America’s Next Top Model: We Have A Winner! (recap)

By: Jen Smith
Fancast.com

It’s that time again on America’s Next Top Model—time to crown yet another winner that will likely fade into obscurity. Where is Naima anyway? Last week, Marjorie was unfairly sent home in lieu of the commercial gals Analeigh and Samantha. McKey is still fighting her way through, having never appeared in the bottom two. Let’s get right to it then.

We’re still an Amsterdam, and the girls are off to do their Cover Girl commercials and photo shoots. As we all know, the photo of the winner will have this picture in magazines (actually, it’s only one magazine), as a billboard in Times Square, and in Walmart’s makeup section. Oh what a career breaker! Analeigh should have this commercial in the bag, considering she nailed the last one. The only catch is that there isn’t a teleprompter to help this time. Did I mention they’d also have to speak some Dutch?

Samantha goes first, and is instantly introverted. She has no confidence and isn’t smiling at all. She seems to enjoy requisite kiss with the male model. But the lack of energy is way out of character for Sam. McKey is next, and just for the record, she sucks at Dutch. She got better after a few takes, but she, too, was jittery. Analeigh was the complete surprise. She totally blanked. She teared up, lost all her personality, and had to get her lines fed by Jay. This whole commercial shoot was a massive failure. Everyone does much better at the print shoot. Sam got some of her energy back, Analeigh worked her body, and McKey gives lots of options.

At the first of two panels this episode, Tyra looks friggin’ nutso. She’s got on booty shorts and some crimped ’80s hair. Yikes. Let’s not talk about that… let’s talk about the models. Sam is evaluated first. The judges all agree that her commercial was too choppy but that her Dutch accent was good. Her photo was adorable but a wee bit forced. Analeigh is next. Tyra called her commercial painful to watch, although she looked gorgeous. Her print ad didn’t get much better critiques. Paulina said it looked like an actors’ headshot and Tyra said she did the same thing over and over. McKey was last. She did the best job memorizing the lines, but she delivered them too fast. Her print ad is the best of them all. She’s the only one who looks like a real model. This is the reason why McKey is called first, leaving Samantha and Analeigh in the bottom two. For all the reasons previously stated, Analeigh is sent home. Tyra recommends that she should take up acting instead of modeling. I concur.

McKey and Sam get to head straight to the Seventeen Magazine shoot. They both do well, so whoever wins will have a great spread. The next day, we dive instantly into the final runway challenge. Whitney shows up. Ugh. She talks. Ugh. She gives advice. Ugh. The runway is inside a giant auditorium, and Jay brags that it’s, like, the most awesome runway they’ve ever done. I whole heartedly, one hundred percent disagree. But I won’t get into that. It looks like Dr. Suess threw up inside. The runway actually weaves in and out of the audience and it’s longer than any runway they’ve ever had. The weird part? It’s got ramps and stairs and sand… and it’s pink. Way goofy. I don’t see the high fashion in all of it, but what do I know? Tyra tells the girls to make their black mama proud, and off they go!

Whitney opens the show, walking wildly and over the top. I’ll just pretend she wasn’t there. McKey goes first and does a pretty good job. The cameramen only seemed to be concerned with wide shots, so I never got to see if her face was pretty, but I’m sure it was. Sam was up next, and looked pretty nervous about having to run up these silly ramps. She’s a little too posey though. For the second looks, the girls walk right behind each other, I guess so they could be judged at the same time. They both do well, but it looks like McKey’s got the advantage. Why were there only two looks? Aren’t there usually at least three?

It’s the final panel! Tyra, oh Tyra. This time she’s dressed as Beyonce’s backup dancer. Something’s gotta give here. McKey’s runway walk is evaluated first. Jay liked her first walk, but loved her second. Nigel thought she needed a little more grace, though. On the other hand, Nigel called Sam’s walk fantastic. Tyra loved how she worked the garment. So far, everything seems kind of even. Then the judges reviewed all their past pictures, including the voting shoot, the bikini shoot, the ship shoot, and Tyra’s shoot. They picked Sam and McKey pretty evenly as far as past photos were concerned as well. For instance, for Tyra’s double shoot, Sam was the favorite for the natural look, while McKey was chosen for the glam.

It’s a close call, but I think we all knew where this was headed. And the winner is… McKey! Pretty much everyone on the internet chose McKey as the hands-down favorite to win– unlike a certain person of ANTM winners past. I won’t name names. Except that I will. Whitney. I swear I’ll get over it someday. In the meantime, we’ve got about three and a half days to recover before the next cycle, so we better rest up. See you back here for Cycle 12!