The Cutting Edge: Canada's Next Top Model, Season Two, Episode Three

Thanks to the awesomelicious Stephanie as usual for the recap! (To follow after the clips)













This episode is chock full of stank. There's a term in Canadian broadcasting that explains this episode: CanCon. The Canadian government has a policy that the airwaves need to dedicate a certain percentage of time to homegrown content. This episode of CNTM should satisfy the CanCon requirement for the rest of the summer – you could not pack any more Canadian content in if you brought in a Mountie and maple syrup.

The girls are shunted off to the Hershey Centre, an arena in nearby Mississauga, where they are put on skates and partnered up with members of a local hockey team. This, apparently, is where the girls are going to hone their runway skills, because in Canada we skate down OUR catwalks. Miss Jay wobbles in from the sidelines on skates, and if you listened closely you could hear the sound of regret – regret for not reading the small type of his contract. A few skating lessons with the hockey team end in a free-for-all pose-off. Mo goes down and stays down… until after the commercial break, when we see she's fine. Once the carpet gets rolled out onto the ice, we learn that Rebecca has scoliosis and puts special effort into keeping her posture under control. Cory has a crying stint, which she attributes to PTSD from some undisclosed past event. Jay joins in on the medical theme, with his chemo-styled headscarf.

Stacey McKenzie arrives as a segue to the MuchMusic TV studio for a competitive walk-off in front of an audience of teens. MuchMusic is the Canadian equivalent of MTV, except it still shows music videos – ha ha. Jay Manual is from Toronto, after all, and gets a decent reaction, but the studio audience reacts more to Jay Alexander. Our ladies are dressed in pink cat suit and veils, and given cheesy household props to model, such as a frying pan, toilet brush, or a Swiffer (trademark registered!!!). Since this runway training episode has little connection to anything useful, the girl climb down a set of stairs, dance around, and wave their cleaning products. The process makes a mockery of runway; the audience knows it, and so does Miss Jay.

Tara is declared the winner of the challenge and receives a diamond watch in return, which of course she taunts the others with. They retaliate in the camera closet. Also, the girls make a photo album of each other, but use a crack shot to represent their favorite person to hate.

Next we're off to a greenhouse to meet Nolé Marin for a commercial for Venus Breeze razors (trademark registered!!!). The script they need to memorize is the length of a short story, so no surprise that the girls have trouble. Oh, Brit-Brit, where are you now? Mo has trouble hiding her British/Island/something accent, which seems like a strange thing to ask given last season's pro melting pot policy. Rebecca says she has a bad memory, but more pressing is that Nolé doesn't like her speaking voice. Tia reveals she has dyslexia and cries over horrible memories of... something. Here we can see that some girls get better support than others, because Nolé also has dyslexia. Steff is in trouble again because she needs cue cards, however since the final commercial edits together single phrases from each girl, that shouldn't have been a big deal. Tara is a complete train wreck – no voice, no memory, no personality. Ironically, when I watched the episode the very next commercial they showed was for Venus Breeze razors, and it was the standard beach version, NOT the one filmed in the greenhouse.

Jay Alexander acts as guest judge at elimination and the girls have to navigate the entrance stairs in tight pencil skirts. Since they all fail miserably, Miss Jay tries to show them how it's all done. Sadly, even the expert can't save this one and I feel sorry for him. Jay Manuel begins judging and declares that everyone was horrible. Tara is saved by the MuchMusic walk-off. Next are Cori, Sinead, Rebecca, Mo ("Pick an accent when you do a commercial"), and Tia. Gina and Steff are last up. Steff is visibly pissed off that she is in the bottom. PISSED. OFF. Gina may be an actress but may not be a model. Steff could have showed her personality in the commercial but she fell flat. Gina is called forward. Last week Steff showed us why she's super cool, and she leaves with more of the same. Citing "three strikes you're out", she comes back to hug Tia then walks off. Lessons learned tonight: (1) Everybody on the show is saddled with some sort of medical or psychological problem. (2) If they hand you a toilet brush and tell you to work it, be very very suspicious.