1. The Challenge.Tonight's episode, aka "Therapy Through Textile Design", starts with Val being shocked that she's still in the competition. We're not arguing with her on this point, particularly after her creation last week. After a few more thoughts on the competition thus far, our remaining seven designers head to the runway where Heidi announces that their challenge this week will require them to start from scratch. After Heidi's cryptic challenge description, the designers head to the workroom and are greeted by pictures of themselves as children. And for the first time (but certainly not the last time) this episode, the designers all start weeping about missing their families.
After our contestants settle down a bit, Tim enters the workroom with a very special guest from HP to announce--you guessed it--the HP challenge. As you may recall, last season the designers were required to create a textile design on their HP computers, which would then be transferred onto fabric to be used in their designs. In addition, Tim informs them that this season they will also be required to use their family photos and memories as inspiration for the design. As Tim talks, we find ourselves totally distracted by the odd shade of neon orange lipstick Gretchen is wearing. Once we are able to focus on what Tim is saying again, we hear him say that the designers will have two days for this challenge.
