At the top of last night's episode of "Project Runway," the designers were feeling the pressure of the competition, forgetting that Pamela had even been a contestant, and fumbling to understand why Ping was still there.

Everyone headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to meet Tim Gunn, who was surrounded by several mannequins in original fashions by iconic designers like Dior and Balenciaga. The designers were appropriately giddy being up close and personal with their idols' creations.

Tim quickly crushed all the high spirits in the room with the two most dreaded words one can hear on "Project Runway": TEAM CHALLENGE. But the good news was that each team had a whopping $500 budget to design a "high-end signature look."

Team captains were picked at random, and Ping was among them. Jesse hoped that Ping wouldn't pick him, which he should have never hoped for out loud. The teams were Jay/Maya, Jesus/Amy, Anthony/Seth Aaron, Janeane/Ben, Mila/Jonathan, Ping/Jesse, and Emilio/Anna Marie.

Almost immediately, Jesse and Ping weren't getting along. Ping may be a little scatterbrained and annoying, but Jesse's constant bitching about trying to "rein in the crazy" and his overall rude attitude was even more annoying. I can understand why he would get frustrated with her, but he just came off as an arrogant dick in every one of their interactions. I'm not entirely convinced that he would work well with anyone.

All of the other teams seemed to get along surprisingly well; although Maya was worried that Jay's immunity was going to be a problem. She thought he wasn't fully committed to the challenge and quickly took over as team leader. Her concerns seemed justified, unless the editors just made it look like Jay was strolling around the workroom doing nothing.

Mila and Jonathan seemed to gel, despite the fact that Mila was focused on one piece (a hideous jacket that may as well have had an 8-ball on the back) while Jonathan did everything else. Seth Aaron and his "brown sugar" Anthony butted heads a few times, but Anthony was always able to smooth things over with his fabulousness.

Since things were going fairly smooth, Tim had to throw in a wrinkle: each team had to design a second piece. Each team had to draw inspiration from another team's high-end look to create a "look for less," with a budget of only $50. One member of each team went to Mood for more fabric, while the other stayed behind to sew their little fingers off.

Of course, Jesse hated the "hooker shiny something" fabric that Ping bought, but he was in the right on that one. It was pretty hideous. Even Tim wrinkled his nose at it, disgusted by how "cheap" it looked.

On the day of the runway show, most of the teams felt good about their designs but Jesse was completely frustrated. He said he was just shooting for safety. Jonathan and Mila believed their pieces were great, but still prepared to stab each other in the back in case the judges didn't agree. Mila seemed worried, as she should have been, considering that Jonathan did 80% of their work.

Joining Heidi, Kors and Nina at panel was British designer Matthew Williamson.

No backstabbing was needed when the judges placed Mila/Jonathan in the Top 2 teams, along with Jay/Maya. The judges loved both of Jay and Maya's pieces and were blown away by the quality of their look for less, which they liked miles better than Janeane and Ben's high-end inspiration garment.

The panel wasn't that impressed with Mila and Jonathan's baby doll version of Anthony and Seth Aaron's ball gown, but raved over their signature look - a crazy pant suit highlighted by Mila's all-important jacket.

Even though both of Jay and Maya's designs earned high praise, Mila was named the winner for making that ridiculous jacket. I'm sorry, but that win was completely undeserved. Sure, the jacket was unique and well made, but NO ONE would wear it. Maybe Heidi Klum would, because she likes weird stuff and the thing was big enough for her to carry all of her babies in. And poor Jonathan! He did all that work just so Mila could get all the glory and immunity in the next challenge.

The teams with the lowest scores were Anthony/Seth Aaron and Ping/Jesse. Kors described Anthony's bumblebee couture gown as something that he'd expect to see at "the cotillion party from Hell," and said the team's look for less was like anything that could have been found at a department store's cheap dress floor." Nina put it much more succinctly: "They're both really ugly."

The panel dissed Ping and Jesse's lace dress with its pointless, giant train, with Kors complaining that the model had to "stand like the Statue of Liberty to wear it." The look for less was quite possibly the most boring and ill-fitting garment to ever walk down this runway, and to make matters worse, Ping's model called her out for never giving her a proper fitting or even seeing her in the dress.


Seth Aaron and Jesse were sent off to safety, leaving the team leaders on the chopping block. Although Heidi said that it was possible that two designers would get voted off, she ultimately picked one: Ping. Finally! She only lasted three weeks, but that was about three weeks too long. Look, Ping is a sweetheart, but she can't even sew. "Project Runway" just wasn't the place for her.

Auf wiedersehen - see you next week!


Story by Becky Broderick

Starpulse contributing writer