Nicolas started off the episode doing a ton of shit-talking. He's awfully confident for someone who has yet to even place in the top of any challenge I can think of. For this week's challenge Tim took the designers to the Los Angeles Times printing press, where they were tasked with using newspaper as the fabric for their new looks. So basically they're taking the dress Jeffrey made for the recycling challenge in S3 and creating an entire challenge out of it. Kind of lame, honestly. Even Tim's explanation that paper clothing is a legitimate fashion trend didn't do much to change that opinion with me.

Many of the designers seemed totally in the weeds with this challenge. We also learned that Shirin is apparently a talker. Like, she never shuts up. And most of the designers find her obnoxious. Especially Nicolas, who could not stop talking smack about her, or Johnny, or pretty much anyone else. His spotlight in this episode made me naturally assume he was getting cut, since he's never gotten this much screen time before.

During his check in, Tim encouraged Gordana to dump an idea of creating two dresses, one of them a really simple overgarment that says "Time to Change." He loved her other, more complicated dress (I did too), and told her to put her effort into that alone. Irina had issues with her dress and the way it dried, and she said she wanted to go with a trenchcoat. Tim totally destroyed Johnny's dress, and rightly so, because it looked like a child's craft project. What is happening to this guy and his designs? Christopher had a very ambitious idea to create a full feathered skirt out of newspaper, but Tim was concerned about the time constraints.

Then, the models came in for a fitting, and Johnny - who was having a real problem with his new dress, even though it was a million times better than his old one - started lying to his model about what went wrong with his old dress (he claimed that there was a steamer/iron issue, and that never happened at all), and then he just totally gave up and started doing a crossword puzzle. Dude. I understand that this is an extremely stressful situation, especially for someone who has wrestled with addiction in the recent past. But that is so not the way to go about things. That makes you look like a total loser. And I have seen your portfolio. You are not a loser. Get it together. He said he didn't care what the other designers think about him. That is a lie.

Runway: Once again guest judges galore, including Tommy Hilfiger and Eva Longoria Parker. Logan's dress was actually quite cute, and didn't look like paper. Nicolas's dress was pretty basic; nothing experimental about it. Christopher's dress was bold, and his model walked the runway like a maniac. Ra'mon's separates didn't really go together. Epperson made a... I don't know. Was it Asian-inspired? Old-fashioned? I don't know. Johnny's dress had basically no shape or point of view. I thought Gordana's really looked like fabric, and was sporty and cute. Carol Hannah's dress was certainly bold; I loved the full ruffled skirt. Shirin's skirt was a little too voluminous and it looked like a costume. Irina's trenchcoat seemed a touch obvious to me. Althea's dress was killer; it had a great pattern and sheen. I loved Louise's neckpiece and skirt, but I felt like she threw away the bodice.

Heidi called Christopher, Nicolas, Johnny, Althea, Irina, and Gordana for the high/low group. I wasn't sure where a couple of those would land, specifically Irina, Nicolas, and Christopher (they would have been my Bottom 3). The judges loved Althea's dress. Heidi said she was kind of bored by Gordana's look because it looked so much like a regular dress. That's a problem in a material innovation challenge? Huh? They loved Irina's trenchcoat - Hilfiger said it looked like Coco Chanel, Givenchy, etc. Blech. To me it looked really sloppy and thrown together; she did absolutely nothing with the coat itself, and just crumpled up paper for the sleeves and collar. Do not understand. After Heidi questioned how much time Johnny spent on his dress, Johnny plied his lie about the steamer, and Nicolas totally threw Johnny under the bus. Uncomfortable! The judges did not see punk in Nicolas's design; they saw insects. Ouch! The judges went overboard with Christopher again; I still feel like he has no idea what he's doing and keeps lucking into stuff.

The win went to Irina. You have got to be kidding me. They said it was "original" and "took risks." We must have been looking at entirely different outfits. The Bottom 2 came down to Johnny vs. Nicolas, two designers I was most excited about before the season started, and two designers that have both let me down. Of the two I would keep Nicolas, because at least he has a fighting spirit. And that's what happened. Johnny was, I would argue mercifully, cut. He was not in this to win this, and his work had been getting increasingly lazy over the past few weeks. He cannot have thought his work the past few challenges had been adequate. Tim even seemed over it by the end, and he even called out Johnny's bald-faced lie on the runway. WOW! Tim rarely speaks ill of the designers publicly. He must have really been pissed.