Think back to when you were younger and you were doing something with your friends: It didn’t even have to be something incredibly fun, but at least it was entertaining. Maybe it was just watching something on TV.Now remember what it felt like when your mom came in — all "Hey, kids, what are you doing?" — and sucked all the fun right out of it?It turns out that happens in reality TV, too. And I’m not talking about the annual "meet Tyra’s momma" episode in "America’s Next Top Model." No, this week the "Project Runway" designers must create something for "the everyday woman" — who turns out to be their mom (or, in a few cases, an incredibly matronly sister). Well, not THEIR mom, but a rival designer’s mom, but nonetheless this episode has all the glee and surprise of a mom-supervised slumber party.(Also, who thinks of their mom as "the everyday woman"? Doesn’t the fact she’s your mom make her extraordinary, at least to you?)Jeffrey’s loutish behavior continues, although when a viewer poll says he’s 30% justified in his actions instead of 0%, you know he ended up with Angela’s mom as his victim — I mean, "client." But as callously as he treated her, it’s ROBERT who goes home for what could at best be described as a tent. (But at least he picked a bright color this week!)The episode begins with Jeffrey complaining — surprise! — about Angela, and how she should have been up defending her designs instead of Alison last week. Does this guy like any of his competitors? (The answer, which we find at the end of the episode, is yes, although it’s not clear if he also respects that person’s design work, too.)Then Michael reminds us he has won two challenges in a row: "I actually grinned myself a headache," he says, which is sort of endearing and not at all the sort of thing Jeffrey would say had he won two in a row. And off to the runway for the announcement of the challenge (see above). The models will be the designers’ moms, except for Vincent’s and Robert’s sisters. Everyone’s all teary-eyed. They’ll design for an "everyday woman," but still make it fashion-forward and with the designer’s point of view. They also have one day to complete the challenge, instead of the usual two. (At this point Robert, who has been chastised for weeks about being boring, might have saved us an hour and just bowed out, but no ….)Since Michael won last week, he gets to pick first and selects Robert’s sister. Heidi draws the other designers’ names out of the Black Velvet Bag of Chance, and they then pick the skinniest woman left. I mean, that wasn’t the way it was explained, but it sure ended up that way. And as Jeffrey explains it, "I think God got drunk today," because he ends up with Angela’s mother. I prefer to believe that God has a delicious, twisted sense of humor. (And looks and talks and treats people just like Dolly Parton would, but that’s neither here nor there.)Guest judge this week: Michael Kors’ mother, who looks vaguely Oompa Loompa-ish, which is to say "exactly like Michael Kors, with longer hair and bigger sunglasses." We learn this at a party at Tavern on the Green, which seems like the exact place your mom would want to go to in New York City. They compare embarrassing photos of their children, and we learn that Kayne was a chubby kid — adult Kayne says that he dropped 110 pounds. He interviews that being overweight helped him learn what flatters heavier figures, which will come back to haunt him in about 40 minutes.Also, Laura lets it slip that she’s pregnant with child #6. Her mom is stunned. Yay, parental support!Back to the studio, where the designers and models confer for half an hour. Kayne says his model, Michael’s mom "is not a size 2, not even a size 10," but she’s fabulous and he’ll create something awesome for her. Again, can he walk the walk? It is awesome, though that he picked her because she had rhinestones on her shoes and felt an affinity for her.Most designers are working well with their Mom Muses, but Jeffrey is stumped by Angela’s mom, who says she likes dark green, dark purple and wants to be all covered up. In a moment of lucidity, he points out he probably won’t be able to construct a jacket well given the time constraint, so he nixes her suggestion. Being Jeffrey, he does so with the tact and diplomacy of a pile driver. They don’t come to any consensus in the half-hour before the designers head off to buy fabric.On the return, Vincent points out that many designers don’t know how to create a garment for a fuller figure: They’re used to working with models "with 25-inch waists," he says sort of dismissively. Tough talk for someone who’s dressing Uli’s superskinny mom! Speaking of talk, apparently she doesn’t speak a ton of English and Vincent’s German is, well, nonexistent. There’s a lot of gesturing and loud speaking on his part, and nodding on her part.Thing is, he’s right: "I’m scared of this," Robert says as he drapes what looks like a bedspread’s amount of red material over a dress form. "I don’t know what to do." Everyone soldiers on until just to stir things up a bit, Tim Gunn announces the moms are coming in early so they can see how things are going.Darlene (for that is Angela’s mom’s name) tells Tim she doesn’t like her dress — she doesn’t approve of the periwinkle fabric he’s chosen, etc. — and starts ragging on Jeffrey in this whiny, meek way, then promptly shuts up as soon as Jeffrey shows up. Tim repeats what she’s said and Jeffrey blows it off, which earns a mild rebuke from Tim before he’s off to observe the other designers.Now, here’s the practical part of me: Darlene can’t change Jeffrey’s fabric selection, since he’s already bought it. And I’m betting she didn’t even bother to ask what his plan was, because she complained about the color of a fabric that constituted maybe 5% of Jeffrey’s total design. (She called it powder blue, and matronly.) But a woman who’s wearing the giant-collar-and-shirttails-sticking-out-from-dark-sweater look should not be dictating design to someone, even if that particular someone is a jerk who turns around and tells her that the fact she’s even standing there is bothering him.What she should have done: Stop hectoring him and trust in his design instincts (or sit back and revel in his failure, which would be one fewer competitor for her daughter). What he should have done: Treated her like he would his own mother. I have no particular sympathy for either of them.Darlene is now crying in the break room: "I’m really upset. I’m really insulted," she sobs to some of the other moms, including — awkward! — Jeffrey’s, who immediately begins damage control. She’s done this before, you can tell: "Let’s just go forward," she pleads with Darlene, then goes to talk to Jeffrey and breaks down crying.Jeffrey’s mom seems very … brittle — the sort of woman who interviews that Jeffrey was an alcoholic, whereas he says he was an addict (which implies harder drug use). She’d be the kind of mom who’d want to sweep things under the rug: "Jeffrey is just rambunctious!" she’d chirp weakly to the other neighborhood moms who complain about him kicking their dogs. "Let’s not dwell on the past!"Jeffrey and Angela are working in the sewing room at the same time. "She’s an unhappy customer, that’s all," he says. "She’s also my mom," she replies with an exasperated eye roll. Does she not understand that isn’t going to be help her cause — at all?Time for bed! Laura’s roommates make much ado about her pregnancy. She is more laissez-faire about the whole thing, explaining that by the time you have five, a sixth won’t be that much more work. "I’ll just throw it on the pile with the other ones," she says.The next morning, Mom Models arrive for final fittings and the runway show. The L’Oreal Paris makeup room and the Tresemme hair salon are hotbeds of boring this week: Nobody looks any different than usual.Uli’s design for Kayne’s mom involves a sheer print top that drapes over a solid tank, and pants. The trim at the neckline and sleeves is there to "elongate" the silhouette, Uli explains. Vincent’s design for Uli’s mom is a sleek little belted dress with oversize collar, which unfortunately matches her skin tone a little too closely. Still, cute.Kayne has designed a shirt that appears to have a print chiffon bib in front for Michael’s mom. The capri pants cut her at an unflattering part of her leg. The judges say he didn’t create anything special that made his model look good. Angela, meanwhile, was supposed to create an Audrey Hepburn-ish look for Laura’s mom, but when did Audrey Hepburn have long layers of fringe on a skirt? It’s kind of lumpy looking. Over a black tank dress, Robert has created what I call the Plus-Size Santa Fe Lady top — a lot of big, flowy fabric in a misguided attempt to conceal the true silhouette. There’s an artistic sash neckline that she keeps fiddling with, and when she walks down the runway she’s incredibly grim. Michael’s shirtdress is reversible, so I can’t understand why he didn’t show the interesting pattern side out, instead of the plain black. The belt’s a little big, too. Here begins Laura’s downfall: Even though Jeffrey’s mom is also very thin, what might look good on Laura does not look good on a woman with a few more years of life experience. The bow in the picture above obscures the sailor-style buttons on the skirt, which Laura made in a nod to her model’s love of cruises. Jeffrey’s outfit is a little bit Jeffrey (apparently random patches of color or detail) and a whole lot of Darlene (bo-ring). Those bits mesh together about as well as designer and model did.Judging highlights: Michael Kors says Angela’s dress isn’t Audrey Hepburn so much as "Stevie Nicks in black." Also, Jeffrey’s outfit is "Commes des Garcons goes to the Amish country." Also, Heidi speaks to Uli’s mom, also named Heidi, in German while Vincent sweats bullets. I would have loved it had Heidi translated it as: "That man is so crazy, it made me uncomfortable. All that shouting and grinning! I would like to go home now." Instead, the Heidi-Heidi Conference yields the fact she likes the dress.Who would have thought Vincent would turn out an appropriate design? The judges deem him the winner — with no immunity next week — and trundle off the other contestants, one by one, until it’s just Jeffrey and Robert standing.Jeffrey didn’t really try to please his client. Robert, you’re (repeat it with me) boring. Robert, you’re out.Backstage, everyone is very sad. Jeffrey even cries, saying that Robert’s one of "the good ones," which makes me believe next week’s episode will start with him complaining again.Also next week: Since they didn’t eliminate Alison’s "zaftig" model Alexandra at the beginning of this episode, and Robert’s model is also on the chopping block after tonight, I’m guessing there’s some model mayhem on the horizon. Every time that happens I’m reminded that when model Jia was hit by a car in New York, it was reported she had made it to the top three, which means the rest of the season is part of a live-action shell game: Keep your eye on the model, and you’ll know at least one designer who makes it to the finals. Right now she’s with (shudder) Vincent….

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