9 Designers remain as Jeff was eliminated. On a snowy night in NYC the teams go back to the Soho Loft for food and drink. Shauna about Jeff: "Thank God he got rid of that bozo!" Jessica says she would have been happy to see either Elizabeth or Jeff gone but since Jeff went, Elizabeth is now an easier target. Elizabeth was questioned as to why she defended Jeff in Style Forum. She said, "I don't believe on turning on someone just to be manipulative strategic." Shauna comments: "Elizabeth is one of the more difficult people to work with." Deanna and
Shauna talk about Elizabeth behind her back.

Deanna: She is some kind of magazine editor, right?
Shauna: Uh huh.
Deanna: What is it called..."Pretentious Bitch" Magazine? OUCH!

Shauna says Liz will be eliminated because no one likes her.

The next day the teams are back at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey. They have luggage in tow. Wes says because they were asked to bring luggage, his stomach was doing flips. He was like, "Where am I going? Where am I going?" So the hanger opens and the teams enter to see two white Gulfstream GIII planes sitting inside. Tommy is waiting. He explains that when he was on tour, he customized his jet with "H" logos all over the plane. It became the Tommy Hilfiger jet. As a designer you have the opportunity to brand all sorts of items. Which leads to this week design challenge:

CHALLENGE: Brand a Gulfstream III jet as a "Tommy Hilfiger Special Edition" plane. The teams will have 48 hours and $700 to complete the project. And since they brought luggage, the teams will camp out in the hangar to complete the project.

Time to pick teams: Deanna and Chris C. pick the teams, with Deanna picking first since she was on the winning team.

Deanna: Felix (she trusted him because he was a graphic designer), Wes (who now has an alliance with Deanna and Shauna--if you are on the other team...watch it), Shauna (Felix comments that the alliance between Shauna, Wes and Deanna is so strong, he has nicknamed them "The Committee". And that could be bad with Felix if it goes wrong.) And Princess is put on the team being the odd person out. Shauna said she never worked with her before and now is not the time to test the waters. Deanna has said some terrible things about Princess.

Chris C picked Rob Walker because he wanted him for his painting skills. He wanted to get the concept right so he chose Elizabeth. And he chose Jessica, "Miss Minnesota", because he thought she would know what a beautiful plane would look like.

Deanna is the orange team and Chris is the blue team. Tommy reminds them of the billboard exercise from Episode 1. "Make It Big, Bold, Exciting...make it great."

But there is a social invitation to contend with. Tommy's private jet is parked outside and is flying to Miami to attend a party a friend is throwing on a luxury yacht. You get to stay at a luxury hotel and relax on the beach. He asks the blue team...and no one goes. Jessica says she wanted to go, but Chris said not to go as he looked down the line of four team members. Chris said when he saw the invite he realized they had 4 players and the orange team had 5. If one of the other team members from the orange team went on the invitation, the teams would even out. He felt that was a smart decision. Deanna choses Princess to go to Miami. Deanna says that she "hasn't worked with Princess before and didn't want to start working with her right now." Tommy and Princess leave together and fly down to South Beach.

48 hours to go. Chris C and the blue team discuss ideas. He thinks this assignment is going to be big having their art fly in the air and around the world. Liz is sick with the stomach flu and has to leave the team to go see the doctor. She threw out some ideas. One of them is to paint an image of the world free hand on the tail.

The Orange Team discusses ideas. Deanna is up for the idea of "tagging" the place graffiti style with Tommy's face on the side. Wes wanted a bumblebee. The team gave him a weird look. Wes said that Felix drew out the plancs of the Deanna's ideas of the graffiti. Shauna went to the loft because she is sick and has to go to the doctor as well.

Back to the blue team as they sketch more ideas out. Rob says that Tommy chastised him in the last Forum for not showing his ideas. This time..."Rob Walker is in the plane!" Jessica comments to the rest of the team, "The plane isn't sexy enough. It has to exude sex." Jessica commens as Jessica leaves, "You can't do anything if a teammate is sick. The blame comes down to use if we screw up. Chris C says it's not easy with a three person team.

3:00PM--42 hours remaining. Rob was bouncing more ideas around. Jessica again comments that she wants the plane to be "sexy". She thinks it has to be beautiful as well. Jessica wants to paint the bottom of the plane red. Chris comments that is sexy.

Back to the Orange team...Wes comments that "our team worked well together. We sent Princess w/ Tommy because we didn't want another voice there. Shauna is sick, so she went home. The three of us will work together and execute."

And now we see the sick ward at the Soho loft. Elizabeth explains that both Shauna and her went to the doctor and they are sequestered for 48 hours. This presented a funny exchange between Shauna and Elizabeth (the two people who HATE each other the most). They are both laughing and "bonding" over Jessica's idea over a "sexy" plane:

ELIZABETH: She has the potential to screw up an assignment.
SHAUNA: She would be a great stewardess.

Elizabeth was glad "to get to know Shauna better and in a different light." Shauna, in a nice fake out, tries to bond as well.

SHAUNA: "I think there are only two people here with good taste, you and me."
ELIZABETH: "Why do people say that I am difficult to work with?"
SHAUNA: "I hate to say it, it's because you and I are educated and they are resentful. They all think that we have sticks up our asses. And jealous, stodgy and we don't think out of the box. "

They also bond about "being the most worldly, the most well-rounded". They say "they think money changes everything and it doesn't."

ELIZABETH: "Everything is not about the hip-hop vibe."
SHAUNA: "No one listens to classical music...it drives me crazy!"

(Ok...my BS detector went off big time here. In an earlier scene, Elizabeth was being ripped on by Shauna as being as a "pretentious bitch". Now they are best friends--I do not buy it. Shauna is playing the big fake out here. This is a beautiful ploy by Shauna.)

In Miami, Princess is relaxing by the pool in a brown polkadot bikini. She says she was picked last again, but she is not worried. because she has stuff in her back pocket.! And she was happy for them to let her get closer to Mr. H. And we see them go on a shopping spree--at a Tommy Hilfiger store, naturally. She had never been on a full on shopping spree before and she "is so living this up". We see Tommy picking out and dressing up Princess in a nice overcoat with brown blouse and sky blue skirt. It looked very classy. Princess was nervous about hanging with Mr. H. but she understood she is about "urban chic" all day!

12:00AM 33 hours to go--Back at the airport we see the Orange Team and Felix is painting the plane. Wes thinks he is a cutie. And Deanna thinks he has a nice booty. Wes says the team members are hard workers and won't sleep until the job is done. Felix is doing all his own stuff. We see Deanna/Wes being silly with rolling chairs.

1:00AM 32 hours to go--Blue Team...Rob comments that great things take time. They are STILL deciding on concept. Jessica wants something concrete.

Back to the Orange Team who is sleeping. 30 Hours to Go. Felix likes the idea of Traditional Branding. He comes up with a TH logo like a NY Yankees crossed over. It's very good stuff. He calls his team in a joking way "Team Narcolepsy". "You sleep when you die. I hope I don't die before this gets done."

The Next Day 24 hours to go--The Blue Team just started painting but they are "not worried". Rob discusses the design of the plane and the diff colors. Rob comments that Jessica is not satisfied with the colors of the plane. Chris C reminds Jessica that Tommy got ripped for changing the brand colors on the billboard assignment. Jessica isn't "feeling the plane and the 'boys' are getting irritated. They clean the paint scheme off.

Back The Orange Team--Felix doesn't understand that is took 24 hours for the Blue Team to get started. The sooner the concept is done the better. He says Deanna and Wes are not as artistically inclined so the team consulted with an artist for the Tommy graphic. Deanna explained they found an artist through Zoo York clothing and skateboarding. They are at http://www.zooyork.com .

3:00PM--18 hours to go. Jessica still can't get an idea together. Now she is changing the bottom to black and we see Chris and Rob painting it black. Chris is joking about the change. Deanna looks at the plane and says it's "wack. Ours isn't wack."

6:00PM--15 hours to go. The Blue team is still painting the bottom black. Rob is upset that too many ideas were thrown around. The Orange team laughs at the black bottom. The Blue Team hired some professionals to apply the decals that they couldn't do. Chris says they are working for free.

7:00PM--14 hours to go. Peter from Zoo York does the Tommy caricature for the plane.

8:00PM--13 hours to go. Back to the Blue Team who is waiting for the decal team to arrive. They are 2 hours late and Rob hates to wait and sit around and do nothing. Deanna asks Wes from the Orange Team, "What do you think Princess is doing?" Wes: "Erotic Poetry on South Beach." (This is a reference to the Hamptons party in Episode 3 where Princess
did an erotic poetry reading which nearly got her kicked off.)

In Miami we see Tommy & Princess arrive by limo to the 115' luxury yacht and they party and this time Princess makes a much better social impression. Princess was nervous, but it was Mr. Hilfiger's decision.

Back at the airport it's 10:00PM--11 hours Remaining the blue team is still waiting for the decal group which were from a prior episode. And at 11:00PM...they arrive. Chris C wants the end product to look professional. Rob is going to incorporate his painting style and signature above the decals on the plane.

2:00AM--7 hours to go. Orange Team is working and adds stars to the TH logo. Deanna sees lots of people surrounding the blue plane..."You want to outsource the work...that's ok. You want to do that...fine!" Felix makes this brilliant deduction..."People came in and painted the plane. Let me get this straight, you are a painter (Rob) and you hired a painter?"

Flash forward to 8:00AM--1 hour to go. Last minute painting by both teams. And time is up at 9:00AM. Deanna yells, "Ours is better." Liz and Shauna come back. Liz was blown away. Felix is also complaining about the "outsourcing" of the work on the plane. "You will out your ass out of the competition." Jessica comments that she didn't get the graffiti concept. Her team were bold and daring and we did it.

Tommy and Princess enter the hanger tan, rested and warmer than the teams were. Rob was anxious. Tommy looks at the blue plane and then the orange one. Wes: "We thought outside the box and had wild use of color." Tommy laughs at his caricature on the plane. Deanna "I always win. We are going to bake a cake of victory and have Wes pop out of it!" Naughty
Deanna!

As the teams walk to the Style Forum, Jessica comments Rob and Chris bring same things to the table. They didn't show creativity. Rob said the other team's ideas was more subtle. Deanna says the only way they would lose if "Tommy lost his vision and went blind."

The teams enter Style Forum, and then Tommy enters. He compliments Princess on her behavior in Miami. "You have come a long way since the Hamptons." She thanks him demurely.

He talks to the Blue Team first. Chris explains that Rob was the color specialist, and Liz was the marketer. Liz got sick, but he liked the globe idea. The concept of the plane was "international pop culture". To explain visually, the tail had a globe which spawned music, movies, fashion and the world. They got a company called Print Havoc to put the decal. He also explained the change of the color of the belly from red to black.

The Orange Team is next. Deanna took credit for the graffiti idea. Tommy criticizes the bricks and the caricature. Wes and the team liked it. Tommy hated it.

Shauna hated the Rob Walker "tired style of painting" on the plane. Rob countered that the Graffiti was not "fresh" Wes: "You ever see a GIII tagged like that before?" Jessica says you can't tell the Orange's Team plane says Tommy. Deanna counters says you can't see the bottom crests.

And then a free for all between both teams occurs about the outsourcing of the decal work of the blue team vs. the free hand painting done by the entire orange team "on their own". It turns into a shouting match. Tommy shuts both teams up and says he wasn't impressed with either team.

The orange's team plane was Juvenile...the bricks mean nothing, and my face is juvenile. You can't read Tommy on the side and the word "Hilfiger" isn't on the plabe at all. However, he liked the crossed TH logo with stars.

The Blue Team is next...the graphic is juvenile. He singled out Rob for the "muddy/blurry" painting. He said he would not fly on either plane, but he has to pick a winner. He says to the blue team that the plane wasn't bold enough. He has seen the style before. At least the orange team too risks. He declares them the winner. He loved the TH logo. He says it is powerful and could see it on everything from shirts to jackets...everything!

He talks to the blue team...they were too safe. He calls everyone in the pit minus Liz. That is Rob W, Jessica and Chris C. He saw not one new idea there. With the team they selected, Chris as the graphic artist and Rob as the painter he would have bet that they would have won. Chris C...no new ideas. He rips into Jessica for the black on the bottom of the plane..."it looks like a hearse." He tells Rob that he hasn't evolved.

Chris C. defends Rob because the "world hasn't seen the real Rob Walker yet." Who goes home, Tommy asks? Chris says Jessica, because she struggles with concepts. Jessica retorts that Rob doesn't have any other talents besides painting. In many other assignments, "I have stepped out of my comfort zone." Tommy--"By painting the bottom black? You have no
look or creative design. Jessica whines back, "This is not fair...a lot of my ideas did not get on the plane." She would eliminate Rob. Rob would eliminate Jessica. She is the "weak link".

Tommy said to Jessica that she showed no creativity or strength...and with that she is the eighth person out of style. Jessica walks the runway and the future's bright for her. She says this experience empowered her.

Tommy ends this week with this, "Don't be safe. Step out of the box. Roll the dice. The competition is going to be harder."

Next week, a warehouse challenge and the house turns on Elizabeth.

Now, a special added bonus. We are at the halfway point and these are the eight designers left:

FELIX, ROB, CHRIS C. PRINCESS, ELIZABETH, SHAUNA, DEANNA, WES. This is my ranking of the remaining 8:

No chance to win: Princess, Elizabeth, Rob W.
Possible winners: Felix, Chris C.
Strongest chance of winning: "The Committee" Shauna, Deanna, Wes.

We shall see as the 2nd half of the cut is starting next week.