Under the Gunn, or Why is Nick the Villain?

I yelled at the TV a lot when I was watching this episode. Ugh. (click for more)



So the big thing is everyone wants to hate on Nick because Isabelle sucked. And he said so. So is he not allowed to say anything about anyone because he's the "mentor" and has to love everyone all the time? Because that makes it sound just like the crap teachers have to go through, where you can't say anything about your students even if they're little shits. Also let's not forget that Isabelle had terrible time management skills BEFORE she was on Nick's team. He certainly didn't cause them by getting on her when time was up. Natalia was particularly annoying and self-righteous about how Nick should always support them and blah blah. Your clothes are not that great, Natalia. It's only a matter of time before you're out of here so I don't think you have a lot to say about anything. "If we lose Nick is going to throw me under the bus because he hates me." What? When did he show you that, and also, see above re: your clothes not being that great. And THEN after they won she's all "I have so much to learn from Nick, I'm excited". Bitch please.

Anyway the narrative of today's episode is "Nick is the worst mentor and his team is dysfunctional but when they work together they can win!" Was anyone really surprised about his team being the "best"? I put it in quotes because I don't think this is true. They certainly turned out decent clothes that weren't the train wrecks they were headed for. But it's a team challenge and one team must be the dysfunctional team.

I also have no idea what was going on with how Nick was "helping". First he told them exactly what to do, I guess because he didn't trust them not to screw it up. OK, that was probably not a good idea. I mean, you should trust your team. But then they got to Mood and had no idea, and got to the workroom with no idea, and didn't Nick tell them what to do? How did they get to the point where Tim showed up and they had nothing? That I don't get. And then Nick and Tim are like "you guys fix this" and decide the solution is to bail? There was a huge implication that Nick was being a terrible mentor but then when his team was ridiculous everyone wanted to say the TEAM was the problem and Nick should force them to fix their own problems? I guess if you thought Nick was such a terrible mentor he shouldn't try to fix anything. Which was backed up by how they magically came through and won. It was just unclear to me on what people thought Nick should be doing and how they blamed him for throwing Isabelle under the bus but somehow his team sucking has nothing to do with him.

Challenge: Eh. "Pompeii" looks like every disaster/action movie. Gladiator vs. The Volcano. "Being inspired" instead of "design costumes" means no one has to actually fit any kind of theme.

I'm OK with Anya's team being the bottom, because their clothes were boring and the least cohesive of the teams. But I think Mondo's team should have won. At least that leather provided some interest. But no, we need a narrative and in addition to "Team Dysfunction gets their shit together" we also have to have "Team Dysfunction's outcast is the best designer of all." Really? A long tunic with a deep V and a cape FFS, all in white with a belt. And that is the most interesting design you've seen in however long? I don't think so.

One thing to say about Mondo: you'll note that during judgement, when Asha's look came out, he interviewed about how terrible it was because "she won't let me like it" or some bullshit. So is that OK because he didn't say it TO Asha? To be a good mentor you should support your people even if you hate their outfits? I actually didn't mind Asha's look based on how they were supposed to sort of look Roman or whatever.

And then no one lost because whatever. Probably they were trying to get rid of someone who didn't suck as badly as they needed so they sort of waved at the most boring team and then did nothing. Or they were always planning a double elimination and they randomly picked the episode to make up for that.

I wrote a lot today, but if you have any other thoughts or things I missed comment below.