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Episode Recap: Imaginary Friends
The artists bring a whimsical creature to life based on a child's description of their imaginary companion.
Things are getting pretty serious around here. Maybe a little too serious … it's time for everyone to go to the playground and just get SILLY. And McKenzie has brought in some experts in silliness: children! The kids will pick an artist and tell them all about their imaginary friends, which the artists will then create! It should be a fun challenge, since the imaginations on these geniuses are out of control – and the contestants aren't so bad, either!
Ben is chosen by Blayne, whose imaginary friend has three heads, no legs, big wings and always flies wherever he goes. Ben tries to remind Blayne that the model will have to walk onstage, to which Blayne replies, "Nope."
Darla is frantically trying to keep up with everything Jordan, her muse, rattles off about her imaginary friend, and seems to get the important parts: diamond for a head, sparkly pink dress, diamonds everywhere.
Logan is really excited to be working with Alexandra, but his prayers that she'll say her imaginary friend is a monster go unanswered: she is a mermaid with a tail full of glowing, pink hearts. When Logan gets to the lab and starts fabricating this tail, Rayce tells him plainly that it's ugly ... which it is, but that's mean. But then Rayce helps him fix it, so that's nice.
Laura is a little worried about Julian, who's trying to make a zombie breakdancer named B-Boy Z, per the vision of his client, Andrew. The pulsing heart and decaying face Andrew described take it away from the Kid-Friendly portion of the challenge, but Julian is so not down with the whimsy and it's a real stretch for him to get into that realm.
Adam's client, Lance, described a fire-breathing monster named Godzilla who shoots lasers out of his eyes and has enormous wings. Adam offers the possibility of not having wings, and also of naming him Lazor instead (ya know, copyrights n' all). Lance is so down. Adam moves forward with a concept of a toy-eating monster who grows larger with every stolen toy. His plan is to fabricate a lower jaw spanning the model's entire chest and an upper jaw fabricated onto the head piece so that the model can operate the mouth by nodding his head up and down. It's a huge concept, literally and figuratively – if he can pull it off, it'll be legendary, but if not, he'll go down in flames.
Emily loves the notion of this challenge, but this week her homesickness kicks in something fierce. She's crying while sculpting – or, sculpt-crying, as it's becoming known – and has to take a break outside to collect herself. Laura checks in on her and reminds her of that precious Face Off life lesson: if it wasn't a challenge, it wouldn't be worth it when you won. It also wouldn't be worth one hundred thousand dollars, as Emily herself says after getting back on that horse.
The contestants and imaginary friends are joined on the reveal stage by all the kids, who are practically exploding with joy and delight at all the cool creatures parading around. When it seems like they might burst with excitement, McKenzie ushers them out and the judges take a closer look. They love the clean, planar lines and crushed diamond collar in Darla's makeup, and Adam's Lazor was a real "jaw-dropper." His is the look they can't get enough of – he blended the dreams of the kid with his own skill and personal style, and kept an eye out for what the judges would be looking for. He wins his first Spotlight Challenge this week and is pumped to be in such a strong spot going into the final five.
In Bottom Looks is Julian, who wound up in what Neville calls a "design purgatory" – it wasn't the outlandish vision Andrew had described, nor was it whimsical and innocent, like so many of the other makeups. Ben was also on Bottom Looks, having taken on way too much imaginary friend for one man to tackle: of the three heads (three!), none were really sculpted or painted to a level they should be, and the body, though impressive in its scope, was lackluster. The competition is so fierce at this point that it is enough to send him home.
Unfortunately, since Ben was his last team member, that means that Anthony is also going home. He hopes he has been able to teach something to every member of his team and the judges wish him a fond farewell, knowing they'll see him again soon.
