Episode Recap: Cosmic Conspiracy

As the contestants are guided through a corn maze, they're pretty wary of what could happen out here in the sticks. But when they see McKenzie standing next to a row of black leather briefcases, she tells them to look around - they're standing in the middle of a crop circle. This is one of those mysterious formations theorized to be a distress signal from alien races. That can only mean one thing for the artists this week: They're making aliens.

Two by two, they randomly choose a briefcase that contains an image of a crop circle along with a potential interpretation. Corinne & Niko get "We need water," Chloe & Graham get "Gravity is Changing," George & Bethany get "Polluted Toxic Environment," Cat & Matt get "Our Sun is Dying," Daran & Tanner get "Ice Caps Melting," Tess & Daniel get "Overcome with Disease," and Rashaad & Tyler get "Global Famine." These last guys are totally stoked to work together and decide that their race are gluttons, lying to their rescuers about needing food. In contrast to their flyaway pace, Cat & Matt can't decide what design they should move forward on. They eventually go with a large-eared, sun-scorched creature, but when Mr. Westmore does his walk-through, he has them to a pretty strong redesign. He also warns them not to go too dark with their skin painting.

Tess and Daniel decide on a fungus-infested creature and move forward smoothly. Bethany and George feel fairly confident in their concept and are good teammates to each other. Tanner and Daran decide that since their creature's planet is flooded, they'll have filtration systems where they eat: on their fingers. Daran also takes the calculated risk of molding silicone glands to place on top of the foam face prosthetic. Graham is pleased to be working with Chloe, who won last week, but when she loses time being indecisive about how to make their wrist weights for their expanding-gravity alien, he has a hard time holding his frustration in.

They needn't have worried, however - their team is safe this week. In bottom looks are Cat & Matt, whose indecision over a paint job resulted in a muddy blend that hid their sculpt, and George and Bethany, whose face sculpt came out jagged, and whose cowl ripped at the last moment. The judges, joined this week by writer/producer/director Scott Stewart, find Bethany's face sculpt most lacking in strong design, and so she is sadly sent home.

The top teams this week were Tanner & Daran and Corinne & Niko. They believe Corinne's leadership really led to the strong visual storytelling of a parched planet, and she wins the top spot this week.