America’s Next Top Model 18, Episode 4: Get It Together and Go!

Our episode starts off with a quick recap of Louise’s dramatic exit last week, and reminding us that the Americans now lead the Brits six to five. We next get to see Team USA open their gift for AzMarie winning Best Photo. Poor Candace recaps her photo shoot from last week. Despite the criticism, Candace believes something good can happen for her here.

Time for Tyra mail. “Can you translate your super powers into super sales?” The models sleep on that question. The next day they head off to meet J. Alexander and Martin Lindstrom, back after his previous appearance on Cycle 17. Martin is a businessman who has vast knowledge about branding and becoming a brand yourself.

Martin introduces their challenge by talking about models who are successful in their endorsing and branding, using Angelina Jolie as an example. According to Martin, if you do it right, “Gold will keep coming in.” Their challenge is simple – develop a TV commercial.

Each model will receive a product she must endorse in a brief commercial –selling her personality first. J. Alexander shows the models what the challenge winner will receive which is… A set of diamond bracelets! The girls seem a little over-excited, but hey, to each his own. Not only will she win one for herself, but also for her teammates.

The models line up in front of pink boxes to see what product they’ll be endorsing. Products include hand sanitizer, facial tissue, and hair dryers.

Sophie and the other Brits are up first, with Sophie endorsing her edible hand sanitizer and uses her personality to carry her through the awkward stint. Alisha and Catherine are up after her, showing a silent hair dryer and a TV dinner. Ashley gets to sell scented toilet paper. Annaliese has a Universal Remote Control with built-in work-out weight! Martin loves Annaliese’s shoot.

Now for Team USA to present their products.

Seymone is up to endorse vitamins. AzMarie shows glow-in-the-dark tissue and Laura gets to talk about antibacterial trash bags. After Laura, Kyle is up to promote breath mints that whiten your teeth. Her shoot is pretty awkward and uncomfortable, even though Martin says people will respond to her personality. Eboni endorses her product, but really simply endorsers herself, talking about how pretty she is. Lastly, Candace talks about her item: coffee. Turns out, it is coffee that freshens your breath.

Here comes the first twist of the episode. Martin and J. will not be the judges; instead actual, real people will judge! The girls go to a room to watch the consumers react to their videos. Kinda cool, eh?

The 10 volunteers making up the focus group walk into the viewing room and the commercials begin. The focus group starts criticizing everything! They all hated AzMarie’s commercial, saying her tattoos are a distraction. Laura is “too ghetto” for the group. Catherine was “messy” and the group didn’t like Alisha’s, ahem, “African” accent.

Finally, Seymone is given positive feedback, along with Sophie. Annaliese was “brilliant” in their eyes. Even though Kyle thought her own commercial was rough, the consumers actually loved Kyle’s breath mint commercial, finding her very relatable.

Drama sets in immediately after the focus group ends. Models are hatin’ on Kyle, mostly due to jealousy. Kyle can’t take it. Her doubt sets in and she asks herself if she truly can stay in the competition. She’s over it. Oh, great. Another person wants to quit…

After Kyle rushes out of the room J. Alexander encourages her, telling Kyle she should not go home.

The models join J. and Martin again to hear the results of the challenge. The focus group liked Annaliese, Kyle, and Sophie the best. The winner of this challenge is… Annaliese! Martin tells Annaliese the focus group said she could sell them anything.

The models head back home to listen to some more Tyra mail. They are told to prepare for a bumpy ride.

Kyle heads to one of the British telephone booths. (Those still make me chuckle.) She calls her mom and sort out the doubts she has about staying. Kyle’s mom tells her to sleep on the decision and decide after that. As Kyle heads to bed, the other models react to her possibly leaving, telling us she needs to “Get her $#!+ together and GO!” Good thing all these models are so encouraging to each other…

The next day the models leave the house and arrive on set, which turns out to be an empty parking lot. Sophie thinks it looks a lot like the set of the car racing in Grease. Jay Manuel and Nigel Barker – their photographer for the shoot – meet the models, talking about the photos they’ll be taking – a photo shoot including fantastic British hats from Phillip Treacy and classic American cars.

Hair and make-up is here and the photo shoot begins. AzMarie is up first (and looks mighty fine, if I may interject). In the words of Nigel, she looks “gorge.” Catherine is next and follows Jay’s direction extremely well. Gammatronica, I mean, Alisha, continues to play up her legs, as her gams are what Tyra says is her super power.

Kyle is up next for her photo shoot. She rocks it and gets a thumbs-up from Jay, as even the other models acknowledge how well she is doing. Ashley gets it done quickly because her photo shoot goes so well. Seymone’s up, but is so disconnected Nigel has to stop the photo shoot. Nigel gives her direction and it looks like pulling teeth for him.

Annaliese is up next and to sum her time with Nigel and Jay I’ll say one word: Yes. Imagine a photographer saying “yes” to a model – that was her feedback. You go, girl! Laura completely sells her soul to the photo shoot. She even gets down on the ground for several of her photos, which resonates with Nigel a lot.

When Candace walks up to the set, Mr. Jay says she looks like she could be in Vogue. But, even though she looks great, Nigel is a little upset with the shoot. Candace doesn’t give him any “What’s next?” moments – it’s just one look over and over. Sophie’s shows up, ready to rock the shoot. Sophie’s shoot isn’t perfect and Nigel almost ridicules her for wasting their time. Eboni tells us she has no desire to embrace her super power (“30-never”) in this shoot, but wants to be herself instead. Her shoot is fabulous!

The models head back to the mansion and Kyle is packing her suitcase… She doesn’t want to be there if someone wants to be there more. Again, like I said last week, quitting is so selfish – think about everyone who you beat out to be there!

It’s time for judges’ panel. Tonight’s judges are Kelly Cutrone, Nigel Barker, J. Alexander, and (of course), Tyra. After reminding the models of the prizes, Tyra starts the judging. Sophie is up first. She gets very mixed reviews, hearing she is disconnected and needs to fix her posing. Eboni is up next and, sadly, J. Alexander makes fun of her lazy eye… That’s mean.

Tyra goes back to Eboni and how she looks so young. Tyra thinks that’s a great thing since the fashion industry loves young right now. Catherine is up, and they tell her she is not sexy enough. The cars are so sexy, so it doesn’t fit. Alisha walks up to hear from Tyra (who still loves her legs). Tyra says she has her prettiest face yet in the photo, even though J. Alexander makes fun of Alisha’s toes hanging out of her shoe.

The judges tell Seymone her photo reeks of mediocrity. The judges love her photo (ironic, right?!), even though they’re not crazy about her demeanor at panel herself. Ashley took Nigel to another era – in a good way! Not sure what that means, but he seems excited about it. The judges next tell Candace her face is exactly the same every single time. She’ll need to fix that if she wants to move on. Laura gets to hear how much Nigel loved taking photos of her. Tyra loves Laura’s pose on the ground.

The judges advise Annaliese that she needs to look taller in her photos. However, Tyra compliments Annaliese for using her facial muscles, something Tyra has been teaching models since Cycle 1. Lastly, AzMarie’s photo draws a huge number of compliments from the judges. Tyra even tells her that her pose looks like it was animated on a computer – not human.

After the judges deliberate, the models are called back to the runway to hear who will stay and who will go. First up, and the winner of this challenge is… AzMarie! Two weeks in a row! Get it! In order Tyra calls Laura, Kyle, Catherine, Annaliese, Eboni, Alicia, and Ashley. (Side note: When Tyra calls Kyle up the other models seem upset and confused that her photo was better, even though she doesn’t care about being there.)

This leaves three models: Sophie, Seymone, and Candace.

Sophie is asked to stay, leaving Seymone and Candace to face Tyra.

The photo Tyra pulls is of…

Seymone!

The two models hug, but Candace is clearly heartbroken. Her confessionals reveal her true feelings about leaving while Kyle, someone who almost walked out, is still in the house. Candace even tells Tyra that someone was thinking about quitting. Tyra points out that, whoever it was, she didn’t quit. Tyra reveals she thought about quitting and going home when she lived in a model apartment in Paris and another model was being really mean to her.

I like Kyle and hope she can get through this. I think she has a great personality and I sure hope she decides to stay.

As for now, that’s a wrap! See y’all next week!

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