Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sweet P.

What's not to love? She's got tats, enough skills to stay alive and the kind of underdog charisma that makes you want give her a big old hug. She has a knack for being chosen dead last, which has forced her to partner with a kook and, this week, try to make baggy sweaters work. Which she did!

But the best part about Sweet P is, when the going gets tough, her eyes become huge saucers and she babbles like -- well, Olive Oyl. While I seriously doubt she'll go the distance, I'm all for getting behind The P while she's still in the mix. Who's with me?

On to the recap.

After Jack swiped Ricky's model (who, honestly, looked happy to be rid of El Weepo) Heidi informed the bunch that they'd be meeting Uncle Tim in the work room, and he was not alone. A familiar face was at his side, and she had a bunch of old friends with her.

"Immediately I thought, OK, we're going to make some clothes for senior citizens," said The P, not thinking about the fact that she's a teenager's lifespan away from being offended by a crack like that.

They trot up to the room and there's Nina, with a whole lotta stank photos from long dead fashion seasons. There are cutouts. You've got your neon. Smell the pleather, the fringe and the shoulder pads all up in your face!

My closet, in other words.

Each picked a sad, sad little photo to call their own. Then, the challenge: Team up with other designers to create a cohesive, modern collection of three separate outfits that updates each of these horrible blights on style.

Budget: $225. Two days. An hour to sketch, during which each team has to pick a leader.

Kevin, Rami God of Cloth and Jillian teamed up to merge overalls, the poodle skirt and '70s flare into fabulous.

Christian, Kit and Jack took it upon themselves to transform pleather, the zoot suit and fringe into something wearable. Christian decides to call them Team Star, because team star is like hot, like celebrity! Aw ... he's so not adorable.

Ricky, Victorya and Elisa come together with neon cutout underwear-as-outerwear. Ricky is a lingerie designer, so this should have been a lock for him. Chris is doing the baggy sweater shoulder pad dance with Steven and Sweet P.

Then came the funny part: Choosing the team leaders. Now, if you've watched a few episodes of "Survivor," one thing you should know, without question, is that being a leader is BAD. Leaders are targets. On "Runway," they're sacrificial lambs. But Chris looked at it as an honor. A lot of people have him in a pigeonhole, he said, expecting 10 foot wigs and outfits using 200 yards of fabric.

"But as the group leader, I feel like I finally got a chance to show that I can design anything just as good as anybody else in the room!" he joyfully exclaimed.

Oh no, honey, that's not it at all. Consider who else is leading -- Ricky the Weeper, snot-nosed Christian (who, we must say, has talent in spite of his immaturity) and Green Acres, better known as Jillian. Are they the most talented in the room? For the most part, no. Each should have been wearing a placard that read, "In case of hideousness, push me onto a sword!"

But the way the teams shook out made the result somewhat predictable. Team Jillian consists of pretty solid performers and one, Rami, who has never been a low scorer. By putting their brains together, they dreamt up a lovely collection that took all three outdated themes tastefully into the now.

Team Christian is similarly set; although Christian has had his lapses in judgment, the boy knows how to sew. Their outfits were only so-so, but the collection blended smoothly, although Kit's ensemble was, far and away, the best.

So if you couldn't tell early on that Team Ricky and Team Chris would be in a race for the bottom, there's no saving you.

Team Ricky's problem: Victorya's passive aggressiveness. First she kicked the leadership ball to Ricky, who accepted because a) nobody else wanted to, and b) like they're gonna hand responsibility to Elisa? Yeah, right. "Here are the keys to the Electric Acid Trip five-wheeled bus, President Moonbeam. Let's get this roadtrip to Pluto started!"

Then, later, when Victorya's design didn't quite work out, she thundered ahead without taking any of Ricky's suggestions, only to chastise him for refusing to take charge -- asking why he wanted to be leader in the first place!

Victorya, you can only get away with such sneaky evil by being great -- and the jury's still out on that. To Ricky's credit, he knew the best way to communicate with Elisa was to talk like a modern dance instructor who's high on pot. Breathe into the crease! Feel your center!

He also helped Victorya get her fit right, which cost him much needed time to fix his own creation. The end result was ill-fitting and bunchy at the seams.

Meanwhile, Team Chris had a larger problem -- its leader. Mr. March had no imagination when it came to incorporating three disparate concepts into each of those designs, beyond coordinating the color scheme. It was a vision in bright, vibrant camel and black. Not only that, he made a bolero jacket with oversized shoulder pads. Each was large enough to balance a full beer stein.

On the runway, the collections sashayed before Nina, Michael Kors and guest judge Donna Karan.

Jillian's design came out first, and as soon as you saw that sleek overall-inspired pantsuit walk down the runway, you had to know it was over for the rest of them.

Team Ricky marched out a collection that would have been perfect at a formal ball for Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey. While not exactly tough on the eyes, I almost expected one of the models to start juggling when she reached the end of the catwalk.

As for Chris, between his design, Steven's strange kimono wrap and Sweet P's baggy sweater turned belted bubble dress (which, actually, turned out quite well) the models would have been right at home among the sandpeople of Tatooine.

Heidi knows she can't perpetrate, so she congratulates Jillian straightaway and sends her team off for another week. Team Christian is dismissed with slightly less fanfare.

So it came down to, yes, Team Ricky and Team Chris. After Ricky and Victorya clawed at each other for a few minutes, Heidi asked Victorya who she thought should be sent home. Victorya naturally opted for Ricky, who in turn nominated her. Heidi then turned to Princess Moonbeam, who offered up herself. That's very nice, but no help.

After skewering Team Chris, and praising The P, Heidi asked the same question. Steven nominated Chris. Chris nominated himself. And then ...

"Sweet P?" Heidi chirped. Eyes wide, The P quivered a little while whispering to Chris, "Can I do eenie, meenie, miney, mo?"

This did not please the Klum. "SWEET P."

The P, quivering more now: "Aaa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aah!?"

Looking like she was on the verge of passing a shard of glass, she chose Steven. Then she apologized to him. We love The P.

So did Donna Karan and the rest. Nina was dismayed by Ricky's terribly constructed outfit, but Chris's hee-ooge "Dynasty" shoulder pads pained them the most.

Chris, you are OWT.

Your turn. Do you find The P adorable? Should Ricky have gotten the boot, or was Chris' auf'ing right on time?