Cycle 10, Episode #5 of America's Next Top Model:

This episode started with a lesson in the three ‘C’s of posing: Commercial, Catalog, and Couture. Supermodel Vendela and ‘Vogue’ creator Benny Ninja trained the models to understand the difference between the three style’s of posing.

Back at the house, we get scenes of Whitney and Dominique fighting, with Dominique apparently pulling the ‘race card’ out of thin air. We also find out how frequently Dominique talks about herself in the third person.
We also get a scene of Fatima explaining that she needs to practice more because she was in the bottom two, followed by a scene of her practicing her runway. Fatima’s edit this week looked like a carbon copy of Allison a few weeks ago. Bottom two…worry…over analyze going forward…take a lousy photo, but self-belief she is doing well.

The first challenge this week is a posing competition. The models break into two teams and have pose offs in pairs. Vendela and Benny are back with a troupe of Benny’s drag queen posing friends. Eventually one team will win a chance to get SWAG and the winner within that team will get a special prize.

Claire vs. Dominique pose off is ruled a tie.

Lauren vs. Marvita pose off (odd that the worst two are up against each other) is ruled as Lauren the clear winner.

Anya vs. Stacy Ann pose off is ruled in favor of Stacy Ann.

Whitney vs. Fatima pose off is ruled in favor of Whitney.

Katazyna vs. Aimee pose off is ruled in favor of Katarzyna.

So, Claire, Lauren, Anya, Katarzyna, and Whitney are the winning team with Claire the ‘ulimate winner’ getting a trip to Bora Bora in addition to the SWAG package. I think the pose off featured many more pairing than what we saw. Otherwise, it wasn’t logical for Claire to win it all when she didn’t even win her pose off.

The next Challenge was a photo shoot. This photo shoot would be a close-up shot head/shoulders wearing lots of makeup and paint drippings.
Jay Manuel said that Whitney looked like a blowup doll the way she held her mouth open. He said Katarzyna was losing focus and Fatima was over-analyzing. He called Dominique out as having her best photo shoot yet. He was completely disappointed with a horrible effort from Marvita.

The call out this week was as follows:

Stacy Ann: good picture this week and won her pose off. The judges are seeing her as improving, though Tyra still found most of her photos lacking (no neck, round face).

Dominique: great photo kept her off the chopping block this week. The judges were surprised to see a good photo from her and the editing certainly indicated throughout the episode that Dominique was likely going to be near the bottom. Glad to see the judging was based upon the photo results rather than the in house conflicts.

Claire: won the posing challenge, took a strong photo, and won the viewer call in challenge again this week. I think she has a fanbase from her last show that will carry her to the kind of continuous viewer winning streak we saw from Heather last season.

Anya: her photo was called weak because she looked a bit scared and she lost her pose off. All in all, this was an early call out given her performance this episode.

Lauren: Judges are thrilled with her photos and her look and her posing was good this week as well. She showed up before the judging in canvass ‘basketball’ shoes because she couldn’t find her presentable looking shoes.

Aimee: Judges like her photo and are eager to point out the versatility she brings each week with a ‘new look’.

Katarzyna: The judges see her value going down as she doesn’t stand out and being pretty just isn’t enough.

Fatima: berated at judging for failing to shave her armpits…not stuble, but long hair. She promised to go back to the house and shave right away. You really have to wonder how this problem was allowed to go on for several weeks into filming.

Whitney: guest judge Vendela really didn’t like her, but Nigel does. Overall, her photos were termed dull and the photo they showed was the worst of the models this week.

Marvita: eliminated for a bad photo. Judges think that she only knows how to look angry, but not soft/beautiful. So much potential, but she was eliminated because the judges felt she just didn’t care as much as Whitney about being there.

Next episode preview: everyone hates Dominique.

"Epiosde"?

Average ep for me this week. I don't see how the girls screamed for Benny Ninja.

Stacy Ann: She'll make a nice model for the Sears Catalogue someday. Blaaaaaand.

Dominique: I'm surprised her enormous race card didn't show up in the background. The woman is ugly in more than oen way. Once Fatima goes, se can go next.

Claire: I also think there was more to her in the posing contest than we saw for her to win that trip to Bora-Bora. And she won the audience favorite again. Thus, she is doomed. I think this was the first photo shoot they they didn't put a wig on her terrible haircut.

Anya: I wasn't fully up on the squint. I thought she looked good

Lauren: Her shoes were probably grabbed by one of Benny Ninja's Drag Queens. Good Photo

Aimee: I like her too, but the "Same vs. Versatile" argument isn't making sense to me.

Katarzyna: She'll probably the one to get taken out once the "easy choices" are done.

Fatima: You really have to wonder how her armpit hair problem was allowed to go on for several weeks into filming. I'll also note that the producers purposefully chose that photo.

Whitney: I also was disappointed by the photo, but I thought guest judge Velveta was being overly critical

Marvita: I never liked her, but I thought she was better than Fatima and Dominique