The fifth edition of UPN's America's Next Top Model lost not one but two girls during last night's broadcast, Deemed as awkward and lacking confidence, Sarah, a 18-year-old fragrance counter representative from Boonville, MO was eliminated by the judges. But before the judges got to make their decision, Cassandra made one of her own, deciding to become the first Top Model finalist to ever quit the modeling competition.
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Top Model 5's fourth episode began with Tyra Banks paying the girls a visit to discuss last week's elimination of Ebony. The next day, J. Alexander greeted the girls at a swanky Los Angeles home for a poolside runway lesson intended to teach the girls how to carry themselves both on the runway and throughout the competition. Right away, J. noticed Sarah's lack of confidence. "Sarah is just one big huge ball of confusion," J. noted when the girls were challenged to present their personalities while performing an impromptu dance around the pool.
The next day, the girls began to gossip about the obvious flirtation between Kim and Sarah. While a straight girl having a crush on her wasn't that unusual for Kim, the situation confused Sarah, who began to question her own identity. Meanwhile, Cassandra's constant complaining about her shocking haircut only further isolated her from the rest of the girls.
Later, the girls met with fashion designer Sue Wong for a runway presentation on a rotating platform that would test the skills J. Alexander had taught them. While most of the girls seemed excited about the runway opportunity, Cassandra's enthusiasm was lackluster at best. Sarah had a difficult time staying centered on the platform and seemed distracted by her complicated ensemble. "Sarah was rather awkward. She needs to work on her gracefulness," Sue Wong commented. As the challenge's winner, Bre got to borrow a gorgeous gown previously worn by Tyra Banks and invite four the girls (Kim, Coryn, Nik, and Jayla) out to dinner with her.
The next day, the girls met Jay Manuel for a photo shoot where each was styled as a "fashion victim." While running on a treadmill, each girl had to portray a look of fear as if they were running from danger. Later, the photo was altered to create the illusion of the girls running from J., dressed as the Fashion Police Witch. Once again, Sarah seemed to have a difficult time appearing natural in her photos. "Sarah looked really uncomfortable. She was trying so hard to pose in front of the camera that I don't even know if we got a great shot," Jay said.
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During the shoot, Cassandra became increasingly uneasy about Jay's proposition to cut her hair shorter to satisfy Tyra's vision of a perfect fashion make-over. Instead of adhering to Jay's advice of learning to adapt, Cassandra decided to leave the competition. "It wasn't just cutting an inch and a half of hair for me. It was the last straw in them completely trying to change who I was," Cassandra said after leaving the photo shoot.
During the week's elimination ceremony, Tyra addressed Cassandra's decision to leave the competition and questioned each girl's commitment to becoming a model. "Being a model means being about to adapt to a whole variety of situations," said Tyra. "Cassandra was more interested in holding on to one inch of her hair than learning and adapting."
Once the elimination ceremony commenced, the girls were challenged to show the judges their signature runway walks. After viewing the fashion victim photos, the judges felt that although Sarah was showing improvement, her awkwardness and lack of confidence, both in photos and on the runway, proved she did not have what it takes to become Top Model 5's winner. "Sometimes we want something so much that when we are asked to go and perform, we fall apart," Tyra told Sarah as she explained the judges' elimination decision.