dewelar

Is it me, or is the challenge difficulty level ramped up a bit this season? The presentations seem a bit more train-wreck-esque than usual, at least. I have never heard of a garden gazing ball, but it strikes me as pretty pretentious. I was glad to see that neither of the bakers whose cakes Jessica wiped out was eliminated. I will not miss Andrew, especially after...whatever that thing was that he presented that wasn't a tie-dye cheesecake last week. I'm still getting a handle on who's who, but I like Heather and Nacho the most so far. Deepal seems pretty chill, too. Still would rather have the kids back, though :D .

In the case of Morticia Addams, though, the point would be that she'd rather be caught dead than alive in ANYTHING... [Yes, yes, I know, don't explain the joke, but COME ON :-D ...]

Or worse, caught ALIVE in paisley.

Well, since a lot of them also didn't seem to grasp the concept of a tie-dye cake, this wasn't surprising. Can we get the kids back?

Oh, so much this -- although I would also have accepted "Carla Hall" as the answer to that one, even if Nina was a clearer choice in her season than Carla was in her original one. That said, I may never have fully warmed up to Adrienne, but I would have preferred her winning to Joe Flamm. I agree with the who said it's time to retire LCK permanently.

Yes. All of this. It's similar to why I have never come around to liking/rooting for Adrienne. To wit: In episode one, she had a quote about how she wanted to be the first female African-American Top Chef, and seemed to have a chip on her shoulder for those first few episodes. That put me off, because (a) Tanya's right there, (b) statements like that typically come off as entitlement rather than confidence, (c) any time someone says they want to be the first [x] to [y], I start to worry about someone putting their thumb on the scale to make sure it happens because it's the story they want to tell, and (d) you should want to win because you're the best cook, not because of some trait you happen to have. I know that any or all of those may or may not be true of Adrienne, but it is another one of those reality show cliches that gets under my skin.

Full episodes, yes, but even in season one TNG shifted focus from episode to episode between (just off the top of my head) Picard, Riker, Data, Troi, and (like it or not) Wesley, allowing all of them to become established to the point that character episodes could be done later. If that groundwork does not get laid now, later attempts at development will suffer from feeling tacked-on rather than organic.

Heh, yeah, I think this was my favorite moment of this episode. Out of all the uninspiring designs, theirs was the least uninspiring. That was a very odd element in general. Doughnuts were not the pastry for which it should have been used -- it would have been much more suited to cookies or even cupcakes. The texture twist also limited how much the icing could be used as part of the design, which meant we got a whole batch of blah. At least they introduced the twist earlier, which gave the bakers more time to rethink their plans if necessary. It's too bad they don't do that every week. After tonight, I think I agree with you about Bryn also being a contender. Finally someone other than Aditya and Abby won a competition. One of these weeks Aditya is going to spend too much time trying to figure out what to do and flame out. My guess is it will be in the finale. I found it very interesting that the Bryn/Soleil pairing produced both the winner and the bootee this week. Soleil really seemed to produce a lot of hot messes over the course of the show, and I think she'd already lasted longer than she should, but I also don't think either of the two kids she outlasted would have won. I foresee Luke being the next to go, and after that I think any of the remaining bakers have at least a puncher's chance at winning.

Actually, I thought it was a good idea, if they actually used it as their concept. Sitting and watching it, the first thing that popped into my head when they were talking about having a whole bunch of unique dishes was that they should use the tag line "Uncommon Food in one Common Place". Then all the dishes in each course could have had one small piece that was included in each one to tie them together. Obviously, though, I was putting more thought into it than they were -- and, honestly, putting more effort into it than any of them did, or even wanted to, with the possible exception of Mustache Joe. Anyway, predictable result was predictable. Claudette's exit was as classy as she was, and she will not be missed. Bruce rocked pretty much everything this week and is now officially my favorite, but I would not be disappointed in any of the remaining seven winning the whole thing.

I just checked page 1, and I saw absolutely nothing to back up your assertion. I saw several people note that she was negative (true), that she had a chip on her shoulder (also true, and certainly understandable given her experience), and that she had checked out (which she herself all but admitted). One person said that Top Chef is not the place to solve society's ills, which I would say true for the most part, although there's something to be said for setting a good example. YMMV on whether Tanya succeeded, although I'm on record as saying she did so better than a lot of past cheftestants. None of that comes anywhere near your accusation of: ...so I would appreciate it if you would point out to me (by private message if you prefer) what you interpret to have done so. I'm more than willing to admit that -- in reflection of the vernacular used in the episode -- I'm still asleep.

Wow, seriously? By whom and where?

Very true. When Gareth went home instead of her, my first thought was (some would say to my detriment) that they only kept hrt because they didn't want to have to live with the outcry from sending home the two African-American kids in the first two weeks. I will miss Beverly, as she reminds me a lot of myself when I was ten, right up to orange being her favorite color. The constant "hashtag-[x]" thing did get on my nerves, though -- although not as much as Pink Julia. Obviously Aditya and Abby are the ones to beat, since they've traded wins in the first four weeks, although I think Canadian Alex is the dark horse candidate. He obviously knows his stuff, he just needs to find his groove. I also like Linsey a lot and think she'll be in the final four with the three listed above. Bryn might just be too cute for words, but like Soleil looks to be cannon fodder. Then there's Luke...who has taken up residence as the annual "there's a Luke on this show?" Overall, I'm also enjoying this year's show more than previous years, and surprisingly more than this cycle's adult (Halloween/Holiday) iterations of the show.

This is interesting to me, as I have only heard it in the context of being aware of racial/social injustice. How common is the broader meaning? I read that as an awkward attempt to defuse an escalating situation. Carrie may be one of those people whose first instinct in such situations is to play peacemaker, but obviously Tanya wasn't having it. That would tie into Tanya using "get woke" in the broader fashion, and I think it took Carrie by surprise, which would explain her dumsquizzled facial expression in response. Either that, or she'd never heard the phrase before at all (which, TBH, I hadn't either until relatively recently). Carrie does not strike me as the malicious type like Claudette does.

Right before that comment, Carrie said that Tanya should let Claudette finish because Tanya was making Claudette feel bad. I'd bet money that Carrie's guilt-tripping had already worked Tanya to the end of her rope. After the shady shit that Claudette was pulling and having Carrie adding onto it, I can absolutely see how Tanya would have snapped. Whether or not snapping was justified has no bearing on whether or not the comment constituted "getting personal". On that note, what do you think Tanya was saying Carrie should "get woke" to?

Yeah, I can agree with this much, and the argument that this comment (along with her "don't project that on me" comment to Gail, since "projecting" is often used to imply that the accuser is the one guilty of the behavior rather than the accused) were right at the edge of getting personal rather than over it is perhaps fair. And yes, we've seen a lot worse, and I can't say with certainty that I would have done any better.

You wouldn't consider her "get woke" comment to Carrie to be personal? Because I certainly would. Tanya was one of my favorites, but in this episode all her negative traits seemed to be dialed up to eleven, especially (as noted above) her passive-aggressive behavior. She really did deserve to go, and her comment about it being kind of a relief was very telling. I still like her, but from what I can see she's someone I'd avoid when she's having a bad day. I can relate to that, a fact to which Mrs. Dewelar can attest :) .

This was literally the first thing Mrs. Dewelar said when this came up during the show. We knew she wasn't going to win right then. She was going to make that cake that got her engaged or whatever it was no matter what the theme. That, plus the petit-fours that were supposed to be presents but weren't, and the sad-looking maids around the cake, all combined to sink her when she was probably the favorite going in. Unlike most here, my wife and I never really liked Joshua (we were rooting for Ian), but would have been fine with him winning because he's definitely shown his skills. Unfortunately, he too shot himself in the foot with those cake-scrap petit-fours. Also, I thought his cake was the least-interesting looking of the three in addition to the least-interesting-sounding taste-wise. Jennifer definitely deserved that win. She did the best job with the theme, did the best job at incorporating holiday elements (thus earning Nancy's vote), and did the best petit-fours. And we loved those geese! Yay Jennifer!

He couldn't get the edges of the "crisps" to fold over the bottoms of the cupcake tin, so he just left them flat.

Just because we don't say something in every post we make doesn't mean we don't, at least to the extent that we can. Also, just because we might sympathize with one portion of who she is doesn't mean we should judge the negative behavior in which she engages less harshly. This is a game show, not a telethon.

Of course it was closed-mouth. If his saliva were to enter her system, it would cause several of her hearts to stop (not the one in her foot, of course, as that one will continue to throb painfully) and she would die at least once for each one.

Can't have that. It would have wasted one of TheirBoy's three weeks of safety.

Oh, it will. After all, last season had four returning vets, so obviously the problem is that this season didn't have enough of them. *eye roll*.

*nods* Fair. However, especially in a situation like this, it would be better to aim for that middle ground and potentially miss than not to try at all, no?

On further thought... There are options besides "be a bitch" and "shut up and take it". The fact that she could not come up with any means that she had already defeated herself. She needed to assert herself, then defend herself at the vagina table. She did neither, making her look weak -- which, if they wanted to eliminate her, would have justified them for doing so. If she had done that and they eliminated her anyway, she would at least have gone out looking better than anyone else on this stupid show. Again, Matthew was obviously the worse person in this scenario, but if you're looking for a job in television, you need to know how to deal with people like him. If you can't, then they will -- and I would argue should -- find someone who can.

But Rusty was right there! And much worse than Trace! And we'd never have had to hear "dern" again! (Which, granted, I don't think we did this week, but it's still lurking...) Yes, Matthew was quite the asshat, but Amy also needed to find a way to push back. Instead, she allowed herself to be steamrolled, and at least some of that is on her. It didn't get her eliminated, which gives her the chance to show that she can learn from this. If not, she'll be leaving soon, and that would be fine. I'm finally officially over Cao now as well. I started out thinking she had some potential, but it seems I was wrong. She's just boring, which I would have never predicted. Overall, I still don't have anyone I can really get behind, but I guess Cory's my pick by virtue of being least-worst.