OlfinBedwere

They usually have one, or even two episodes per season where Ramsay doesn't eliminate anyone. Besides, I can't think of any logical reason why they'd want to stage Steve's elimination - it's not like he was so good that Ramsay might want to take him out of this season and put him in next season so that he could win it more easily, as he might have done last season had he known Joy's meltdown was going to happen.

Mariah - Still doing quite well in the challenges, but it looks like she's a real mess of emotions underneath her exterior. If not for that I'd expect her to graduate within the next episode or two, but she's looking more and more of a long-term project. George - Even if he'd passed the shoulder check challenge I don't think he'd have graduated; the judges probably aren't going to let him go until he improves his attitude, and he hasn't done that so far. Tyler - No improvement over last week. Now starting to look more like a possible candidate for the worst. Jason - The big surprise of the episode, looking halfway competent in the shoulder check challenge, and doing better than several of the other drivers in the reversing challenge. It'll take more time to prove that this wasn't just a fluke, but he at least didn't look overwhelmingly the worst like he did last week. Siham - Really starting to question her motives in being on the show now; it's almost like she WANTS to be named the worst so that she'll have an excuse to quit driving. They were right not to expel her for now, as Shyamala probably needs a little more time to get through to her, but if she really does show no interest in learning then they should send her home. Chanie - Taking rehab a little more seriously now; the distracted driving challenge was a big wake-up call. Still pretty awful in the challenges however, she'll probably be here until the end. Santana - The star pupil of the season (so far), and absolutely 100% deserved to graduate. In fact, I'm amazed that they even bothered with a discussion at all! I could sort of understand it if there was a discussion about expelling Siham or graduating Santana, but the one they ended up having was simply ridiculous.

One of the producers probably duped Sade into believing they were cooking for the dogs rather than the people. There's no way anyone could be that stupid, and wasn't it convenient that it just happened to be the team who had an extra member and so needed to jettison someone's dish anyway?

Mariah - Actually looked somewhat capable at certain points this episode, much better than the trainwreck she appeared to be last week. She still needs a lot of improvement, not least to her attitude, but I don't think she'll be the worst. George - Definitely the most skilled of the group, but his attitude's a serious problem. Even so, he'll probably graduate either next episode, or the one after. Tyler - Not jaw-droppingly awful, but not really very good either. I think he's going to be here for the long haul, probably the second-last or third-last episode of the season. Jason - Dear god, this guy sucks. Unless getting glasses massively improves his driving, or the blindness turns out to be a symptom of some medical problem that gets him kicked out of rehab, I think he's going to be the worst by quite some distance. Siham - Some occasional signs of skill, but her nerves are still clearly shot to hell. I think she's going to be this year's version of Aaron, gradually improving in confidence through the season, and finally confronting her demons with the final drive. Santana - Brilliant performance in the second challenge, and I actually thought she was going to be the first graduate, but she blew it spectacularly in the Eye of the Needle. Chanie - So far, she looks like the only person who might seriously challenge Jason for this year's title. Terrible performances so far, and doesn't seem to be taking rehab all that seriously. Ian - I'm a little dubious as to the reason why he graduated, especially after that fiasco of a reversing test (for which, if nothing else, I'd have either graduated George or not graduated anyone), but it was obvious that he wasn't going to be the worst, and he at least deserves some kudos for recognizing that his working as a cab driver was probably a bad idea.

It's actually pretty hard calling a potential worst out of this group; aside from possibly George and Siham, they all seem as bad as each other. Maybe Sly Mk. II (aka Jason) and Mariah have the edge over the others, but their problems seem like things that can be addressed.

It works the other way, too. Anyone else remember the infamous Raj from Season 8? Everyone thought he was an actor whose experience of cooking probably went no further than occasionally sticking a TV dinner in the microwave, but on further research it turned out that he actually had a fairly extensive culinary resume, albeit mostly as a personal chef, which actually explained a lot since private clients generally won't care as much about what insane things their chef does so long as the food arrives on-time and tastes good. As to the main subject of the thread, I think Ramsay should take a leaf out of The Apprentice's book and after 3 or 4 services of men vs. women, swap one or two chefs around every episode. Restaurants have notoriously high staff turnover rates after all, so may as well simulate that in the show and see how they cope. Plus it'd lessen alliances like the one between Joy and Kashia last season, and the one between Aaron, Santos and Steve this season.

Ramsay does seem to be bringing up the women's performance in the first episode quite a lot. I wonder whether this is setting up for the women completely blowing the men out of the water for the rest of the season once they've gotten rid of their major weak links. In any case, no-one really seems to be standing out as a potential winner yet, as opposed to this time last season when Joy was pretty clearly emerging as the front-runner (leaving aside what happened later). Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as in a lot of the seasons it was pretty easy to predict by about a third of the way who the two front-runners were going to be.

Kalen's "you should keep me because..." speech may well have been the worst of its kind I've ever seen on this show. You've only done badly in two services? Well, most of your team-mates haven't done badly in ANY of the services! You kicked ass on the appetizers? Yeah, after La Tasha jumped over and bailed you and Katie out of the mess you were in. I was sort of expecting Ramsay to keep for for the drama value (let's face it, who'd have missed Katie if she went?), but I think he realized there was no credible way for him NOT to send her home. Aside from that, this is actually looking like the most competent bunch of contestants we've had for a good few years. Whether that says good things about this season or godawful things about the last few seasons, I don't know (yet).

Last season it was the other way around - Joy and Kashia were the ones constantly plotting to get Anton (who, to be fair, totally deserved it) and Scott thrown out of the competition. In this week's episode, leaving aside the fact that the terrible trio were also targeting two of the white guys (Bryant and Frank), I think they were going after Sterling for an entirely different reason - he actually showed himself to be a good leader in the breakfast service, and they realized he could be a threat. Given that they didn't even consider nominating him after the dinner service though, hopefully they've realized they're better with him than without him.

It's been going on longer than that. It's true that he-man women haters were par for the course in the earlier seasons, but in the last couple of years it's been very much "we are women, hear us roar!" And to be honest, I can't blame them. Since about Season 8 or 9, the women's teams have been on average pretty competent (though not necessarily likable) IMO, while the men's teams have been more sharply divided between those chefs who are very capable and those who are jaw-droppingly incompetent.

Last season (and the one before, actually) it seemed to be the other way around - one of the women screws up, Ramsay just throws her out of service, but one of the men screws up, Ramsay throws the entire team out. A little surprised that Denine went, as it seemed to be Kalen that made most of the screw-ups. Definitely not complaining though, as she was annoying as hell, and only survived last week because Janai did such a spectacularly incompetent job of pleading for her survival.

JP was just spectacularly inept all-around. No surprise whatsoever that he went. I think Denine was actually worse than Janai in the second episode, but Janai doomed herself when she was supposed to be pleading to stay in the show, but instead acted like her screw-ups were no big deal.

Interesting that this episode lacked the obligatory scene where the owners talk about how much debt they're in, how close to bankruptcy they are and how they'll be living on the streets if the hotel goes under. I'm guessing that the business was technically making a profit thanks to all the custom at the bar, but the hotel part itself was completely dysfunctional. Also interesting that Daniel Webster somehow managed to stay at the hotel 26 years after he died.

Here's the link to the full story about Dave. Turns out he's only under suspicion of possible drug use - all the drug-related paraphernalia belonged to the woman who was driving the car plus another guy, both of whom have since absconded bail. Disappointing to learn that he may be doing drugs, but from Ramsay himself has said in his other shows, drug and alcohol abuse is rampant in the industry, so it's not entirely shocking.

Paul's victory back in Season 9. There were several girls who could and should have made the final that year (Jenny in particular), but Ramsay's obsession with the godawful Elise screwed them over. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the only time a guy won and the guy's team was clearly stronger was back with Dave's victory in Season 6.

Didn't Joy say that this season was actually filmed a year-and-a-half ago? In that case, it's possible that the whole drug scandal with Ja'Nel hadn't yet happened when the season was being filmed. Besides, they never tried to erase the memory of Danny from Season 5, even though he bailed out on the winners' job after a couple of weeks when he decided it wasn't to his liking.

Well, to be fair, after what happened with Ja'Nel last season they've probably been like a ship without a rudder for the past year.

He got kicked out after screwing up something like three dozen pizzas. And the weirdest part of it is, the other person up for elimination that night... was Scott.

Sure, Scott seemed the more likely winner from last week. I've just been watching this show long enough to know not to take anything for granted in the final - Jay and Will looked pretty certain to win Seasons 7 and 9 respectively, but crashed and burned in the last episode. Also, was I seeing things, or was Christina from Season 4 in the audience for the boxing match/cook-off?

It was clear that Scott was going to win from pretty early in the service. At least Jason actually managed to be gracious in defeat, though - Season 8's Russell must still be hoping that someone comes along and acts like even more of a pathetic whiny loser than he did. If Season 13's coming along in just a few months, does that mean they can cast, shoot and edit it in that amount of time? Or was the mid-episode casting call for a Season 14?

Now you've got me imagining how the final four would react to their brand new dishwashing job: "Scott, go wash those dishes." "Sure, no problem, chef!" "Jason, go wash those dishes." "HOW DARE YOU GIVE ME SUCH A F***ING LOWLY JOB! I OUGHTTA SMASH THESE PLATES OVER YOUR HEAD!" "Melanie, go wash those dishes." "No way, that's men's work. I'm going outside for a smoke." "Rochelle, go wash those dishes." "Oooh! Should I clean them with a sponge, or a scouring pad? And should I wash the pots first, or the pans? Tee hee, I'm so confused!"

Were this MasterChef I could believe that Jason was here in that role, but Ramsay's actually giving a job to whoever wins this, and it's still possible that Scott could blow it so badly that there's no way he could be feasibly named as winner. I suspect that while Ramsay wants Scott to win, he also sees enough in Jason (or at least more than he did in Rochelle or Melanie) that he would be okay having him as a backup choice.

To be fair, Melanie's almost as bad with the sexist behavior, and she has a boyfriend. Hell, if memory serves Anton's actually married, and he showed more sexism than Jason and Melanie combined! Some people will just put up with anything in the name of love, I guess. Either that, or Jason just pulls in a ton of money from his day job.

True, he never said boo to any of the guys, though I do seem to recall that he said "I'LL KICK YOUR MOTHER****ING ASS YOU SLIMY LITTLE ****ER" (or words with similar meaning) to Mike early in the season.

Well, she was on the receiving end of Anton's sexism earler in the season, which was ten times worse than anything spewed forth by Jason, so anything he'd say would likely seem mild in comparison. And Jason may be crude to say the least, but I've never actually gotten the impression that he's outright stupid per se; he'd know when to keep his trap shut. In any case, I'm just amazed that we've got two guys in the final, given how well the women were doing for most of the season. I'm not entirely convinced that Joy would have aced running the kitchen this week had she not bailed out on the show, but whoever wins next week I suspect their legitimacy is always going to be questioned by some.