(I know, I know, it's about five days late and there's another stupid episode airing tomorrow night, but I felt the need to recap ANTM if only for consistency's sake.)
I've spoken before about my Thing About Twins, my conviction that they're always telepathically plotting the death of everyone around them. But while Michelle and Amanda have been sweet and kind (regardless of what they were truly thinking), I can't help but wonder if perhaps my dear CariDee has unexpectedly picked up an evil twin. Maybe she's like Niki in Heroes, only her undead doppelganger isn't beating up gangsters, she's making CariDee look like a right idiot. Let's call this dark half CariDum.
This isn't the first time we've encountered CariDum; I like to think she was the one stinking up last week's horrible commercial in Catalan. This week, CariDum makes out on a balcony with a Spanish male model (while, presumably, CariDee chats with her boyfriend on the phone).
The go-see challenge went fine for CariDee and Eugena, but the twins -- the actual twins -- were hamstrung. Bless their hearts, they're not the most linguistically oriented girls on the volleyball team, and Amanda in particular seemed to struggle with the map. Melrose aced it, of course. I'm starting to notice that CariDee and Michelle tend to win the challenges that are based on raw talent, but Melrose manages to clean up on the challenges that require lots of effort. She's the Salieri to CariDee's Mozart, working her ass off but still not able to approach the genius of the wild child she envies and admires. Or I could be overthinking it.
But, as with Mozart, CariDee is often her own worst enemy. Take what happened at this week's photo shoot: when photographer/judge Nigel Barker was handling a stick, CariDum asked if he had taken it out of his ass from the last panel. Several mid-Atlantic states heard me yell "D'oh!" from the couch Wednesday night when she said that. Of course, while it was a bone-stupid thing to say, Nigel's response of petulantly stalking off was more than a little bit ridiculous. Not as ridiculous as the sight of Jay Manuel in a matador costume, though:
But I would say that Nigel's pouting was less ridiculous than the panel's elimination of Michelle. Both Nigel and Jay praised Michelle's innovative posing in her last 20 frames; one of them even used the word "genius." But then Tyra ousts her because she doesn't want it enough?
I'm also getting a slight whiff from Tyra's effusive praise of Eugena's photo. Now, don't get me wrong. This is a great photo, and I'm quite impressed by the pose.
But I get the feeling that we're being prepped for a major underdog victory for Eugena, and that is just not going to fly. She's starting to turn out competent photos, but in person, Eugena still looks ragged. If Tyra is going to try to sell us on the idea that Eugena has a brighter future in modeling than CariDee or even Melrose, she's got her work cut out for her.
Tomorrow night, it looks like Melrose experiences the inevitable meltdown that strikes all Type A folks sooner or later, and CariDee... gets cold in a pool. Damn, this show is desperate for some drama, isn't it?
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