Recap of Britain's Next Top Model Finale
British Modeling Competition Down to Final Three Contestants
Jul 6, 2009
The episode begins with the remaining three girls competing for a contract with one of the top modeling agencies, Models 1, a Max Factor campaign, and the cover and six-page spread in Company magazine, arriving at Buenos Aires Fashion Week. A woman named Kika meets them — Jade, Sophie and Mecia — and tells them they’ll be working behind the scenes, much to their excitement.
Sophie is pared with a hairdresser and follows him around with hairspray and hairpins, Jade’s task is to help ensure makeup is done and Mecia’s job is to help to track down a model with a painted white face — one among many! All the girls were surprised at how blasé the models seemed about the prospect of walking the runway at this fashion week.
Britain's Next Top Model Evita Peron Photo Shoot
The message the girls later receive from host and judge Lisa Snowdon informs them they’re photo shoot the next day will require them to embody Peron at various stages of her life, in a fashion and beauty shoot. Sophie portrays poor Evita, Jade portrays dancer/singer Evita, who is uncertain about where her life is going, and Mecia portrays first lady Evita.
Judge Huggy Ragnarsson, the photographer on this final photo shoot, seemed pleased with all the girls’ work. Sophie and Mecia both cry, emotional over the fact it’s their last shoot, and Jade admits everyone is a little quieter than usual. The silence deepens when their next message from Lisa tells them the next elimination is the next day.
Britain's Next Top Model Finale Elimination
Milliner Louis Mariette joins Lisa and Huggy at the judges’ table at elimination. Sophie is up first. Her fashion shot shows her on one knee, as if she’s picking coins up off the ground and wearing a sad expression. Huggy says it’s the first time she’s seeing strong editorial side of Sophie, whereas Lisa praises the look in her eyes. Of her beauty shot, Louis says, “This to me is empowerment … you bring that character to life.”
Jade is next, and the judges love her. Louis loves the shape of her body in her fashion shot, where she’s facing the camera head-on. “You’re becoming stronger,” Huggy says. “You’re modeling there.” Lisa adds she can imagine the image in a magazine. Jade’s beauty shot, where she is supposed to look worried, garners a rave review from Louis. “If you look at your eyes, they tell absolutely everything.”
Mecia’s photos receive positive feedback, as well. Her fashion shot, where she’s posing on a balcony as if speaking to the public, took Lisa’s breath away and Huggy deemed it editorial with a capital E. Mecia’s beauty shot, where she had to look as if she was weeping, has Huggy tell her “you photograph so well.”
Britain's Next Top Model Cycle 5 Final Three Contestants
After each of their critiques, the judges asked the girls to walk for them and tell them why they should be in the final two. Huggy tells Sophie to watch her bobbing when she walks. Sophie declares she should be a finalist because she’s taken criticism and “kept on fighting.”
Lisa tells Jade she can’t take her eyes off her when she walks and Jade tells the judges “this is where I want to be and want to be doing.” Mecia’s walk elicits a “wow” from Lisa, and she tells the panel she’s listened to criticism.
During deliberations, Huggy says Sophie is model material but Lisa deems her walk as one of the weakest. The judges love Jade — “she’s just got it,” says Lisa — but Huggy adds that she needs more muscle on her. Mecia, says Huggy, photographs “amazingly well,” but Louis is concerned that she can’t maintain her composure under pressure.
Britain's Next Top Model Girls at Buenos Aires Fashion Week
In the end, the judges send Jade home. Jade says it’s OK, and points out that she doesn’t want girls to think that models at her size is acceptable. Afterwards, Sophie and Mecia go back to Buenos Aires fashion week, where they get catty about each other. When asked what she has that Mecia doesn’t, Sophie says, “I’m better looking.”
The girls “model” in a carnival through the streets of Buenos Aires (it was more dancing, really) and at the end Lisa told them they’re heading back to London to take part in a fashion show for PPQ — and to find out which one of them will become Britain’s Next Top Model.
