Pardon my delay with Face Off recently! Let’s round it all up before the finale!
Team Nora!
Here we go!
Episode 9.11 “Beyond the Expanse”
Final six!
Host McKenzie Westmore, met the artists at the lab to share their Focus Challenge which connected to Syfy’s upcoming series, The Expanse (Don’t miss the 2-Night Premiere on December 14th at 10/9c) in which the characters adapt to their universe in space. The challenge? Create a human who has evolved to survive a disastrous scenario.
For this challenge, The Expanse authors and TV show producers, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (who write under the pen name, James S. A. Corey) came on as the judges. Pretty darn awesome for those authors! Go, guys, go!
Nora chose Toxic Pollution, Stevie picked Polar Melting, Ben chose Volcanic Disaster, Evan picked Severe Drought, Jordan picked Ice Age, Scott chose Nuclear Fallout. Based on the options here, I was most anticipating….well, all of them of course! Seeing the effects of a natural disaster? I’m all in.
Working on their creations, Nora hit a wall. It sucks seeing her hit walls because she really breaks down and I just want to hug her and tell her how awesome she is. Because she’s one of the best this season. So she scraps her original creation and begins again.
In the lab, series mentor, Michael Westmore came back to Scott after making the rounds because he was so concerned about Scott going too alien with his creation. Whoa!
On the reveal stage, my favorites were Evan, Jordan and Nora. I liked Stevie and Ben’s ideas more than the executions. I liked Scott’s creation but I also didn’t totally get it for the purpose of the challenge…it didn’t move me.
Time for the chopping block…. Nora and Scott were safe. The judges’ top looks were Evan and Jordan with Evan winning. Major congrats, Evan. Definitely the right winner. The judges’ bottom looks were Stevie and Ben and I honestly thought Ben was going to get sent home so that was a bummer to see Stevie go. She’s been full of perplexing creations all season long in the very best way but this week just didn’t cut it unfortunately which sucks because I liked hers more between the bottom two but what can you do? Ah well. Maybe one day I’ll see her name in the credits of a Wes Anderson sci-fi mashup type of movie or something. Onto the next!
Elimination Recap
Eliminated This Episode: Stevie
Total Eliminations: Brittany, Jasmine, Libby, Meg, Melissa, Nora, Stevie, Ben, Evan, Jason, Jordan, Kevon, Omar, Ricky, Scott, Sidney
Episode 9.12 “Death Becomes Them”
Semi-finals!
Host McKenzie Westmore and series mentor, Michael Westmore, met the artists at the Universal Studios backlot to share their spotlight challenge. They stood outside the home featured in The Munsters, one of Michael Westmore’s first major screen credits. Inspired by The Munsters and The Addams Family, the artists had to choose a family member type on a gravestone (by placing a black? rose by the grave they chose) to create a quirky member of their own Macabre family archetype.
Nora chose Black Sheep Cousin, Ben picked Inappropriate Uncle, Evan chose Bully Older Brother, Jordan picked Spinster Aunt, and Scott chose Stern Father. Before leaving the artists, McKenzie informed the group that not one but two artists would be eliminated this week! Agh! The two left go to the finale. Talk about pressure!
Based on the ideas and sketches alone, I was most excited for Nora and Evan’s creations with Jordan and Ben creeping behind. On the reveal stage, Scott’s makeup was fantastic but I thought the concept could have been better for this challenge. Or the execution when it comes to contrast because it all seemed too similar in tone. Evan’s concept was great but the makeup wasn’t stellar. My favorites were Ben (wow!) and Nora! Jordan’s was great but stereotypical for spinster, so… not impressed.
Come to find out the judges’ picks for the finalists, I was thrilled to hear the names of Ben and Nora!!! Yes, Nora!!!!! As for the third finalist? Well, The Face Off crew sure knows how to keep things fresh! This time around, to make fill the last spot in the finals, the remaining artists had the chance to work on the creations based on the feedback the judges gave them! One more hour of last looks! Talk about a second chance. Wow. But one hour? Yikes. I wonder if this is a one time thing or we can expect this next season.
Anyway, Jordan certainly made the most of his time in the second last looks but I really liked Evan’s second last looks more. Scott’s creation needed more than an hour for the judges’ critiques. So the last finalist for Face Off season 9? Evan! Yeah, congrats, Evan!! So happy for him! I am going to miss Jordan’s work and Scott will be fine and I’m not sure where I’m going with this sentence so again, congrats, Evan! What a thrilling semi-finals episode!
Elimination Recap
Eliminated This Episode: Scott and Jordan
Total Eliminations: Brittany, Jasmine, Libby, Meg, Melissa, Nora, Stevie, Ben, Evan, Jason, Jordan, Kevon, Omar, Ricky, Scott, Sidney
Episode 9.13 “Movie Magic: Part I”
Final three!
Host McKenzie Westmore, met the artists at the lab to tell the final three that their challenge would be to work side by side with a director and full production crew to create three short films on location!!!! Pulling out all of the stops for this, I see!
Former Face Off judge, Patrick Tatopoulos (and now husband of McKenzie Westmore) joined the crew for this challenge. It was so awesome to see him back! Don’t know why he left in the first place. (Just kidding. Clearly it was his accent but I’m a Francophile so I’m biased and could listen to him speak all day).
Anyway, the short films were the fantasy script of “The Prey,” the sci-fi script of “Resurrection,” and the apocalyptic script of “The Quarantine Zone” with Patrick already conceptualizing the basic characters and storyboards and the finalists going a step further actually creating two characters for on screen. Nora chose the first script, Evan chose the latter, and Ben was left with the middle.
My favorite part when competition gets down to the wire? Eliminated contestants coming back to help out the final artists! Nora chose Jasmine and Meg. Ben chose Jordan and Scott. Evan chose Kevon and Stevie. It was so good to see Jasmine and Meg back! My three favorite ladies of the season on one team! Awesome!
In the lab, Evan seemed to be having the most trouble coming up with a cohesive design. During last looks, Ben’s team hadn’t even started the paint job on their two characters. It was rough for the boys.
My favorite looks were Nora’s Hunted character, Ben’s resurrected character, and Evan’s mega infected character. Come time for the camera test, Nora needed minor tweaks so it went quite smooth for her. Ben’s camera test seemed to go about the same. It was Evan who had the most difficult time with the way his characters appeared on camera. Good thing that was just the camera test and everyone had time to revise their makeups.
The episode ended with the big reveal that the finalists had to create a third character for the short films! Which brings us to tonight’s big finale! I’m rooting for Nora! Who are you rooting for?
The Face Off season 9 finale air TONIGHT at 9/8c on Syfy.