Face Off Season 11 Episode 5 Recap: Troubling Transformations
Face Off Season 11 is back for week 5 and things are starting to get scary. This week’s challenge is absolutely monstrous!
Welcome to your favorite Face Off recap. We’re back for the the fifth episode of this season, and the competition is getting closer. Last week saw Emily and Tyler come out on top, while Cat and Niko went home, with only their love to comfort them.
Let’s see if Emily and Tyler can keep up the good work for another week. It’s not an elimination week, so the winners today will have immunity in the spotlight challenge for episode 6.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: (l-r) Adam Milicevic, Logan Long, Rachael Wagner, Gage Hubbard, Emily Serpico, Tyler Green, Evan Hedges, Benjamin “Ben” Ploughman, George Troester III, Cig Neutron, Keaghlan Ashley, Melissa Ebbe — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
The artists enter the lab and it looks like Oddities threw up all over the studio while they were away. McKenzie is standing in front of an array of medical curiosities: weird lab equipment and display cases full of bugs and skulls. Emily says she’s feeling very at home, because that’s what her room looks like.
This Week’s Challenge
McKenzie introduces the challenge, Troubling Transformations. The inspiration is monsters like Jekyll and Hyde and the Hulk. They’re scientists who did experiments that went horribly wrong. Each team gets to chose one of the laboratory sets for to inspire their creature’s design. For this week’s twist, McKenzie tells them they need to do two makeups, one showing their scientist mid-transformation. Here’s what they chose:
- Emily & Tyler: Electric shock
Their character injected himself with metals to get superpowers. But when it goes horribly wrong, he becomes a “rusted out giant super human whose body conducts electricity and he’s indestructible.” - Ben & Evan: Chemical exposure
Their scientist is trying to make a growth serum to help him become super-strong. It backfires and makes his skin peel off, and his muscles collapse and cave in. - Keaghlan & Melissa: Insect DNA splicing
Their scientist was trying to create supers oldiers using bug DNA. The transformed monster’s conceptual drawing looks like a gross cthulhu in a lab coat, which could be really cool. - Gage & Rachael: Horticultural hybridization
They seem a little lost, but finally decide to go with carnivorous plants. Their scientist spliced his genes with Venus flytrap DNA. - Logan & Adam: Radiation exposure
Their scientist is exposed to space radiation from an asteroid shard, and the mid-transformation will have a blistered arm. Adam wants to go grindhouse on this. The transformed character will be a an amorphous cancerous blob and “a lump of unhinged DNA and mutation.” - Cig & George: Medical Augmentation
This scientist is an amputee who grows himself a new arm in a test tube. But his body rejects it, and it takes over. He will have bone spurs sticking out everywhere.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: (l-r) Adam Milicevic, Logan Long — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Mentoring Time
Michael Westmore enters the lab for some quality mentoring time. To Ben and Evan, he suggests they airbrush to give more depth and differentiation where the skin is peeling from the muscle. He suggests Keaghlan and Melissa should make the little pinprick holes for their scientist’s injections bigger, so they show.
Michael likes Cig and George’s bone spur idea and suggests they work more spikes into the scientist’s mid-transformation makeup. He has no advice for Gage and Rachael, at least not any that made it past editing.
Mentoring time is over and the artists continue with their work. Adam is making a gigantic arm. He went home for his last giant arm so he’s hoping this one turns out well. Melissa is trying to make her transformed creature look more bug and less alien, but she is not happy.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Keaghlan Ashley — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Down To Work
On Day 2, everyone is moving right along until Cig and George try to open their mold. The core won’t separate from the back half. It’s a plaster disaster! They take it outside to the hose and half the artists try to tug the thing out of its shell. They chisel away until it pops out, but they removed a big chunk and they’re worried about how it will turn out. But the day ends with no more disasters.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Cig Neutron — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Application day passes quickly. Cig and George have hardly any paint on toward the end of the day and they’re worried they’ve gone too big and won’t be able to finish. Melissa’s paint job is already turning muddy. She is worried she’s over-painting. Logan and Adam decided not to do cast their shoulder and upper arm like they’d planned, so now there’s a huge gap where the model’s arm goes into the monster forearm. “Thank god we’re making an abomination” says Adam, as he covers it with foam.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Cig Neutron — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
The time flies by, and it’s time for judging. This week, there’s a special guest judge. It’s John Landis, producer and director of such transformative (haha) classics as An American Werewolf In London.
[Check back later for pictures of tonight’s final looks.]
Mushy Middle
Gage and Rachael: Gage isn’t happy with the monster’s paint job and Ve agrees. She thinks it would have turned out better if they did more hand painting. Landis thinks the scientist looks like one of those 50s mutant guys. He is having so much fun! As far as the monster, Glenn isn’t sure how all the teeth play into the plant theme, but Landis really likes it even though he doesn’t know if it addresses the challenge. I guess SyFy wasn’t very excited either, because they never posted the image of this final look to the Official Place Where We Get TV Images.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Makeup by Cig Neutron and George Troester III — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Cig and George: Cig and George’s looks very low budget–like Toxic Avenger low budget. Glenn likes the scientist’s hair. But they don’t understand what they’re looking at and Glenn calls it “Halloween-y.” OUCH. They do love the elongated skull and how the teeth are exploding from the monster.
Top Looks
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Makeup by Emily Serpico and Tyler Green — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Emily and Tyler: It’s good. The first makeup really looks like a mad scientist. He looks literally fried. Landis and the judges love how the metal thing is fused to the creature’s arm. The heavy neck musculature is so well-realized. They handled the transformation between the two characters beautifully and the full transformation is spectacular. Landis loves the overall unity and how it looks great up close and far away, “which as a film maker is great!” The color choices are part of the makeup’s success. Landis actually says it’s excellent.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Makeup by Adam Milicevic and Logan Long — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Logan and Adam: The judges and John Landis really like their scientist mid-transformation. Landis likes how it’s all shiny and it reminds him of Lost in Space. He’s all giggly and he really likes it. Landis prefers the before, because it’s more subtle, and thinks they went a little too big on the giant claw. But he still thinks it’s great. Glenn is impressed with the level of detail and the modern aesthetic. Neville likes how they specifically went for a tongue-in-cheek genre that really gave them latitude to push the envelope creatively. He also loves the anime vibe. Glenn is impressed with the massive amount of work they accomplished, and Ve loves how they hid the face and the side of the head.
Bottom Looks
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Makeup by Keaghlan Ashley and Melissa Ebbe — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Keaghlan and Melissa: Melissa thinks their creation is “one of the more unique ones, but not in a good way.” It kind of looks like a gross hot mess on the reveal stage. Landis thinks it looks like someone sneezed on their transforming scientist, but he likes how the spines are bursting through. Glenn is really bothered by the red, white and blue paint job. From a distance, there’s no focus on the full transformation because the paint is so muddy.
FACE OFF — “Troubling Transformations” Episode 1105 — Pictured: Makeup by Benjamin “Ben” Ploughman and Evan Hedges — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/Syfy)
Ben and Evan: Ben is scared the appliances aren’t standing out enough, and the judges agree. Landis wants to know how the chemical from the IV made the glasses stick out of his forehead like that. Neville says the overall paint job isn’t selling it. He doesn’t get why they sculpted prosthetic muscles to cover the model’s incredible physique. Neville says it shows “no sense of kinetic transformation.” John though it was weird how the scientist was all muscular, but the monster wasn’t.
And the winner is…. Emily and Tyler, for the second week in a row! They made really smart choices and presented a clean and beautiful makeup. They have immunity for next week.
Next: Face Off Season 11 Episode 4 Recap: Snow Queens
Luckily for our bottom looks, this isn’t an elimination week, so they get to go home and think about what they did wrong. Keaghlan and Melissa were especially dejected all throughout this challenge. Don’t get yourselves psyched out, ladies! Better luck next week.