Snow isn’t the only element Canada’s Next Top Model will be expected to brave once she’s crowned.
The eight model hopefuls still in contention were put to various elemental tests on last night’s episode of the show. First, the women faced posing while being hit with water. Judges Mike Ruiz and Yasmin Warsame oversaw the contestants as they attempted to remain static while their competitors splashed them with boards in a pool.
Then, an early morning photo shoot saw the women try to produce a fashionable commercial photograph while smearing and squeezing different fruits on their faces.
However, the dry runs were only preparation for the week’s challenge. Host Jay Manuel surprised the girls with a trip to the Bahamas, where they had to embrace a foreign tropical climate to produce a winning photo, posing as a bride left by her fiancée at a beachfront altar.
But not all of the model hopefuls were Bahamas-bound. Lacking a passport, Vancouver’s Maryam Massoumi had to stay in Toronto and perform the same shoot in a studio.
The disadvantage didn’t stop her from wowing the judges. Massoumi slid by, behind Heather Delaney of Halifax, who was the challenge winner.
And while the on-location shoot seemed like an advantage to Ebonie Finley from Repentigny, Que., who grew up in the Bahamas, her confidence crumbled when the judges picked her photo as the weakest, making her the third contender to be sent home.
“It was really a big shock for me,” said Finley. “I really thought I had a great photo shoot, especially when Nolé (Marin, the show’s creative director) said he thought it was amazing.”
In a shoot where the women were expected to wear their hearts on their sleeves, Finley was criticized by the judges for being unable to translate interior feelings outward. “I also personally didn’t like the picture, but I thought we had to show emotion and I was really emotional during my shoot, so I thought I had done a really good job,” she said.
Finley also thought her motivation for being in the competition surpassed that of some of the other girls, who she said looked at modeling as a secondary career choice.
“Some people there, in my opinion, were there more for the fame or fun of it, where I was really serious … For me, there was no plan B.”
– Watch Canada’s Next Top Model every Tuesday night on CTV
