As the opening credits roll, I ponder why Charlie's sour-milk face is so much less appealing to me than Nicole's sour-milk face. You guys keep watching, I'll continue to ponder...

Nicole's up first thing in the morning and finds the clue to today's challenge -- in this case a bowl full of flip-flops (didn't Salvador Dali paint something like that?) -- and decides to "keep this information to [her]self," so that she can get the incredible strategic advantage of picking the numbered flops of her choosing first. Wow, she's jumped to an insurmountable lead now! (The number, in case you care, is three.) Anyway, Nicole tells the group how sad it was to wake up without Meredith in her room, but no one seems to take her seriously because of the giant smile on her face. She's like, "It's sad that Meredith's gone, but not really," and Daniel gives her a look like she just farted in church. Oh, go get dressed up for a Real Housewives wedding, you.

The stylists take to the beach, where Jaclyn and guest judge Oscar Blandi are waiting. Charlie manages to wring a laugh out of Jaclyn when he says being in the bottom three last week was bad, but he "wanted to see how the other half lives." He worked on that line for a day, easy, so it's nice to see it paid off. Jaclyn delivers this week's challenge, which is to style the hair of a beachgoer without the ability to wash said hair. Sounds like they're going to be brushing out sand for an hour. In order to ease the pain of such a difficult task, the clients all end up being hot-ass surfer boys. I say that's a fair trade-off. Unless you're Dee (sorry, Dee!). The numbers on the flip-flops match the numbers drawn on the surfers' arms, so the stylists are matched up with their respective heads of hair (and the torsos that come with them).

One of the interesting quirks, as the stylists get to work, is that Dee and Glenn are working on twins. And you thought all California surfer boys looked alike already. Daniel starts talking crap about how Nicole's going to struggle with this challenge. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say every episode this season has included Daniel or Nicole talking shit about the other one. In case you were wondering whether a rivalry was being established or anything. Team Nicole, all the way.