Face Off 07×15 – One Knight Only (SPOILERS)

SPOILERS

So, here we are – the finale.  And my horse, Dina, is still in the running.  That hasn’t happened since I started trying to pick the winner.  We start off right where we ended last week – on the reveal stage.  McKenzie tells them that they’ll be starting where they began – life vs. death.  They will each have to choose one medieval style heraldry, and use it to inspire their design of one good knight, and one evil knight.  They also get help.  I totally expected to see all of the old contestants come out, but only 3 do, which is a little odd.  So, they’re only getting one person to help them this time?  Drew chooses George, Cig chooses Sasha, and Dina gets Stella.  It seems like she ‘wound up’ with Stella, but Stella is awesome, and Dina and Stella worked together once before – on the WILDLY successful winged monkey from the Wizard Of Wonderland challenge.

So, then there’s another twist – they do get two people to work with.  Out comes Season 2 champ Rayce, Season 3 champ Nicole, and Season 6 champ Rashaad.  So, it kind of is in theme with the Judge Match episode, and also in theme with next season, which I’ll discuss briefly at the end of this post.  The past champs were pre-selected, so Dina has Nicole, Rayce goes to Drew’s team, and Cig has Rashaad (which is a good one, since with knights, you’re going to need to fabricate some sort of armor and Rashaad is an AMAZING fabricator).

Dina chooses her coat-of-arms first, and goes for one with an octopus and a crown.  Drew chooses one that has a stag head, and Cig chooses one that has gargoyle-like creatures on it.  They’re told to go get some rest and prepare for the first day.  They choose their models (who are stunt performers), and get to work.  Dina wants to go a crustacean route, and have her light knight with armor made of sea creatures.  Her concept is that the crab was brought back to life by the electricity of an electric eel, and the light knight was given powers by a mermaid to fight this dark crab.  Cig decides to have his light and dark knight both be the same race, that turn into evil gargoyles when they die.  Drew makes both his light and dark knight stag creatures, a good and evil force that are at war with each other in the woodlands.

When Mr. Westmore comes around (wearing the Westmore crest on his blazer – which is cool), he’s concerned about Dina’s concept.  Her crest has an octopus VERY prominently, and there’s no octopus in sight in her makeup.  He pretty much says ‘change it now’, and it throws her for a loop.  Nicole sees that she’s out of sorts now, so kind of takes charge in offering a suggestion that instead of eels having brought the dark crab knight to life, it’s an octopus that’s embedded in his brain, so the octopus will be there without having to change *everything*.

Mr. Westmore is also concerned about Cig’s light knight, in that his face looks kind of snarly, and very similar to his dark knight.  Yes, they’re of the same race, but the good knight shouldn’t look evil. The armor is in good hands, and Rashaad is working on that.  Cig decides to go really minimal and have a human face with silicone.

Mr. Westmore likes the way that Drew’s is going quite a bit, and can see the deer anatomy in the face.  The dark knight looks zombified, so you can tell that they’re of the same world, but they are different tribes.

Dina is using her cake decorating skills to the max in this challenge.  She’s using piping bags for texturizing the starfish chest piece, and the cowl and chin of the crab.  The starfish looks REAL.

On Day 2, it’s molding and cowl finishing for pretty much all the teams.  They want to get pre-painting done.  With one hour to go, Dina wants to get both her cowl molds open, but doesn’t know that she can get it done.  They open the death knight’s cowl and power wash it.  Dina’s unsure, and then Rayce, George, and Drew come out with her light knight cowl and help them clean it out.  That’s what this show is all about – making sure that people win and lose fairly, not because of mold issues.  You don’t see that kind of shit in other reality shows, where everyone acts shitty to each other all the time.  (hugs Face Off)

On Day 3, there’s still lots of work to do.  Dina’s team is working hardcore on the armor.  Well… all the teams are.  I think Rashaad is in the best place right now, since he’s as much the Fabrication King as Roy is.  Drew’s kind of unsure about the paint that Rayce is doing on the death knight, because he’s really worried about it getting muddy.  Hold up, Drew.  Don’t shit your pants.  Rayce has won this before, and all his paint jobs have been fantastic.  Trust in Rayce.

At the end of Day 3, they all go back to the house (including the past champs who must be staying there, too), and they come in to see their families.  Dina nearly collapses, and everyone’s so excited and surprised.  Dina’s mom and boyfriend are there, as are Cig’s mom and girlfriend, and Drew’s parents.

Application Day is happening on set at the Grand Arena, which is a huge equestrian center.  They’ll be doing a medieval type thing in the arena, including a joust and sword fight.  During application day, they also have to worry about accouterments going awry during the stunts.  Drew is especially concerned with this because of the antlers on his helms.  Dina’s having issues with the arm and leg pieces not wanting to stick on the model, even with slathering the dude in glue.  So, they decide to reinforce it with rope and add moss to cover the edges.  She also decides to scrap the fish skeleton chest piece for the dark knight.  Drew also accidentally starts painting some pieces of his light knight’s armor the wrong color, but it’s still wet so he can wipe it off easily.

When we get onstage, the judges are sitting in big thrones, overlooking the arena like something out of Game Of Thrones – or your local renaissance faire.  Lois is actually dressed up for the part – she looks like a medieval queen.  Her cloak is even velvet, and it’s got the piping on the bodice that’s time accurate.  I JUST FELL SO MUCH MORE IN LOVE WITH HER THAN I ALREADY WAS.

So, here are the final looks:

Cig’s Light Knight:

Cig’s Dark Knight:

Cig’s definitely got a better Death Knight than a Life Knight.  His Dark Knight is actually the most powerful image-wise out of all of them.  Rashaad KILLED the armor – it looks great.  I don’t understand the approach to the White Knight, though.  Like, why is his skintone so red?  It’s not blood.  And it looked WAY more red on TV than it does in this picture.  Cig and minimal makeups don’t really seem to go well together.

Dina’s Light Knight:

Dina’s Dark Knight:

I’m kind of conflicted on her Light Knight.  The face could have been more attractive, but I love love love the armor, and the collar piece.  The Dark Knight is FABULOUS, though.  Look at all that pebbling and detailing.  Dina should be kissing her piping bag right about now.  I’m surprised that Drew and Cig didn’t try that trick themselves, since it works SO DAMN WELL.

Drew’s Light Knight:

Drew’s Dark Knight:

Very cohesive.  Drew’s is my fave of the White Knights.  I find the face on the Dark Knight to be a bit wide, and the hair on the chest/beard is distracting.  I don’t even know if I should call it a beard, because it doesn’t look like a beard.  Like… at all.

The sword fight is pretty epic, and Cig’s Dark Knight, which is the most menacing, is (almost) the last one standing.  Him and Drew’s Light Knight are the ones that are left to fight, but they die together.  I think it’s my fave finale thus far.  I pick Dina to win, as I’ve picked her all season, but it’s a tough call, and I definitely wasn’t sure that she would.

But she does!  Yayyyyyyy Dina!  Yayyyyy my ability to pick a winner for once!

So, remember when I said that Rayce, Nicole, and Rashaad showing up not only matched the Judge Match episode, but kind of went with the theme for next year?  Well, that’s because next season (which starts in January) will have past champs as mentors for their selected contestants.  I don’t know if this means that Mr. Westmore isn’t going to be around next season or not, but Laura (winner of Season 5), Rayce (winner of Season 2), and Anthony (winner of Season 4, and the one who taught Dina makeup) will be the mentors.  I guess they’ll have the same ‘students’ all season and coach them – kind of like the set-up of The Voice.  Should be interesting.  See all you Face off Fans in January!