This week on Face Off, the final four contestants were inspired by the TV series Grimm. Yes, more cross promotion from the SyFy makeup series. I can accept it when it works this well. The contestants were instructed to search the woods for four crime scenes that could have appeared on Grimm. Their challenge was to create an original creature design imagining what monstrosity could have committed the murder.

By chance, the final four were all makeup artists comfortable with creature design. Laura and Nicole have offbeat dark aesthetics. Roy is one of the many contestants throughout the history of the show involved in the haunted house industry. And Derek always did his best work on the challenges that let him go dark and twisted.

The winner of the challenge was Laura. She created a multifaceted hybrid that easily could have failed: human, spider, bee, beetle. Aside from beautiful execution, Laura won because she managed to account for every detail in her crime scene. Her victim was covered in web (spider), poisoned (bee sting), and shoved against the base of a tree (a beetle rolling its food). It was an ambitious design that succeeded because Laura embraced the insanity of the challenge.

Derek did his best makeup in weeks with a human/raptor hybrid. His color choices looked real. That made the whole makeup come alive even with a cartoonish claw popping out of one shoe. The design was otherwise subtle--feathers instead of claws at the elbows, slightly modified facial features to go past human.

Nicole and Roy had the bottom two looks and both came down to execution problems.

Nicole went full werewolf inspired by fur left behind at the crime scene. Her silhouette was great; it was the minor details that fell short. The prosthetic ears were actually attached to the hair, not the body, and the breasts on her lady werewolf began beneath the rib cage. The color choices were very good and she fully embraced the challenged.

Roy went with a snake hybrid that missed the mark. The styling choices were off. His character was a biker chick, so he dressed her head to toe in black leather. He also clearly wanted it to read female and slapped on a red wig that looked like plastic. Worst of all, he actually had the hair go through the cheeks of the design, as if any snake has ever had hollow slits in the middle of their face before.

The elimination could have gone either way. Nicole took shortcuts that cheapened her design and Roy made some bad design choices. Ultimately, the judges were more excited by Nicole's potential because she hasn't relied on fabrication to elevate her designs since returning to the contest.

Next week is the two part season finale. On Tuesday night, the final three compete in the biggest makeup challenge of the season. On Wednesday night, the results are revealed live after the audience vote is accounted for.

Who will win Face Off Season 3? Sound off with your thoughts and predictions below.