America’s Next Top Model 10, Episode 5: Painting By the Numbers

Previously on ANTM, the girls strutted through a runway show, then an edgy photo shoot in a meat plant. Fatima and flaky Amis were in the bottom two and Amis was eliminated.

Fatima opens the show telling us that being in the bottom two was both a surprise and a wake-up call to her. She practices her posing and strange, prancing walk down the runway.

Dominique then tells us all about Dominique. In the third person. It’s annoying. Why on earth do people do that? I just don’t get it. Then my girl, Whitney, gets up to a confessional to mock her, saying that all Dom does is talk.

We then get an interesting piece about Marvita as she interacts with the girls. She’s not exactly a touchy-feely person and doesn’t trust many people. She was raped and molested as a kid so it’s hard for her to warm to people. Claire seems to have good insight on her, as she tells us that Marvita has many layers below her tough outer shell.

The girls are up for their first job for the week where they are taken to an old building. It’s dark, but in the shadows are people posing in different styles of modeling. In the last shadow is Benny Ninja, who is the posing coach, and international model Vendela. In his red kilt, Benny demonstrates the girls the three styles – commercial, catalog, and couture – to give them the idea of how each could look. Now it’s up to them to give it a shot.

He runs through poses with most of the girls and each seems to do a decent job of it. Whitney strikes a sexy catalog pose and Benny calls her “Anna Nicole.” She tells us that since she went blonde, she’s heard that many times. If you squint, you can see the resemblance a little. Marvita flails around and Benny just rolls his eyes. Dominique tells us once again about, you guessed it, Dominique.

Back at the house, the girls are making calls home. There’s a phone list breaking down times for each girl to get her 15 minutes to chat at home. Apparently, Dom didn’t get the memo and is upset she missed her time to talk to her kid. She blames Whitney for it and the catfight starts. The two bicker about nothing, when it gets to the point where, seemingly out of nowhere, Dom calls Whitney a racist. Whoa! What? Whitney says that she is from the south and that her best friend is black. Then dangit, the scene cuts to commercial.

After the commercial, the scene dies down and Dominique stomps off into another room. Well, that was anticlimactic, huh? Knowing the reality gods, something will come of this scene later, I’m sure.

Tyra Mail comes later the next morning, and the girls are carted off to Brooklyn where they meet Vendela again. They’re going to watch some of the best posers around. Posers, not poseurs. These people are amazing the way they contort their bodies in all kinds of ways the body probably shouldn’t work. The girls are divided into two groups where the girls will have a pose off with another member of the other team. Benny will call out styles and the girls will face off with the best pose for that style for points. The winning team will be the one with the most points, and they win a trip to the swag tent, where they will get to sort through all kinds of free stuff. Seems simple, yes?

Up first are Dominique and Claire battling it out. These two girls are working it hard, to the point where Benny calls it a tie. Next are Lauren and Marvita. Lauren gives it her all as she works the poses on the ground, hanging over the ledge and twisting in all sorts of ways. Marvita? Well, she is vacant and posey. Benny even comments that she basically doesn’t have a clue as to what the three styles are. The stark contrast between the two is easily noticeable and Lauren wins this round.

Next up is a battle between the two most annoying voices this cycle – Anya, with her odd accent, and nasally Stacy-Ann. Anya is firing away with her poses, as is Stacy-Ann. This will be a close one, but no, the point goes to Stacy-Ann. The teams are tied back up, 2-2.

Fatima and Whitney are next and the two have a confessional catfight. Fatima calls Whitney one of those girls who was a cheerleader and slept with the entire football team. Whitney tells us that Fatima was all over the place during the challenge, to the point where she nearly put her crotch in Whitney’s face for a pose. That was enough of a crack in bad poses that Whitney takes the lead for her team.

Up last are Aimee and Katarzyna, who, to me, are very much alike, but Katarzyna wins the challenge for her team, which solidly gives them the win, 4-2. Benny announces Claire as the overall posing winner of this challenge.

The swag tent is full of all kinds of freebies normally given to celebrities as giveaways at award shows, such as pink guitars, purses, and sunglasses. Each girls gets a bag loaded full of stuff. But Claire, since she is the challenge winner, gets more. She wins – get this – a trip to Bora Bora. Man, what a great prize! That’s one you see on something like The Amazing Race! That would be a great trip for her and her family later. That’s quite a prize for just posing well, don’t you think?

Back at the house, Fatima starts her condescending ways again during her confessional. (Insert Kari’s eyes rolling here.) She tells us that she’s the only one practicing and the only one who is fighting to be there. She watches as Marvita plays with the other girls and ends up calling her “ghetto,” not to her face, of course, but to us at home. Fatima is more than a little full of herself, don’t you think?

The sun rises on a new day over New York City. Marvita tells us that she’s amazed at the city around her. She’s amazed that she’s here modeling when she knows nothing about it. She’s worried that she’s too ghetto. I wonder to myself if she heard Fatima in the house saying that or if she’s reached her own conclusion.

The girls are taken to a studio for this week’s photo shoot. This week is a close-up shot with paint splattered all over their faces. They have to shine through all the makeup. Sounds interesting enough, huh?