Cirrus LaMark

I have to wonder how much longer Elise lasts? Ramsay clearly sees that she's not head chef material -- at least not for one of his restaurants -- and whatever entertainment value he thinks she has is going to dry up sooner or later. Meanwhile, this episode really exposed another terrible truth, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. In HK14, Milly was easily one of the big heroes of that season's story, if only for him being one of the people not to stand for Josh's crap and for his sympathetic backstory. Here in HK17, he's morphing slowly into a villain, even to the point that Nick, one of his HK14 friends, is having enough of him. It's kind of sad to see how much he's let his popularity from his first season go to his head. On the other side of the coin, it's like the editors are taking the opposite path with one of the women. Robyn was apparently a villain in HK10 (I didn't watch it, but it sounds like from those who did watch it that she was). But between her improving markedly week after week and being unjustifiably singled out by the men on her team, it's like they're trying to redeem her from that season and build her into a heroine. I . . . don't know how I feel about that.

I hope J.J.'s "drastic step" isn't the contemplation of suicide. Ooh. Wonder who makes love? What's the bad news Abe gets?

And then, she shoots him. . . . In my fantasy world. *Sigh*

Nick is my hero for standing up for Michelle. Elise is just too much. And that is just the gentle way of putting it. The men win yet another challenge. Quelle surprise. I agree with Michelle, though. Why is Robin just turning up her performances now when she's off the red team? On the upside, Jennifer finally wins a faceoff! Good for her! Honestly, I'm finally seeing why Barbie was so despised in HK10 (by the other chefs, I mean). Till tonight, I thought she was just the victim of mean girls, but she really does inspire dislike toward her on her own. The bit with the protein shake just proved it. The way service was going, I had a feeling that either the women would lose or both teams would. And yeah, it's obvious that only Barbie and Elise were the ones messing up for the women. Elise really needed to check herself. Ramsay asked Barbie to be the one to lead. Not she. She should've let Barbie have her chance. With the men, I was surprised that Milly had made a rare mistake for him. And even worse, Van makes a rare mistake for him, as well and has communication issues I hadn't seen till tonight. On another note, it was great seeing Cheryl Burke from DWTS. But who was that at the men's chef's table? Who did he play on Scandal? As for elimination, I at least like the original way he did it, by first having the men send up their nominees and then choosing from among them before going to the women's nominations. And loathe to I am to agree with Robyn, there was some sexist bullshit with nominating her when she didn't do anything wrong during this service. Ramsay clearly pleased with her nomination, either, so I'm oddly glad he sent her back. That left the loudmouths, Milly and Van. I was actually surprised that Van was eliminated, at first, until I realized something. He had gotten a lot of air time in this episode. Not really during the service, but during the challenge. So I shouldn't be. But I really thought he'd get a lot farther than that. I'm interestingly pleased that I was wrong, because he got louder and more obnoxious by the week. I disagree with @mlp's sentiment that he was "cheerful." He was loud and annoying. Plain and simple. As for the women, I thought there'd be a double elimination and that one of Barbie or Elise would go with Van, because either one would've deserved it in spades -- Barbie for this week, and Elise for almost the entire season. But Ramsay, knowing that things are toxic for the women because of Elise, in particular, leaves them both there instead. Come on, Ramsay. Well, Van's gone, at least, so that's a nice consolation prize. Still, Elise needs to go before she ruins this season even more than she already has. Anyone else kind of enjoy the irony, though? The men have won the bulk of the challenges and services, yet most of their original members have still taken the bulk of the eliminations. Only two women, Ashley and Manda, have gone. But a whopping five men -- Ben, Josh, Jared, Giovanni, and now Van -- are gone. Only three men are left against six women. Go, ladies, I guess.

According to his mother, he had a cold: https://www.facebook.com/gina.gabriell.3/posts/10210983160398469.

The show finally confirmed a few episodes ago that it's 1997 at this time. It's staying more historically accurate than its '80s counterpart, The Goldbergs.

Since this is next in @Roccos Brother's binging marathon, I thought I'd comment. Everything about this season was pretty much perfect. A great start, a vivid, memorable cast, in which pretty much even the early-booted teams had something about them to remember, no team felt a dud, there was drama and comedy, and the cast mostly seemed to generally get along, a nice, refreshing respite from the toxic environment of the season before. Take a dash of John & Scott from TAR9 and a pinch of Dana & Adrian from TAR16 and you have first boots Ron & Tony. It was nice and refreshing to have a black gay team (as before then, the only full gay team of minorities we'd had was Oswald & Danny). They were nice, friendly guys, but ultimately cannon fodder, as shown by their tragic navigation skills in London. Andie & Jenna were another new type of time in that they weren't a typical mother/daughter, but a biological mother having reunited with her biological daughter after giving her up for adoption. It was just a shame that a lot of their team's edit seemed to be more about Andie than it was about Jenna. Connor & Jonathan were a strange case in that while Connor was very pleasant, Jonathan was probably one of the biggest wienies in the history of the race with his outright refusal to do Roadblocks. It made the fact that their elimination came by way of him sucking so hard that much more pleasing. Katie & Rachel were probably the only real ciphers, although the moments in London in which one of them nearly drove off without the other and in Sweden in which they quickly knew to just switch Detours when one of their techsleds went over the cliff were titter-worthy. Though their true personalities really didn't come out till Elimination Station, in which they came off more obsessive and creepy over not wanting the first winning all-female team to come about if it couldn't be the two of them. Michael & Kevin were a funny team, even though they had some cringe-worthy moments when Kevin had his "my dad sucks" moments about Michael (not that he was totally wrong, of course, since they got booted by him basically sucking, too). Gary & Mallory had their first run on this season, and while they had many, many funny moments here, they would come back to become a well-realized team (in terms of story editing) instead of the more comic relief team they were in this season. Chad & Stephanie were another interesting case in that they could have several terrible, groan-worthy moments, but then turn it around in another episode and have some heartwarming moments between them, including Chad's on-the-race proposal to Stephanie in Oman. Them getting engaged kind of softens the blow of their elimination in Bangladesh on the next leg. Nick & Vicki were kind of the opposite of Chad & Stephanie in that their lighter-hearted moments of sheer stupidity came at the beginning of the season, but they slowly devolved into the darker parts of their personalities (especially Nick's) as the race hit the second half. You actually feel sorry for Vicki at various points, since she seems like a sweet, nice person in comparison to Nick. Still, Nick calmed down on their final leg and showed hints of his early-race persona, so that was something. And that leaves us with the F3. Jill & Thomas were pretty much like a smarter version of Nick & Vicki. Their more tolerable moments came at the beginning of the race, but their darker sides -- Thomas's, especially -- started to come out as the race went along. And theirs came out even sooner than Nick & Vicki's did. At least Nick & Vicki waited till the second half. Jill & Thomas kept their true colors hidden for only the first third of the race before the masked slipped right on the fifth leg. However, like Vicki, Jill was at least a bit more sympathetic. Though unlike Vicki, Jill could, at times, be just as bad as Thomas, or almost as bad. Though a lot of the dislike went to Thomas for playing such a huge part in her deepest insecurities. But in the end, they ended losing awesomely to two of the best all-female teams ever to race. One was a team home shopping hosts named Brook & Claire, who were unabashedly the stars of their season with their amazingly positive attitudes, their sheer enjoyment of the race, and their tendency to be liked by almost every local they met. Even in spite of their small sizes and Claire's inability to run very fast, they were one of the strongest teams in that season, and but for the structure of that final leg probably would've won it. But who did win it? Well, the intrepid doctors Nat & Kat, whose calmer, cooler, more collected approach to the race made for the perfect counterpart to their race-long allies' sunny dispositions (which really only faltered in Bangladesh and South Korea). Their racing was also excellent, even if it wasn't as consistent as Brook & Claire's, and they made the perfect representatives of the race's first winning women's team. The route was also incredibly amazing, with first-time visits to Ghana and Bangladesh, second-time visits to Oman and South Korea, and even delightful visits to the countries previously visited several times. The tasks were also much better (save for the way-too-linear final leg), and the teams actually did have to work for their survival, yet still seemed to be having fun a lot of the time. Great cast, great route, great tasks, great season! It was one of the biggest breaths of fresh air in such a long time!

She wasn't joking. She really didn't know where it was.

Agreed with the love shown for the Sami/Lucas scenes. They were my favorites ones of the day. Alison and Bryan just have it as scene partners. They've never lost it. Also liked the end with Maggie. Second-favorite scenes were the Paul/Brady scenes. Although Brady initially came to get Paul to help him out with something, it was good seeing him let Paul lean on him about his breakup with Sonny. And yes, calling Sonny dumb was a bonus. At least this provides some hope that the writers are pro-Paul and Sonny with Brady and Victor's reactions to the breakup. I can't imagine the writers want us to root for Sonny to get back with Will the way the show's being presented. Because yes, Sonny is acting like he's entitled to Will. It's bugging me severely.

From TV Guide: Discuss this one-hour results show here.

From TV Guide: Discuss this two-hour performance episode here.