"Face Off" Recap: "The Gauntlet"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

I have to say, Face Off is really managing to impress me this year. Every single week it feels like the show is finding a way to reinvent itself and bring us something new and exciting and last night's episode turned out to be their most engaging of the season yet. Because this week, we were introduced to "The Gauntlet' and it was absolutely magnificent. 

Yes, for the first time ever on the show, the contestants were subjected to their most difficult rapid fire challenge yet. They were to work individually on three stages of makeups, each one ranking them from 1-9 and at the end of the night the lowest scoring contestant would be sent home. Their first stage for the Gauntlet was to put together an exposure makeup, where Nora won round one by creating a hyper realistic frostbite makeup while Kevon lost for a rough paint job, something that scared the living daylights out of him.  

Their second Gauntlet challenge was to complete a character. They were given models that were already in costume and already had appliances attached to their faces and it was the expectation to put together a paint job that reflected the costume and the look of the appliance. It turns out the scare of being in last place was enough to really motivate Kevon in an amazing way because as it turns out he won the second stage outright while Evan lost this challenge. Throughout the Gauntlet all the contestants were power ranked with a total score I might add, and this big swing win heading into the final challenge gave Kevon the top spot and left Stevie and Evan nervous as they tied for last. 

But the third and final stage of the Gauntlet was the most ambitious I've seen on the show yet, because for the first time the contestants were given three models to work with. The goal here was to create three total makeups for the models, but only make one the real focus or the "hero" makeup as they call it. Once again this just goes to show how Face Off gives its contestants real work experience since this is a common thing in the business, heck just ask Greg Nicotero since they do this on The Walking Dead quite often.  Either way, it led to some impressive work from a few of the contestants but the one that stood out for this challenge was Nora with her Legend inspired goblins. In fact it was so solid a makeup that stage three was awarded to Nora. But of course, the final power rankings waited for the contestants and the question was who would go home. 

Nora as it turns out won the outright Gauntlet challenge with that amazing final work, but the person who slid into elimination was Jasmine and this was well deserved. Her mistakes in the first and third stage of the contest finally exposed her weaknesses as an artist and I think this was overdue. She's skirted with elimination before and her lack of experience finally caught up with her.  In the end however, the best way to sum this episode up is wow. I was completely transfixed with this intense challenge and I cannot wait to see what other surprises are in store for us this season. Until next time. 

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