"Face Off" Recap: "Death Becomes Them"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Leave it to Face Off to make their penultimate episode for season nine to end up being an intense one. Instead of giving the final five a little more time to hone their craft and continue to impress the show decided to go for broke and send home not only one...but two contestants last night, giving the last three standing a title of "Finalist" and a shot at the win.

In order to find out who would go and who would stay in "Death Becomes Them", this week's Spotlight Challenge harkened back to campier days in television asking for the contestants to design a whimsical and fun makeup in the vein of The Addams Family or The Munsters by giving us their own modern family member from a creepy clan and the contestants jumped at the chance to have a little fun and impress along the way, but for sure a few of them felt the pressure and that actually led to quite a few surprises. 

The first little stunner of the night was that Scott was nervous about the whole challenge. He knew this meant he had to bring his A game and that seemed to trip him up a little at first. Another fine surprise was that Nora was cool and collect this week, confident in her sculpture and her work and even Ben, who has been a worry of mine for some time, was in the zone the entire way. One contestant that went into a panic was Evan since his makeup initially was too horror based for the challenge and upon arrival at Last Looks, he discovered it looked like his "Man Dog" from earlier in the season. 

So, in a frenzy Evan did a crazy repaint job at Last Looks before everyone took the stage to find out who was heading to the finale and the judges wasted no time, stunning me with their first selection, Ben. Now Ben's makeup, The Inappropriate Uncle (pictured above), was pretty damn solid but I still don't know about this move...I'm hoping this is his moment but I still worry about the pressure with him. He was joined by Nora courtesy of her awesome Black Sheep and then the judges surprised everyone. They gave the last three contestants standing; Evan, Scott and Jordan an hour to fix their makeups according to the judges feedback.

If you ask me, this was an awesome move, one last chance to show off what they can really do under intense pressure like they would experience on set and the trio of artists went right to it, fixing every little thing the judges asked for and as it turns out, the man who worried the most, made the biggest difference on his makeup and Evan made it into the finale. I was honestly a little stunned at this, since I really thought Scott was taking it all, but he and Jordan went home which means next week is the beginning of the Season Finale and after watching the finalists under pressure tonight...my money is on Nora winning it all because this week is the first time I finally saw her put all of her skills together. Guess we find out who wins season nine soon enough, until then.

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