Skin Wars Season 2 Episode 9 [Review]

It's getting so close! We've already said goodbye to a ton of great talent here on the show so far, and we are about to have to say goodbye again. We only have four contestants left, and each of them is hungrier than ever for that one hundred thousand dollars (and I think there are other prizes, too, or something). A week from today we will know our Skin Wars champion, but for now, let's find out who is going to fall short of the final three.

They updated the logo! With "semifinals". Ok, Anyway.

Interestingly enough we start off at the painter's house, and we get to see them enjoy a meal together and bond a bit. Aryn is very worried because she was in the bottom two last week, and thinks she may be the next to go. I hope not. She's the only one for Team Gao left!

Next they go into the work room, and they get a very fun surprise. They are going to be painting the bellies of pregnant women. Lana is the most touched by this, and gets a bit choked up. It was cute! Rebecca says that they are going to do a Mother Nature inspired painting on the stomachs of the pregnant women. Craig and Robin stress that they need to do something original. AAAAANNNNDDD Queue someone copying someone else!

Both Lana and Cheryl Ann decide on a Tree of Life theme. Both think they are copying each other. And then they notice that Avi has a tree on his, too. And to quote Cheryl -- "The judges are not going to like this". It's no surprise that they were annoyed. They saw Avi's first, so they were pre-disposed to like his. By the time they got down to Cheryl Ann's, they were fed up with the whole tree concept. This did cast Aryn in a great light, though, given that she was so different from the rest of them.

The judges return to reveal who won, and what they get. Aryn takes home this semifinal mini challenge win! Go Team Gao! She gets a great advantage for the next challenge, too, but Rebecca decides that they are going to have to wait until the next day to figure out what's going on. I guess they are going to try and push them to not have a full night to design something.

Fast forward to the next day. They are all outside. This is odd. They are doing another camouflage challenge. I don't care much for these because while they are neat to look at, I like seeing the artists' creativity moreso than how well they can copy something. But alas, I'm not the one in charge here. What is interesting is that Natalie Fletcher has returned to judge them for this challenge! This would have been way more of a shock had she not posted this online over the past few days, as she wasn't included in the episode previews at all. But damn if I'm not happy to see her shining face again.

 Due to her winning earlier, Aryn gets to chose her backdrop first. She chooses the zen garden. The rest of them have to race to their backdrops to claim them. Lana gets the wine and grape station, Avi gets the farm, and Cheryl Ann gets to do the ocean view. Natalie gives them a bit of advice talking about how they need to take the sun and shadows into account. Everyone is worried about this, too, and it shows.

This challenge didn't seem to be kind to any of them. As the judges walked around, everyone seemed to be struggling on some level or another. Natalie was most excited for Aryn, who she felt picked the best backdrop but also the most challenging. They only had three hours, which is hard to do a normal painting for. Everybody is pushing themselves, and when time is up, everyone is stressed beyond belief.

The main stage of the semi finals is very tense, and nobody really knows what's going to happen. Let's get to the main stage looks before I have a meltdown.

Avi - While not bad over all, I really feel like he didn't take Natalie's advice about the sun into account. The colors looked just a tad off, and I feel like it was the lighting that did him in here. The model's right leg looked phenomenal, while the upper body was obviously "There".
Aryn - Aryn's colors were much more on point here. You can still see the model, but the lighting was taken into account, and the reds in both the tree and the stone statue were blended very well. I feel like she was the best of the night.
Cheryl Ann - This one is a mix of awesome and not so awesome. Ther are parts of this like the legs and lower torso that really, really work. Her right leg, against the yellow flowers, is totally gone, and her other leg against the rock is barely there. The head was nice, aside from the ripped wig cap, but the torso was way too mis-matched on colors to blend at all.
Lana - As much a I love Lana, I didn't feel this one at all. It didn't blend well, and it didn't feel right either. It felt too cartoonish to be real, and I don't feel like it matched up with the background at all.

When they parade them back on the main stage, everything is tense. The judges saw amazing and really bad in all the paintings. Avi and Aryn are chosen as the top two. Avi is the one that takes home the win. I really thought Aryn had this one nailed down, but alas. Congrats Avi!. The bottom two was a whole different game. Lana and Cheryl Ann both did great this week. Due to it being such a close call, they decide to have a paint off. They set them up with different back drops to do another blend, this time with a city landscape.

Lana struggled with a pose, while Cheryl Ann knew exactly what she wanted to do. Cheryl Ann seemed to be in the lead. Everyone was so nervous, including Aryn and Avi backstage. Even Natalie, who was in last season's paintoff, was freaking out. In the end, Lana made it to the finals. This was a bit crushing for me, especially now that I've grown to truly appreciate Cheryl Ann. She reached out to me recently and proved that she is a truly caring woman who became a bit of a victim of editing. Seeing her crying at the end of the episode broke my heart.

The final three are here. We have Avi, Aryn, and Lana. Who is going to go home with the title of Skin Wars Champion?