- Whitney Thompson becomes the first full-figured woman to win the "America's Next Top Model" title.
- Finale time.
A recap starts the show. Will it be Anya the weird-talker or Fatima the poor direction-taker or Whitney the slender-for-a-regular-person-plus-size-for-a-model?
Or maybe Tyra will just anoint herself. You totally know she wants to.
Each girl talks about how bad they want it.
Tyra Mail: Here are your lines, you've got some extra times so don't make me put you on blast.
Sounds like a CoverGirl commercial. In English this time. They head to the Coliseum.
A CoverGirl rep is there with Jay Manuel. They learn the ad will be displayed at...wait for it...Wal-Mart! Oh, and also Times Square.
Last cycle's winner Saleisha shows up. Apparently she was available.
Anya is nervous and starts crying.
Shoot time.
Fatima is up first. Jay says she sounds robotic.
Then Whitney. She seems to have a good take and the rep is smiling.
Anya starts. She looks cute, but doesn't sound perfect.
Then it's off to a studio for an uneventful photo shoot.
Back at the apartment they get Tyra Mail telling them someone is going home tomorrow. It's such cold hard news they can't even read cheerfully in sync.
Their interviews consist of each of them talking how bad they want it.
Judging time. (Or, as Tyra calls it "the top three baddest chicks club.")
Whitney is first. Paulina thinks her commercial seems like Miss America competition. The print shot is great.
Fatima is next, but they don't have a take without goofs. Paulina tells her to slow down. Nigel likes her print shot, but Paulina thinks her eyes look weird.
Anya also has mistakes in her commercial. Miss Jay makes fun of her voice. They think that all together it's a wreck, but taken apart it's great. Miss Jay thinks there's no personality in her print shot. Paulina says she looks stupid. Tyra disagrees.
They learn that the final two will be walking in a Versace show and the clothes have been hand selected by Donatella Versace herself - a ANTM first.
The judges discuss. Nigel knocks Fatima for her lack of confidence and Paulina says Anya should have done better. Paulina says that she thinks Whitney's beauty is a facade. She says this is her first great shot. They think she wears armor.
Time to announce the final two.
Anya is in the top two. Fatima and Whitney wait to hear. Tyra says Whitney takes beautiful pictures, but they can't tell what's really going on with her. Tyra tells Fatima she needs to listen better. Both girls are crying.
It's Whitney. Tyra tries to give her a pep talk to rise to the occasion.
Fatima's out. Tyra tells her she's proud of her. Fatima's good-bye: "I feel like I accomplished so much. I feel like I've made history. I'm the first asylee-refugee woman to make America's Next Top Model....I feel like I'm born again. I just have to let go of everything that ever happened to me and just start all over again. I feel so new, I feel so beautiful, I feel so strong....Trust me, you will not forget about me, you will see this face."
Back the apartment, Anya tells the camera she thought Whitney looked vulnerable and beautiful when she cried at judges table. And Whitney talks about the tough skin she's developed from backhanded compliments. She has also noticed that she's been in the bottom two several times and Anya never has.
The next day it's off to meet Seventeen Magazine's editor-in-chief Ann Shoket. She tells them they're going to do the Seventeen cover shoot and one will make the cover of the July issue.
After, they head to the runway show. They're going to be walking with professional models (including men) and Saleisha will lead it off. They look to the make-up artist to reassure them.
The show starts. The judges walk first, followed by Saleisha. Jay hypes them up: "Stomp it to the death." The women wear long flowing glittery dresses. The men are wearing Speedos. Couture Speedos, no doubt, but Speedos.
Anya looks fierce, Whitney looks like she's having a great time. They change. Whitney walks a second time in a cute pink dress that keeps getting caught in her shoes. She deals with it. Anya second dress is a tight sheath that she has some trouble walking in. They head out again in the same dresses for the finale, which means they walk AND clap at the same time.
Tyra goes back to congratulate them. And also, stress them out: "The moment awaits, who's it gonna be?"
The go to judges table in their runway dresses.
They get to see footage of themselves on the runway. Miss Jay says that Anya didn't "bring it" as much as she was supposed to. Miss Jay says that Whitney delivered. Tyra compared Whitney's bouncy, sexy walk to her own, but said she didn't pose at the end of the runway to let the photographer get a shot. They look back at all their past pictures and the judges reiterate what they'd said before.
Tyra sends them away so they can deliberate. They think Whitney was great on the runway. "She did a damn good job," Miss Jay says. They're not thrilled with Anya.
They talk about the pictures. They call Whitney beautiful and find things to love in some of her past pictures. Paulina compliments Whitney for having listened to the judges and improved.
Nigel calls Anya an "educated model." Miss Jay wishes she could bring the same energy to the runway that she does in her pictures.
They think Whitney takes the prettier pictures, but Anya looks more like a high fashion model. Tyra says they both represent strengths that the show has never had.
Revelation time. Tyra builds up the suspense.
Then says: "America's Next Top Model is...Whitney!"
("I know I'm going to go back home now and I'm going to cry," Anya says. "The thing is, I'm proud of myself. I have my whole career ahead of me.")
Whitney shrieks, hugs Anya, hugs Tyra, hugs the judges. Tyra tells her: "You're the first girl with some booty to win America's Next Top Model." She tells Whitney the correct term is "full figured model." Paulina makes a point, looking at Whitney: "This should not be called plus-sized, of full-figured, it should be called beautiful."
Over a photo montage of young Whitney to model Whitney (let's just say her toddler years weren't her best), Whitney soaks it all in. "There's definitely times I've looked in the mirror or looked at other girls and thought I wasn't like them. Being in high school, being in middle school always being judged and thinking am I different? Is there something wrong with me? No, I'm here because I do feel good about myself and I want other women in America to feel better about themselves. I honestly think girls will look up to me and say: 'I can do that, I can be that. I don't have to starve, I don't have to have plastic surgery. I could be really be like that. I could be on that billboard. I could be on that magazine cover. Why? Because I'm beautiful from the inside out.' It feels amazing to be America's Next Top Model."
They take some end of the season pictures and Whitney ends it with a "Woo!"
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