While her fellow chefs dash off to the pantry, a clearly bothered Sheetal wanders off to the side of the MasterChef kitchen. Gordon would like a word with her; she'd prefer not to be on camera. "Don't worry about the camera," he tells her as the camera continues to capture their entire conversation. Anyhow, the thought of sending a crab off to its eternal reward has Sheetal upset. Gordon is very sympathetic -- he even offers to drop the crab in the water for her because, obviously, at this point in his life, Gordon Ramsay's developed a taste for killing. Crabs, aspiring chefs, hobos -- by the end of the night, something has to die by his hand, baby. Sheetal decides that she can do it. Gordon gives her a reassuring hug and urges her on. "You can do it," he says over and over again. This is how apocalyptical death cults get started, by the way.
"While Sheetal wrestles with the thought of killing a crab," the pleasant female narrator says, a bit too cheerily, "others have no problem at all." Tracy even bids her crab a playful "bye-bye" before dropping it into a pot of boiling water. Now what if that would have turned out to be the George Washington equivalent of the crustacean world? Would you have been so blasé about it then, Tracy? Well, probably -- the last thing we need is the crabs rallying behind a born leader. Anyhow, the MasterChef kitchen is a veritable crab killing fields.
So what's everybody making? Sharone's going to make a crab roll with cucumber using the prosciutto as a wrap. Mike is trying his hand at crab two ways -- "sort of an east meets west" deal. Lee is working on a warm crab salad with a spicy gazpacho sauce. The judges seem pleased by all of this. Then there's Slim -- poor, poor Slim -- who has decided to take her crab apart before actually cooking it. Gordon points out two problems with this approach: 1) The crab will be dry and flavorless when she does get around to cooking it; and 2) That crab is still very much alive. "You're just torturing it now," Gordon tells her. Not that there isn't a market for crab torture videos, I'm sure. And hey, if any network is going to air crab torture porn, I think we'd all agree that it would be Fox.
Meanwhile Sheetal is still struggling with the "To Boil or Not to Boil" question vis à vis her crab. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do this," she says. Fortunately, she's got an entire commercial break to sort out her feelings. Maybe the time we return, the crab will have bored itself to death.