'Face Off' Recap: 'Smoke and Mirrors'

All photos courtesy Syfy.
BY DAWN FEAKES

Last week, Kaleb was unable run the Gauntlet and was sent packing. Seven artists remain so it's time to find your best side and let's do this.

The remaining contestants take a field trip to a castle and Rob wants dragons. Don't we all?  It's a metaphor for a beautiful facade can hide something twisted and evil. Like me but without the beautiful facade part. I digress. These sorceresses however, are beautiful. Your Spotlight Challenge is to each take a sorceress and turn her into the monstrous evil being she truly is. Remember, we want to see their true evil nature on display.

Rob - Dragon Queen. She steals girls' youth.
Walter - Emerald Empress. He doesn't know how to incorporate the emeralds and honestly, dude, I don't either. Good luck.
Melissa - Wiccan in the Woods. She's going for the decaying look as a result of spells bouncing back at her.
Yvonne - Corpse Conjurer. Everlasting youth comes with a price.
Mel - Temptress of Flame.  She works with Satan in tempting people with their temptations but wha't really important here is the strong flame image.
Anna - Shadow Enchantress. She envisions this as a demon sorceress who seduces those she comes in contact with to get what she wants.
Robert - Sea Witch. Her name is Maris Tenerbrais and she has an eel.

Mr. Westmore arrives for his walk-through and everyone has finally learned the lesson that when he speaks, you listen and do what he says. His streak of being right is beaten only by the commercial's streak of winning every week.

Melissa is the first into the mold room but Rob's on the proverbial ledge as he's doubting his sculpt. Anna executes her plan and is exactly where she wanted to be at the end of the first day. This is what's known as 'foreshadowing.' It's so nice to see that even this far into competition, they are all still helping each other out when one struggles with a concept.

Day 2
Rob's re-energized and has his head back in the game, scrapping the wings and instead exaggerating the spine. Yvonne debates the relative merits of muscles versus bones to sell the corpse visual in the neck and Walter experiments with the shoulders on his sculpt. It's a bold choice Walter. Anna's cowl mold is too big and is setting her behind schedule on sculpting the face. Uh, the judges really don't like to see a blank face so she needs to speed sculpt. Robert makes a gelatin eel for his sea witch because of course he does.  He's adorable and I love him but I also want to shake him and scream at him to focus and take this just a bit more seriously.

Application
Anna's mold is looking okay so she'll have a face piece and a cowl to send out. Yvonne's face sculpt looks amazing as the skeleton and her painting is incredibly deft and sure. Right now Rob's is reading less of a dragon and more of a demonic Orc. Walter's Emerald Enchantress is very green and the first thing that comes to mind for me is Mad Max: 80s Rave.

Last Looks
Walter needs to start (!) painting and Anna's face needed a patch but it's too late. Onward, Ferb. Melissa MacGyver's the hands of her model spectacularly by using extra facial prosthetic and Rob's airbrush clogs, forcing him to hand paint.

Reveal Stage
Rob - Bearded She Orc
Yvonne- Botoxed Cryptkeeper
Anna - The face is weirdly wide and there are stalagmites growing out of her head.
Melissa - Nature Borg Queen
Mel: Tim the Enchanter
Robert: Half the creature from the black lagoon
Walter - Dowager Punk

Judges
They all really like the detail of Rob and Yvonne's but Anna's didn't fare too well up close and Neville really didn't care for the vine-forms on Melissa's. For Mel's they liked the beauty makeup but the back of the head looked like Baked Alaska. I think that Glenn might have been hungry. Robert's half transformation was ill-received and shockingly enough, Neville was impressed by the texture on Walter's.

Safe
Mel, Melissa, Walter

Top
Yvonne - Glenn likes soft, subtle texture and overall gorgeous painting.


Rob - He showed a good balance of details and excellent overall vision.



Bottom
Robert - They were not fans of the half-transformation and Neville in particular was confused by the 'fish wings' (fins.)
Anna - Hers came across as too cliche and ended up with wonky proportions.

Winner
Rob - He did so much so well.

Eliminated
Anna

The save goes back to the safe for another week. I can only see it being pulled out if Yvonne or Rob has a super-tough go of it, other than that, I doubt they'll play it. Get your bottles and stoppers out because next week the remaining six contestants will be dreaming of Genies. Join us on Syfy for 'Bottled Up' on Wednesday, March 9 at 9 p.m. ET.