Project Runway Rundown: Letting Her Avant Garde Down

It only took a couple of months, but this season of "Project Runway" finally produced a challenge that made Christian happy (or at least not made him display open disdain to the camera).

And let's face it (if Christian is to be believed), it's ALL about Christian and getting his name out there because, as he said after his team's victory last night, "It's good to win, I don't have THAT much press yet."

And so continues my tolerate/hate relationship with the show's most diminutive contestant. By the way, in case you haven't seen last night's episode yet, the fact that I already mentioned who won isn't a big spoiler or a surprise by any stretch of the imagination just like it wasn't a big surprise that Christian would win as soon as Heidi told the designers they'd have free reign to design an avant garde look inspired by their models' hairstyles (mostly, I just remember Kit saying the words "birds' nest" about eight times in reference to her models 'do). I mean, look at Christian's hair! He'd be in heaven doing something avant garde.

There was, however, a small hiccup to Christian's unstoppable path to victory when Tim Gunn revealed the designers would be working in teams of two — a revelation that would've been even more surprising if it hadn't been for last week's previews.

Fortunately, Christian got teamed with Chris, who just happens to be the friendliest, most likable contestant, and whose sensibilities are just as outsized as Christian's. What wasn't outsized was Christian's confidence as he hesitated until the very last second in assuming the leader role for the team. I can understand Chris being hesitant to be captain (last time he was, he got eliminated), but Christian wanted to lead his team, without the responsibility of being team captain. At least we know he's seen a reality show in his life, and knows how things work, but he still acted like a rhymes with wussy. (Hint: I mean, pussy — he acted like a pussy.)

Seriously though, these two lucked out by ending up in a team together. Imagine, for a second, if either had been paired with Victorya. Instead, the ice princess was teamed with Jillian to form Team We Can't Manage Our Time (ok, fine so Tim Gunn's description of the Chrises as Team Fierce rolls off the tongue a bit easier).

Team WCMOT fought for creative control and settled it like mature adults — by flipping a coin. Jillian won, which was fortunate, because I got to hear the term "apocalyptic trenchcoat." Meanwhile, Tim dropped by to tell the designers they'd also be working on an additional "ready-to-wear" look to go with the avant garde design, which further set back Team WCMOT.

It all started so well for Rami and Sweet P. They were actually happy to be teamed together, but that was before Rami turned out to be a condescending tyrant who refused to listen to Sweet P's ideas and applied constant pressure on her to finish her work which was idiotic because, CLEARLY, Sweet P doesn't respond well to being put under pressure. Let's face it though — Sweet P hasn't done as well as Rami (who's won a few challenges, while Sweet P has won none), so he probably felt like he HAD to get on her ass.

However, he still came off terribly and he became more obsessed with how different their style of working was then with designing something that didn't look like everything else he's designed so far. Is it too late to take back my pick of him winning it all? I mean, I still want to be right, but I don't want to root for someone so douchey.

Then there was Kit and Ricky. Kit (pictured, left) was vaguely stressing about her avant garde look, while Ricky was stressing out about yet another really short, simple dress he's designed for the 27th time. I wasn't really paying attention to them because they really weren't doing anything interesting (meaning Ricky wasn't crying).

As for the runway show, as soon as Nina Garcia openly smiled when she saw Team Fierce's piece, it was all but over. My favorite part of the episode came after the judges were praising Jillian and Victorya's work (big surprise, it came down to the wire, but finished) by saying the team had actually created three looks and Victorya exclaimed "We had three looks, we should win." Christian gave his vintage "I'm going to shit a brick" look. In fact, I wish he had done just that, picked up the brick and hit Victorya over the head with it. I hate Victorya.

My second favorite moment came during the judges critiques of the loser designs and they ended up liking Sweet P's ready to wear dress roughly 1,000 times better than Rami's flowy semi-disaster. I wish they'd superimposed Nelson the Bully from "The Simpsons" onto the runway (Ha-ha!)

In the end though, I was finally forced to pay attention to what Kit and Ricky had done, and it was actually pretty awful. Or as the Italian guest judge Alberta Ferretti said "ees cheap". I know the judges really got on Kit for her (horrible and uninspired) work, but I feel like they didn't sufficiently grill Ricky for his just as horrible and uninspired work. At least Kit spent more times on hers, right?

So it was a mild shock to see Ricky leave the runway first (even before Sweet P) and, although I thought she'd earned some sort of stay of execution because of solid work in the past, it was Kit going home before Rami (who had more solid work in his past). I guess she just flew TOO low under the radar. Still, it should've been Ricky.

So what'd you think of this episode? Has there ever been a more predictable outcome? Has there ever been more infuriatingly hateable than Victorya on this show? I mean, she doesn't even do outrageous things to be hateable, it's all passive aggressive stuff. Why was Christian the only one to receive immunity? Finally, I've asked it before, but I'll ask it again — why is Ricky still here?