Starry-Eyed

Did you like Violet being first? I think it's kind of a weak episode on its own and probably works better as backstory once you are invested a little into the characters.

I loved this too! Dru hasn't been a favorite of mine all season, but I really, really loved how he tried to give everyone what they wanted for the final challenge. Aaron helping Bill and Jessie in the preheat was sweet too.

Has Aaron said how "German" he is? Like, has Aaron actually lived in Germany, or is it a family heritage thing? Because maybe his family German traditions have just been altered over the years in ways he may or may not realize. Like, my family has and old, old Swedish coffee bread recipe that in my family is very strictly a Christmas food, but I suspect most actual Swedish people don't have it as a Christmas tradition, and it wouldn't surprise me if people who do eat the bread over in Sweden don't necessarily have it at Christmas.

I half-expected Jesse to tell her that for choosing no twist, she was still going to get the white decorations.

While Ben was a little toned down, I was seriously disheartened he wasn't a LOT toned down. It was the normal amount of slight increase in maturity, slight decrease in energy and excitedness you would expect from simply aging a year at that age. That and the mug way he talked about being famous told me that absolutely no one of influence in his life was embarrassed or taken aback at the way he behaved on the show and they are still encouraging him to behave that way. I feel sorry for him. He's quickly aging out of the range where his attitude and behavior can be read as cute and/or precocious by anyone, and I suspect he may find life quite difficult as a tween if he doesn't develop a new social skillset. Having said all that, I didn't let Ben's ridiculousness take away too much from my delight at seeing Joseph and Ellora, and Caroline was great too. While I was pulling for Ellora, I think Joseph's win was much deserved.

I really loved this last episode, especially the main heat challenge. It felt smart and fun, designed to have the bakers show off a wide range of skills and flavors, not off the wall. And it seems this group has a really high skill level, as well as great personalities. No major flops, no "why is this person still around"

While hindsight is 20/20, it couldn't have ever been Maxy, because they sent her home on a week they definitely could have sent Sandro home instead. I do think she deserved to go the week she did, but it wasn't a situation where they sent her home because they had no choice.

I thought this was just a lovely episode, a real return to the things I love about this show. Sure, I wish they would give the bakers a little more time, and I think I would have liked it better if the twist had been a snowflake decoration, so there would have been more variety and creativity than everyone doing a sugar cookie. I liked the head-to-head match ups with the winner being called after each pairing. Sometimes in the early rounds there are so many entries many of them feel lost, and this was a really good way to avoid that. Even the mid-range bakes felt meaningful and not just "safe, but not amazing." Not a big fan of Sumera and Drud (or Rochelle) but that's fine, because there's lot of other great personalities it seems. I'm excited for the cast this season! Even Nancy seems a little toned down and more focused.

I have no idea about transporting art glass - but I assume the Corning Museum does it on the regular and probably has lots of gear and expertise to make it happen. I would assume it would have been disassembled and the glue removed, and then it would have been re-assembled at the Corning Museum. It probably would have looked even better, since they dinged her for silicone being visible and messy, and it would have been re-installed with more time, care, and expertise.

My recollection is that some people did shots of their beverage in their talking head segments and some didn't. Trenton's the only one I'm positive tasted his, because he pointed out it was his first.

Trenton had some banana daiquiri, I believe. It was really unclear whether everyone was drinking their assigned beverage, or maybe just people who hadn't experienced theirs before

I actually felt like going the LGBT route with Pride was so obvious it was artistically boring - especially as there wasn't a more specific or nuanced message, and the artist herself doesn't seem to be part of the LGBT community.

Yeah, this probably would have been a good time to do a no-elimination. If they weren't going to do that, though, I don't see how they possibly could have NOT eliminated Grace. While I totally agree that they have a lot of potential, and if things hadn't gone wrong, their piece would have almost certainly been better than the caramel corn and the thimble, they just didn't meet the challenge. Even if the dice had been big enough, it still had really glaring execution issues. I was in absolutely awe of that chess knight, and it completely deserved a solo win.

I very specifically remember another team who chose not to do a challenge at a penalty because they were so committed to being meat-free

We have a lot of food trucks in my area, and there are definitely things I could order that would be over $20 bucks, but those would be meal combos, with fairly hefty servings. When I get shawarma from the Egyptian truck for lunch, I always save half for lunch the next day.

...at least no one had the potential to permanently lose their extremities this season, though

I think the show has a serious problem when the team that wins the food quality challenge goes home the same week, despite having long lines, lots of sales, and no major fiascos except a contestant getting overheated. It's becoming screamingly obvious that actually making good food has nothing to do with doing well on the show. I was pleased with how calmly Amawele's handled the medical issue on their truck. We didn't see any in-fighting, yelling, blaming. Instead, the one twin was just concerned for her twin's health and told her to drink water and rest.

Is she being set up to be an "earthquake" victim? It would be terribly tragic for Max to lose her only living family member, but it would sure simplify the storytelling if Max became an orphan to be folded into one of the existing family units

I was expecting some follow-up on the Maybe Cheese Born With It truck. Does the show have on-hand mechanics to do repairs? It feels like repair costs should probably come out of their till... I don't know enough about driving a food truck to ascertain how much of what happened was poor driving and how much was plain old bad luck

I interpreted that as them desperately trying to find a way to allow Millie Brown to play these key emotional moments for her character despite the fact that she can't remotely pass for an eight year old anymore. The amount of de-aging effects they would have needed would have been extremely expensive and would have looked like garbage. Relying on a child actor (and being constrained in choice to one that could pass for a young Millie Brown) probably wouldn't have been a great choice either. Definitely agree that it was confusing at times, though.

I don't disagree with anything you said, and the fact that the Senoreatas came in first smooths everything over and makes debate academic, but I still don't think it's fair on principle. Due to the editing, it's unclear how much time was actually lost, but Senoreatas sent a team member away and didn't get one back for at least some amount of time. Their team member returned and they did have her for at least some of prep, but they had to send her away again for the entire selling period. They were the only team that had to work with two members for any period of time. The correct thing to do would have been for the producers to make Missy go to the Senoreatas truck (regardless of whether she was the one initially intended to swap - she didn't run off, she's not a spouse of a missing person, and she seemed still willing to listen to the producers), and I think she probably would have enjoyed that more too.

Yeah, I agree with this. Salsa's reaction was WAAAAY over the top and massively unfair to her team, but having Senoreatas and Salsa Queen swap was 100% producer shenanigans to try to create drama, and I'm kind of glad it blew up in their face, even though I feel really bad for Missy

Yeah, that was weird to me. It probably wasn't THAT much money - it sounded like they just wanted the tent replaced, which was probably $200 or less - but it should have been mentioned and publicly taken out of the till. Maybe the testing people just decided not to pursue it, or they hadn't done so before elimination time

That's my theory too, that One previously arranged an escape for Kali, but unlike El who felt sorry for his "we're all prisoners" spiel and offered to help, Kali just took the opening and bailed. Of course, it's also possible she just escaped on her own - her powers would be highly useful for an escape attempt. That super bugged me, since I interpreted Nancy's instant dive after Steve to be about Barb - she lost one friend to the Upside Down because of inaction/not paying attention, and like hell is she letting it happen ever again. Vecna targeting her guilt over Barb seemed to confirm that too. Steve is my favorite character, but I would really rather not see him and Nancy together. IDK why, but Nancy is extremely shippable with all the "older teen" characters, though. Pretty sure Nancy's straight, but there's some chemistry between her and Robin, and even Eddie seems slightly attracted to her, and that doomed newspaper kid was definitely very into her

I still miss Lorraine, but I do like Carla. I liked Kardea okay on her first outing, but she lost me this last season. I actually think the "dream team" for me would be Jesse (host), Duff, Lorraine, and Carla. So happy Molly won't be hosting!