[Yak Nicholson]

Tonight’s episode started off like last week’s…..with the chefs absorbing both Dale L. and Stephen being eliminated, and they head out to a bar to lament this with beer. First up, the Quickfire Challenge. Their challenge was to convince Padma and guest that their stuffing is the best. But, here’s the rub, all their knives and kitchen tools were taken away. Fabio summed it up best, cooking without utensils is like a heart surgeon doing open-heart surgery using just his fingers. The prize? Immunity…….oh, and $20,000. Of course, when they were told to cook, everyone went apepoop. Carla opened cans by squishing them. Richard used a lid of a jar as a spoon. Fabio grated cheese on top of a rack that held pots and pans. Pots were smashing food to bits, Angel beat his meat against the metal preparation table. Tiffany from Season 1 cut her meat with a pepper grater. In the end, Tre came out on top with the win, my Marcel the Wolverine took second.

Next up, the Elimination Challenge. Cook for the athelets of the U.S. Open…..at the U.S. Open. They have to keep in mind that they are cooking for athletes as well. They’re divided into two teams by selecting tubes of tennis balls; whatever color their ball was, that’s the team they were on and it was either yellow or orange. Then they’d be going head to head against each other for points, whoever had the best dish got the point (tennis style, i.e. 15, 30, 45 and the win). The first team to “four” points won, those that lost points on the losing team got to go to judges table to be eliminated. Those that won points on the winning team were up for the challenge win.

The yellow team had a strategy of putting their weakest dish up first, figuring the orange team would put their strongest dish up. Thusly, they’d get their weak dish out of the way by giving up a point and leaving their best dishes for last to gain the rest of the points. Best laid plans, well, you know what they say about that. Once they were at the US Open and cooking, Jamie’s issue had come up once again that her chickpeas were undercooked. She was on the yellow team and they wanted to put her dish up, but she refused on the logic that should they lose then she’d be up for elimination. So Casey went up instead, and lost. First point, orange team. Next up was supposed to be Marcel from the Orange team, however Dale T. was worried his dumplings would go bad, so he went instead. Yeah, he lost. Second point, yellow team. After that Marcel did get to go up, against Angelo. Did I mention that Angelo kept “helping” other members of his team, but most times messed up their dishes? Well, he beat Marcel. Third point, yellow team. Buuuuuuuuuuuuut, after that the orange team went on a tear, winning the next two points and getting within one point of the win.

I must also add that in the middle of all this cooking frenzy, Carla cut off half her fingernail…..literally. We’re talking gobs of blood dripping. The medic wanted to send her to the hospital, but she refused, wrapping it in gauze and rubber gloves before resuming cooking. I have to also add that her team didn’t want her to cook the dish she wanted to, but she did it anyway. She was on the orange team and yeah, she won the final match-up, securing the victory for the orange team!!! (Which meant my Marcel Wolverine Boy was safe, whew!). Carla, Tre, Spike and Tiffany D. were the bottom four. Keep in mind that Tre has immunity, and it’s a good thing because the judges told him that his dish was the worst of the night. So it was down to Carla, Spike and Tiffany D. Get ready for this folks because I was NOT expecting this………………..oh wait, who won, right? Who had the best dish? CARLA!!! Yup, the one whose team didn’t want her to cook the dish she did. She won a trip to Italy too!!! But who left, yeah, my jaw’s still on the floor………SPIKE IS GONE. Spike was told to pack his knives and go. That sucks. Jamie should’ve been in that group but she escaped it by not presenting her dish. So let’s see; Jamie goes to the hospital for essentially knicking her finger, Carla chops off half a fingernail and stays. Jamie doesn’t present a dish, but gets to stay around. This is not the Jamie from her original season, that’s for sure.

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[SimplySherri]

This blows. I was pissed that Spike was eliminated. Jamie should have been gone. She's caused 2 people to go home now that should still be there. YAY for Carla, I love her and her work ethic.

[KaysarRocks]

I was totally shocked, at that and at Angelo messing with others dishes. Maybe he was trying to help, but he shouldn't have added that element to Spike's dish either.

[grandmamichelf]

It was too bad that Spike got sent home instead of Jamie. For two episodes she hasn't done crap. And hell, Carla cut off the tip of her fingernail and she just kept on going. Jamie had to go to the hospital and get two stitches. I can see why Spike was upset about being sent home. I think they should have thrown Jamie under the bus big time. Or just made her go first instead of caving into her.

I really like Carla. Always have. I also like Tre as well.