Well, it only took a few episodes, but the claws finally came out last night. The designers stopped being nice, and started getting bitchy when the stakes got pushed to the limit with a 24-hour alternative material challenge.

After a field trip to the Los Angeles Times, the Season 6 designers were tasked with making an outfit out of newpaper (muslim, tape, markers, paint, dye, glue, and thread were also fair game). Some of the designers were totally stoked, while others like Johnny and Nicolas worried this would be their official “auf Wiedershen.”

And then things got nervous and nasty. While desingers like Ra’mon and Gordana seemed absolutely zen about their designs, peeps started ganging up on Irina, Christopher, and Johnny. Irina was too chatty, Christopher was too inexperienced (forget that the kid already one a challenge and made the top three again this week), and Johnny? Ohh, liar, liar, pants on fire. It’s never good to fib to your model and the judges.

Following some trash talk by Tim about his design (“it looks like birds attacked your dress,” he sniffed following a review of Johnny’s oragami-inspired crane gown), Johnny started from scratch and then lied to his model, telling her he had to scrap his first look due to an “steamer issue.” Really Johnny? ‘Cuz that’s not what everyone else heard, and they probably would have let it go if you didn’t lie to the judges when you made the bottom three.

Yup, he went there – and then some. Nicolas finally lost it his shiznit on the runway when Johnny tried to slide the same lie past the judges, claiming his original design was very “Dior.” Not true, Nicolas announced – and then he proceeded to tell Heidi Klum (along with guest judges Tommy Hilfiger and Marie Claire‘s Zoe Glassner) EXACTLY what Tim said. Johnny was pissed, but in the end, his lies and paper diaster got him the boot. Irinia took home the gold with her totally cool Coco Chanelish trench coat, while Nicolas and Gordana lived to see another challenge.  Johnny choked back tears about not making it to Bryant Park. Boo-hoo, babe. It takes a lot to rile Tim Gunn, but you did it. Johnny barely had time to go gather his stuff before Tim went off, seething to the other designers about Johnny’s blatant attempts to hoodwink the judges.

Honorable Mention: The models of the runway really deserve some hazard pay for this week’s episode. The paper outfits proved to be a fashion “don’t” for these girls. No peeing, no eating, no sitting for 7-8 hours. One girl admitted she had to use Depends adult diapers, while Ra’mon’s model was just grateful that he’s gifted her with a bag of energy bars.