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Celebrating 1,000 NCIS-franchise episodes

S10.E07: The Gauntlet III

ElectricBoogaloo

By ElectricBoogaloo
in Face Off [V]

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Lorimac

Lorimac

(edited)

OK , I know this is not Project Runway, but I have to say McKenzie is rocking that dress, and , please note - it is knee length and has sleeves! This proves she can look great in something other than a super mini sheath. Go girl!

Post commercial break - um, well....

Well, good episode!!!

Edited by Lorimac
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Rhetorica

Rhetorica

Yeah, The Gauntlet! This episode really separated the wheat from the chaff. Even though they all stepped up to the challenge, I agree with the choice of the four that continued to to last stage. Anna's I've already forgotten... I thought Yvonne's was the best, nice and cohesive. I just didn't care for Mel's, correct anatomy or not. Kaleb didn't meet the objective and should have gone home. Good episode!

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Frozendiva

Frozendiva

Having Internet connection issues this evening.

 

I thought Yvonne's look was the best of the week. Didn't really care for Mel's. It reminded me of thrown red cherry jello. Maybe it looked better in person. *shrugs*  I am getting a bit tired of her self-doubt each episode (I'm going to go home!)

 

Both the bottom looks could have been eliminated. No use for the special 'save' yet.

 

Robert the Strange lives to see another challenge.

 

The night on the town seemed a bit cheesy. Maybe send the Face-testants where they want to go! Not a dinner at a fancy restaurant. I do wonder if any of the contestants have any real connection with the other competitors.

  • Love 2
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Maelstrom

Maelstrom

Agree that Yvonne should've won this one - her makeups were not only a cohesive look, but presented an interesting silhouette, both separately and as a group. Mel irks me for some reason that I can't be bothered to put my finger on.

I really appreciated that Kaleb tried to think outside of the box with his concept, but he just didn't pull it together.

Robert still annoys. Glad Melissa (?) and Rob each won a stage, they seem like the best of the lot. Had to chuckle at seeing them show up to that fancy restaurant in the limo wearing flannels and jeans. I guess formal dinner wear wasn't in the list of things to bring.

Glad to see them bring this challenge back, even though we didn't get to see the most talented (imo) contestants show their stuff in the final round.

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mlp

mlp

I guess I don't know anything about successful makeups because I thought the two that won the first round were the worst of that lot and I didn't like Mel's at all.  I liked Robert's and Yvonne's the best.

 

I like McKenzie a lot and think she's lovely but that short, pale blue dress she had on before stage 3 was godawful.  All I could focus on was her wrinkly knees.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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When they told the first round winners that they were being sent out to dinner, I thought huh, I wonder if Melissa and Walter like each other because if not, that will be a super awkward dinner. It made me glad that they ended up sending the second round winners to dinner too. Four people means more opportunity for conversation.

 

Caleb deserved to be eliminated. The challenge is this, so I'm going to do the opposite. I mean, seriously. How did he think what he did fulfilled the challenge? When he said he was afraid that the judges wouldn't understand his concept, I just rolled my eyes. If none of them understand it, you either had a crappy concept or you didn't do a very good job executing it.

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HunterHunted

HunterHunted

I'm feeling more impressed by Rob every week, I think he's going to at least be in the finale.

I agree. He has serious talent that took a while to show itself.

It's funny to come here and post. I thought Mel was hands down the clear winner of stage three. I have actually taken an anatomy lab with cadavers. It's insane how good hers looked with only 4 hours to work on it.

  • Love 6
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Thog

Thog

 

I thought Mel was hands down the clear winner of stage three.

I agree completely. At first I didn't understand what she was doing, but when I saw the result it was so simple and realistic that it gave me chills.

 

It's kind of a shame that the stronger contestants got to sit out the more complex tasks, because I would have loved to see what they came up with.

 

I laughed out loud when Glenn called Robert a weird dude. Pot, meet kettle.

  • Love 7
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Monty9

Monty9

"I do wonder if any of the contestants have any real connection with the other competitors."

 

Even though they are competitors they are hanging out with a bunch of people who love the same thing they do. When I go to my work conferences I may not be able to be best friends forever with everyone there but there is something in that we all know what Epidemiology is, and that there is another famous Jon Snow who does not live in Westeros.

 

Yay for Melissa for doing a good job and not whining about doing an ethnic makeup.

 

Anyone else suspect that Caleb might have been saved had he only 1. Had the one model wear white "blind"  contacts and 2. Actually covered the other model's mouth? Otherwise he and the other person both had execution issues.

 

I'm glad the extras explained how the German word for Dishwasher got into Robert's head. Glenn doesn't strike me as someone who is weirded out easily but Robert did it.

 

Yvonne's overall look was better but the fruit basket/potted plant on top of the female model's head was distracting. Her backstory was a bit muddled as well (Ex-Torturer ghosts? )

 

 

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sourpickles

sourpickles

Now THAT was a good episode. Mel and Yvonne for sure had the best two looks, and I did think Y. was going to get it, but I'm ok with Mel. This really showed what everyone could, and could not, do. Kaleb was the right choice to go home. I don't think even he totally grasped his concept. I hope this lights a fire under everyone's ass, since next week looked interesting as well. Let's get this season going, finally. I loved when they all got out of the car in casual clothes. You kind of knew that was going to happen. I actually thought they were going to throw them right into a trap and make it another challenge, and was kind of bummed when they didn't. McKenzie looked gorgeous as always, not many women can wear the colors and patterns that she pulls off, but I did hate that one short fluffy skirt. No one over 18 should wear that. Or maybe 16. I don't care how good the legs are, it just looks wrong.

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Ketzel

Ketzel

(edited)

Glad to see them bring this challenge back, even though we didn't get to see the most talented (imo) contestants show their stuff in the final round.

Yeah, I wish the Gauntlet worked in reverse. All you'd need would be an interesting prize for the last one standing, and then you could eliminate the weakest work on each round rather than the strongest.

I had to sigh at Caleb on his way out the door, spouting the old lament "I wasn't ready to be eliminated. I wish I had more time to show the judges what I could really do." I always want to ask those contestants, "What prevented you from showing the judges what you could really do in the X number of challenges you already had?"

Edited by Ketzel
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LoneHaranguer

LoneHaranguer

 

I had to sigh at Caleb on his way out the door, spouting the old lament "I wasn't ready to be eliminated. I wish I had more time to show the judges what I could really do." I always want to ask those contestants, "What prevented you from showing the judges what you could really do in the X number of challenges you already had?"

I think what they're saying is that they have one thing (they think) they can do really well, but it didn't fit any of the challenges so far. In old seasons, some contestants would bend challenges to suit their talent, but the judges have caught on that not doing what was asked means they couldn't do what was asked.

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needschocolate

needschocolate

Agree that Yvonne should've won this one - her makeups were not only a cohesive look, but presented an interesting silhouette, both separately and as a group. Mel irks me for some reason that I can't be bothered to put my finger on.

 

Is it because everything is always "overwhelming" and "not what I normally do" and "outside my comfort zone" and she always thinks she is "going to go home this week"?

 

When they told the first round winners that they were being sent out to dinner, I thought huh, I wonder if Melissa and Walter like each other because if not, that will be a super awkward dinner. It made me glad that they ended up sending the second round winners to dinner too. Four people means more opportunity for conversation.

 

However, one of those four was Robert, who, it seems to me, tries too hard to be unusual.  I am starting to think he is exaggerating his accent to add to the quirky/clever/creepy character he is trying to play.  

  • Love 2
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diebartdie

diebartdie

I did not love this challenge. I like it so much more when the artists have 2 or more days to really get into it. Having said that, I was really impressed with Mel's final creations. Yes, she is almost as annoying as Robert but IMO she is the better artist.  Robert can take his "weird for the sake of being weird" shtick home now. Cutie pie Rob is my current fave.

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Mabinogia

Mabinogia

I guess I liked the work done on the winning look, like, it was impressive skill, but I just couldn't get beyond thinking, why would you tear up your forehead to cover your eyes or peel back your cheeks to cover your ears? And don't get me started on that bloody surgical mask looking thing over the speak one. So yeah, not really that impressed. I liked the one who used the bald cap over the mouth best I guess, but when you eliminate the strongest players before the final round you're going to get the least impressive final round so overall the gauntlet concept doesn't work for me.

 

Robert annoys the crap out of me. I am tired of his schtick. I'm so unimpressed with most of them that I barely know who is who. So far not the best season of this usually very good show.

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Maelstrom

Maelstrom

I'm trying to remember when they did the Gauntlet last year, all contestants competed in all three rounds, right? IIRC, didn't they award points after each round depending on how well each contestant did - i.e. 3 points for top looks, 2 points for safe, 1 point for bottom - and at the end of the whole shebang the person with the most points won. That worked so much better than excusing the most talented competitors before they got to the most challenging part. I wonder why they changed it (for the worse) this year?

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micat

micat

I thought Mel's final three showed a extremely strong concept, executed very well for the time constraints. Some of the coolest work I've seen on the show, IMO. I didn't think the speak-no-evil model sold Mel's concept at all, though. The model was playing a straightforwardly terrified person, as one might expect if, say, the concept was that these three woke up from terrible nightmares to find themselves hideously disfigured in real life or something. But the concept was that they were priests who had disfigured themselves to demonstrate their faith. So why would she be terrified like that? It seemed to me like the concept called for more of a serenity and strength even through terrible pain type of thing.

 

I thought it was weird to declare a winner at the end (as others have said), when one hadn't been declared for either of the first two challenges. Out of these four losers, you win, Mel.

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hincandenza

hincandenza

This was a straightforward way of figuring out who should leave because they really couldn't do anything. It was a waste of screen time to mention the save.

Y'know, I came here to gripe about the structure of this season's Gauntlet being poor game design, but this is a pretty good explanation: it's not a cumulative score, it's a filter.  On the other hand- because gripers gonna gripe- the structure of the first Gauntlet was superior, IMO.  By having weighted cumulative scores, you basically see how people handle different tasks while not overly rewarding or penalizing any one skill.  The best will still rise to the top, and the worst will be pitiful through all three rounds.  I don't recall the episode well enough to know if Kaleb was at the bottom of the lot in the first two rounds, or if it was only the poor concept for the final round that sent him home.  Essentially, with 8 people left, they had two very simple 2 hour challenges where the "top two" of each round were not (to me) so overwhelmingly awesome they deserved immunity, then left 4 people to fight it out with a 25% chance of going home- which normally doesn't happen until the episode before the finale.  Like I said, it screams of poor game theory/game design, not unlike the season that Nicole basically got to come back on the show after being eliminated, and effectively got a free pass through some challenges by doing so.

 

One other thing I wanted to add, and it's probably just me, but did anyone else see Rob's second stage alien smuggler guy as looking like Jeff Winger in a Halloween costume?  SyFy doesn't have a front facing picture, but I was totally getting an "I'm too cool for Greendale and this show" vibe from the model. :)

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sourpickles

sourpickles

I'll go with filter of talent. I posted very last on the last episode and the more I've thought about it, the more I wonder about the challenges fitting the talent. This episode, to me, was exactly it. But I'll take it. Something has to give here .A good season finish would be appreciated...a nice recovery. I hated Robert's stuff, but the fact he did the best with those eyebrow things...okies. Beat the others. And yeah, there is something creepy about him, the voice...a cross b/w early Dracula and later James Bond villain.

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Pallida

Pallida

I wasn't a fan of the previous gauntlet's weighted cumulative scores because the weighting was so off. If I remember correctly, the person with the bottom score in the first round got first in the second round and skyrocketed up to the top.

I wonder if a combination of that model (with better weighting) and this model would work best. Kaleb was strong in the first two rounds and Mel wasn't, so I think we may have had a different outcome.

I'm probably just biased because I'm tired of Mel's personality. I'm sure I'd like her work a billion times more if she didn't get so many talking heads.

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LoneHaranguer

LoneHaranguer

 

By having weighted cumulative scores, you basically see how people handle different tasks while not overly rewarding or penalizing any one skill.  The best will still rise to the top, and the worst will be pitiful through all three rounds.

The problem is getting the weighting right. Clearly, the judges weren't happy with what they saw last time, and with no real chance to work it out, leaving it up to them to decide who's hopeless, with no formal scoring system, makes the most sense.

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mlp

mlp

They really do need to figure out a better way to score the Gauntlet.  What they did this season boiled down to giving the win to the best of the worst while the top two and second best two weren't even in the running.  The weighting last season was complicated but at least the winner was someone who survived all three stages and deserved to rise to the top.

  • Love 2
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OakGoblinFly

OakGoblinFly

Agree that Yvonne should've won this one - her makeups were not only a cohesive look, but presented an interesting silhouette, both separately and as a group. Mel irks me for some reason that I can't be bothered to put my finger on.

 

 

She's been on my "I want her out, like yesterday" list since the first episode where she announced, not once, but twice "Mel in da'house!!"

They really do need to figure out a better way to score the Gauntlet.  What they did this season boiled down to giving the win to the best of the worst while the top two and second best two weren't even in the running.  The weighting last season was complicated but at least the winner was someone who survived all three stages and deserved to rise to the top.

 

 

Was it last season where they used a weighted scoring system?  That seems the most fair to me.

  • Love 2
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Jynnan tonnix

Jynnan tonnix

I was pretty sure they were going to give Yvonne the win, but was actually glad that Mel got it instead. I really liked the elegance and simplicity of the concept paired with the honestly disturbing realism of her execution. When they showed her touching up something on the flayed skin right before they went out for judging it evoked an involuntary "Ouch! That's got to sting!! " full-body cringe. And the trio definitely gave me chills, which no full-on, gratuitously gross/gory makeup ever seems to manage to do. 

I do agree with the poster upthread, though, who mentioned that the models, especially the "speak no evil" one, were communicating way too much fear than they should have if they were priests who went through this mutilation voluntarily. It was still a good effect,though, and makes me wonder if it would have been as successful if they had actually conveyed stoicism.

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