So who is the mysterious visitor to the dormitories? Oh, they're just family members. Not axe murderers. Christina's girlfriend and her mom, Justin's parents, Barbie's kids and partner, Dana's partners. "My family is so supportive, and they're so proud of me," says Barbie. Look, I'm not a complete asshole. There's genuine emotion in this scene. Although I would like to see a little more from Christina's Linda Evangelista-esque girlfriend. And it was amusing to hear Justin say it was good to let go with some emotion because he's been "literally stone-faced" since he got here.
The morning, it's back to business, and this twist treated like a major reveal has a lasting impact for all of about one minute of screen time. Chef Scott calls the dorm to tell them their rides are outside, and they're taken to Bristol Farms, where Ramsay greets them and announces that great chefs also "maximize profits" which is yeah, what everyone thinks of great chefs, their profit margins.
At any rate, the challenge is for the chefs to each take $15 and 10 minutes to design a fine-dining dish and the winner is the one whose dish would fetch the highest price. Dana starts screaming about paying $35.99 a pound for halibut in Jersey, but gets a small portion anyway. Barbie's protein is more economical, a $5.99 a pound pork chop. Justin's strategy is to go for in-season -- and therefore cheaper -- ingredients like corn and avocado, and pair it with shrimp. Christina asks for half a pound of swordfish steak, and the fact we see the meat guy ask if she wants skin on or not seems significant.
At the till, everyone's under budget, except for Justin, who is seventy-seven cents over and so has to return the avocado. But at least he gets his mango through, so there's that.
The chefs race back to Hell's Kitchen, where they have thirty minutes to cook. Justin's not entirely sure what he's making, but he's got plenty of self-confidence to season his sauce with. Scott notes that Christina has the fewest ingredients of everybody, and Barbie seems to be annoyed with Dana for forgetting that they're not exactly teammates during a challenge.
Cooking done, Ramsay announces he has brought in three special judges for the challenge: David Lefevre, executive chef of Manhattan Beach Post; West Coast editor of Bon Appétit magazine and cookbook author Hugh Garvey; and Christian Philippo, general manager of the Patina restaurant group. "This is kinda scary. I think this is going to be our toughest panel yet," shouts Dana.
Ramsay explains that the judges will taste the dishes and announce how much they'd pay for it, and the winner is the chef whose dish fetches the highest average price.
Justin's up first, with his roasted corn, roasted mango, jalapeno salsa and chili shrimp. It's called nicely crispy and perfectly cooked, but lacking liveliness. Justin is figuring his seafood selection will make the dollar signs spin, so he's pissed off when Christian says he'd pay $24. In the end, the average price for his dish is $28.33.
Barbie's , and she says she's feeling the pressure because right off the bat a pork chop is less expensive than shrimp, but she's still confident in her cooking. She elects to plant the seed of $35-$40 in the minds of the judges by telling them she "added value" by adding the sausage to the pork and sauerkraut. They all tell her that there's too much meat going on, but she still fetches an average price of $33 because it's cooked well (and let's face it, restaurants will charge more for pork and sauerkraut and sausage than they will for pork and sauerkraut alone). Justin can't believe he got "beat down" by Barbie.
Dana shouts at us that she can't believe Barbie got $33 for a pork chop, and now she's worried about her tiny piece of halibut (forgetting that the judges decried Barbie's putting too much on her plate). She introduces her panko- and herb-crusted halibut with shaved fennel salad and citrus beurre blanc. Rave reviews from the judges, two of whom pay $32, with Lefevre coming last and saying he'd pay $38, giving her an average of $34 and the lead.
Christina laments Dana "crushing it" yet again but gamely brings up her grilled swordfish with saffron rice and shrimp. They all love it, but Lefevre and Philippo both criticize the fact she left the skin on. Garvey disagrees, saying it adds flavor and he likes having the option. Two of the judges weigh in before we go to commercial, with prices of $32 and $35, so she just needs Lefevre to give her $36 to win the challenge.
But he gives her $34, bringing her in to $33.67, and handing the competition to Dana, who starts yelling about how proud she is of herself. "It's all me! It's all me!" she crows. Christina just wants Dana to let her win a challenge for once.
Dana's prize is lunch at Lefevre's restaurant, as well as some one-on-one instruction from the guy. Ramsay notes that at this stage of the game, any education is valuable. Justin hangs his head and feels sorry for himself.
After she leaves to go get ready, Ramsay sighs and takes a moment before apologizing for what he's about to tell them: Because the environment is so important to Hell's Kitchen or whatever, they have to sort through all the garbage bins for recycling purposes before prepping the kitchen for tonight's service. Justin and Christina spend a good deal of time bitching about it -- and they do have to don special suits to rip open the garbage bags to sort through everything -- with Christina saying she'd rather give Clemenza a head-to-toe bath than do this. Barbie seems matter-of-fact about the whole thing, and is in fact glad Dana's gone because Dana would have spent the whole time whining and moaning about it, an assessment I completely agree with.
As it is, Dana shows up to MB Post, where she's surprised to find she's got the restaurant all to herself, and Lefevre takes her into the kitchen, who shows her how to cook their dishes, like Vietnamese curried mussels.
Back at Hell's Kitchen, all you need to know is contained in the following statement: "There's so many maggots in here." Justin acts like a big baby about it and has to take a break so he doesn't vomit, while the women continue working.
Back in the kitchen, Dana seems surprised when Lefevre tells her to serve the mussels to some guests in the dining room. She was assuming the mussels were for her. It turns out they still were, because the guests are her parents. This makes Dana even shoutier than normal during her talking head segments, she's so excited.
She gets back to the Kitchen, with the rest of the chefs in a foul mood. Justin, despite having avoided as much garbage work as possible, doesn't seem to have been able to get the garbage smell off him, while Christina's in no mood to hear from Dana about how awesome the prize was, despite the fact that Dana is a) supposedly her friend and b) not really rubbing it in.
So when Dana changes and joins them in the kitchen, the other chefs are being big babies and not really talking to her, I guess because she had the audacity to win the day's challenge. "Come on, Christina! What the fuck is your problem?" Dana shouts. (At us, not at Christina, even the editing tries to make it look like she did) Well, now's as good a time as any for Dana to remember that only one person can win Hell's Kitchen.
Ramsay gathers them up at the front to tell them tonight's service will test their leadership skills, because they're all going to take turns running the pass. "Damn, homey, I'm about to run the pass!" Dana yells. Well, now I want to give her the silent treatment.
Even more pressure-inducing: the president of Paris Las Vegas is joining them tonight. Gasp! Not David Hoenemeyer? Ramsay's not willing to let the chefs screw up tonight's service, so with the chefs taking turns at the pass, Andi and Scott will be jumping in on stations.
Justin's the first to take a turn at the pass, and seems to handle it well, even when Ramsay throws in his trademark sabotage, getting Scott to serve up crab in the lobster spaghetti. Justin catches it, earning praise from Ramsay, who says it illustrates how important it is to taste everything that comes to the pass.
Dana sees it differently: "Justin's being sooo annoying," she says, and we watch Dana and Justin argue about how long a dish is going to take (on their first table of entrees). Dana doesn't have much incentive to make things easier on a competitor, but Ramsay calls her out and says her attitude stinks, after Dana gives up a "It's going to be ready when it's ready." Ramsay lays into her for it. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to learn how to deal with petulant staff. It almost feels like Ramsay should have let Justin handle it.
Dana, despite feeling unfairly singled out by Ramsay, smartens up, and after the entrees start getting out, it's Dana's turn to take the pass. The other chefs ignore her first, somewhat weakly yelled, order (who'd've thought that Dana wouldn't yell loud enough?) so Ramsay takes her aside and urges her to take control. She turns up the volume and starts cracking the whip, but then she fails the quality control test when Ramsay dumps some sugar in the risotto. She doesn't catch it, despite tasting it, and it's fun to see the sneering disappointment develop on Ramsay's face as he watches her taste the sweetened risotto and then prep it for sending anyway. He stops her and makes her taste it again, at which point she realizes her mistake.
After that, things go well enough for Dana, and then it's Barbie's turn to run the pass, but on her first order, she yells it out into the dining room instead of back into the kitchen. "The hardest thing about running the pass is trusting that everyone back there has your back," says Barbie. Yup. There doesn't seem to be any deliberate shenanigans going on, but Dana and Justin aren't communicating well, so Barbie reads them the riot act (at Ramsay's urging).
Scott's sneaky sabotage is to serve up celeriac mash instead of mashed potatoes. It's not a difficult one to catch, and Barbie seems outraged either by what a stupid mistake it was for Chef Scott to make or (most likely, given that there's always sabotage on this show when the chefs take the pass) insulted that she was given such an easy mistake to catch. Nevertheless, she finishes up pretty well, and passes the baton to Christina.
"I'm pumped," she says. "If there's a gear past fifth, I'm there." You mean sixth? She's confident and in control immediately, and Ramsay's appreciative: "Finally, a voice on the fucking hot plate," he mutters, although he's less impressed when she calls Dana "Buddy." "When was the last time you heard me call one of my brigade 'Buddy'?" he says. Yeah, Christina! Try "fuckwit"! I found the "Buddy" thing funny mainly because "Buddy" in Newfoundland is practically a pronoun, and has a range of meanings, one which is "asshole."
Anyway, Dana's screwing up her fish station, and Ramsay urges Christina to forget their friendship and push the team, and then he makes Christina call Dana up to the pass when she serves up yet another undercooked cod. There's no food getting out! We're fucked, says Ramsay! DANA, DAMN YOU, GET THE COD WALKING RIGHT NOW!
"Buddy, little high-five? Little hug-it-out?" says Ramsay to Christina, whose anger at Dana is growing. "Fuck you, this is a competition," Christina tells us, saying Dana can sink herself.
Ramsay's quality control test is serving an arugula garnish instead of spinach, and by this point Christina's so frayed that she starts cursing at the garnish, all "What the fuck? ARUGULA?" and bringing it back to the kitchen. Ramsay tells her, "That's more like it. Well spotted."
The service wraps up, and Ramsay tells them to go upstairs and have a "bloody good discussion" on who deserves to stay and who deserves to go. By this point, they're all pretty good chefs, but as Barbie points out, Dana screwed up her station and had difficulty with the pass.
That's why I laughed -- deep and loud and long -- when Dana transparently ventured, "I feel like nobody stood out as, like, bad," prompting eye-rolling from Barbie and Justin. Barbie tells her she "drug" on the ticket. "I can't make it cook faster than it cooks," she says, defensively. She knows she's on shaky ground. Barbie outright asks her if she has ever worked a pass before, and Dana admits she hasn't. Barbie feels like it showed. Christina says she usually disagrees with Barbie but tonight feels like Dana couldn't handle her shit. Dana is now naturally of the opinion that who gets booted out isn't about just about tonight but about the whole competition. It's a harder argument to make when you're already down to the four consistently best chefs of the competition, but Dana's grasping here.
So the chefs reassemble in front of Ramsay, who wants them all to say why they should stay. Barbie talks about learning and growing and having passion and motivation. Justin says he gives a hundred and fifty percent. His shaky grasp of math means I don't think I'd trust him with a recipe, though! He says he knows he has what it takes to lead. Dana says she's excelled in the challenges and in the services, even if tonight wasn't her best competition. Christina says she started with her mouth shut and her eyes opened but has progressed as a leader (thanks to Ramsay, she adds, good little apple-polisher).
Ramsay says what is making things most difficult for him is that the competition is the final, so that means two of them are leaving Hell's Kitchen tonight.
First, Barbie. Ramsay tells her she has been amazing and the level of her improvement has been extraordinary. He tells her she's smart and gifted and she should run with it. She thanks him, hands over the jacket and walks out. We revisit some of her greatest hits, with Tiffany asking if she wants to be "choked out," as well as dishonoring America by cooking shitty scallops for firefighters or whatever.
After she's gone, Ramsay tells the three remaining contestants that this is where it gets really hard, because there's just a fraction separating the three of them. "I could see all three of you in Hell's Kitchen final," he said. But like a double Highlander there can be only two.
Two huge scrims dramatically unfurl from the ceiling, the HK logo backed by flames upon them. The first chef to make it through is: To be continued! Aw, bullshit. Not surprising, but still: bullshit. My prediction: Justin versus Dana. And we've got to wait two weeks to find out? It's like the Super Bowl, instead of anticipating the matchup by contestants we know, we get to forget all about it for a couple of weeks and enjoy the waning summer days!
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. People misusing "literally" is one of his most favorite things. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.