Hell's Kitchen Episode 5 (or whichever one last Tuesday's Episode was)

Again, let's do this before the new episode airs.

Recap: Robert and Jim lose the challenge, Robert gets loud, Dave gets bad news but sticks around, Andy had problems with meat, Tek with apps, Lovely with sides, Sabrina does well, Lovely goes home.

Returning to the dorms, Tek continues to defend herself, not denying that she had a problem with the first table, but saying that was her only issue for the night. Dave entertains the others by trying to make a frozen pot pie. It keeps evading him with his newly casted hand. It's funny, here are these chefs that make this fine food and, tired at the end of the day, they're eating no better than me. Huh.

The next morning, Chef Ramsey explains that tomorrow night's service will be a surprise party for a Marine that returned from Iraq the night before. His wife is in Hell's Kitchen to help plan the party.

Challenge: each Team is to prepare an appetizer and two entrees for Chef Ramsey and the wife, Mrs. James to sample. Their tasting will determine the winning Team. Robert and Suzanne are pulled into a room to hear about the Sergeant's likes and dislikes to communicate them back to their respective teams. They have 45 minutes to do this in.

Robert delivers the message of a southern style, soul food, surf and turf style to his Team. They shoot out ideas as they start and Robert guides those thoughts. In Interview, Kevin notes that Robert didn't dictate but directed.

According to Interview with Tennille, Suzanne never directly communicated what she got out of the meeting. It appears she developed a plan during the meeting and gave it to the team to execute. We see Suzanne get asked questions about what sauce to prepare with steak and she notes that he's not a sauce guy. No clue where that information came from. Her Team seems confused by this but carries on. With 5 minutes left, Suzanne first asks her Team what they think of the menu. Little late then, isn't it?

Honestly, if I said there were two Teams, one that had a Collaborative leader and the other a Dictatorial leader, wouldn't you think the Collaborator type would be a woman and the Dictator a man? Depending on the circumstances, neither approach is right or wrong, it's just not the 'stereotypical' roles.

Ariel and Kevin approach with the appetizers. Red Team : Caesar type salad with baked prawns. It's well received and Suzanne winks at her Team. Blue Team: Spicy seafood-style bouillabaisse. It is better received than the Red Team's dish. Then she picks the salad. Red Team has the lead.

Amanda and Andy approach with the first main. Red Team: bacon wrapped fillet with baked shrimp. It's well received. Blue Team: four cheese macaroni, stewed greens, and buttermilk fried catfish. It's better received. Hands down Blue Team vote. All tied.

Suzanne and Robert approach with the second main. Red Team: broiled lobster tail with pasta and white wine sauce. It is very good. Blue Team: cajun rubbed New York strip, twice baked potato, and a grilled lobster tail. The wife starts reacting positively to it as soon as Robert starts to describe it, focusing especially on the fact that the lobster tail is grilled. Of course, we go to commercial before she can pick.

She picks the Blue Team and the gentlemen celebrate. Robert is thrilled to finally win a challenge.

Reward: Fighter Pilots for a Day. Punishment: redecorating the restaurant for the party.

Before the Red Team starts they take a moment. Suzanne refers to it as 'disappointment at Suzanne time'. She doesn't seem to grasp WHY they should be disappointed with her. Sabrina notes in Interview that they never heard Suzanne say 'soul food' and that would have changed their direction. We see a Flashback of Tennille suggesting a jambalaya type sauce and Suzanne quickly shoots the idea down. While Suzanne is right in that they turned out good dishes, she took the responsibility for the whole thing and therefore it's all her fault that they lost the challenge. She didn't utilize her Team to their full potential.

There's only one person Chef will trust to decorate this party: his wife! I've seen her in Chef's other shows and she's way cool.

The guys have a great time playing as fighter pilots. The real pilots get them in the sky, show them what to do, and let them play about a bit. The girls have a good time with the decorating because they have a helium tank so they can amuse themselves with that. The night passes without incident.

The Red Team has to prepare the Blue Team's menu but the Blue Team isn't being very helpful with their recipes. The Red Team is concerned that it's deliberate. It appears that it is.

It's a surprise party and they manage to surprise him. His mom is even there. Everyone's amped for this.

Blue Team starts well, even Andy. They crank out their apps. Red Team not so well. A cold mushroom order ends up hosing them up a bit.

Jim on the Blue Team gets slammed on the Grill station as the New York strip is very popular. He gets lost and Kevin helps bail him out. Tek has a similar problem except everyone tries to help her and causes more problems than it should. The grill is there to start the steak and the bulk of the cooking is done in an oven. The Red Team was already behind and this puts them further behind. Twice we see unacceptable food get rejected before we go to commercial.

Dave is shown struggling but succeeding on the Meat station. Andy offers to help but Dave is fine. The Blue Team is completely stomping the Red Team at this point. No Red entrees have gone out yet. At all. Tek gets taken into the back room for a private yelling. The Blue Team go to Dessert before the Red Team can get any entrees out.

After commercial, Chef Ramsey leaves Kevin in the Blue Kitchen to finish their desserts. The rest of the Blue Team is taken to the Red Kitchen to get things done. The Red Team doesn't get kicked out but they may as well have done. Blue Team comes in and cranks it out. In general, the Red Team looks completely useless tonight. There was no teamwork.

Chef Ramsey is more disappointed than anything else. Blue Team clearly won. There is no Best of the Worst tonight. The Red Team is to have a Team meeting to determine the Nominees.

Rightfully, the guys celebrate. Red Team is not. Tek is considered a no-brainer. She gets that she had a bad night but insists she can cook, a common refrain from her. Ariel suggests Tek and Amanda as she has no confidence in Amanda. Since they are to consider their entire performance, Sabrina suggests Tennille as well. Tennille gets peeved, noting that she was doing her best to support Tek tonight and Tek didn't listen to her. There's a subtle line in the team now with Tennille, Amanda, and Tek on one side and Ariel, Sabrina, and Suzanne on the other.

Nominees for elimination: Tek for deflating in the past couple services and Tennille. As Tennille is the one being asked to provide the information, she notes this is crap and she's not the weakest member of the team. Commercial.

Chef Ramsey asks Tennille who she thinks the second nominee should be with the answer of Amanda. Tek and Tennille are called forward. Then Amanda as well. Tennille defends herself somewhat generically and gets mad. She's sent back into line. Tek's defense of herself is even more generic. While Tennille showed some passion, Tek seems beaten. Amanda's defense at least points to specific things she needs to do better, like be more vocal. Amanda starts crying as Chef wonders aloud if she has anything left.

Tek is eliminated. Chef Ramsey notes that she never got going.

Trailer: Dinner service goes poorly, Tennille shouts back at Chef Ramsey, Robert's medical condition resurfaces.

Did well: Robert and the Blue Team in general.
Did poorly: Suzanne and the Red Team in general.