About a month in I still find myself totally loving "Top Model" Cycle 13. I'm not sure if the short-girls-only focus allowed them to cast differently or what, but I would argue that setting aside the height issue, this is the strongest group of models since possibly Cycle 2. We've had four solid photo shoots with some gorgeous pictures. I think any one of, like, eight of these girls could realistically take the title. And up until this episode, the right girl has been cut every week. But not this time.

The episode started with a make-up lesson from an alarmingly skinny man, which then segued to a challenge in which the girls were dropped off at some ginormous Wal-Mart in the dead of night and tasked by Nigel and his hot wife into some ridiculous modeling-related race. My roommate asked me, "Do you think Nigel Barker ever imagined that his career would have him presiding over a bunch of short girls running through a Wal-Mart in the wee hours of the morning?" And I assured him that it doesn't matter; Nigel is paid thousands of dollars to do this shit, and he goes home to sleep with his hot wife on a bed stuffed with money. He's doing just fine. The race was interesting only in that Erin got nasty, pulling girls, pushing girls, stealing other girls' photos, etc. When people complained about her roller derby-type behavior, she explained that anything goes in a race. I never realized Erin's resemblance to Dick Dastardly until this episode. In truth, while I might find her attitude off-putting, I have nothing but respect for a girl who's willing to get dirty for what she wants. But her eyebrows still totally freak me out.

The photo shoot for the week was a beauty shot in which the girls were wrapped in various scarves. It sounds weird, but again, there were some stunning results. And the photographer? None other than Tyra Banks, going behind the camera much earlier than usual in the season. (I wonder if this was a cost-saving measure, since the show's budget was substantially tightened this year?) Most of the girls performed well, with a few bumps. Laura had dead-fish mouth until Tyra turned the fans on, and then Laura transformed into a Renaissance goddess. Jennifer asked if she could scream during her shoot, and then did so with quasi-orgasmic results. Bianca moved gracefully but once again failed to soften her face. And Ashley was a disaster, requiring multiple costume changes and set-up tweaks, and the end result was basically blah. The opposite of blah was Brittany, whose sheer-scarf-covered-face shot was totally gorge, and she was rewarded with first call-out at the end of shoot itself. As an added bonus, she got to do a shoot with two hot male models that Tyra "discovered." I would like to know where Tyra is discovering guys like that.

That led to a Bottom 2 of Ashley and Bianca, and rightfully so. (The only change I would have made to the call-outs would have been to place Jennifer much lower; I didn't get the mad love the judges gave her photo, which once again had her mouth agape.) This was Bianca's third trip to the Bottom 2 in four weeks, so that...wasn't good. But by rights Ashley should have been in the bottom two weeks ago for the horse shot, when she was so bad that they had to use one of her test shots and then digitally remove the horse tender from the image. I mean, come on! Of the two of them, Ashley is unquestionably the poorer model. And as we learned last episode, she is a terrible bitch. But alas, she was spared, and Bianca went home. It's hard to not look at this as favoritism on Ashley's behalf, since Tyra "discovered" her in the audience of her talk show and is thus "invested" in Ashley. But Tyra also came down hard on her this episode, and Bianca had been in the bottom so many times without any sign of improvement. So...I don't know. They're both terrible, I guess, and I can only hope Ashley goes home soon. After she and Kara are cut I think that's all of the chaff for this cycle. Even Sundai showed huge improvements this week.

As a side note, I found it hilarious that the "Top Models in Action" segment this week featured Samantha, who was cut second back in Cycle 8, but who has now become a legitimately successful model both oversees and in New York. It's just mind-blowing to think that she was one of the first girls cut in the season with possibly the worst group of models ever. (Diana? Jael? Sarah? Whitney? Even Dionne, who although gorgeous, was actually incapable of modeling?)