Episode Recap: Judgment Day

This week, the task is to create a post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic Horseman. Mind-bender, right? To give the challenge a little kick, the artists will be building and judged on their solo individual characters but presenting their macabre teams in two groups of four. Glenn, who designed some creepy figures for 2010's apoco-thriller Legion, tells them to stay true to the essence of War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death, but put their own unique spin on it.

Speaking of unique spins, Nora's Famine will feature barbed wire wrapping through the lips and jaw, immediately telling the story of starvation whilst providing a stark silhouette. But she psychs herself out on how hard it'll be to lay out in clay and spends most of the first day worrying herself into paralysis. Her end-times teammate, Evan, gives her some words of encouragement and she realizes the only thing holding her back is herself. She moves forward at full steam and winds up in Top Looks. Take that, self-doubt!

Kevon is worried about Pestilence (not the plague, but his character). The design turns his Horseman into a giant virus/bacterium cell, and he's worried that it looks too alien. Mr. Westmore agrees that the flagellae around the cowl look much more like alien tendrils than biological warfare agents, so Kevon migrates the tendrils to the mouth area. He thinks it's cool, but the judges put him in Bottom Looks.

Ben, who's also in Bottom Looks, is 99.99% sure he's going home. His personification of War went off the rails in so many ways: his notion to inlay Kevlar in the musculature was much more difficult than he anticipated, so it turns out sloppy; the paint he laid down is looking more cartoonish than intimidating; and before all of that, his face sculpt is a poofy mass of confusion. He's pretty much accepted that this will be his last time on the reveal stage, which is why he almost breaks his neck doing a double-take when Glenn calls Kevon's name. Really, the surprise almost gave him whiplash.

By contrast, Kevon is totally at peace with the ruling. He's so proud to have come this far and grateful for all the growing he's done as an artist by being in this competition.

Circling back to the fave looks this week, Nora's detailed scratch marks along the hairline as well as the unique design with the barbed wire really impress the judges. Evan took a risk with Death in putting the bone structure above the musculature; you know how these judges LOVE anatomy (Ooh! So good!), so messing with this could have cost him the whole thing. Instead, he walks away with his second Top Look in a row, and another win! It's the fuel he needs to push through these final few challenges.