Cycle 2, Episode 5: "The Girl Who Is a Visual Orgasm"
We open this week on the show trying to fit everyone’s backstory in at once.
Shandi’s a shy Walgreens clerk trying to stand out!
Sara’s dad thinks she’s a prostitute for wanting to be a model!
Everyone hates Camille’s bad attitude!
Mercedes has lupus!
April and Camille are sitting at the table discussing the struggle of being not-white in the modeling industry. As a white guy, I will not comment on much or share my perspective. Because why does my opinion on race matter in this situation?? But it is a much different time now than it was in 2004.
April says this to Camille and I feel … uncertain.
Tyra comes over and does a “one-on-one” with each of the contestants. I want a one-on-one! And not just with Tyra. I guess that’s kind of just therapy but without the chance to win a modeling contract at the end.
The contestants then go to a “personality coach”, which I would also love. They do an exercise where everyone circles adjectives to describe each other. This sounds terrifying to me, especially with a group of my co-workers or even worse, other gays.
This is what the other models said about Sara.
And Camile
Their next assignment is to tell a story about themselves by describing a person they love.
Put a pin in this for Shandi.
Miss J comes over and brings a psychic!
I got into psychics a little bit during the pandemic. I spoke with three and had varying levels of accuracy and overall experience. One PROMISED me I would find my soulmate by the end of summer 2021. I’M STILL WAITING!!
The psychic tells Mercedes she’s physically — but not mentally — tired . Obvi it’s her LUPUS!! She’s still not ready to open up about it.
The psychic tells April she’s determined to be a top model and will be one. More to come on that.
Shandi has lot of addictive behavior in her family. No one in her family hugs her! She even refers to them as “a lot of isolated and lonely souls”, which sounds very sad.
In the fourteenth leg of this episode, the models then meet with Janice, who looks great. Much better than on panel.
She goes right in with the questions.
Shandi comes clean with her past. Apparently, she did drugs and was arrested for robbery.
Mercedes decides this is her chance to finally open up.
Because of her honesty, she wins the challenge and a shopping spree. She chooses to share her prize with Sara.
This week’s photoshoot is one of the coolest. They’re doing an underwater shoot for Quench water. What is that??
Nolé Marin is this week’s resident gay at the fashion shoot. He shows up, holds his gay dog and gives good talking heads like this:
Nolé becomes a permanent judge for the show in later seasons. I thought he was at least in his 40s then. He was 35!! Fun facts: he’s also been sued for sexual harassment and declared bankruptcy.
After the photoshoot, Mercedes and Sara get the second part of their mini-challenge prize: a visit from their white moms!
And of course Tyra had to bring in her mom (Miss Carolyn) too. She’s the one who took Tyra’s first photos for agencies and put her on a plane to Paris when she was 17.
There were a lot of bad photos this week.
Xiomara
Sara
Shandi
Catie has hands down the best photo in terms of her body position. I still don’t think it’s great overall.
And I don’t mind Yoanna’s photo, but Eric did not like it.
Xiomara ends up getting eliminated. We will miss her scarf/shirt that she wore as much as possible.
I think in the end it was her time to go.
Since being eliminated, Xiomara now goes by just Xiomi. She became a dermatology nurse and injects Botox/Filler/PRP/Sculptra/Kybella in Orange County. She looks great.
Her husband is a plastic surgeon, which I’m sure doesn’t hurt. Apparently she was on an episode of “Real Housewives of Potomac”. We wish Xiomi well.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you back here for Cycle 2, Episode 6. Follow along by watching the episodes on Amazon Prime or Hulu if you like commercials. If you’re not already, be sure to subscribe to get added to my newsletter.
Fierce and love,
P
ROFL at "I’M STILL WAITING!!" Love the combination of commentary, factual updates, and addition of your personal stories.