire great things of beauty (like his latest line)? As the Fashionistas start shopping, Dan tells the camera that he goes to Jamali first to buy some "construction tools" that will help him "engineer flowers". I don't think he's talking about cross-pollination, by the way. Kara is there too, wandering around with a dazed expression on her face. She tells the camera that she is "perplexed" and she is eager to see what the others have bought. Nick winces when he realizes that the stalks of some orange blooms are too hard for him. He only realizes this when he snaps the stalks, heh. He says that he's looking for things that are more "bendable", as he puts it, and hopes that no one sees him snap those flowers. He tells the camera that he has no idea what he will make.
Santino says that he spent $70 (actually, it's $69.24 according to the cashier) on mesh and other things that he feels he will need later. Dan, Andraé, and Chloe all pose for snapshots as they shop. Chloe shops for leaves because leaves will last for at least a day and they aren't anything "delicate" that she doesn't want to handle. Dan tells a shop assistant that he only has $65 to spend and is told that he's in trouble. Take note of this scene that implies how expensive plants and flowers are. Take note of the next scene where Nick exclaims how expensive the flowers he has purchased are when he sees the bill. Andraé tells the camera that he worked at a florist when he was a kid so he doesn't feel like he's in the "deep end of the swimming pool" at the moment. That's like saying that I took part in a marathon fifty years ago so I'm going to climb a mountain tomorrow without encountering any difficulty. He finishes his shopping some thirty minutes ahead of the others. Meanwhile, Kara is buying flowers. Santino got three plants for $30 and he thinks it's a bargain. Meanwhile, everyone else is dashing to make last-minute purchases with the remaining of their money.
With the hour up, it's now back to the Sweatshop where it's time to work. As everyone wheels in their purchases using trolleys and place their plants into vases, Chloe hopes aloud that the five bushels of "this leaf thing" that she has bought are enough for her to use. She plans to stick the leaves on top of each other to produce a "cascading print". Dan makes a show of counting how many challenges he has won as he walks up to pin his name on his latest winning dress, that blimp sack monstrosity thing. He hopes that what he has done and will keep doing will get him into the top three. He preens as Chloe tells him that he has the most wins among them all and he tells Chloe that he has "only" done fashion designing for three years. Someone is definitely fishing for compliments, I see. Maybe someone should send poor Dan a memo informing him that his dresses are not that memorable and the show is, for some reason, making him out to be some fashion prodigy that he's not. Dan tells the camera that he has just graduated from college so his "biggest weakness" is his lack of industry experience. That probably explains why this show wants him to win so badly: unlike Jay, Dan looks like he'd be happy to play the shill for Banana Republic after the show ends.
Chloe says that it is "sick" how Dan is so good at everything he does. Since Chloe is so good at dishing out underhanded insults and backhanded compliments, for Dan's sake I hope she's not laughing at how easy Dan bites the bait and starts bragging about his dubious achievements. Dan modestly says that he tried to play basketball once and they both laugh because Dan has, er, made a witty repartee, I guess. Tim then shows up to announce that the winner of this challenge is exempt from elimination in the next challenge. Andraé says that he now wants to win just to get to the last four, which is now his new goal. Quite a step down, I must say, from wanting to win to wanting to be among the top four. Tim also announces that the deadline is this midnight and he'll be back a few hours before midnight to tell them how sucky their designs are when they have no time to change anything.
Everyone gets back to work once Tim leaves. Kara says that she has bought more flowers because she has "pulled out all stops" in this situation which she calls "do or die". Surprise, Santino is designing another baby doll type of dress with long flowing skirt, high waist, and plenty of mesh layerings over the skirt to make sure that the wearer looks more like an overburdened Christmas tree on the verge of falling down instead of a woman. He tells the camera that he wants to win so that he can use something "offensive" in the next challenge without being penalized. Hey, that's a great reason to give him immunity. I want to see Nina foam at the mouth! Chloe says that her design is "just a summer dress wrapped across in the front with straps" with some print to give this impression that the dress is made of leaves if you aren't looking too closely at the dress. Kara explains that she is braiding rafia to make a "fakey-looking grassy thing" although she has no idea what she wants to do with them. Wait, she'd love to smoke them but of course she can't do that, heh.
Santino says that he's making an outfit out of "tropical leaves" like apicus tree and "some kind of fern". He wants to do something "pretty and sophisticated and sexy" while remaining "definitely whimsical", which is a long-winded way of saying "Hey, I made the same dress again!" Dan's ferns will be used for his skirt while the flowers will surround the bustline of his top in an "opening up" and cascading manner. Andraé says that he has chosen plenty of "dead" or "half-dead" or "things that will die beautifully" (huh?) for his design. This includes a few bags of Spanish moss, baby's breath, and dried lavender. His design is a "topiary dress" which he says is reminiscent of "the late '50s" and "like, also a French garden". Where things die beautifully, don't forget that. Nick explains that his design is "a fitted bodice with a bustiere and then a full skirt". He will then put the flowers and what-not on that dress.
Tim shows up although this time the show doesn't tell me what time Tim makes his entrance. Tim approaches Chloe who explains what she wants to do with Tim. She hasn't done much to show Tim but she will come up with something good, she promises. Tim doesn't know what Kara is doing and Kara explains that things are going well... or as well as things can be after she has figured out what she wants to do with the skirt. Dan explains his design to Tim who is already dispensing praises like "wow" when Dan hasn't done much yet. His plan to stick some basket weave of a few inches wide on the midsection of his blouse has Tim going that Dan is on some ambitious design trip. Nick has created some patterns on his dress using leaves and Tim worries that Nick may not have enough plant material despite having spent every cent while shopping. Tim has reservations about the busy multi-layered form of the dress when Santino already plans to stick millions of brightly-colored big leaves all over it. When Tim isn't being a corporate shill trying to make silk purses out of the producers' chosen ones, he is capable of giving decent and sensible advice sometimes. Santino says that he's just "playing" with the form.
Nick chuckles when Tim asks where Andraé is. Andraé is downstairs and outside, applying shellac to his Spanish moss on a bench outside Parsons. Santino, meanwhile, is doing a hilarious Tim impersonation: "What happened to Andraé? Make it work! Make it work!" You have to see the robot-malfunctioning gestures Santino is making along with his vocal impersonations! Andraé tells Tim that he's turning "these" into grass. Santino goes, "Designers, designers... look out for Andraé! He's our little lamb, okay?" Tim asks Andraé whether Andraé believes that the moss will hold up. Andraé has his doubts. "Carry on," Santino mimics. "Carry on," says the real Tim in exactly the same manner and tone as Santino. Oh, fabulous! Maybe we should just cancel the rest of the season and have Santino do Tim impersonations for one hour every week!
8:00 pm now. The Fashionistas' designs are starting to come together. Chloe tells the camera that she has grossly underestimated how long it will take for her to glue her leaves over her dress. 8:35 pm. Chloe's idea of creepy-stalkerish chatting Dan up is to now ask him when and how he came out to his parents. Dan says that he doesn't like to talk about it but of course he goes on to say that he came out to his parents a year ago. Nick acts surprised that Dan came out so recently, saying that today is supposed to be different from his time of "Catholic highschools" where he could dress and dance well before wondering twenty years later, "Why didn't we figure that out?" Dan protests, saying that he grew up in the Bible belt with a "really strict Christian" family. Nick's tone is really sarcastic as he goes, "WoW!" He says that he doesn't know. Dan goes to say to the camera how hard it was to come out and be labelled a "fag". Still, he has made some good friends, everyone has been supportive, et cetera. I'm happy for him although I'm not sure how he feels about his more demented fans at the usual online forums shrilly insisting that they know he is bisexual and he's just pretending to be completely gay to fit in with his gay buddies but these fans all know that he will come around one day and marry these demented ladies. Oh, and Dan says that his ex-girlfriend doesn't know that he's gay. That's what these guys all say about their ex-girlfriends, I tell you. Most of the time they never stop to ask why those ex-girlfriends broke up with them!
Chloe then announces that her biggest fear is to date a gay guy. Santino and Nick laugh in a very forced manner to this while Dan asks Santino to "do Tim again". Eeuw, that sounds dirty. Santino obliges and goes into this hilarious Tim-like trance where he pretends to be Tim reprimanding Andraé for throwing a plate of lobster at his lap during a tiff at the Red Lobster. After a point, Santino stops to laugh at his own joke. Um, okay. He then tells the camera that he invents this scenario about Tim and Andraé having a romantic date at the Red Lobster. Dude, explaining a joke to the audience kills the punchline! As the others chuckle, Andraé asks Santino why he and Tim are dating in Santino's "sick, twisted world". Chloe, meanwhile, wonders to the camera what Tim thinks of his supposed love affair with Andraé. I think he will be as impressed as he is with the supposed love affair between Tim and Emmett that are hotly discussed and fanwanked on the usual online message boards. Santino continues to channel Tim who is now reprimanding Andraé for fighting with him in front of Tim's colleagues. "We're going to have to break up!" says Santino. To the camera, he explains his joke some more. I guess it's for the benefit of those slow audience that the show believes are tuning in. Santino then goes, "Let's make it work! You and me... let's make it work!" It's so funny, this scene, until the editors kill it by inserting Santino's face in close-up as he unnecessarily explains his joke to the camera. Stupid editors. Andraé wonders where there is anyone like Santino out there in the world. I hope not. "I don't think so," says Andraé, "and if there is, don't call me, please!" He then ruins it by adding, "Because one is enough!" Gosh, what's with all this horrible butcherings of good one-liners in this episode?
8:58 pm. Tim is back again to pester Kara about the skirt. She claims that she doesn't know and Tim reminds her that she has been waffling on the matter of the skirt for the last three hours and she has to, um, make things work. Tim tells Nick to remove most of the ugly leaves he's slapped onto the skirt and Nick goes, "I know! I know!" Tim loves Dan's half-finished design - surprise! - but is worried that Dan may not have enough leaves or whatever to cover up his design. Chloe is, as she puts it, still "gluing like a madwoman" leaves on her dress. Tim chuckles at the moss and bits of twigs that fall onto the floor - or "flotsams and jetsams" as Tim calls them - from Andraé's design and Andraé claims that he's happy that his design is still functional despite leaving a trail of moss and twigs on the floor. Tim marvels at the fact that Andraé has sewn a zipper into that... thing he is making and tells Andraé to fill up the skirt with "more stuff". Tim then approaches Santino and asks Santino to tell him more about what happened between Tim and Andraé. He goes on to say that he's heard about Santino's "devastating impersonation" of him and he wants to hear it. Chloe's cackles soar over the others' - maybe she's the one that told, hmm. Santino explains the whole imaginary Tim-Andraé Red Lobster tiff and tops it off with his brilliant impersonation of Tim saying, "Andraé! Stop doing this! Every time we have a little tiff, you go and run into the bathroom!" Tim pretends to laugh before delivering a long rant in the official website. Andraé has this lovely smile on his face as he tells the camera that this is the first time someone has made Santino blush and Tim has put Santino in his place in "a really lovely way".
9:55 pm. Work, work, work. Andraé unnecessarily explains the 12:00 am deadline and thinks that he could do more with his outfit. Nick runs out of leaves to cover the entire skirt so he's cutting short the skirt to create instead "a mini-dress". 11:10 pm. Chloe is worried because she's still not finished gluing yet. Santino announces to Dan that he has sprayed his design with shellac and asks Dan whether Dan can smell it. Dan pretends to faint on the floor. Dan's quite predictable in his attempts to be comical, I must say. 12:00 am. Most of the designs seem to have come together nearly finished by that time except for Chloe who laments that she flunked time management in this challenge.
The next day. Kara takes some time to be alone on the roof and tells the camera that she was nearly booted in the next challenge. She would love to win this challenge. Don't we all, dear? But if not, she just wants to make it to the next challenge. The men are grooming for the Runway show in their apartment. Santino wants the immunity to make sure that some other people whom he believe should go home will go home. But what happens if Santino is among some of these other people who should go home? As he sprays onto his hair enough hairspray to kill a hive of bees, Nick insists to the camera that he puts 110% of himself into every challenge. Is he saying that the last challenge didn't happen and it was all a bad dream on my part? Andraé tells Nick as they have breakfast that he doesn't think any of the four guys will be leaving at the end of today because all of their "projects" are "really good". Santino mocks fun of one of the women's design - something about "leaving spaces" - and Dan diplomatically says that anyone can leave at the end of the day. Andraé however insists that he won't be the one going home. So he'll be the one to go home then. Thanks for killing the suspense, editors! Chloe tells Kara that she is worried about her dress and she intends to speed up things and "finish the sucker" in what little time she has left.
Santino's leaves have wilted during the night but he's fine with the situation as he has threaded them all before he left the Sweatshop the night before. Chloe keeps working, saying that she's happy with her design even if she hasn't finished it yet, which she claims is a designer's way of doing things. At about 10:00 am, Tim walks in to tell them to use what time they have until noon to get everything done. The models walk in and coo at the Fashionistas. Chloe tells Grace to get the hair and make-up done first because Chloe still has to work on the dress. Nick tells Rachael to ask for a crown-like hairstyle. Tarah thinks that the dress Santino made will make her itch. Between wedgies and now itches, Tarah seems to have more sensitive skin than most people. Kara hisses to Eden that this dress of hers is not one you can buy at Park Avenue, heh. On with the make-up and hairstyling sessions, where Chloe explains that Grace will wear a skull cap with leaves similar to those used on Chloe's skirt glued on the skull cap. 10:15 am. More last-minute tailoring and what-not for the Fashionistas continue. Chloe worries to the camera that she may not finish the design but she won't blame anyone else for that failing of hers. Dan has to glue flowers on his dress still. Because they are two women against four men, Kara helps Chloe glue leaves to the skirt because, as Kara says, there has to be a woman somehow representing them in the final three. Or else, feminism is dead, I suppose. Nick thinks that he has surprised himself with how good his design turns out and he thinks that the others have come up with great designs too. He predicts that it will be hard to decide who will get cut at the end of the day. Tim comes in to stop all work. Chloe says that she can't finish her dress but she hopes the judges will like it. Even if, you know, Chloe has such high standards for good sewing skills and thinks that the judges did the right thing for cutting Zulema out like that in the previous challenge. Let's add magnanimity to the list of Chloe's long list of positive traits.
Heidi comes out wearing a ghastly asymmetrical white thingie that will be criticized severely if Santino claims to have designed it. After letting her voice-overs do most of her work, Heidi introduces the judges: the Mighty Ogre, Nina, and the design team of Mark Badgely and James Mischka. And with that, the Runway show begins.
Rebecca comes out looking like a she's a balcony with purple flowers growing out of her waist while the ivy creepers dangle down into a skirt. Dan thinks that the dress doesn't look like it's made of plants when it is seen from a distance away. No, of course not. When seen from a distance, Rebecca looks like a window balcony of someone who has gone crazy with the potted plants. Next is Nick's design. This one is simple to describe: think of Zulema's ugly Barbie doll challenge design and imagine it created from leaves. That's Nick's design. Maybe it's a form of payback from Nick: Zulema stole his model, so he'll steal her design! Yucks. Chloe's design is the same dress, just a little longer in the skirt, with leaves glued all over it. How freaking predictable. Next! Santino's design is next and it's... sigh. The same dress, with leaves. The skirt is very beautiful though. NEXT! Andraé is one of the Fashionistas who don't repeat the same design again and again but unfortunately he has to come up with what looks like a stiff wooden dress with moss growing all over it. It's not ugly, it's just unbelievably dull. Kara's dress is next and it's, like she says, beautiful. It actually looks exquisite: a baby doll dress with empire waist with just enough flowers to offset the greenish skirt and top beautifully. Kara has designed babydoll dresses before but this one is clearly different from the other dresses in the past. And it's gorgeous too! And thus concludes this dreadful Runway show, where the challenge is pretty much creating the same dress as the Fashionistas have created so many times before and sticking bits of leaves and some bloody flowers over the dress.
The judges tally their scores and Heidi keeps all the Fashionistas on the Runway. After the models have joined them, the grilling begins. Heidi begins the stupid show by saying that she has imagined them buying "petals of flowers" and sewing them together. Heidi is surprised that everything is green. "Green is the new black," says the Mighty Ogre. Mark asks Nick why Nick doesn't use a different color apart from green. Nick says that things turned out that way because he apparently was picking up green things subconsciously while shopping. Or something. Nina is surprised that the Fashionistas didn't use more flowers because from where she comes from, flowers are dirt cheap. I'm surprised no one tells this dumb cow to go find out for herself how many bloody flowers can she buy with a measley $100. Nick rambles about how he doesn't want to be typecasted as some Paris Hilton fanboy with this design. The Mighty Ogre doesn't think the design is sophisticated. Nick can't say anything to that other than a mere "Okay!" Mark thinks that Chloe's design takes the most time to make and it's "beautiful" and "cloth-like". Maybe because it is cloth underneath with leaves stuck on it? Nina loves it and apparently this show is now Project Gluing Things And Sewing Things Together Nicely because they are all praising her for taking the pains to glue the leaves together on the skirt.
Mark loves Kara's dress the best because it fits well and it's beautiful. "It looks like it's built on a pristine corset and I thought the rafia work at the back was amazing," he says. The Mighty Ogre praises Kara for using her materials well and going wild in the flower market by buying and using interesting things well. The Mighty Ogre thinks that Andraé's design is too simple and it jumps "oddly" from the front of the dress. The dress is stiff, joyless, flat, and makes Danyelle look like a doormat, the Mighty Ogre says. James - oh, he speaks! - says that he likes Dan's design best especially for the colors. Mark loves the proportions. Throughout it all, Dan is nodding his head and going, "Exactly! Yes!" like he's the new Santino. Someone's obviously letting his "success" go to his head, I see. Dan describes the dress as something anyone from twenty to fifty can wear to a garden party. Yeah, if they want to be laughed out of the party. Nina adores everything about Dan's design because it has flowers and she wants flowers. The Mighty Ogre loves Dan's design too. Santino rolls up his eyes when it's his turn in the spotlight. Mark finds some of the leaves used in Santino's dress too plastic or waxy (it's the shellac, but Mark doesn't know that) and they look very synthetic when coupled to the crinoline skirt. Mark believes that some colorful flowers would have softened the artificial edge of the design. Do these judges ever tried buying flowers and other design materials with a total amount of spending money of $100? Nina stupidly repeats what Mark has just said, trying to pass off Mark's comments as her own. She seems to become more bitter yet more silly with each episode. Heidi says that she finds no problems with the dress being so shiny. The Mighty Ogre jokes that it's because she's German. Heidi likes the shiny dress.
Heidi temporarily dismisses the Fashionistas to discuss things with the judges. James believes that no one wants to compete with some of the more adventurous creations of the previous season like Austin's corn husk dress. No, James, it's because nobody can buy so many flowers for $100 and they are supposed to shop in only an orchid store, a general florist, and a gardening supplies store! Do the judges even know the exact nature of this challenge or are they just told that it will be some flower parade on the Runway today? The designs of Chloe, Kara, and Dan are universally praised, with the two you-know-who getting bigger praises than they warrant. The Mighty Ogre praises Chloe for "thinking about a woman's body" when he also claimed that Dan's blimp sack orchid dress that makes the wearer look like a shrunken pumpkin the best thing ever. Do these judges even listen to themselves or are they just pulling random things out of their asses to justify a Dan and Chloe final two? Nick and Andraé are slammed for their designs. James says that Nick said that he wanted to get away from Paris Hilton designs but that dress was something that James found the most "Paris Hilton" by far on the show. The Mighty Ogre has a tendency to flatter, fawn, and agree with the guest judges so it's not surprising that he stupidly announces that there is "a little bit of vulgarity" in all of Nick's designs. Does this overtanned pumpkin listen to what he is saying? Isn't he the same man who praised Nick for his Barbie design? Is that Barbie calypso dress "vulgar"? Andraé's design is agreed to be dull and stiff. Santino... does it matter? They repeat the same old "talented and creative" thing about him again as if they will ever boot him out. Heidi calls an end to this session and brings the Fashionistas back on the Runway.
Because Kara will never be given immunity, the judges declare her, Santino, and Chloe safe while Dan is the winner again. They want Dan to be in the final three, after all. Kara tells the camera that she's glad the judges recognize the good aspects of her design like the details and the texture. Meanwhile, Nina praises Dan for using flowers. Because it's all about the flowers! Dan says that he's glad that he wins again but his heart "goes out" to the designer who is leaving. Um, okay. I'll send him his medal later. It's down to Nick versus Andraé. Andraé isn't so confident now, heh. Nick is in and Andraé is out. Andraé good-naturedly tells Nick that only one person is allowed to cry on the Runway. He is holding himself together very well until he feels that the camera is no longer on him. He then sobs and runs backstage.
Andraé tells the camera that the experience has grounded him and Tim says that Andraé had a strong showing but alas, someone has to go. Andraé adds that he's proud of what he has done and people now know what his designs are like. He will keep designing as he's born to do that. Aw shucks, I'll miss that guy, for his designs which are far less one-note than many of the others and... and... even his orange shorts. Oh well.