FINALLY! About five eliminations too late, the least modelesque contestant ever on this show -- Tahlia -- was given the boot. But because she was Tyra's pet project of the season, we were still treated to some of the most egregious ego-fluffing I've ever seen, as every member of the judging panel exclaimed that Tahlia was beautiful, and that the camera loves her, and that she has all the features Cover Girl would want in a model. Tyra Banks! I have been watching this show for 12 seasons! Tahlia bears no resemblance to any of your past winners, except for the fact that she also sports two X chromosomes! Either you have been lying to me for the past 11 cycles, or you are lying to me now! And I think we all know which one is the case...

The episode started with more drama courtesy of Aminat and Natalie. And as much as I'm thrilled that Tahlia is going home, it's true that without her, this season would have been stale as melba toast. If Celia hadn't gloriously shoved the girl under the bus a few episodes ago the house wouldn't have lost its collective shit, and Aminat wouldn't be at Natalie's throat every five minutes. Now, say what you want about Aminat - I'll say that she's one-note and obnoxious, for instance - but I'm with her for calling out Natalie on her classist bullshit. I don't like Natalie. I don't think she's pretty or a particularly good model. And I certainly thought it was offensive the way she threw around her Richie Rich upbringing as a way of saying how classless the other girls were. But it sure was fun to watch.

This week brought back the acting challenge. We haven't had one of those in a while - has there been one since Cycle 8? It's such a pointless tangent in a modeling competition, and these girls need so much work on the basics (walking, taking decent photos, posing) you'd think maybe they could hold off on the ancillary stuff. Anyway, who better to host an acting challenge than Clay Aiken? How about anyone. I know Aiken was in "Spamalot" on Broadway. And he was in that one episode of "Scrubs." But an actor? Come now. More lies from Tyra, who is apparently a close personal friend of Clay's. (That, actually, makes perfect sense.) All you need to know is that Celia was over-the-top, London was surprisingly good, and Tahlia was terrible and useless, as usual. London won the prize of a line of jeans, but discovered that she's too chunky to fit into any of them, so she gave them to the other girls.

So now we have London's storyline: she's getting fat. A couple thoughts on that. One, London was originally cast as Preacher Girl, and they have done nothing with that whatsoever. It makes me wonder if it was all an act to get in the house. Two, I've noticed London's larger lower half since the beginning, and it's curious it's only coming up now. But it's more curious that not once - NOT ONCE - was Tahlia's weight ever brought up (ast least not on camera), and she is at the very least borderline plus-sized. Special treatment, anyone?

The acting challenge segued to the Cover Girl commercial, which saw the girls split into two groups. The A Team featured Celia, Allison, Teyona, and Aminat. The B Team, or "Team Chaff," included Fo, Natalie, Tahlia, and London. Each girl had a chance to act as the main model in her group, and then the other three chimed in with supporting lines. The A Team did generally well - Celia in particular ROCKED it, turning it what has to be the best Cover Girl commercial in the show's history (not that Tyra said that, since she hates Celia). And Team Chaff generally sucked. It's true that in their starring roles, none of the girls did well aside from Celia.

But that didn't stop more bullshit call-outs at panel, as super-stiff and dull Natalie got picked second; pinched-faced and scary-looking Teyona got a high bid; and Allison ended up in the Bottom 2 with Tahlia, with her continued critique of being one-note. That feedback is more tiresome than any of Allison's alleged infractions. She has a standard look, yeah, but that look is gorgeous. And more than that, she's a quick study. We've seen that evidenced several times now, from her rapidly improved runway walk to her improved confidence from the acting challenge to the commercial. It's just BS that she was in danger AGAIN when several other models turned in commercials that were so much worse.

Thankfully, though, Tahlia's reign of terror came to an end. Given the ridiculously glowing feedback the panel gave to her, I thought for sure she'd be sticking around. Even Tyra basically said that she was only going home because she didn't have confidence. Well, no. That's not true. Her lack of confidence didn't help, but she failed in this competition because she possesses absolutely none of the qualities that a successful model should have. If the camera loves her so much, why were her first three photos so spectacularly awful? I'll begrudgingly admit that her color shot last week was decent, but her make-up was way less intrusive than most of the other girls' (I would have loved to see her try to work London's blue look, or Sandra's white splatter). No matter how many times Tyra and Co. lie and lie and lie, it does not change the fact that Tahlia will never be a model.

And that's fine! She doesn't have to be a model. She's a pretty young woman, and I admire that she wants to do some good after living though a serious childhood trauma. But modeling? Is not the arena for her crusade. It's like wanting to be a poet if you're illiterate. At times I felt bad for being so nasty about her, but honestly, I think Tyra completely misread how America would react to Tahlia. I bet she thought we would find her sympathetic and root for her, the way we did for Isis or Heather. But both of those women had an inner strength and rose above their challenges, inspiring us in the process. Tahlia bitched. Tahlia cried. Tahlia took crappy shot after crappy shot, and came across as nothing more than clueless and deluded. Part of that is her problem, but part of it is also Tyra's, whose lies ultimately did nothing more than lead that poor girl down an impossible path. And as much as I support Tyra, I can't support that.

The clip show that followed the episode was surprisingly entertaining. Things we learned: Celia is really and truly awesome (her sizing up of trashy Angelea from Buffalo was priceless); I really like Allison and her creepy-ass blood obsession; Fo got a surprisingly good edit (I'm still pulling for her to make Top 3); Aminat and Teyona came off fairly poorly, especially when they called Celia and Allison stupid; and Natalie sleeps alot. God, she's boring.