'Face Off' Recap: 'Covert Characters'

All photos courtesy Syfy.
BY DAWN FEAKES

Last week on "Face Off," we bid adieu to Ant while Yvonne came away with the victory and the ladies' third straight win. We've had all team challenges so far and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm anxious to see what they can do in a solo challenge. Can the men find their mojo? Let's do this.

The artists enter Command Central to receive their assignments for a highly classified mission - highly classified mission. Their mission, should they choose to stay in the competition, is to design disguises for undercover agents tracking terrorists with supernatural abilities. If this sounds a bit specific, it is as Syfy is introducing a new series "Hunters" about this very thing. It's actually a fairly clever bit of cross promotion without being too forced. This will be their first individual challenge but more than that, it's a Focus Challenge which means focus on the face with precision and beautiful lines. Their mentor for this challenge is none other than Michael Westmore who has actually created disguises for the LAPD and Michael Jackson. Is there anything the man hasn't done? They key is the shape of the face and subtly reconfiguring the bone structure and the inclusion of elements such as freckles, dentures, and contacts. Their agents have been preassigned and guys, remember: focus on the face. You all have two days for this. Good luck.

Design Phase
Njoroge - Agent Ansdell. He wants to do female to male disguise as well as change from Caucasian to Asian. It's a bold undertaking, that's for sure.
Melissa - Agent McDonough. She's staying within the gender but aging her up. A lot.
Robert - Agent Popzlatava. He too is going female to male but her features are very delicate. His biggest challenge is to not have it looking fake.
Yvonne - Agent Fuller. She'll keep him male but make him a rock star. Childhood ambition fulfilled!
Mel - Agent Stiles. Another young woman to old man which could be cartoony or adorable.
Kaleb - Agent Wright. A young Caucasian woman going undercover as an eastern Indian woman.
Rob - Agent Johnson. Staying within the male gender but aging him up a bit, he's envisioning an 'everyman'.
Anna - Agent Scamman. She decides on a late 20s/early 30s chubby hipster. It's a solid disguise seeing as their everywhere. However finishing the sculpture right below the eyes is a risky decision
Walter - Agent He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named. He's transforming his model into a Hell's Angel which runs the risk of looking cartoony, a death knell in a focus challenge.
Katie - Agent Philips. Her angle is less about aging and more about social status
Johnny - Agent Morales. He's changing his model's ethnicity to that of an African descent. It should work pretty well.

Mr. Westmore! He confirms that Walter's is looking cartoony and after being a bit despondent, he gets to work modifying it. This group seems to be learning much more quickly than previous seasons that you always listen to Mr. Westmore. He advises Njoroge to bring the eye in more in order to read 'Asian' and lo and behold, it works! For such a unique challenge, the group is relaxed and bantering and Melissa opines that disguises are less about the face and more about body language. I agree...to an extent. Let's hope that the judges do too. Robert is first into the molding rooms and Mel worries that she was too ambitious with the old age gender change. Take a deep breath, Mel. Stick to your plan and you'll be fine. Rob's behind but as the face needs to be perfect, he's not concerned at all. Robert has a little bit too much fun with the power washer in cleaning out his mold and we should all strive to find a similar outlook on life.

Application Phase
Melissa weaves eyebrows into the facial prosthetic which is kind to her model but taking a lot of time. Rob decided on no prosthetics covering the bald cap so his edges have to be perfect. Mel starts her painting with a layer of red for the 'blood layer' for authenticity. As long as it doesn't end up looking muddy, it makes sense. Njoroge is feeling good about his character though it's reading 'evil caricature.' Kaleb's agent is looking orange and as he points out, no one is orange. Except for Donald Trump and Oompa Loompas and I don't think they actually exist. Put down the airbrush and step away from the model. More paint is not going to help matters right now Kaleb.

Last Looks
Kaleb continues to have issues with his edges and the color is an unfortunate brown face. Njoroge is still feeling good and Katie's is reading 'shiny spray-tanned Cyrano De Bergerac.' That's probably not the best choice for an unnoticed undercover agent.

Reveal Stage
Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer of "Hunters" and "The Walking Dead" is the special guest judge. Time to see if the disguises fool the judges or not.

Anna - Slightly Stoned Hippie
Katie - The shiny love child of Ron Burgundy and Ron Swanson.
Walter - Weekend Biker. I'm liking it.
Rob - Everyman
Robert - A bit androgynous which isn't necessarily bad.
Yvonne- Gabriel Bolivar before he became The Master
Njoroge - masked Yakuza hippie
Melissa - Dolores Umbridge's ugly sister
Johnny - Rasta Michonne. I mean, even more so.
Kaleb - Mowgli on the farm
Mel -  Ed Asner playing Benjamin Franklin and he's adorable.

The judges really don't like Katie's, Njoroge's, and Kaleb's. One of them is going to get a huge surprise.

Safe
Anna, Yvonne, Johnny, Mel

Top
Robert - The judges like it even better without the glasses and liked the hair, forehead and nose. It was the cleanest make up of the group.


Rob - His agent had zero interest and attraction therefore was fantastic. He achieved invisibility which is what you want in an agent and the look did not read make up at all.



Top and Bottom
Melissa - The judges loved the bottom half of her disguise with the wrinkles, liver spots, and wattle but the top half left them cold so I am both happy and sad for her.



Bottom
Njoroge - Glenn is disturbed that he likes what he did; the judges felt he tried to do too many things and the combination made the illusion fall apart quickly. The cross over into racial stereotyping is also concerning.
Kaleb - Another huge miss with the racial stereotyping and beyond that, he tried to do too much.
Katie - He was very, very shiny. And quite tan for a basement maintenance man though that woulc be explained by excessive use of tanning beds. The failure was on a technical level as it just didn't read real or authentic.

Winner
Rob - He had the most intelligent approach to the challenge, actually fulfilling the requirements.

Eliminated
Njoroge - The execution was poor on all levels.

The ladies' stranglehold on the top spot has been relinquished. Can the guys carry the momentum into next week's slimy alien makeup challenge? Join us on Wednesday, February 10 at 9 p.m. ET for "Foreign Bodies" only on Syfy.