After last week’s Subaru episode saw the shock inclusion of guest contestant Xiao Qing, it was interesting to see how the remaining five girls would react. And in true Asia’s Next Top Model fashion, things got fiery. Real fast.
Everyone was just super pissed that a new competitor appeared out of the blue, and ill feelings were quickly made known. Ah, the weekly b*tch fest resumes.
Xiao Qing, on the other hand, was fully embracing her role as undercover judge (she’s actually the owner/creative director of fashion label X.Q.ZHANG), and she did her best to provoke the girls from the get-go, starting with the catwalk challenge at the new competition location of Sunway City in Kuala Lumpur.
She kicked things off with a confident stride down one of the longest hanging footbridges in the world. And the girls were definitely feeling the pressure, in particular Cindy, who remarked that Xiao Qing looked more like a model walking at London Fashion Week. C’mon gurl, where’s your confidence?
Shikin however was banking on home turf to perform. And perform she did, till an unexpected slip of her top at the end caused her to fumble, prompting a chorus of “oohs” from the judges. Those “oohs”, just so you know, weren’t good ones at all.
Unsurprisingly, Xiao Qing was announced the winner of the challenge – so far, so good for the undercover judge.
Next up was a photo shoot with Yu Tsai, making it business as usual, right? Wrong. Jaws were left gaping after the shoot was announced; the girls were to pose in ice skates, with the theme of Tropical Winter Wonderland – polar opposites indeed.
That didn’t stop most of the girls from having fun though. Maureen could skate so she took to the ice like a fish to water. Not everyone was that lucky. Tu completely broke down before the shoot started – she didn’t even want to step inside the ring.
Well, Tu’s lack of balancing skills definitely showed, leaving her to work with a medley of awkward poses. In the end, she opted to lie down on the freezing ice rink floor, which was not really the smartest idea in our books.
Shikin, who was super excited after being in Malaysia again, found herself crumbling under pressure following repeated yelling episodes from the animated Yu Tsai. She then began crying after the photo shoot, saying it was the first time she’s cried after one. Still, she did manage to rock a few awesome poses, using a pineapple prop to great effect, so kudos to her.
Cindy however received Yu Tsai’s full wrath, not for the first time this season. When Yu Tsai was berating her for a “boring” performance, she foolishly asked him what she should do to not be boring. Big mistake. Enter another furious stomping episode from Yu Tsai, which was definitely not a good sign.
A knockout seemed imminent for the 19-year old Taiwanese contestant, but Xiao Qing then gave a lacklustre photo shoot performance, which was a big, big surprise considering her strong catwalk showing – a beacon of hope for Cindy maybe?
Check out the full photo shoot below:
Before the elimination round came though, tempers were fraying back at the model house. Xiao Qing was once again crowing about how awesome she was, trying to elicit a reaction from all the girls.
And guess what? It worked. Everyone gave their opinion on Xiao Qing, and in a rare show of unity, all of the girls agreed she was bad news. Shikin’s view was perhaps the most colourful, proclaiming that Xiao Qing is all high and mighty and sh*t. We don’t disagree, it is her job to be that way after all, but the girls don’t know that. So yeah, we can’t exactly blame them.
That said; catfights don’t matter at the end of day, and it’s all about who’s going home.
At the elimination round, all the judges complimented Maureen, who gave a stellar performance at the ice skating rink. Cindy Bishop, in particular, heaped lavish praise on her, saying that even though she’s one of the smallest girls in the competition, she looked 6 feet tall for the ice queen segment.
So it wasn’t really any surprise that Maureen won the best performance of the week, making it three times already this season. Clara was called up next, following a strong but mostly unexciting showing from her.
Shikin was the third to be called up, her face visibly shaken after tearing in front of the judges. Well, she was tearing mostly because she was disappointed with her herself, citing the pressure of being at home as too much. At least she managed to pull through in the end. Tu was called up next in fourth, which didn’t seem like an unfair placing. She did perform pretty badly this round.
Surprise, surprise though. Despite all of Xiao Qing’s confidence and snarky jibes, she landed in the bottom two along with Cindy. Whether it was on purpose or not, we’re not sure, but it didn’t matter in the end because it was Cindy who got the boot. We’re not sure if that’s quite a fair judgment, considering Tu was horrendous during the ice skating photo shoot, but we’ll leave that up for you guys to decide.
So will the girls continue their hatred of Xiao Qing? Will hot favourite Maureen land the crown? The only way to find out is to catch up on all the developments on next week’s episode of Asia’s Next Top Model.
Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 airs every Wednesday at 9pm, only on Star World (Starhub TV Ch 501/Singtel TV Ch 301). asntm.com
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