Episode Recap: The Gauntlet

Episode Recap: The Gauntlet

In a Face Off first, the artists must compete in three intense rounds of Foundation Challenges.

"If it is a fight to the death they want, it is a fight to the death they will get," says Nora after hearing that this week will be a series of three back-to-back challenges known as ... THE GAUNTLET. The cumulative score of all challenges will determine who stays … and who gets eliminated. Stage 1 has the artists outfitting models with a makeup of exposure either to extreme heat or extreme cold, and it's nose icicles and chapped lips all around the lab …

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… except at Jasmine's station, as she might have misunderstood the term "exposure" and accidentally designed a makeup where the character was “exposed” to an exotic poison. Oops! It's still a good makeup, though, and when the leaderboard comes up, she sees that she placed sixth out of nine contestants. Not bad … but not good. Nora and Jordan were the top two, with Nora-to-the-Death snagging first place for her realistic and just plain creepy frostbite makeup.

Evan, Stevie and Kevon are the bottom three (in that order) and Kevon uses his embarrassment to ratchet himself forward in Stage 2 of Crazy Pants Challenge Week. A fresh wave of models comes crashing into the lab, already outfitted with stock prosthetics that the artists have to paint. Kevon takes every critique the judges gave him in Stage 1 and wins Stage 2! Jasmine's fun-loving alien misses the mark with Glenn (bear in mind, he doesn't love fun) but Ve digs it, so Jasmine's steady rockin' sixth place. Evan was far too conservative and finds himself ranked rock bottom, making him one cranky artist.

After a night of sleep (or anxiety, as the case may be), everyone's back in the lab for Stage 3 … along with every model EVER. How are they going to make something for all of these faces? It's cray! The challenge, to be completed in a mere five hours, is to create one "hero" makeup (basically a main character) and two "background" makeups based on either Witches & Warlocks, Angels or Goblins. Evan's cranky pants get no cheering up when he gets the Angels category but he flips the script and makes a fallen angel hero makeup that totally stuns the judges. His choice of prosthetic and color scheme are engaging, and the two background characters have so much variation that he soars to first place for Phase 3!

Another Top Look is Nora, who delivered a ton of coverage in an itty bitty amount of time. Since she ranked high for the past two stages, she's the overall winner of the first-ever Face Off Gauntlet. A fight to the death, indeed! Stevie also came through with her Pimp Goblin and Ho-blins, but since her ranking was low in the previous two stages, she faces elimination along with Meg and Jasmine. Meg's hero witch featured a ghastly third eye and was just not as strong as one of her background makeups, and Jasmine –- who also did a fallen angel motif –- went past the point of no return with her gold makeup to a land that's way too shiny for mortal eyes.

Because of her low ranking in the previous two stages, Jasmine goes home tonight, but Neville tells her how inspirational her work has been and that they're all truly sad to see her go.