| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
In a series of seizure-inducing quick flashbacks, we get a brief overview of what happened this season, which was: a bunch of people got on a bus and then got yelled at by Gordon Ramsay and some of them yelled back. There are people in the montage I'd already forgotten, like Jamie and Krupa and Steven and that guy who almost died from extreme chef-ening or whatever. There are children banging dishes (and yet still manage to be better behaved than many of the cheftestants); there is Will getting angry; there is Elizabeth crying.
And when the dust settles, we are down to Paul "The pit bull," who we are told is definitely the "most intense" chef of the year, which is possibly true. "He never stopped believing in himself!" says the narrator. There's Tommy, "The wild card," which is a nicer thing to say than "meth head." He often played the comedian, especially if your idea of comedy is a self-involved douche who loves gay jokes. Will is "The machine," who proved to be an "unstoppable force" (of stubble) right from the start. Remember when he cooked a burger and managed to not kill anybody? That's how you know he's a great chef. And then there's Elise, "The fighter," who is the cartoon character created by Fox's reality-show conflict generator. "Can the last woman standing be the last chef standing?" gravely intones the narrator. A victory for Elise isn't a victory for womanhood but a triumph of insanity.
So picking up where we left off from last week, an ecstatic Elise dances back to the dorm, telling Will and Paul that she owes them, and Will yammers on about how he didn't do this because of any deal, but because she can actually cook. Tommy also wants Elise to press her breasts up against him, but since he said she was the weaker chef, she blows him off, despite him bizarrely saying, "I got your back."
The morning, Ramsay greets the final four by telling him that it's important to always be inspired, and introduces the judges for the challenge: Elise's son, husband Chris and aunt Dolores. Her son Chris Jr. seems adorable, and her husband seems too nice to be married to Motormouth the Destroyer here.
Tommy's got some family here now too: his mom Diana and his girlfriend Kaitlin. Paul can't contain a "holy shit" from escaping his mouth despite the presence of children (and I'm including Kaitlin here) when he sees what sort of aesthetic treasures have been bestowed upon Tommy's ridiculousness. I'd be curious to know if Red Sox fandom would be a deal-breaker if Kaitlin decided to go after Paul -- or was that just a bullshit excuse? Even Elise is taken aback, saying, "I'm not saying I didn't see it coming, but I didn't see it coming." Tommy kisses his girlfriend long and hard enough (before greeting his mom) that it's entirely possible she's pregnant. At any rate, I hope she's not missing too much homework by being here.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Paul's brother Chris is here. He's a taller, wider version of Paul, like when you create an avatar on the Wii and you play with the height and weight sliders? It's like someone did in real life with Paul and made his brother.
Will's mother Michelle and wife Tara are there, and he hugs his wife first and we don't see him hug his mom, but he tells us his wife and his mother are always on his mind, except as far as I can tell, this is the first we're hearing about them. Hope Tara enjoys it when she watches Will ogling drunken Natalie.
The chefs all get some family time and Tommy ignores his mom to continue making out with his girlfriend, who seems genuinely excited when Tommy suggests they get married when he gets home. Even Ramsay has to turn the firehouse on Tommy and Kaitlin when they won't stop rutting in the restaurant booth. Elise tells her family about all the highs and lows she's had, Will is sweet with his wife, and Paul talks about how his brother is his best friend.
By and by, Ramsay tells the chefs to say goodbye to their families. Will points to the winning chef's door and tells his wife and mom that he'll be walking through it the time they see him.
After the families leave, Ramsay introduces Taste It, Now Make It, and puts down a dish of meat-wrapped fish and tells them they have 35 minutes to replicate it. The chef that comes the closest will win and get to spend the rest of the day with his or her family. Tommy's already putting on a condom.
The chefs taste the samples and then get to work, with Elise having a difficult time deciding whether the fish is halibut or cod. She goes with the former, while Tommy and Will are cooking monkfish, and Paul's got it narrowed down to monkfish or cod, so he's searing both.
They also have to figure out the meat. Tommy thinks it's serrano, while the rest are going with prosciutto (Tommy thinks the meat wasn't salty enough for that). All four of them are going with mushroom, kale and cream for the garnish, which appears to be the easy part.
Tommy's up first, and he goes over the ingredients with Ramsay, who tastes it but doesn't reveal whether Tommy's right or not. He does the same with Elise, then Will ("Were you copying Tommy?" asks Ramsay), and then Paul, who eventually went with the cod.
And then Ramsay reveals that it was, in fact, prosciutto and not serrano, which means Tommy's now out of the running and will have to wait a little longer before boning his girlfriend with his mom watching. And it's Paul who was bang-on, which means he'll get to spend the day with his brother at the Dodgers game. As for the rest of them, it's Moving Day (at first I thought he said "movie day" which didn't sound too bad) and he needs everything moved out of Hell's Kitchen. Elise has already started in with the tears, to Ramsay's disgust. It's strange that she cries, considering every punishment that he's involved in she manages to avoid having to do any actual work.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Anyway, Paul and Chris are off to Dodgers stadium, where they're greeted by the legendary Tommy Lasorda, who is keen to find out which one's the chef because he wants some pasta fagioli, something that, at the risk of sounding mean, doesn't appear to have been hard to find for Mr. Lasorda here.
The brothers go out on the field while the Dodgers and the Cubs are warming up, and they meet some players, including Yankees icon and current Dodgers manager, Don Mattingly. The brothers do their best to maintain their composure until he leaves, then commence freaking out.
Meanwhile, the losers are cleaning out the dorms, and there disgustingly seems to be leftover food under all the women's beds. Elise blames every plate of half-eaten nachos and hamburgers on Jennifer.
Back at the game, Ramsay is now wearing a No. 7 Dodgers jersey and throwing out the first pitch while the brothers watch from some great seats. Ramsay throws it high, but Paul seems to be developing a crush on him anyway after noticing how good Ramsay looks in a baseball uniform. Afterwards, Ramsay delivers some hot dogs and beer to their box (I can't help but notice that the die-hard Yankees fans are both sporting Dodgers caps), and this has officially become the reward I am most envious of.
The day, the chefs prep the kitchen for what we're told is the most important dinner service of their lives. Elise says she thinks Tommy's made it this far by coasting in the backseat, but now he's (this wouldn't have anything to do with him saying she's the weaker chef, I suppose).
Anyway, tonight's dinner service will determine who goes to the final two. It's all about leadership, and each of them will have a turn running the pass. Will says the fact that two people will be gone after tonight makes it that much more real, which sounds exactly like what all the nimrods on The Bachelor say when the roses come out.
Anyway, James opens the restaurant, which features Rex Hudler. We're told he's a former major league ballplayer, but the ID wisely declines to explain that he's a career .261 hitter.
Paul's running the pass first, and he wants to show everyone what a big deal he is, but Tommy's doing his vow of silence thing again before serving up undercooked fish. And then Chef Scott intentionally puts shrimp instead of lobster in the capellini. Paul starts to plate it, without noticing. Ramsay has to point it out, and Paul has to go back to Scott to tell him to do it again. Other than that, he's doing well.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
But then Tommy clams up again, which is more accurate than Tommy's version that he couldn't get a word out without Paul screaming, although Paul does wind up melting down, yelling at Tommy. You guys, Rex Hudler is trying to eat!
"There's a difference between asking for something and totally bitching someone out," Will explains to us. Eventually, the fish gets out, so Paul's done at the pass and it's Tommy's turn. "I'm articulate and thorough when I speak to my team on the line," Tommy tells us, but that doesn't jibe with his incoherent gibberish.
James delivers the sabotage: a four top that includes an order of filet. Tommy calls it out, and it's Will who has to point out that there's no filet on the menu. Ramsay tells him to check the order in his mind first before yelling it out. There appears to be a minor conflict with Will as the team starts going on entrees, but no major meltdowns.
It's Elise's turn, and I'm not sure if she's going to be able to handle yelling at her fellow chefs. "I'm a great leader and I'm going to kick some serious ass because they're not even going to see it coming," she tells us.
And it's time for the sabotage. She plates the dishes with potato purée that was supposed to be cauliflower purée; she didn't taste it beforehand. She doesn't make that mistake when Scott brings up parsnip purée instead of mashed potato, and she brings it back to him. He plays dumb, and he's a terrible actor. "Great catch," Ramsay tells her.
Newly emboldened, Elise checks Tommy's fish and says, "This looks like shit," and then starts chewing him out. "It looks like it's been chewed by your dog!" she yells at him, which is the exact same complaint Ramsay used against her work the other night, so Tommy's not wrong when he tells us she's trying to be a miniature Ramsay.
Will's enjoying the fight, which gets even more annoying when Tommy draws Elise's ire by calling her "babe." "I'm sorry but I have standards, and that is not it!" she yells at him. Ramsay's impressed by her quality control and standards and tells her so. Elise, unsurprisingly, appears completely at home bossing people around. Will says she "brought her game" and Ramsay gives her a "well done" when she's finished.
Final turn belongs to Will, who gets off to a strong start, including spotting Scott bringing up a lamb instead of a Wellington. "Well-spotted," says Ramsay, although by this point Will would have to be an idiot not to have noticed what's been going on with Scott all night. I'm starting to regret already using "Listen all y'all, it's a sabotage!" for a recap headline.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Then Elise brings up some spinach garnish that has raw pasta in it for some reason. Will spots it, and Elise asks him if he wants her to make it again. He manages to use much less sarcasm in his response to her than I would have. He tells us he thinks Elise is a "shitty female" who will stab you in the back when she gets a chance. It's hard to argue with that when she merely re-plates the same raw-pasta spinach and also puts black pepper in the potatoes for some reason. He asks if she's deliberately trying to fuck him. She bickers right back and Will seems momentarily lost. I mean, how DO you solve a problem like Elise? She has standards that she only applies to the food other people serve her, but when those standards are applied to her own food, she gets hostile.
Anyway, the fighting stops and the cooking resumes, but when he starts calling orders out again, no one answers at first. "He needs to learn some motivational techniques, because he's got zero," Elise tells us. Ramsay quietly tells him up at the pass that his spotting and quality control is brilliant, but his team's working against him.
They get through it and finish up the service. Afterwards, there are still diners there (I haven't noticed this before. Aren't they usually gone by the time Ramsay debriefs them?) and Ramsay calls it tough night with ups and downs. He tells them all to go back to the dorm and think carefully about why they deserve a place in the final.
Back in the dorms, wacky music plays while Tommy badgers the other guys over whether they think he did a good job tonight or not. Paul's not worried about Tommy, but he's worried about Elise because she did a good job tonight. Will even goes to talk to Elise to tell her that she's a good chef, which she takes as a sign that he's scared.
The chefs reassemble in the dining room, where Ramsay tells them he's been doing a lot of thinking. It's a melodramatic intro for Ramsay as he says he's come to know one of them and understands them, but they're just not ready to manage BLT Steak. Without waiting to see what he says, after the commercial break, I'm just going to go ahead and say it's Tommy. Not hard to predict that one.
Sure enough, he tells Tommy to take off his jacket. "Love the energy. So keep going. You belong in the kitchen," Ramsay tells him. Tommy seems OK with it, surrenders the jacket, and leaves to applause. We watch the Tommy montage. I like people so much more after I know they've already been eliminated! Then, in leaving, Tommy calls himself a "culinary juggernaut" so I'm back to finding him irritating.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
But there's one more person who needs to be eliminated, and Ramsay wants to know why each person left thinks she or he deserves to be in the final. Will says this is what he was born to do. Paul says tonight's service shows why he deserves it, throwing in some nonsense about destiny. Elise says she's grown the most of everyone there. "I promise to you that I am the epitome of what Hell's Kitchen is about," she says, which he calls passionate, "as ever."
Banners drop with the HK logo projected on them, the lights come up, and the first person into the final is Will. But the wrong picture is projected on the banner, some guy who's not wearing a baseball hat.
So it's down to Paul and Elise for the final, but it's hard not to see that it's going to be Elise, especially when Ramsay emphasizes that one can command a kitchen better than the other. Even Paul knows what's coming, when Ramsay says this person won't back down, no matter what. "Shit," he says.
"The person joining Will is ... Paul!" says Ramsay. Paul and Will both seem surprised, while Elise is sobbing already. Paul and Will hug her and tell her she did great, while Ramsay brings her up and tells her she shouldn't be in tears now. "I've never met anyone so resilient in all my years as you. You're Teflon. Well done," he says. She's taken off her jacket, but he tells her to keep it because she deserves it. Elise montage! Blabbering, palate, fighting, tears and boobs! "After Hell's Kitchen, I'm prepared for any obstacle that comes my way," she tells us.
So it's down to Paul and Will, and Ramsay tells them their biggest dinner service is (unsurprisingly) yet to come.
OK, you know what shows with two-hour season finales need to stop doing? The "Previously on!" scenes at the top of the second hour. Few things aggravate me more than sitting through scenes from the show we JUST watched, including scenes that we saw LESS THAN A MINUTE AGO. I can't believe I have to get angry about this sort of thing!
Anyway, Ramsay tells the two finalists to start thinking about the magic they want to create for their final dinner service. They scuttle off, with Paul getting in a dig about how Will can always be his sous-chef. There is much man-hugging and roaring from the two guys, who seem genuinely excited for each other and to be facing off against each other. In separate interviews, Will and Paul scream at us about how happy they are, with Will calling himself, "Big Will" and Paul accusing me of not believing him when he said he was a big deal. Look, it's not that I don't believe someone when he says he's a big deal. It's that I don't like someone who calls himself a big deal.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Anyway, they toast some champagne, make love (I assume) and then work on their menus well into the night. Then Paul starts talking about how he's doing this for his mother, who died just a few months before he came out to be on Hell's Kitchen. I can't recall if he's mentioned his mother's death before now, so if I'm grateful that he and/or Hell's Kitchen spared us the overdone doing-it-for-a-dead-relative sympathy ploy that a lot of reality-show contestants use. Too bad for Will that he hasn't had anyone close to him die recently, so I guess he'll just have to do this for himself. Of course, his mother is in town, so it might not be too late to cut the brakes on her rental car.
The day, Will and Paul go over their menus with Andi and Scott respectively, and spend the day working in the kitchens getting ready, until Ramsay comes in around 4:20 and tells them it's time to relax so he's taking them out to dinner.
They get changed and then head outside where James has two limousines awaiting them, and then when the doors are opened their family members climb out for more hugging and back-slapping, and then they're off to the Belasco for dinner.
Ramsay's already there waiting for them, and he explains that the restaurant just opened four weeks ago. He says the chef would really like to meet them, but something seems fishy because the kitchen appears to be down some hallway and through a pair of ornate double-doors ... that open into the Belasco Theatre, where hundreds of screaming people are applauding. So what, no fuckin' ziti now?
Doesn't matter because Paul now thinks he has "arrived" and he feels like a culinary rock star, and I hate to burst Paul's bubble but maybe he'd like to ask any of the paid screaming extras if they can name any finalists from any past season of Hell's Kitchen. Then you can talk about "arriving."
Anyway, it's the for-real moment where Ramsay tells them that unlike when he punked them by having them show up in an empty theatre, now they really are stars. The final challenge is preparing five dishes that could be on the menu at BLT Steak. They have one hour to come up with a salad, a seafood appetizer, a seafood entrée, a bone-in ribeye, and a filet of beef.
The cooking is shown on big screens in the theatre, and this show would have you believe that the audience cheered and clapped the entire time. There are individual judges for each dish, and they're all different BLT chefs and bigwigs.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Seafood app: Victor Albisu, the executive chef for BLT Steak in Washington D.C., chooses Will's seared scallops over charred corn salad and corn puree with micro cilantro over Paul's clams and mussels in lemongrass broth. Salad: Brian Moyers, executive chef of BLT Steak in Los Angeles, chooses Paul's mixed greens over roasted potatoes over Will's beet salad with champagne vinaigrette (with a hot pink beet sauce that Will worried looked too much like Pepto-Bismol). Fish entrée: John Svensson, chef de cuisine of BLT Steak in Honolulu, picks Paul's bronzini over Will's Dover sole. Cliff Crooks, executive chef of BLT Steak in New York (future co-worker for one of the chefs!), opts for Will's grilled ribeye with Gruyère cheese over Paul's pan-roasted ribeye and buttermilk puree. If you were to tell me that the judges were instructed to make sure the challenge was tied going into the final dish, I would be the least surprised person ever.
Anyway, the final judge is Keith Treyball, president of BLT Steak. Keith Treyball! Watch out for everyone in the audience whipping out their phones to take pictures! "This is the boss of the bosses that will be the bosses of me," as Will puts it (like a boss). Paul serves up his steak frites: pan-roasted filet mignon with braised endive and truffled potato fries. Treyball calls it superb, with great balance. Will has grilled filet mignon with buttered brussels sprouts, a black truffle and potato puree, and a red grape jus. It looks great, although Ramsay seems taken aback by the grape jus. Will proclaims himself to have a "set of balls" to put the grape in there, and he just hopes Treyball gets it.
Treyball gets it! He chooses Will's dish, making him the winner, and Will helps the crowd get all hyped up about it while is mom and wife get teary-eyed. Paul tells us he's not worried, because he didn't "go out like a punk" and he plans to win the dinner service tomorrow night.
When they get back to Hell's Kitchen, there's a big present waiting in the dining room for them. James, you shouldn't have! They pull the ribbon to make the box fall apart, and inside are Jennifer, Elise, Krupa, Jonathon, Elizabeth, Elise, Tommy (who is mooning them as the box opens) and Carrie. Everyone looks great, all dressed up and rested and not being screamed at by Ramsay.
So it's time to pick their teams for the final dinner service, and Will gets first pick thanks to winning the final challenge. He goes for Tommy, who should have been sent home after waving his disgusting ass around in a dining room like that. Paul takes Elise. "Paul feels confident in my ability. He should," Elise tells us. Carrie says she wouldn't have made that pick, in case we'd all forgotten how much they hate each other. Will takes Natalie , and then Paul takes Elizabeth. Jennifer seems surprised that Paul didn't pick her, despite the fact that he didn't reciprocate his love. Oh, and there's the fact that she kinda wanted to kick his ass after she got eliminated. Will picks Jennifer , which Ramsay calls a great choice. Jennifer's just excited she's not on Elise's team. Speaking of that: Will's last pick is Krupa, which he does mainly so Carrie winds up on the same team. People are immediately leery about it, and even Ramsay is like, "Elise and Carrie, fuck me." He sends the teams off to the dorms so Paul and Will can start briefing them.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Paul gets things rolling by warning Carrie and Elise that he'll put his foot up their asses (I hope to god he said "asses," but does "ass" normally get bleeped?) if they fight. Elise says she won't, but she tells us she intends to draw blood, both metaphorically by winning, and literally by kicking Carrie's ass after dinner service if she has to.
Paul's putting Elise on apps because he wants a great start. She feels she'll be better on meat, but he says he'll put her on apps because then once she's done there she'll be able to help on meat. Meanwhile, Will draws a picture of quail that somehow looks like a penis and vagina, to a degree that it's pixelated on screen. Jennifer takes that to mean he's very horny and needs to get out of Hell's Kitchen.
The day the teams get to work, with Paul in Blue and Will in Red. There are shots of Krupa being less than competent and Paul being his usual barky self. Ramsay samples the dishes made by each chef. He seems to love everything Will has made, but he calls Paul's tomato carpaccio a mess. "I've seen plates that have come back with more tomatoes on in Hell's Kitchen and that's going out," he gripes. Ramsay also says his grilled swordfish entrée urgently needs work. A frustrated Paul says he told his team exactly what to do but he didn't taste the dishes before Ramsay did, and it fucked him. "You have some serious work to do there," says Ramsay, and Paul stomps off in a snit.
Back from commercial break, Paul starts crying as he tells us that he promised his mom before she died that he would win, and he just wants to make her proud. He heads back into the kitchen and gathers his team to tell them that whatever's inside them that got them to Hell's Kitchen in the first place, he needs it tonight and he shares the dead-mom-promise guilt with them. Will schlubbily just walks around and high-fives everybody on his team.
The doors open. We're told that there are VIP guests, over shots of, um, Paul's brother and Keith Treyball. Who? Oh yeah, president of BLT Steak. As the cooking begins, Elise proves herself to be a solid right-hand for Paul, surprising even herself, as she tells us she wants to help Paul win. But she's a little shaky on the first app, serving up stock with the shrimp (not supposed to have any stock with it). Then her pan catches fire.
Over in Will's kitchen, Natalie's already getting her appetizers out, and Will jumps the gun somewhat on getting the entrees out. Ramsay has to slow him down so he's not ramming the food down people's throats, which is an appealing visual but not so much as a dining experience. In Paul's kitchen, Elizabeth, who as usual looks on the verge of a nervous breakdown, serves up undercooked scallops.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Will's also already lamenting his decision to pick Krupa, who overcooks the fish. "Watching her was like going to the dentist," Jennifer tells us. Paul's team now has the appetizers out, but Jonathan's blowing things on the meat, and he doesn't take kindly to Elise yelling at him. A frustrated Paul stomps over looking like he's ready to crack Jonathon's skull because there are a ton of tickets sitting up at the pass. "Fight back! Don't get mad!" Elise tells Jonathon, who blames his undercooked meat on the fact that there are a lot of thick ones. That's what sh-... never mind. Krupa's still providing comedy relief in Will's kitchen, knocking some sauce onto a grill.
Paul finally just boots Will of meat and sends him over to garnish. "Jonathon sucks! He can't cook, man," says Elise. "Fuck this shit, man," mutters a pissed-off Jonathon, who blames his shitty cooking on either A) Elise in the kitchen; or B) women in the kitchen; or C) other people in general being in the kitchen. "Get the bitches out of the kitchen and let me get back on my game," he says, charmingly. Maybe he's mad because the Hell's Kitchen website spells his name "Jonathan" but the on-screen title spells it "Jonathon"?
Krupa finally gets some fish out to some customers, but it comes back undercooked. Will tells her to reflash it and "hurry the fuck up, please."
Meanwhile, Elise is banging out the meat. "Honestly, my MVP tonight is Elise," Paul tells us. There is a slight flare-up as Elise moves to help Carrie with garnish. Carrie doesn't like it and snips at her, but Elise doesn't take the bait and remains calm. I actually laughed out loud when Elise says in the interview that it was Elise to Carrie's rescue: "Captain Saveaho."
Will FINALLY moves Natalie over to fish and sends Krupa over to dessert, but not soon enough to prevent them from needing to wait another eight minutes for bass because Natalie has to pretty much start from scratch. Meanwhile, Paul is yelling at his team to push through on the final tickets, pumping them up by urging them to prove to Ramsay it was a mistake to cut them. And then Will's team gets things back in gear as the fish finally starts getting out. It looks like both kitchens wrap up around the same time -- Paul's proud that he's the only one in Hell's Kitchen who managed to get Elise and Carrie working together -- and Paul and Will each earn a "well done" from Ramsay and then they hug each other, with Paul and Will each saying they don't think they won.
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Afterwards, with the chefs lined up, Ramsay thanks the returning cooks for great work, and everyone basks in the praise. It's time for them to say goodbye -- hugs all around. Ramsay says he's going to be going through every comment card and looking at every detail, and he'll call the guys when he's made his decision.
Will and Paul head back to the dorms to wait. Paul can't sit still; he's pacing around the couches, so Will joins him in anxiety. Eventually they settle into the chairs, all nervous energy and stubble. "You look exactly how I feel right now," Will tells Paul. Meanwhile, Ramsay's decision appears to involve looking at comment cards, staring at pictures of Paul and Will up on the wall like this is the finale of The Gay Bachelor, and watching fuzzy-bordered flashbacks.
Then, at 10:24 p.m. the phone call comes. Paul answers it. "Thank you, chef," he says and then tells Will, "Let's go." They head into Ramsay's office, where the boss man tells them it was an incredibly difficult decision. He says Will was Hell's Kitchen most consistent chef across the board, and there is no doubt that he belongs in a kitchen. Paul has been one of the best since he arrived, and his passion is undeniable.
Ramsay tells them both to step up to the doors. They do so, give each other a low-five, looking like they're trying not to pass out. Ramsay guides them step-by-step through the process of HOW ONE OPENS A DOOR, and they each put their hands on their door handles, and wait for Ramsay to count to three to turn them. I have to say -- I'm no reality show junkie, but of the ones I watch, I like this reveal the best, with the crowd lined up waiting to see who comes through the door.
Paul and Will exchange a look, and when Ramsay counts to three, they turn their handles -- and Paul walks through to the cheers and applause and confetti. He swears happily in celebration, and we see his brother shouting and clapping. Will's wife closes her eyes. Paul and Chris hug. Back up in the office, a downcast Will shakes hands with Ramsay, who's quite encouraging. Will heads downstairs and hugs Paul, who toasts Will in his victory speech. "If I had to win, I'm glad that I beat the best," he tells everyone, and then he thanks his team and reminds them that they didn't do it for him, for his mother. He hangs his own picture on the wall of winners while his brother and Ramsay watch, arms around each other. "Paul won tonight, because he's probably the most passionate, determined chef ever to enter Hell's Kitchen. He'll make a great head chef, because his enthusiasm is contagious," Ramsay tells us, adding that he's proud to "hand him over" to BLT Steak. Paul's last words? "I am a big deal!"
| Season 9 | Episode 15/16 | Aired on 09.19.2011
Hooray for outtakes, although there aren't many. By far the best ones are Ramsay ribbing Tommy over the age of his girlfriend, taken from when his team went shopping at Ted Baker. After Tommy asks if he can get something there for his girlfriend, Ramsay advises him to focus on himself first. "Let her graduate from high school, then you can worry about the presents." Hee! That's topped, though, by what happens afterwards, when Tommy fesses up to buying something for Kaitlin. "Where'd you go? Toys "R" Us? Baby Gap? How was it?" cracking up the rest of the chefs.
Finally, earning the satisfying finale an A: in the post-win celebration. Ramsay, Scott and Andi drink champagne with Elise, and Ramsay tells her to take this experience and run with it: "Just stop being such a bitch!"
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Thanks for the season, Ramsay. Now [bleep] off on out of here. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
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