Episode Recap: Cursed Covens

From doubling teams to double, double, toil and trouble! It’s the witching hour in the lab, and in the way of magic, this hour is going to last two-and-a-half days. Each superteam will choose one spellbook containing a nasty curse, then create three witches and/or warlocks afflicted by that curse. What the curse does, and what it’s called, is all up to them… but they have to base it off of the ingredients in the “recipe” and decide the name in just moments.

The naming aspect becomes a hazard for Cig, George, Evan, and Ben. They go with “Shadow of the Spiteful Serpent”, and conceptualize rat witches that are being transformed into snakes. After a full day of work and some cautious words from Mr. Westmore, they realize they need to zero in on a concept they’re all more excited about. They ditch the snake aspect and go all-rat. Since “snake” is a part of their curse name, they keep it represented with a simple scar on the forehead resembling an ouroboros. Cig has an especially fun time sculpting adorable little finger pads for the cute little rats…

Tyler, Emily, and Logan have a concept they love and are tearing through their work as if enchanted. A wicked coven has cursed two witches and a warlock, all from separate covens, with a suffocating spell. To fight their transformation into willow trees, the three strangers band together to seek revenge on the coven that cursed them.

All of the sculptures look great, but as the challenge progresses Emily feels that her sculpture is… how do you say… basic. It’s too late to make any changes, so she has to rely on her significant painting skills to make the look sing. As the models step onto the stage, the look on Emily’s face tells us she thinks she’s going home tonight.

In truth, all the artists should be on notice, because the stage sports nary a weak makeup. The trio of rat witches are painted with striking verisimilitude, and the sculpture nails a stunning balance between rat and human – it’s as if we’re watching them transform before our eyes. The wooden witches are remarkable in that they’re all different styles (being from different covens) but of the same world. The detailing of the bark and vines is meticulous, and darned if Emily didn’t lay an amazing paint job on a somewhat standard witch sculpt.

The judges struggle with this decision, and ultimately pick the winning team based on their favorite individual makeup: Tyler’s. That means everyone on his team is safe… which means the judges have the impossible decision of which rat man to eliminate.

Although it breaks everyone’s hearts, they have to let Ben go. His makeup, as Glenn mentions, was really good, but he lacked a few details in his sculpt that the others had. Let us all wear our Ben-faced t-shirts in honor of a great artist gone home.