With Victoria the academic gone, the girls were finally down to the Final Ten (a.k.a the time when serious self-analyzation begins).  Saleisha, still reeling from her spot in the Bottom Two (you know – that place she said she’d never be) committed herself to wowing the judges from this point forward.  Lisa – the admitted ‘overthinker’ – kept nitpicking at her problem areas and annoyed Sarah with her insecurity issues.  Meanwhile, Ambreal was feeling confident about her place in the competition.  She knew that she was ‘high up on the list’ and thought this was her time to shine.

And while it wasn’t unusual to hear the ladies make catty comments about one another, it was shocking to have that kind of talk come from introverted Heather.  But give a girl a few weeks in the competition and nasty habits will eventually start rubbing off on her.  Much to Chantal and Bianca’s surprise, Heather openly critiqued her roommates’ flaws.  In addition to pointing out her own physical awkwardness, she said Lisa and Janet both needed help on modeling their bodies.  She also said Ebony ‘needed work all around’ and told Bianca (to her face) that she had to pull her emotions out.  (Apparently Asperger’s Syndrome gives you a set of balls.)

The gals later arrived at a gymnastics facility for their lesson of the week.  It was instructor Benny Ninja’s job to teach them how to ‘pose with movement’.  To practice this concept, the ladies were told to pose mid-air while jumping on a trampoline.  Although most of them struggled to bounce and look pretty at the same time (Lisa basically wimped out altogether), Chantal and Ambreal both got through the lesson with ease.

The next day, the ladies reunited with Benny at an ice rink for their actual challenge.  Their posing skills would once again be put to the test – this time above a solid, frozen ground.  With help from Olympic medalist Lloyd Eisler (a.k.a. actress Kristy Swanson’s slimy baby-daddy), the girls learned how to partner with a male skater.  Their goal was to strike a particular emotion while in a mid-air pose.  Two guest judges were brought in for that day’s challenge:  the Editor-in-Chief of Seventeen magazine and Dani (or Danielle), winner of ANTM/Cycle 6.

While some girls had an easy job with their assigned emotions (Chantal and Bianca simply had to smile pretty to evoke ‘joy’), others found tapping into basic concepts a bit more difficult.  Instead of looking ‘angry’, Janet came off completely lost; Ebony’s ‘sorrow’ was as ‘corny as a cornfield’; and Ambreal’s exaggerated version of ‘joy’ reeked of cheese.  Although she was called clumsy by Bianca, Lisa was chosen the challenge winner.  For her prize, she and two of her friends (Ebony and Janet) won a photo spread with Dani for Seventeen.  Of course, this awesome prize brought out all the haters in the house.  While the ladies were busy doing their shoot, Jenah and Chantal were both predicting Lisa’s exit from the competition.  Later when the trio returned, Bianca tried convincing Lisa her face was breaking out from all the stage makeup.

The next day the ladies met Jay Manuel on the roof of the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.  (Ambreal, who is deathly afraid of heights, freaked out the whole way up.)  For this week’s shoot, the ladies would be dressed as ‘high-fashion gargoyles’.  The set would be staged to make the girls appear like they were on the building’s edge.  In order to appear creature-like, the models would need to make creative use of their limbs.

Although Ebony lacked any personality when she walked on set, she went from ‘dull as dishwater’ to amazing with a quick flip of a switch.  Jay was surprised by how easily she got into character.  On the flip side, Lisa’s tendency to overanalyze got her off to a slow start.  But when she finally let herself go, things turned out great.  (Of course, despite Jay’s assurances,  Lisa still doubted her work afterward.)  Unfortunately, the compliments did not go all around.  Janet, worried that her underwear was showing, couldn’t find a creative angle without major instruction from Jay; Sarah looked like she was serving hamburgers with her poses; Ambreal, still unnerved by the elevation, gave the exact same face in every shot; meanwhile Heather couldn’t break from side-profile comfort zone.

When it came time for the judges’ decisions, Lisa was chosen this week’s double-winner.  Unfortunately, this award only added more fuel to the jealous-raged fire waiting for her back at home.  Those sitting in this week’s Bottom Two were Janet and Ambreal.  The judges thought both girls were beautiful and striking, they just had a problem with what was being put on print.  It didn’t appear that Janet could get through a shoot without a lot of instruction; meanwhile Ambreal’s photos were going downhill.  Luckily for Ambreal, the judges felt she still had potential on solid ground.  LOSER: Janet.

(You can review last week’s episode here.)
(You can read next week’s episode here.)