CheshireCat

Jesse said it has to have maple syrup in it (although, it sounded like there's a debate about that somewhere) and Dru said he put maple syrup, brown sugar and a bit of honey into it. So, I would imagine that it's a Pecan Pie filling without the pecans. That's what I gathered from Duff's comments. He said that a toffee pudding needs to be soggy, so I assumed Harshal's wasn't.

She said something about the filling, I believe. I didn't catch what she said, though, just that she said something. Maybe that's why she didn't win even though the judges absolutely loved it?

I think it was the fact that he didn't put his own spin on it. That, and someone had to be in the bottom two. It could probably have been anyone other than Dru and Aishia and he just drew the short straw. I figured that Harshal would one the one going home after he had a not-so-good bake in the first round and Duff then said that it was just a cake with sauce on it for the main challenge. They seemed so delighted with Harshal up until now and then turned on him all of a sudden.

To be fair, if you go to a fancy restaurant or have a seated dinner somewhere, every plate needs to look the same. So, I can understand when the judges point out things like that and if there are small differences, details like that should be the tie-breaker. However, I don't think they should play a role in the judging otherwise. Yeah, that was ridiculous. Why was it difficult to eat? They had the same on gingerbread showdown a few weeks ago when someone made a bonus bake in a chocolate bowl/shell and they had to use a spoon to eat it out of that. One of the judges said it was difficult to eat. Seriously? Why? The judges for some weird reason eat desserts with knife and fork, so I'm sure they can handle the very difficult task of taking a spoon, dunking it in a cup or chocolate shell and getting a spoonful of whatever's in there out. I thought her dessert looked pretty. Very cheese-like, as she said it was supposed to look. I'd like to know why Bill's dessert looked more holiday-ish than Jessica's, though. I'm sure Bill's tasted fantastic and I like him but what's so holiday-looking about cinnamon buns? How many times has Kristen now had to save a dessert? I think there were three or four bakes that she didn't repeat. . When Nancy has a favorite, she really doesn't hide it, does she? I'm surprised she wasn't twisting herself to somehow defend Aaron's Kwanzaa dessert. I expected her to. But she also seems to love Dru and he can apparently do no wrong. Where was that pie holiday-ish? Jessica's Kwanzaa dessert looked pretty. It's a pity her mirror glaze was so thick. Uh, Aaron, no, Stollen is not "fluffy". It never was, never was intended to be and never will be. It's a yeast pastry that was meant to last. It's a very dense, bread-like dough. Nothing fluffy about it. Did Duff say the raisins had "snap" to them? If so, how do raisins have "snap" to them? Someone explain to me why Aishia didn't win the main heat. They were over the moon about the presentation and taste and Duff would have eaten the whole thing if he could have. And it did look good. Much better than Dru's pie (which I feel was the gazillionst fall-ish looking pastry he made). I didn't mind the slightly messy look of Zakiya's honey cakes. I thought they still looked delicious, but, of course, this is a competition, so yeah, they should look neat and clean.

I was underwhelmed by the winner's display. It was a great stage but where were the figurines? There was not a single one in the first display. Why did the camera keep zooming in on the first scene of that display? We never got a close-up of the last one. Why not? It's the one that had the most going on. How on earth were they supposed to get light in the chandelier? I liked the first display. The tree looked awesome and the entire set-up was well though-out. With that said, I didn't want them to win because the dancers really bothered me. Like really bothered me. The arms were too rigid and the legs were not turned out at all. Children who go to ballet class once a week for fun dance like that but no dancer, regardless of age, would be on a professional or even semi-professional stage. The dancers in the third display didn't have turned out feet either but it was less noticeable because they were flat cookies. The second display looked incredible. It may not have screamed Nutcracker but it was stunning, including dancers and costumes. That was wow! I liked the idea of the winning display but since it barely had any dancers in it, I wanted the second one to win. The colors reminded me of the Disney Nutcracker movie. Kalen's critique was ridiculous. For a couple of seasons now, the Staatsballet Berlin has been dancing on top of a boat that drives (does a boat drive?) down the Spree or Havel River in Berlin. There's nothing there, just the dancers on a boat and they do dance variations from the classics, like Swan Lake. Just because this didn't look like a classic Nutcracker stage doesn't mean that this couldn't have been a Nutcracker performance. It absolutely could have been. Overall, I thought those were some of the best and most complete displays we have seen on this competition as of late.

Maybe nitpicky but I find this also constructive. It's something specific that you thought could have improved the presentation and for a baker who sells cookies, you're also a potential customer (even if you don't live in the area). So, it's feedback someone can work with. "More color" for a cookie that features a dog which is largely brown and a tree which is largely green is not. What is someone supposed to do with that kind of feedback? Maybe they could have piped dots and sprinkled them with sugar to represent snowflakes but they had how much time? This was one of the comments where I thought, uh, Eddie, give them more time and they will add more to the cookie. I thought it was three-dimensional as well but maybe only the skirt/dress was? I remember the second one was two-dimensional, although, it was decorated from the front and back and I didn't understand why Eddie said that it wasn't really 360°. Did he mean because you didn't have a 90° side-view?

I agree about Eddie. Of course, it may be the editing and his criticism could be more balanced but the way it's edited does not look very favorable. I don't mind critiquing the tiniest details if it's warranted and if it's constructive. With Eddie it does not feel warranted and often times, his tiny-detail critique makes me want the baker to ask back: have you tried baking and icing this cookie in 2 hours? I'm really not sure what color he wanted added to that dog-tangled-in-the-Christmas-Tree-lights cookie. Or the "personality" he wanted added to the cookie with the birds who brought the presents. Uh? The only one where the criticism was warranted was the lone male competitor. His cookies were a hot mess. The baker who messed up the royal icing (what exactly was the problem with the first batch?) had a great Mrs Clause cookie, the other one could have been better but we've seen worse cookies. I'm often under the impression that Eddie critiques what he sees while they bake and not end result. I was baking myself while watching, so who won? The grandma angel or all-white one? I thought they all looked pretty and I loved the story behind the grandma-angel.

Uh, I've got an epic and novel idea: ask Rosa what she wants to do. She's her own person and she probably knows best what she considers a fun activity. So, make suggestions and let her choose or better let, just let her pick. She's a teenager, she can communicate and she knows what she likes. Or, at least, she should. Also, could they have been any more cliché when Fatima suggested going shopping? Why do all female teenagers have to consider shopping fun? When I was Rosa's age, I spent my afternoons at the dance school. Five days a week. That was fun and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to go shopping instead. I usually don't like when a wedding is coming up and the characters talk about it at work but Callen and Sam talking wedding is actually fun. Pretty sure it's because the writers are writing it as their typical banter, so when it would be something about Sam's car, it's now about the wedding. I like that. I also like that they're keeping them in character. I hope we'll get more of that. Can we assume that we'll get an episode in Mexico that includes a derailed bachelor party? (Not that I think that Callen would mind because he's right, he's so not a bachelor party guy). I'm getting a feeling that in addition to that, some of the last episodes will be an arc that includes Hetty and the CIA project and that it'll give Callen closure in that regard and will lead up to the wedding. At least, I'm hoping that's going to be the case, especially if this is going to be the last season. Otherwise, this was a fun episode. I'm kind of glad that we didn't have Deeks; I don't want to say that it was an immature plot but I think you do have to have an inner adventurer to go on a treasure hunt and I don't think having a character who can be very immature at times would have added much to this episode. I think it was good to have more serious characters provide balance. To be honest, I would have been happy if we only had gotten Callen, Sam, Kilbride and Fatima in Ops for that episode. While I did like the episode, I think I would have liked it even more if it had turned out to be about the Navy or the device after all. That would have been a great twist. At first, I wondered if the guy would turn out to have some connection to Arkady. It was the singing. I could totally see him be an acquaintance of Arkady's.

I did not understand a word of what you were saying 😂

Yeah, when I saw that I thought that she probably wasn't going to like that. He did explain it afterwards though, that he let himself get riled up. What's that? I know that many people meet their partner at work and I do have my pairings that I root for but this is getting too much even for a hopeless romantic like me. Can't TV cops just work with each other for once? Yeah, they just did the same on FBI International. A leading Spanish crime boss that no one had been able to arrest and the FBI team swoops in and manages to shoot him in the line of their investigation. I had to laugh at that. I had the same thought and I thought for sure that Regina would tell him that nobody owns the agent, that he is his own person. I mean, even I did a double-take. A white guy tells a Black woman that he owns a Black man and she concludes it's about a turf war? Definitely not the first thing that would have jumped to my mind. I was a bit unclear about the mental health issue the captain's wife has. Does she have anxiety or does she have anxiety due to Covid? At first, I thought it was the latter because they mentioned Covid years but they also mentioned that she hasn't been to her annual check-up in five years, so that would be before Covid.

Yeah, I wondered about that, too. I think they said that the boy didn't see the actual choking but saw his father go away with the victim but the boy still was present for when the mother was shot and he knew the dad was in prison. And he wasn't the least bit scared. That was weird. I would imagine that it's a fairly realistic depiction, still, I agree that Brandy was not in the wrong. Just because the residents disapproved of Brandy, doesn't make Brandy wrong. I don't know if there are any laws about loud noises during the night but if there are not, it's common courtesy to keep it down at night so that others can sleep. I disagree, at least to an extent. There are certain noises that you have in a city but I don't count loud music and loud talking as one of them. I used to get that only on New Year's Eve in Berlin and usually only from people who were walking down the street towards or from public transportation. Considering how they treated Brandy after she complained, I don't think there are many other residents who would dare to complain. Generally, I have mixed feelings about this plot. I'm under the impression that the Deputy Inspector tries to establish a relationship with a neighborhood that feels largely neglected and/or treated unjustly by the justice system and that she wants an officer there to show the residents that someone cares and that she hears them. I get that arrests would have made things worse and that Brandy wasn't at her most diplomatic. Still, if the neighborhood does indeed feel neglected, their attitude towards Brandy doesn't help either. I don't believe that Brandy was the only one who was bothered by the noise, rather, I think she was the only one who dared to say something, so while I do understand where the residents are coming from and why they were upset with Brandy, the way the residents reacted still bothers me. It gave me the impression that they want it both ways - they want the police to care, bring down crime in the neighborhood and make it safer in general but only when it's convenient. It doesn't work that way. They have to want change as much as the police has to want change. Again, Brandy didn't approach it the right way but the residents' ongoing hostility doesn't help either.

Yes and no about the difficult structure. You're certainly right that they were just the house fronts but if memory serves, the were layered and not one piece, so they had to stick on whatever the base was. Also, they couldn't break which is not easy if they were layered because the surface they rest against is uneven. Breakage would also have been a huge risk if it was one piece of gingerbread. The icing may have been too dry. I've had the issue as well, with icing that is fairly thick to begin with and has been in (parchment) piping bags for a while. Even though I wrap the parchment piping bags in plastic wrap and keep the bags in zipper bags, the icing still hardens a little over time.

Wow, that one team had a lot of gingerbread. And a lot of color, too. I wonder if it maybe would have looked better if they had toned down the color a bit. That was a classic example of reality not necessarily translating well into art. Parades in a city are certainly crowded but they would have needed more space for their display to work. I really liked their storefronts and the truck but the rest was just too much. The winning display was the best, no doubt about it. I think the judges' description of it looking like a picture book was a really good description. The way they arranged the houses did make it look like one of those pop-up picture books. I really liked the solution. I also liked that their moving element was the parade. And that firetruck was awesome! (I liked all of their floats but the firetruck was something else). I liked the one with the hot air balloon as well and didn't think it looked too empty. But did they have spectators? I think that was what was missing. But they had some really cute elements/floats and those soldiers looked incredible! I didn't think any of the baking twists looked all that appealing or that well integrated but it's too bad that they don't put recipes on the Food Network website. I'd have loved to try the Crownie. That sounded interesting.

I think, think of it that way: if you pay a 3 or even 4 figure sum for a cake, would you want it to be served on a piece of cardboard that shows? I think what the cake is displayed on is that final piece that ties it all together. Almost all desserts looked great and festive! This group of bakers seems to get better as the season progresses which is a nice change compared with the last two or so seasons. I didn't like Dru's and Aaron's. I've got a feeling that Nancy really likes Aaron and regardless of what he does, she'll find a way to love it. Aaron's pie was not only not festive, the pie crust looked patched up (as in, he patched it before he baked it and the pieces didn't melt together). Dru's dessert looked really rustic. I'm also not sure how cherries make it more holiday-ish. I would have added cinnamon and cardamon as they go really well with apples (and cherries) and are traditional holiday spices. I've got mixed feelings about Harshal's. On the one hand, the presentation fit well with the hazelnut. On the other hand, it looked more fall and Thanksgiving than holidays. I also thought that it was interesting how it was edited. Carla sounded very much like there was supposed to be a "but" but we never got one. Kristen's looked great. I'm not sure if I would consider added ginger more holiday-ish but it definitely looked holiday-ish (more so than Aaron's). I liked her presentation. Zakiya's also looked great. I thought hers and Kristen's were the best with regards to presentation. I did like Jessica's as well but she had this big cake whereas the other two had individual desserts and I prefer the individually decorated plates. But that's not Jessica's fault. If it really was as good as they say then her win seems to be justified. For once, I have to agree with Nancy: I did not get chimney or Santa from Aisha's dessert either. I wondered why she had the Easter Bunny on her dessert... I agree with Tracy about the main heat - they all looked different but at the same time, they didn't. I didn't quite agree that Jessica's looked like pine needles. The piping reminded me of seashells. I'm surprised that the judges didn't say anything about the meringue that was sliding off Kristen's Baked Alaska. But it did look pretty otherwise. Too bad that Christine didn't know that a volcano on Hawaii would be breaking out the day they were airing this episode, otherwise, she could have said she had made this volcano 😂 I'm glad she was such a good sport about it, though. I mean, there's little she could have done but it still must be heartbreaking for her. I also loved how Bill tried to cheer her up right after they were finished. @BookWitch Christine's meringue could have slid off for a number of reasons. Since I don't like the taste of buttercream, I add cream cheese to it when I make cakes. Cream cheese also adds moisture. I now apply a thin layer of chocolate ganache before I cover a cake with fondant but before that, I had fondant slide off the cake in the fridge in summer, simply because too much moisture was accumulating. It was melting the fondant and in combination with the butter fat, the weight made the fondant slide, regardless of how cold it was. So, my guess is that the fat in the ice cream in combination with the moisture made the meringue slide. Maybe her ice cream even had a higher fat content than the others' and/or her ice cream wasn't as cold. Additionally, she was using Swiss Meringue which Jessica said wasn't as stable as Italian was, so this may have been a factor as well. It's also possible that she needed to mix the meringue a bit longer and it was just a tad bit too soft. I agree with the judges: Aaron's didn't really look like a tree. I also didn't like the look of Aisha's. Look-wise, I liked Bill's, Dru's and Harshal's. I thought Harshal's decorations were well done, Dru's looked like a tree from afar due to the green color and I thought Bill's had the best tree structure. Did they have to make different structures or was it a coincidence that they all applied the meringue differently? I'm so glad that they seem to be keeping the toned down twist and are now making twists that they can use (and in this case, should be making anyway). I'm also enjoying the judging this season. It's so much less subjective and more about the pastries/desserts instead of taste preference. I like that much, much better.

I don't recall them mentioning which number President he was. They also had their presidential election season when the real world has midterms. I didn't watch it when it aired originally but since they also have made-up countries, I'm assuming that the creators - other than the Madam Secretary creators - wanted their very own universe. In case you don't want to be spoiled:

I don't like this kind of episode. Too much time spent with the hostages which more often than not does not move the story anywhere (just like it didn't in that case) and too few time spent on the investigating agents which is usually the part that moves the story somewhere. I also was not interested in the hostage taker's story at all. And why was Jess crying? Just because it's Thanksgiving doesn't mean half the actors need to spend half the episode crying. None of that episode made me feel Thankgiving-ish, if that was what they were going for. Rather the opposite, it made me feel annoyed. I thought the episode started out promising but it took a bad turn when the hostage-taker pulled the gun. I honestly thought that the hostage-taker would turn out to be a good guy or at least not guilty of the shooting because Kasie was there and I was sure they wouldn't put the poor girl through yet another hostage situation/a situation where she would end up in danger. I'm glad they acknowledged it, though. I thought she was in town for longer given that she had just started her new career and had a fiancé. But I think you're right that this was an Air B&B kind of thing she rented the place from. I guess, the non-functioning microwave and oven make for a cheaper rent?

As someone who often rolls their eyes at certain critiques, I sort of agreed with this one. It shouldn't have mattered overall (and I don't believe it did) but she should have covered it up with a border or something (or should have used a slightly smaller piece or one that is pre-decorated with foil paper). If you brought your cake, I wouldn't care but Christine is a professional, this is a competition and I think the judges were right to point it out.

I agree, this was a good episode and who was behind it was not obvious. Could have been a staged kidnapping, staged by the girlfriend and bodyguard (which was my initial guess), staged by the conman and the bodyguard or it could have been real... which it turned out to be. There were a lot of options. I also enjoyed the very cooperative local police again. It doesn't always have to be that way but it's really nice when they all work together. I really loved the almost end when the girlfriend told him goodbye, Jamie reminded him that states were free to file their own charges and Smitty said that was worth the price of admission. I agree. ;-) When he's there, it's usually all about him, so I didn't really mind. My guess would be either the actor had another commitment or they're planning on giving him a (lone-wolf) arc (maybe with his mom?) and therefore, had to reduce his screen time beforehand because it'll be all about him later. Agreed. Bosses can't be all bad, can they? Maybe, at one point, the agents should ask themselves if they're the problem if they always clash with the bosses ;-)

That was a good episode. Nothing that necessarily stands out but better than the previous two or so. I liked the bits at the beginning, all of them, actually. Kensi and Deeks' scene, Callen's and Anna's and also, the scene when they arrived at the office. The moment when Callen was using his being an orphan to avoid getting drawn into Kensi and Deeks' conversation felt like classic NCIS. (Although, technically, Callen only grew up an orphan but until recently, wasn't one. Speaking of, is his father officially dead or is he just presumed dead?) Wasn't there another migrant teenager that Kensi and Deeks were trying to help? Whatever happened to her? How did Deeks know that Mrs Morgan was abused simply because of the things she said? I couldn't really follow that logic. I feel like they're bringing Grumpy Kilbride back in the most inappropriate moments. At the beginning, he discusses expense account something with Sam at a time when he could be grumpy and at the end, he gets grouchy when the team is out in the field and needs his support? That is one of the reasons I still don't like him. I also feel that he's an inconsistent character because why is he suddenly discussing more personal stuff with the team? It doesn't seem like something has happened to warrant that. I don't know. He's a weird character. I'd appreciate if the team stopped taking personal calls and/or taking care of personal business in like every episode again. It's just unprofessional. There's something Kilbride could get grouchy over. I guess, it's their way of explaining someone's absence during the episode but it makes no sense. I also find it disrespectful to the characters because, as said above, it's unprofessional and whether I like all of them equally or not, they aren't unprofessional. Even Deeks who's sometimes too much for my taste is a professional, especially when it matters. I enjoyed the moment between Callen and Anna. Out of all the characters, I feel that Callen has had the chance to grow the most, even if the changes are minimal, they're there. Like the end of this episode when he brought the bagels and lit the candles. (I'm assuming, he's also not putting beds onto the curb anymore, at least not without Anna's permission and to then sleep on the floor ;-)) I also liked that Anna was allowed to bring up the latest revelations about Hetty and ask why he still cared and that they didn't gloss over that. When I read that Callen wanted Hetty at his wedding, I wondered about that, so I'm happy it got addressed. I think his explanation makes sense, too. Given that he said it, there likely is more to the story but even if there weren't, I understand why he would need to believe that. Hetty was such a huge part of his life, so he doesn't want to give up on her until he is sure that he needs to give up on her.

Finally managed to catch up on the episode. So, Shyla is a field agent now? When did that happen? When Kilbride said that Sam sure wouldn't mind not to be a part of the investigation I wondered if he actually meant that and that, if he did mean it, it meant that he still didn't know the team very well. And then Sam was cool about it and I thought, obviously, someone in the writers room doesn't know the character either. When it's personal, Sam becomes righteous and tells the other agents he can do it alone and acts as if he's the only one who can solve the case. I hate it, but this reaction was just ridiculous. A perfect example of what an out of character reaction is because no person in the world changes like that without going through some serious things before and without having a process. Things didn't change after Sam's wife died and that's the last traumatic experience I can remember and there definitely was no process, so this was not true to the character. With that said, I don't like when family members are suspects or under suspicion because you just know that they didn't do it and/or that it wasn't their fault. Cases like this one are always more interesting when it's a stranger. The agent-revolving door doesn't work. They need to find a way to keep everyone working and give them definition. The way it is right now has no structure to it and feels completely disorganized. And how is anyone supposed to learn to care about the new characters when they don't have clearly defined roles and how am I not supposed to get annoyed when the defined roles the old characters had just get ignored and come back at will? Did I mention that this does not work? ;-) It feels like a new show that is trying to find its rhythm not like a show in its 14th season. ETA: I'm not sure how I feel about them showing Fatima praying during work. It's not the first time and she should be allowed to practice her religion. On the other hand, she works for a government agency in a country that separates church and state and praying during work hours at a government job feels like it's blurring the line (as is her wearing a headscarf, which, as far as I know, isn't a Quran requirement, so it's a personal choice, rather than a religious one and again, since she works for a government agency...). They're tough calls to make which is why I'm not sure a TV show should portray it without addressing the complexity of the issue behind it.

I wondered about that, too. ESU just marched in there and assumed command as if they owned the place and they were the only competent officers on the scene. Whether or not they're a different unit, the DI did/does outrank the Captain but you wouldn't have guessed from the interaction. I didn't notice that he referred to her by her last name but what he noticed is that she was justifying her actions and thoughts to him, as if he were the higher ranking official. I understand that it would have been too easy had the DI been able to assume command had she pulled rank, still, they couldn't have found a healthy balance? Or, at the very least, if the Captain acted like that, maybe it could have been pointed out at one point that he is of a lower rank and was acting as if he wasn't? I wasn't under the impression that the officer had any intention of checking the story, although, I'm not entirely sure what his intention was. If he had wanted to check the story, I don't find it plausible that he wouldn't have said "hold on, I'll check" long before Bentley got out of the car but he seemed to just stand there, just waiting. Was he pretending to check the story and wanted to go back and tell Bentley that his story doesn't check out? I agree with everyone who said they liked how the story was resolved. I'm also glad that Bentley didn't get in an accident or get shot. I got really worried for him when his mother expressed her worries. More often than not, the character tends to die or is set up to die if a parent or spouse expresses their concern.

Well, "Pfannkuchen" in Berlin 🙂 (Literally, translates to pancakes and I have no idea why. Pancakes are "Eierkuchen" which means egg cakes 😂) but that's a good point, too. There are also a lot of other pastries you get in Germany/Berlin, so it could have been fun if he'd gone out for a currywurst and come back with a bunch of pastries instead. I think in times of the world just being one Google search away, it's just lazy if writers/showrunners fall back on the old stereotypes and/or clichés.

I thought the elves from the winning display lacked some kind of cuteness but overall, the display seemed to capture the theme the best. I also thought it was a really cute idea. I didn't like that their baking twist won because it was the least well-integrated and they do say that it's supposed to seamlessly integrate. Regardless of what they said, they had other plans for the baking twist and it did look like they had to have it on there, so they put it there because they ran out of time. For the Emporium display, I agree with the judges that it would have been better to have some elves decorate on the Jack Frost side. Otherwise, it was an impressive display and I liked the intricacy of it. The last one was a shrug for me. I didn't think it captured the theme at all. I did not get snowstorm but snow-covered and snow-covered is not exactly something that Santa's not used to. Why were the judges eating the baking twists with knife and fork? For some reason, she reminded me of the lady of the house of the Addam's Family (I don't know what the characters are called).

For once, I agree with Nancy, Bill's pound cake from the first round did look magazine cover worthy. Until they cut it open. It looked like it was a lot of dry dough but, apparently, it wasn't dry? I thought Zakiya's doughnut, Christine's tart, Aishia's churros and Jessica's pie looked magazine cover worthy as well. Zakiya's doughnut wasn't very creative with regards to a fried dessert (neither are churros but what are you going to do, really?) but I thought the colors worked really well together. Why didn't she use another spoon to help her get the caramel sauce on the plate? Jessica's bacon pie had a bit too much bacon on it for me to want to taste it but it still looked good. While I thought there were better-looking desserts, Kristen's actually looked pretty good this time around! I thought that both Dru's and Arron's desserts looked very yellow and not very Thanksgiving-like, like Nancy said. Others looked far better in that regard. I really liked the second challenge. I felt it gave us a lot of flavors and/or creations we normally wouldn't get to see, like a banana cream pie. I was surprised that Bill and Aaron chose the flavor profiles that they chose. When I saw that, I was like, okay, buttery makes sense but what are you going to do with the rest? But when they said what they were going to make, it made sense. I thought it was interesting that Aaron is good with herbal flavors. He was the one who said that it wasn't going to be easy when he got basil or something like that in the first? episode. Not sure I would have used Jasmine Tea as an herbal flavor. Tea yes, but Jasmine is very floral/perfurm-ish. But the judges seemed to have liked it. The pies looked good. I thought it was a pity that they were in those brown-glass glasses as I liked the see-through effect with Kristen and Zakiya much better. I also understood the criticism about the filling-pie crust ratio for Bill's pie. Yes, an apple is crisp but a cooked apple is not. So, apple pie would not be the first thing I'd think of when crisp comes to mind. If they wanted to use apples, they should have coated them in (melted) sugar or chocolate. But something like a pecan pie or something with almonds would probably have been the better choice. I would not consider pear "earthy". It's a fruit that grows on trees and I don't think it has an earthy flavor. Strangely enough, even though it was falling apart, the pear pie looked like something that I would have liked to try. The crumble just looked very crunchy and delicious as did the filling. That did not seem to be Jessica's challenge. Although, I think "sharp" was probably the most difficult flavor profile. I mean, how do you translate "sharp" into a bake? What is a sharp flavor? Aside from the fact that crust was really underbaked, like really underbaked (I wonder what happened) and she used too much gelatine, I think she did the best you could do. I did not like the "cool" pie. Why was it so green? It looked a bit messy, too, the crust looked patched up and the filling was spilling over. Sumera's pie crust really was a but too thick; she didn't push it in well enough. Harshal's floral pie was among my least favorite. I don't know what it was but it did not look appealing to me at all. Hibiscus is a fall flower? Okay. I always considered it an almost tropical flavor since it seems to be native to those warm regions. And that was a rose that Harshal had on his pie, wasn't it? I don't like Kristen but those three pies looked like perfection! I would have loved to taste all of them. I think she and Zakiya were the rightful winners. Well-deserved! If the judges judged the remaining bakers on their individual pies only, why did they bake a joined pie? Seems almost unnecessary. Couldn't they have asked each baker what each one did for the joined pie and then judged that as well? I also agreed with the elimination. While I know that only this bake counts, I would have felt really sad if Jessica had gone home because of one bad bake.

Just a reminder: whatever happens tonight, please remember to be civil. Say what you want to say then agree to disagree and move on. That way you can all enjoy the discussion. Enjoy the Finale!