Project Runway Season 12: Episodes 5 and 6: Ken as the New Diva?

Glamping in the woods

I've been on vacation in upstate NY and New England for the past two weeks, so I haven't been as obsessed with Project Runway, but I caught up with the last two episodes last night on my laptop and sad to say, I miss drama queens Timothy and Sandro. Yeah, I know, all I did for the first four episodes was bitch about them and now that they're gone, I complain about it. Ken almost took Sandro's place as combination bat-shit nutjob and attention-sucking diva in Episode 5, but he settled down in Episode 6. There's weepy treacle and bitchy catfights, a glamping trip (this is one of my new least favorite made-up words), and a pair of drop dead, drop-crotch pants, but nothing could match the climax of Sandro having a Russian fit and destroying camera equipment or pathetic Timothy clutching a stuffed unicorn while sobbing over his model's letter.

Episode 5 opens with product placement--why even pretend it's anything else--for some cars. The designers are divided into teams of three and must drive to three different locations to chose unconventional materials and get inspired by the cars or something. Right away, Ken gets his back up about having to team up with Sue and Alexandria. I can understand being upset about Sue who can't operate a sewing machine, but what was his gripe with Alexandria who has done very well so far? Sue doesn't help matters by making a possibly racist comment to Ken that he can be their chauffeur. Now maybe neither she nor Alexandria know how to drive--which make sense since Sue seems to have an issue with machinery--but her joke comes across as if they were going to be Miss Daisy and Ken would be their Hoke.

Sandro visits the work room to say goodbye and starts to kinda apologize to Helen and Ken, but doesn't really. He passive-aggressively blames Helen for provoking him into a rage and can't even remember Ken's name.

It all goes downhill for Team Disaster with Ken moaning and complaining about every choice his comrades make. Instead of making the best of the situation, Ken makes everything worse and didn't even do a good job on his garment, finishing it off with duck tape. Their collection is three shades of awful with Sue's being the definite worst. The bottom designers all rip each other new ones on the runway and Ken gets all huffy when Alexandria dares to say he's difficult to work with. Sue is rightfully eliminated, and Ken is now enemies with Alexandria.

In episode 6, it appears Ken will take over the diva role as he whines about having to sleep in a tent and getting bitten by mosquitoes on an overnight glamping trip. Unfortunately, he calms down and the drama is minimized. The challenge is to make a high-end look inspired by the great outdoors and the bottled water company that's paying for the excursion. Justin makes some foamy lace out of glue and pins it on the model's crotch and bust. Ken makes a heavy tree bark collar and blasts the creation of his new mortal foe Alexandria who has made a weird, but well-made denim jacket and a pair of white poopy pants. Somehow it kinda works. The judges go crazy for it and the editor has a ball cutting to astonished reaction shots of the other designers as Alexandria receives praise. Their expressions are all variations on "What the hell are these guys smoking?" Even more surprisingly, Alexandria wins over Jeremy's elegant gown with a love letter written on it and Alexander's trees-at-midnight creation.

Ken is close to the bottom--cut to a smiling Alexandria--and Justin is eliminated for his foaming vagina train wreck. In the lounge, everyone re-enacts the last episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, giving a tearful Justin a group hug. But Tim Gunn uses his save option and rescues Justin from the axe. I do think the deaf designer did a bad job this time and has done poor work previously, remember the Colorforms mermaid with Alexander a few episodes back? He might not make it much further, and Tim won't be able to save him. Justin, Helen, Ken, or Karen who did a weird muu-muu with a belt attachment, are probably the next to go.