As Richardson left the judging room to pack up her things, she remembers yelling “fuck Tyra” and “fuck Top Model.” In the episode, the cameras continued to roll as Richardson and Epley packed their bags. During a quick exit interview, in which she wore the same long black slip dress she wore during the elimination, Richardson said, “I’m not finna break down for you or nobody else. You ain’t did shit for me but bring me here and put me through hell these weeks.”

Epley didn’t remember the “entire wrath of Tyra,” but she said it seemed like Banks “went above and beyond to break Tiffany down.” Brower agreed, saying more bluntly, "It was definitely harsh … almost like Tyra wanted her to be devastated when she got eliminated, and when Tiffany was not acting that way, it’s like she just lost it. … There was a lot more anger there, especially in the beginning.” Hill said she remembered that "financially [Richardson] and her family, they weren’t doing really well at the time." She added that Richardson had a "lackadaisical" attitude. "She made it seem like she was unbothered, unaffected, did not care," according to Hill. "And Tiffany’s my girl, but in that moment, I could definitely see where Tyra was coming from. She had some truth to what she was saying, but [Banks] probably did go in.”

While it may have been a case of extreme tough love, that’s not how Richardson felt about it. “Why are you yelling at me, because I’m grown as fuck,” Richardson recalled thinking as Banks got heated. “It was just, like, bullshit. It was so over-the-top for no reason.” In Richardson's view, Banks “needed them ratings to go up or something."

The producer and three judges (Marin, Barker, and Dickinson) who spoke to BuzzFeed News all noted that the blowup was a deviation from how Banks normally interacted with the contestants, but some said it came from a place of Banks wanting Richardson to succeed. Barker called the moment “shell-shocking,” but said there was “never anything vitriolic about it, ever.” “It was much more maternal than anything else,” he said.

After Richardson and Epley packed their bags, they were sent to a hotel room, where they stayed for the next few days. During production on Top Model, contestants didn’t actually go straight home. They were essentially sequestered for almost 24 hours a day in hotel rooms, only able to leave to get food. Cocks told BuzzFeed News the goal was to prevent the public from finding out which contestant was eliminated and when. These contestants were referred to as “bogies,” a play on the word “bogus.” Producers also didn't want eliminated contestants — at least in the early days of the show — to know who was eliminated after them.

Cocks told BuzzFeed News that producers did another exit interview with Richardson as a way of “buttoning up” her storyline. According to Cocks's recollection of the decision, Banks "basically drove that train.” The concern was that the story was essentially “unfinished” without showing that Banks and Richardson had made amends.