'Face Off' Recap: 'Intergalactic Zoo'

All photos courtesy Syfy.
BY DAWN FEAKES

It's time folks, Season Nine is underway. Let's hope they've all practiced whimsy, beauty, fabrication and time management as well as listening to Mr. Westmore. Are you ready for some monsters? Will the guys end the ladies' winning streak? Let's do this.

The Contestants
As usual, they're skewing young with an interesting mix of self-taught make up artists, haunted house players and a few fringe industry veterans.

Evan
Meg
Ben
Jordan
Brittany
Jason
Libby
Scott
Kevon
Omar
Missy
Stevie
Ricky
Jasmine
Sidney
Nora

For the most part we are blessedly free of artiste hair *coughMissycough*. Will they use this extra time to turn out quality work? We'll find out but first, let's check in with McKenzie.

This season will be all about twists! Turns! Challenges! And she makes good on her threat promise by launching into the first Spotlight Challenge. Working in teams of two, use inspiration from the Natural History Museum  to create alien animals - that will require two models to wear. Nevill will be your mentor for this challenge so try not to muck it up. Remember: you are taking inspiration, not making the object. Place your bets now on who listens.

Teams
Evan and Sidney - Sidney is a former make up model turned artist because naturally. Their object is a a mineral, tourmaline.

Omar and Kevon - Omar has previous Hollywood experience and Kevon spells his name stupid and looks like Apollo Ohno just woke up. Their object is a clam shell.

Jordan and Ben - Ben's the second token old guy at 33 and they've selected a blue/green mineral/stone.

Nora and Scottt - Their object is a ram horn. Nora just graduated from make-up school and seems to have little practical experience. At 43, Scott is the oldest and I sob into my Geritol.

Stevie and Libby - They select native silver and both suffer early designer block. If you can't break through this ladies, it's going to be a short season for you.

To the lab! Get your drinks ready folks; they'll be molding soon.

Stevie and Libbey finally decide on an insect-like creature. Uh, okay. Sure, we'll go with that.

Mr. Westmore! Do you guys remember Rule No. 1 - Thou shalt always listen to Mr. Westmore? Time to find out who studied and who is eliminated.

Ricky and Jasmine - They have the alligator skin but their design is looking too humanoid. Watch it and remove human elements.

Missy and Meg - They've got an herbivore jaw and he cautions them to not make it muddy. How much do you want to bet their color palette is brown? Headdesk.

Jason and Brittany - They made absolutely no impression and so we don't care. Moving on.

The award for first use of 'I'm freaking out!' of the season goes to Omar because huge molds! ERMAHGERD! Related, if either of them say that they've never made a mold this big again, I'm going to stab them with a paintbrush.

Ladies and gents, we've got our first cracked mold of the season so drink your drinks. Stevie and Libby are having a really really tough time with this challenge and I actually feel a bit sorry for them.

Application Phase
It's coming down to the wire and the models arrive. Due to their design, Kevon and Omar can't put their models in costume until Last Looks and this has disaster written all over it. Stevie and Libby are in a world of hurt as they didn't fabricate any of the pieces, nothing is painted and they are, without a doubt, screwed. Missy's paint job looks distinctly brown and why do I bother? You know what they need?  A 'Face Off' bootcamp to work on things like 'time management' and 'following directions.'

Last Looks
Teams are finishing up paint jobs and Missy/Meg are already in tears. It's kind of painful and ladies? It only gets harder from here so pull it together.

Reveal Stage
Ricky/Jasmine - They send out a worm thing that looks pretty cool.

Jordan/Ben - A kind of hippogriff/dragon/basilisk. It's certainly alien.

Kevon/Omar - Sy Snootles finally got more work. Good for her.

Nora/Scott- Their ram horn morphed into a sort of a carnivorous slug that smiles at us with dangerous cuteness.

Sidney/Evan - There's a lot of tentacle action happening in the back.

Missy/Meg - It's brown and burnt and spiky and bad.

Stevie/Libby - bug eyed on top and sitting on shoulders of death mask. Are they trolling us because really?

Jason/Brittany - A two-headed turtles thing. All that's missing is a Podrace to announce.

Safe: Ricky, Jasmin, Nora, Scott, Missy, Meg, Jason, Brittany

Top looks
Sidney/Evan - The judges like the tentacles and thought it a very good combination of the two performers, making it visually interesting.



Ben/Jordan - They loved everything about this from the color to incorporating several different animal types into something completely different.

I kind of want one as a pet.
Bottom Looks
Kevon/Omar - it was too cartoony and confusing; a visual mess. They missed the memo about not making an actual clam, just using it as an inspiration.
Stevie/Libby - Their concept totally fell apart. You're being too kind Glenn; there never was a concept in the first place. There was no synthesis with the two actors. The only redeeming feature was the paint job that Ve liked.

Winner
Ben

Eliminated
No one! Twist!!! Glenn wanted to see what you all were capable of and they now regret every casting decision this season. With that said, do not waste this opportunity.

What are your predictions? Who will step up and shine? Is this crew the caliber of earlier seasons? Hit us up in the comments with your thoughts and tune in next Tuesday, August 4 for 'Siren Song' at 9 EST, only on Syfy.