"Stylista": Remember the Bungalow!

Behold Kate's power.

With six contestants left, Dear Sweet Cranky Whiny Kate is ascending.

As we start this episode, she's even got Megan on the defense, wondering how Kate keeps hanging on.

The first task this week is to purchase a thank you gift, worth no more than $250, for the owner of New York hot spot Bungalow 8. Anne will be throwing a party there.

The six get to pick their own team of two. All that matters is that Dyshaun gets Kate. By default, of course.

Johanna and Megan choose a cashmere throw. Anne deems it not a heavy enough gauge.
Megan and Danielle put together a survival kit of items for flying. Anne says it's too low-brow, a goodie bag.
Dyshaun and Kate choose a vintage pin from Chanel. Their pitch is going well, until Kate says that she knows the woman likes art so this piece should impress her. Anne asks Kate what art it reminds her of. Kate says "Uh, you know pictures and stuff." Actually, she just stands there with a dumb look on her face that says that.

Anne choses the cashmere throw. Johanna and Megan will get to choose the teams for the big challenge.

The big challenge is to go to Anne's party at Bungalow 8, help her meet, greet and identify guests and then, using photos from the party, create a party page for Elle. Anne warns that a bad ID on the page could spell doom. The groups get a dossier of the guests to help them prepare.

And there's a twist: Megan and Johanna won't be teammates, they'll be the leaders of competing teams. For a minute Megan is disappointed, she thinks she and Johanna have similar tastes.
But she quickly becomes her true sniping self after Johanna uses her first team pick to choose Kate.

Johanna, a military analyst with a penchant for outfits that cover her neck, approaches the task with chess-like strategy. She believes Kate has an excellent memory that will come in handy in identifying names, because Kate can remember outfits Johanna has worn weeks ago. It doesn't occur to her that maybe Kate is just superficial. She also seems to think, that despite the fact that everyone else hates her, she can work with Kate. Johanna might be overthinking.

Johanna also picks Danielle because she thinks she comes across as genuine, also useful at a party.

Ashlie, meanwhile is happy to work with Megan and her henchman Dyshaun. Of her time with Kate she says "My community service is up." (A five point slam, I'd say.)

There's more news. Because the Elle folks want the contestants to look good, they tell them they can pick clothes from the Elle closet. This sends chubby Danielle into an immediate pity spiral. She's petrified that nothing will fit. Well, of course nothing will, it's a fashion magazine's closet! She heads to the bathroom for a quick nervous breakdown.

Johanna, meanwhile, gingerly approaches Kate about not choosing a dress that will spark a "booby parade." Kate, again, feels oppressed. No cleavage, no peace.

When they should be studying names, Danielle spends most of the night, wondering whether everyone pities her because of her size, realizing that fashion is a superficial industry that focuses on skinny women, and embracing her size, industry standards be damned.

Meanwhile, General Johanna makes meticulous flash cards of the guests and stays up all night memorizing the names and faces and facts of the guests.

Kate eats popcorn and goes to bed.

The other team simply divides up the names between them. You know, like a team effort.

On party day, Danielle comes to her senses and just wears one of her own dresses. She looks lovely. But at Bungalow 8, the General is on her own. Alleged memory bank Kate is spending her time looking up at the mirror to check her lip gloss. Danielle has spent the study time rebuilding her self-esteem. Naturally, because Johanna's studied so much, she can't remember anything.
The other team creams them on IDs.

Next, the teams get 90 minutes to go through the photos and create the page.
Headlines and cattiness being his special skills, Dyshaun comes up with another good one: (H)elle's Angels, picking up a leather clothing theme.
Johanna's team goes with Elite Street, describing the caliber of the crowd.

Johanna's stresses but Megan doesn't. That will make her second guess herself, she says, and then "I'd be Johanna except with a slightly less constricting neckline." Megan's evil, but that line is a perfect 10.

Both teams pages have flaws. Both mess up a name; Dyshaun, again, helps commit a caption error by misspelling a name. Johanna's team misidentifies someone completely. During judging,
Johanna is particularly stung by the fact that the judges note Kate's leadership when putting together the page. Kate, it seems, has outranked her.

The Johanna/Danielle/Kate page loses and Kate is immediately given a reprive. The judges note Johanna has only been on losing teams. Danielle, they note, fell apart this week after making so much progress. It's odd, the way Anne talks to Danielle, like she's a special case. You know, like the fat girl had been doing so well, and we had such high hopes for you, chubby one.

Thus, Danielle, gets the boot. She's not the right fit. Maybe in both senses of the phrase.