Bridge Over Trolly Waters

The Stakes

We could probably glean on our own that neither Anthony Jr. nor Adam -- both of whom have been in the bottom twice -- don't want to be in the bottom again without this exchange from the house in which they express that to one another. (...Although, if you, like me, assumed that the emphasis on Anthony Jr.'s intensity with regard to not failing again presaged a win: good job at misdirection, show!)

Spotlight Challenge Announcement

The facetestants meet McKenzie under a bridge that spans the beautiful (hideous, paved) L.A. River to receive this week's challenge: they're each going to choose one of six iconic bridges from around the world and create a troll character that would live under their selected bridge. The matchups are as follows:

• Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco / Emily; Logan
• London Bridge, ...um, London / Kelly; Rob
• Corvin Castle Bridge, Transylvania / Julian; Stephanie
• Dragon Bridge, Bali / Jamie; Adam
• Helix Bridge, Singapore / Anthony Jr.
• Python Bridge, Amsterdam / Darla; Ben

The only reason to watch this segment (other than Kelly's try-hard-y reaction to the news that it's a troll challenge)...

...is when McKenzie tells the designers that in order to help their models develop their characters with some motion work, they're bringing in "Hollywood's most sought-after creature actor," and if anyone's face fell on the day when McKenzie announced not Andy Serkis -- Hollywood's ACTUALLY most sought-after creature actor -- but (the also very good) Doug Jones, it didn't make it into the edit.

Design Phase

Much as there's no reason for the artists to have to sketch while sitting under the droughty L.A. sun next to the L.A. River bridge that is NOT an inspiration for any of their designs, there's no reason for you to watch them tell us their concepts for their creatures at this early stage. The ones that end up being top or bottom looks get rammed down our throats later on.

Sculpting Phase

Back in my post on the season premiere, I noted how exhausting it would have to be for the facetestants to have to try to work on their designs with input from a million different people, although at least in that challenge, no one's seemed to be in conflict with anyone else's. But that's really not the case in this episode. When the champions arrive, Rayce tells the remaining members of his team -- Anthony Jr., Rob, Adam, and Logan -- "You have to think where no one's thinking. Reinvent trolls." Specifically, that means he doesn't want to see any big noses. Immediately, we cut to Kelly's sculpt's big nose, which to me means that Rayce is probably right that they shouldn't lean into any troll clichés.

SHOWS WHAT I KNOW, because then in comes Michael Westmore, who starts telling everyone to make their designs look more trolly -- more weight in the lower lip, a more bulbous nose, etc. In some of these cases Rayce is standing right there beside him, though if he waited for Westmore to move on before looking at his guy and shaking his head, we don't see it. Is there anything for artists to be concerned by given this conflicting advice? TIME WILL TELL, I SUPPOSE.

By the time Day 2 dawns, Anthony Jr. is feeling good about his concept, which involves a troll waking up in contemporary Singapore and trying to genetically alter his appearance to fit into the modern world. The result is an asymmetrical face -- half old-style, half smoothed out and sleeker -- of which Rayce is very complimentary. HMMMMMM. Elsewhere, Darla spent all of Day 1 unthrilled with her concept of a water-dwelling troll that torments fishermen (and getting stuck trying to incorporate Westmore's notes didn't help), but now she knows she doesn't have enough time to do anything else so she's just rolling with what she's done so far.

Molding Phase

Really just worth watching since I think Emily's locked face mold is the first one of the season, or at least the first one they made a big deal of. Dubious honour, but hey, someone had to be first.

Application Phase

If you haven't watched any other segment this season -- which seems unlikely, but I don't know your life -- start with this one. The early going is pretty rote -- Emily's foam on her cowl is super-thick, and Laura doesn't bother sugar-coating how hard it's going to be for Emily to work with it -- but then, as promised, Doug Jones shows up to work with the models, and the direction he gives on the fly based on the characters the artists have created is pretty great. For instance, since Rob's is a prince who was turned, by a disapproving king, into a troll after falling in love with the king's daughter, Doug recommends a very regal posture through the back and shoulders paired with a droopy head: the troll would still have the natural proud bearing of a prince until he remembers, oh right, I'm a troll now. Since Ben's troll looks like a little girl from behind to trick kids into playing with her, Doug advises that Ben's model find the child in her movements. It's very cool and almost makes me feel bad for comparing him unfavorably to Andy Serkis up top.

In the eleventh hour, Anthony rolls up to Kelly and notes that her paint job is looking muddy, and as soon as he's said it, she realizes it's true: the colours she picked, which had looked very different on the palette, are now just blending together monochromatically, and she's going to have to try to fix it in last looks. BUT WILL SHE?!

Reveal Stage

Of the looks that are safe, there's not much to say. Dara's not happy with how hers came out...

...but it's good enough to get her through. I might have put Stephanie's in the bottom for looking like a toy that had been melted in the microwave...

...but clearly I am no expert, as we will see!

Once Adam, Darla, Stephanie, Logan, and Julian are dismissed as safe, we move on to the top and bottom looks.

Kelly explains that her troll was once a woman, but that after her son died working on the bridge, she went mad. Ve tells Kelly that even though her paint job is monochrome, it works because she blends in with the bridge. Kelly returns to her place at the side commenting that she didn't think that's how her critique was going to go.

Neville compliments Ben for a concept that's different from everyone else's, and Doug -- who is very effusive about the models generally -- tells Ben's model, Alexandria, that he'd love to work with her on a film.

Ve calls Jamie's "very well done," and Neville notes that a "plausible wood sculpt" is not easy to do. Doug says that he would be proud to wear it. Doug is very good at compliments, you guys.

The first of the bottom looks we deal with is Anthony Jr.'s, and even though I thought the asymmetrical face was pretty cool and (probably) would have understood the idea he was going for even without his explanation, the judges are not fans. Ve says he doesn't look like he belongs with the Helix bridge at all; Neville complains of the bad transition in the paint job; Glenn shits on the confusion in his sculpt. Anthony Jr. cries because he knows a third visit to the bottom is not going to be great for him.

Emily's troll jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, washed up on a nearby rocky outcropping, and took on that texture. In one of the few specifically negative critiques he gives, Doug tells her he shouldn't see prosthetic-to-skin transitions the way he does with her model, and Glenn agrees. Ve calls it a beautiful character that doesn't work for this challenge.

Poor Rob has to stand there while Glenn tells him that the underlying form of his design is "extraordinarily flawed," and that a good paint job couldn't rescue a bad sculpt and concept. Ve says it looks like a pull-over mask, oooooof. But as a shaken Rob returns to his spot on the side, Kelly reminds us again that this is the reality show where you do come to make friends, touching his arm and whispering, "I think he's great." Aw, Kelly! I'm sorry I called you a try-hard before, but on the other hand, quit being such a try-hard.

Before the artists are sent off so the judges can deliberate, Rayce speaks up to take the blame for having steered his team members wrong by telling them not to make predictable troll looks, and the judges are like, nice work, idiot.

Winner And Loser

The winner is Jamie, for what she's told is her best work so far. Before she's sent off along with Kelly and Ben, Glenn calls out Anthony -- UNLIKE RAYCE -- since all three of the night's top looks came from his three remaining teammates.

Despite the fact that the judges took into account Rayce's bad direction, the loser is Anthony Jr. -- probably less for his performance here than for his overall meh performance since the season began. To have three bottom looks in five challenges is, after all, not great. Plus maybe they were sick of having two Anthonies in the season.

Verdict

The Doug Jones movement master class is really cool, but the episode is also worth watching just so we can see how the conflicting advice from mentors and champions is addressed in future episodes.