Episode Recap: Lost Languages

When Mr. Rogers told you you could be anything when you grew up, he meant EH-NEE-THIN-GUH. ANYTHING. You could be a hot air balloonist, or a sandwich artist, or the guy who invents the Dothraki language for Game of Thrones. Except now you can't be that last guy, because his name is David Peterson -- he's the guest judge this week, and he's invented several language samples around which our fearless artists will create a character.

But first! They must enter a dusty ruin atop a hillside and choose an artifact that goes along with that made-up alien babble. Because, drama. David tells them to listen carefully, for the whole of the culture is wrapped up in the clicks, pops, and hisses they'll hear. Mel and Kaleb hear an inhale and an exhale in their language sketch and know this creature must need extra respiratory power to get those words out. They go with a serpentine shape and add a workable air bladder in the throat so everyone can see just how this language gets made. Uh, yeah, it's a Top Look, no biggie. Second time in a row Mel's been on top. Whatevs.

Robert and Johnny are confounded by their language's clicks. The artifact depicts a deep sea creature, so they figure ... squid? Those have beaks that might make a click, right? They envision a mighty squid cowl with several boss tentacles, but those very tentacles wind up being the boss of them -- they won't sit in the mold right, and then they won't come out. By the time Robert and Johnny concede to the power of the tentacle, they've lost a lot of time and have to throw down paint like they're putting out a fire. And their squid kind of looks like a burn victim. And they're kind of getting burned by the judges. We'd stop with the 'burn' puns, but … we're on fire.

Ant and Njoroge have a ray gun and some whispers to work with, so that seems like a pretty strong candidate for a retro-looking amphibian alien. Mr. Westmore worries that the big-eared, big-eyed froggy dude is too cartoony, so they tone down the eye shape and rework the cowl. Still, he's kind of a silly sight, especially next to the vipers and panthers all around him. Ant's bright green paint job, which Njoroge tries but fails to tone down, doesn't help matters ... unless you're Njoroge, because the paintjob sends Ant home, meaning Njoroge gets to stay.

Melissa and Katie are in love with their Goddess of Death, an angelically beautiful crone with wings of scars on her back. Mr. Westmore was floored by it, too, saying he'd never seen anything like it. Walter and Rob churn out an intimidating chief of cats and slayer of wolves that all but convinces us to follow him into war. But it's Anna and Yvonne's creation, a despotic, self-declared god, that takes the other top spot and earns the win for Yvonne. Her meticulously sculpted cowl –- and the shimmery, multifaceted paint job that ornaments it –- captures the judges' imaginations. After two weeks on Bottom Looks, Yvonne is FEELING herself on this win! 

And speaking of two weeks in a row, this is the second week Anna's partner won the challenge.

… KINGMAKER?!?!