Note to future contestants:  If you want to become America’s Next Top Model, it would be advisable to learn something from your time before the judges.  Realizing she received a loud wake-up call at the last elimination, Ambreal made a call of her own —to her dad for a little prayer.  Hoping to break from her side-profile tendencies, Heather sought posing advice from a surprisingly friendly Bianca.  Then there was sour-faced Ebony.  Although she felt her personality was far from dry (is that better than having a ‘prickly’ personality like Victoria?), she vowed to smile more for the judges.

Interrupting a lazy day at home, Jenah opened up the front door to welcome a surprise guest.  Much to the shaggy-haired model’s dismay, the hunky Tyson Beckford was standing right in front of her.  As the news rippled through their pad (Testosterone in the house!  Testosterone in the house!), bursts of shrieks and screams could be heard.  Once the girls were all quieted down, they all gathered round to listen to whatever he had to say.  The world-famous male model was sent by Tyra for a purpose:  he was there to give them tips on being a spokesmodel.  For their instruction, Tyson asked the ladies to grab any object out of the kitchen.  The goal was for them to promote any product thrown their way.  Interestingly enough, not only did he not demonstrate his own selling techniques, he apparently told them to sound like phone-sex operators.  From popsicles to glasses and mangoes, the ladies pimped their products without any shame…and Tyson loved every minute of it.  (I’m sure the CoverGirl reps will appreciate what the future winner ends up bringing to their table.)

The next day the ladies arrived at a studio where they once again met up with Tyson.  Unfortunately, a rep from the Keep A Child Alive organization was also there to distract from their eye candy.  For this episode’s challenge, the ladies were tasked with writing their own 30 second Public Service Announcement.  The PSAs, about the charity and their work to fight the AIDS epidemic, would be created in teams of three.  Although they were only given 30 minutes to work,  the Sarah/Ebony/Saleisha trio whipped up a very powerful, uniting message.  Unfortunately, they made a significant error in their announcement.  The girls misrepresented Keep A Child Alive and claimed the organization helped with the treatment of AIDS; the group only helps with AIDS prevention.  The Lisa/Chantal/Bianca team produced a visually creative message that incorporated hand gestures.  Sadly, Bianca (the concept’s originator) mangled her own lines and the name of the charity.  Meanwhile, the Ambreal/Heather/Jenah group managed to put together a very basic concept despite their initial lack of focus.  Using billboards ala INXS’s ‘Mediate’ video, the girls got their message across in a very simple fashion.  Although their PSA wasn’t the best of the bunch, it came away mistake-free.  That was enough to for a win by default.

For their reward, two of the three ladies were given a $500 gift basket from Carol’s Daughter, a nature-inspired body care products company.  The third girl, chosen at random, was given the opportunity to shoot an ad for that company.  The lucky lady, Heather, was immediately whisked away to the set where Mary J. Blige, the shoot’s art director, was waiting for her.  The reward proved to immensely invaluable for Heather.  It gave her the chance practice her face-front shots while getting advice from the famous photographer.  Although Heather was initially nervous, she got into the swing of things after the first few frames.

While Heather was away at her shoot, the remaining ladies had an impromptu ‘slumber party’ in their pad’s large closet.  (Since when were they all nice to each other?)  While the girls were speculating about their next big shoot, Ebony made a major reveal:  she wanted to go home.  Claiming she really missed her family, Ebony said she realized modeling just wasn’t for her anymore.  Although they were all secretly hoping she’d leave right there and then, the gals of course encouraged Ebony to stick it out.  Bianca, in the meantime, spent her time in the closet posing in front of the large mirror.  She was determined to work on making her eyes ‘smile’ before the cameras like Tyra advised her to do.

The next day, the ladies met with Jay Manuel for their next ‘green’ photo shoot.  To continue the theme of this season’s competition,  the girls would each represent a different recyclable material.  As would be expected, the girls for the most part stepped up their games this week.  Heather (Aluminum Cans) really shocked Jay with her gorgeous profile-free frames.  Jenah (Cardboard) made great use of the advice given to her and produced a fashion-worthy photo.  Although Bianca’s body was a little stiff, her relentless studying really paid off.  Her brightened eyes helped create a stunning photo.  But of all the great pics to select from, the judges chose Saleisha as this week’s winner.  Jay felt she took a lot of risks with her shoot (Car Parts) this week.  Additionally, the judges felt she exuded a confidence missing recently.  They also loved what she did with her neck and lips.

Falling in this week’s Bottom Two were Ebony and Ambreal.  Although it wasn’t unusual for Ebony (Bubble Wrap) to walk on set with an attitude, she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) flip that switch like she did last week.  Jay hoped she could find something happy so she would come across less severe, unfortunately all he was given was a ‘trampish’ and uninspiring shoot.  When Jay offered his usual constructive criticism, she basically blew him off.  I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that her final frame had a snarl splashed across it.

As for Ambreal (Newspaper), the girl who did so well in the beginning of the competition was making gigantic strides backwards the past few weeks.  Thrown by her placement in last week’s rankings, she second-guessed her way through her latest shoot.  While Bianca’s eyes were smiling, Ambreals’s were ‘sleeping’.  (Of course, she later blamed that look on her fake eyelashes.)  In the end, Jay said she was boring; the judges thought she looked inexperienced.
When it came time to send a girl home, Ebony was given the chance to stay another week.  The judges felt she had the potential to get better.  Interestingly enough, Ebony stuck to her word.  When she said she wanted to go home, she really meant it.  Instead of giving herself one more week to gauge her feelings, she told Tyra she didn’t want to stay.  After all these weeks, she knew this wasn’t for her.  Instead of trying to change her mind, Tyra offered up her own opinions on Ebony’s decision.  Tyra said the reason Ebony wanted to leave was because she couldn’t handle being told she wasn’t perfect; she didn’t like people telling her what to do.  Hating to see an unattractive quitter, Tyra happily sent the crying girl home.  LOSER: Ebony.

So thanks to the remarkable twist of fate, Ambreal was given a ‘free pass’ to stay in the competition for at least one more week.  Tyra said the show was about giving people who really wanted to be there a chance.  Now it was just up to Ambreal to prove the judges were wrong about her.

(You can review last week’s episode here.)
(You can read next week’s episode here.)