By Frederic Germay
Things are starting to heat up in "Hell's Kitchen," and I'm not talking about the food. It's quite remarkable how the contestants have changed since from the beginning of the season. Of course, some have barely made any kind of transformation, but others have changed beyond any kind of recognition. For example, who would have thought that Julia would have become the strongest cook in the kitchen with her somewhat limited fine-dining knowledge? Who would have thought that Bonnie would've lasted this long, and who would have thought Josh could be any worse than he already is? And...Remember meek Rock attempting to silence one of Vinnie's annoying little outbursts towards Ramsay -- talk about a personality change!
In this episode, we finally witnessed a Melissa-free kitchen. Unfortunately, some chefs seemed inspired to carry on her legacy. Anyways, the challenge was to construct three dishes from leftover food in 30 minutes, and I didn't find that task to be incredibly daunting, but the girls seemed to have an enormous amount of difficulty with it. Well, they picked an incredibly convenient time to dissolve...
After spending an eternity trying to figure what dishes to make, the girls ended up losing to the guys, who, in stark contrast, utilized their time efficiently. When Ramsay declared Bonnie's and Brad's dishes to be equal in quality, I started to question whether he had a thing for her. Doesn't it bother anyone how Bonnie has lasted all the way to the final six cooks? It somewhat reminded me of last season's deserving Heather pitted against the undeserving...ahh...can't remember her name! All I remember is that she was put on the chopping block an infinite amount of times, and she should have been eliminated on countless occasions. Never the less, she managed to make it to the finale, which caused Keith to actually accuse Ramsay of having a crush on her!
Anyways, the boys rightly won the competition with Rock's superb dish, and the girls were punished with the not-so-formidable task of accepting, checking, and transporting deliveries. After Rock's nightmare trash punishment, I would've hoped that Ramsay could come up with something equally as traumatizing, but no!! It seems as though Ramsay may have other standards besides quality and speed.
However, the boys got an extraordinary reward -- they got to shoot Ramsay...with paintballs, of course! After that exhilarating paradise, the boys returned to the kitchen, only to walk right past the girls who were in the midst of their punishment. Jean-Philippe requested that they help the ladies, and that he would have lent his aid if it weren't for his awfully convenient (there's that word again) back problem Quite frankly, I don't buy that back problem business, and if the girls wanted help with their task then they should have considered lending their aid to boys earlier.
Speaking of the girl's punishment, didn't anyone find it convenient that everything was wrong with the delivery? Since that would be a rarity in itself, I believe that Ramsay orchestrated the whole thing to teach the girls to learn to double check deliveries.
Anyways, Ramsay declared that they were going to do a unique service that had never been done before, but I distinctly remember a similar occurrence last season. The challenge was to create menu, and then do a good job of serving the food on time. Brad decided to take absolute control over the menu, despite Rock's claims of imminent failure. I wonder why people aren't taking him seriously, because he turns out to be right almost all the time.
The girls' team fell under the nagging leadership of Bonnie, and Julia's skills were brought up only when Ramsay over-ruled their menu and put her dish on it. Julia's New York Steak and Bonnie's Bacon wrapped Rabbit Leg really looked appetizing (and unhealthy) and went on to become the night's most popular dishes. For a while I thought that Red team was definitely going to win, seeing as none of the blue team's dishes were getting ordered. Eventually things started to even out, and the winners no longer became obvious.
Bonnie displayed the cooking prowess of a donkey while she cooked on a gas stove without the gas on. And Josh destroyed dish after dish, and even Ramsay dispatched Rock and Brad to his aid...but they never came. I know Josh stinks, but I thought it was seriously unfair how Rock and Brad just left him to drown. Eventually, Josh pulled himself out, but it may have been a little too late for redemption.
Jen showed an interesting side of herself, as she butted heads with former friend, Bonnie. Bonnie has always been annoying, but Jen finally sank to her level and just became flat-out cruel. Jen has normally been able to stay nice, and she always has appeared as though she's going through life with iron boots on (and massive migraines).... but she just changed! It appears that there is more than meets the eye about her.
Now, I'm devoting this entire paragraph to Rock. Rock is the most consistently strong chef in the kitchen, and he rarely, if ever, incurs the wrath of Ramsay. Judging by the polls, he is the fan favorite of the bunch. Despite all this, I've always had a problem with Rock's ego. He used to be a mild-mannered, yet passionate and talented cook, now he is all mean and full of himself. Well, perhaps 'mean' is the wrong word, maybe 'confrontational' would more adequately describe him. He blows up, talks back to Ramsay, shows close-to-no respect to his team members, and his ego! Every time I get close to rooting for him again, he does something that makes me go..."What!" I suppose I'll just start rooting for Julia again.
In the end, Ramsay declared both teams as losers, and he delegated the task of choosing someone for elimination to Julia, whereas the boys' team had to decided on a nominee as a team. Julia put Bonnie up, and Brad was the blue team's choice. When Brad was put up, I was 95% sure that Ramsay would either over-rule them and put Josh up or eliminate Bonnie. Then the unthinkable happened...Ramsay sent the more-deserving Brad home over Bonnie. Judging by the look on Bonnie's face, I'm guessing she wasn't expecting that outcome either. Remember what I wrote about Ramsay having a thing for Bonnie! Hmm....
Overall, this was a terrific episode and judging by the pure entertainment of this season so far, I'd imagine that the next episode would be even better. I can hardly wait, and I rarely say that when I'm discussing reality shows! I give this episode another 9/10.
