I bid a sad, albeit understanding, farewell to underdog Howard. He really will be missed. But from Howard’s ashes, we are presented with two phoenixes that have risen above expectations to become team leaders for this week’s Team Challenge. The first leader is Jessie whereas the other is Krissi. This will be Krissi’s first time as a team leader and hopefully she can pull it off.
This week’s challenge is to cook for the entire cast and crew (over 100 members) for the hit television series Glee. Now normally the team leaders would have a chance to pick their own teammates but this time it is not up to them. The teams will be decided by guest judge Jane Lynch. Immediately after meeting the team captains, Lynch targets them as Beauty (Jessica) and the Beast (Krissi) as she sees Jessica as a sweetie but Krissi as someone who is tough and ready to rumble. Lynch then divides the team by Beauties and Beasts.
On Jessica’s team we have:
- Bri
- Lyn
- Eddie
- Savannah
- Beth
- Luca
And On Krissi’s team we have:
- Johnny
- Jordon
- Bime
- Bethy
- Natasha
- James
The twist for this challenge is that both teams will need to provide onto the cast and crew the same exact dishes. This includes: Fried Chicken with fries and slaw, Grilled Salmon with asparagus and scalloped potatoes, and Vegan Lasagna with fresh salad. Whatever the cast chooses at one group’s table, they must get the identical meal from the other team’s table. After sampling both dishes, the cast and crew will vote on whose was the best.
Jessie puts Beth and Eddie on the fried chicken while giving Lyn and Bri the Salmon. Luca and Savannah team up to tackle the vegetarian lasagna while Jessie manages and takes care of the salad.
Krissi puts Johnny on the Slaw, Jordon on the salmon, Bime on the fried chicken, while the others work on the side dishes. Surprisingly, considering how much the rest of the contestants seem to dislike Krissi, she is able to keep everyone working together as a strong team. They ask questions, taste, taste, triple taste everything and are able to pull through.
Disaster strikes Jessie’s team during the first fifteen minutes of the challenge. Jessie slices a large chunk off of her index finger when she was using the mandolin. So bad was this injury that she nearly fainted and even the blood-clotting powder the medics provided did nothing to stop the bleeding. On second look, Ramsay discovers the large chunk of her finger and he immediately orders everyone else to slow down, take their time, and not let this happen again.
Jessie was put out of commotion for up to the last fifteen minutes or so but when she came back, she came back hard.
Time flew by and before the chefs knew it, their time was up. The cast and crew of Glee began lining up and at first, everything seemed to be going well but it wasn’t long until the drama started up. Neither team expected the Fried Chicken to be in such high demand and they both began to run out. This was pretty bad for Jessie’s team as Bime was able to produce more Fried Chicken faster than her team could. Unfortunately this came at a cost as some of Bime’s chicken was raw. This put Krissi’s team behind for a short amount of time.
At the end of the lunch break, the votes are tallied. In the end, with a staggering 90 votes (out of 120) it was Jessie’s team that came out on top. This was a seriously devastating blow to Krissi and her team because, as Krissi explained, it wasn’t that they lost. It was that the only got 30 votes. Immediately Krissi believes that this is Bime’s fault due to his Fried Chicken fiasco, but when the judges break everything down, it is discovered that Bime’s chicken was the overall favorite out of both teams.
The failure came down to Jordon who completely screwed up the Salmon dishes which is the primary cause for Krissi’s team’s failure.
For the elimination, Krissi had the choice to choose as many people to save as she wanted as long as there were two contestants remaining for the elimination. She chose to save Johnny, Natasha, and surprisingly, herself.
Earlier in the season, she straight up told the judges that a captain goes down with her ship. Now, normally I would see this change in attitude as hypocritical but Krissi has been in the elimination round constantly and I don’t blame her for wanting to sit this one out. However it is the fact that she uses her son as an excuse that I feel is a low blow. She doesn’t need to use her son as an excuse. Just tell the judges she is sick of being up for elimination.
This leaves Bethy, Jordon, Bime, and James to compete head to head for elimination. The reason Krissi chose Bime to stay is because, despite the fact he delivered with his Fried Chicken, she still sees him as a screw-up and someone who panics under pressure and the others were chosen as a way to ensure that Bime gets eliminated.
The elimination challenge was to make a lemon meringue pie. The twist? The chefs cannot use lemon! They must use any other citrus fruit, but lemon cannot be one of them!
This is a serious challenge for all the chefs but it is Bime who suffers the most. He accidentally switched out his corn starch with cream of tartar resulting in his pie dissolving into a sludge. By the time the judges were ready to taste everyone’s pies, it was obvious that Bime’s was the worst. While the others had hiccups, it was the fact that Gordon Ramsay had to serve Bime’s pie in a martini glass that resulting in Bime being eliminated.
I really like Bime and while it was true that he buckled under pressure at some points, he was still a very strong chef and I wish him the best of luck.
As for Krissi? I am watching you girl! Don’t let me down or turn into a true Beast because so far I’ve been cheering you on.