WearyTraveler

All I have to say about this episode is ........ WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO---HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Go, Mei!

Re: Steven Weber, he's playing a prominent role in the current season of Helix on SyFy (very good show, BTW, if you want to check it out), so, I was surprised he had time to do this stint as Jefferson, but maybe they shoot with different schedules. In any case, it's like Weber got commitment phobic after Wings, he's never on any show for very long. :D

From the tag next to the picture in the article: Formerly? Mmmmh! That makes me wonder!

No alternate endings for Lost, except the ones done in jest (or anger). For the finale of season 4 where the big reveal was the identity of a person who was in a coffin, they did film the take with 3 different actors from the regular cast, to avoid spoilers. They also used to send actors incomplete scripts with only their scenes on it. For the finale, they sent everyone copies of the script without the final scene, Matthew Fox, whose character was the only one involved in it got it, but no one else did.

But that's only when it's not properly soaked and dried. There's no danger to Americans (or South Americans, for that matter). It's as harmful as the almonds you buy in the supermarket. You made it sound as something a bit more insane in your OP :D

I wanted a Doug/Mei finale because I thought that Gregory had been off his game and playing it safe way too long. He lost his mojo on the Thanksgiving challenge when he took a big risk by cooking the goose and it didn't pay off. That was episode 6 and he had been performing poorly (middle or bottom) and playing it safe until last week's episode, which was episode 13. That's half the season, so, I wasn't convinced (and I'm still not convinced) that he is at the same level as other contestants. For me, consistency is an important factor when I decide for whom to root. A restaurant can not survive if the menu has two great dishes and 10 average ones. That said, it seems he cooked the best dishes of the night, and the rules are that the chef with the best dishes gets to move forward in the competition, so, I can't begrudge him that. All the same, I was gutted watching my two favorites waiting for the PYAG message (sniff!). I hope this experience really helps Doug in his career and I wish him all kinds of success in the future. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mei will be amazing in the finale and take the prize. Go, Mei!!! In other news, as good as Padma's Spanish was, she made a fatal translating mistake when she said that the Mexican chef said he was emotional. The word he used was "emocionado", which most properly translates as "excited", not "emotional". Big difference. You are confusing cassava with gari. Cassava is a tuberous root, like the sweet potato. You probably have already eaten it since Cassava, when dried to a powdery (or pearly) extract, is called tapioca. In many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean it is eaten as a side dish (like regular potatoes). It's starchy and filling, but it also has lots of fiber, no cholesterol, no fat, and, surprisingly, a moderate carb content. In Venezuela (where I was born) it's common to eat boiled yuca with "mojo", which is pronounced "mo-hoh" (a vinaigrette made with oil, garlic, parsley and vinegar) as in this recipe . Sometimes we eat it with guacamole too. It's also common to make yuca fries using cold boiled yuca cut into sticks and then frying it, as in this recipe. Another great way to eat yuca is in a bread called Casabe, see this recipe for more info; it's a great vehicle for any dip and very easy to make. Gari, OTOH, is the fermented, flaky version of cassava. Not all cassava is the same! ;-) I agree. I thought Greg got the easiest ingredients with Poblano chiles and guava, but he did take a big risk with a cold guava soup. That was creative. I thought Doug and Mei were in the same situation with regards to the difficulty of their ingredients. Avocado and cheese are very common and a bit hard to elevate. I guess Mei could have done an avocado ice cream, but that's nothing new in the culinary world. Fungus and ant eggs are equally hard, I think. I should have seen that the call would be down to Doug vs. Mei based on that alone. I don't see how. Even in a blind taste, they'd know who the winning chef was and that would color their opinions of the chefs going forward. I also happen to agree with Tom C. that by the third or fourth challenge they would know based on flavor profiles, CV, and plating choices who cooked each dish. I don't think anyone has ever said that :D. But isn't Gail a food editor? She probably has other commitments for the job she has when she's not on TC, which is most of her year. I guess I'll be the representative of the unpopular opinion, but I like Richard. And while I'm at it, I was rooting for Nick over Nina (and now I'll duck to avoid all the objects being thrown in my direction).

I don't think we can make that assertion so categorically. Longclaw could as easily be Lightbringer too. Jon has managed to keep it by his side even though he has been through some very rough challenges and the sword has been given as much space in the books, probably more, than Oathkeeper. It's hard to tell with GRRM, I think, because there's so much going on peripherally that it's hard to separate which events will bear on the main plot and which ones are just there to enhance the story of other characters.

That's a very interesting idea, Black Knight. I really like it and I think it's very possible. I also don't mind the travelogues and all the additional characters. I love reading, and I can go on for days. I do think it's not fair to have people wait so long between books, but even more so to not have set dates. I understand the creative process may not work with a tight schedule, but I think GRRM goes too far.

I take it you were not a part of the Lost fandom, then? I'm pretty sure that in exchange for access to the set and access to the actors, the networks require some conditions from the journalists, one of which is what the journalist can or can't reveal about what he/she saw while on set and when the piece is made public. They'd be crazy not to do that.

I agree the designs this week were terrible. Say what you will about Michelle, but at least she has the good sense to recognize her own failures. She was the one who said "it looks aaaaaawful!" about her own design. No sugar coating, no "it wasn't what I had in mind but I loved how she looked", or any of that other crap. She was banking on the judges at least seeing that she was trying to do something different and she was rewarded for taking the biggest risk by not being eliminated, but she knew that what she sent down was terrible. None of the other designers thought that of their own designs. Whether that is because they are delusional, want to defend their designs so as not to appear incompetent, or some other reason, who knows? But I found both, the fact that Michelle knew her garment was terrible and the fact that she admitted it for the cameras refreshing. I think the final two this season will be Dmitry and Michelle, and honestly, based on their designing abilities, I think they are the ones who most deserve it. I thought Alyssa had finally found a better stylist when I saw the dress she was wearing at Marchessa (take the chord belt away and that's a decent look for her) with a much needed, younger looking hairdo , but then they had to put her in that tight mess that made her legs look like whole hams when she was shot in profile standing on the runway. At least they let her hair be.

Well, I'm happy. All is right in the Top Chef World! I'm rooting for a Mei-Doug finale (fingers crossed)

I don't either, and that's not what I'm saying at all. I'll say this one last thing about this subject and then drop it. My point is that some people question Stephanie's win and some people question Kristen's win, while nobody questions most of the males winners. I think Stephanie outcooked Richard in their finale, and that got her a well deserved win. But because not only Richard, but also the judges, have stated that Richard did not perform to the best of his abilities, there will always be some people that wonder if Stephanie would have won had Richard cooked his best. I think Kristen was the best of her season (the woman made such a good sponge cake using only aluminum foil as a cooking vessel that she won that quickfire, I'll never forget that). She fought hard in LCK and got back in, and I think there shouldn't be an asterisk next to her win at all. I thought she was head and shoulders about her competition that year and she deserved to win. But, because of the LCK gimmick, there will always be some people that consider her win unfair. Meanwhile only two of the male winners, out of the total of seven have won in situations where some people question their win (Hosea and Kevin). I don't think anybody questions Harold's win, for example. Another example is Michael V. He was arrogant, pretentious, downright rude sometimes, and yet, I haven't found anyone who thinks he didn't deserve to win on cooking skills alone. That's 100% of the female winners versus 29% of the male winners with circumstances were some people feel an asterisk should be added. I would like for us to have a female winner whose victory was undeniable, for once, and I feel that Mei could be that winner, not Melissa, because I would put an asterisk next to her name if she won, and so would others. Yes, there were pre-cooked and canned beans available to the contestants, George said he'd used canned for a part of his dish. And yes, you can cook beans in an hour or so in a pressure cooker, but that would not have been enough time to prepare the dishes they made, which required further work on the beans after they were cooked.

I'm not saying she did it to him intentionally. I think it takes a lot of psychic energy for Henry to maintain the illusion that he is Frank and the drink Katrina gave him, which was designed to "look into his soul", weakened him, so he couldn't completely achieve the entire illusion. I also think the effects are temporary, and we'll be back to seeing his reflection again once Henry recovers from the ritual performed by Katrina.

Pretty much this. My original point was that 2 out of 2 female winners have asterisks next to their names (deserved or not) while only 2 out of 9 male winners have asterisks. I think it would be nice if at least one female winner didn't have an asterisk attached to her win. If Melissa won, I'd put an asterisk next to her name, because, in my humble opinion, she hasn't earned it because she has been purposely under performing for most of the competition and because she doesn't have the same code of ethics the great chefs have when it comes to kitchen etiquette (clam-gate: you don't take anything from someone else's station without their permission).

This is not going to be a popular opinion, but I think Frank IS Henry. I'm thinking Henry took over Frank's body because of the connection that was forged when Frank killed Henry's avatar. Katrina saw this when she saw into "Frank's soul" (she kept seeing the scenes that connected Frank and Henry) and she kept it to herself because she wants to outsmart Henry, for once. (bold formatting is mine) I don't think she was relieved. I think the fact he didn't "remember" is what prompted her to seek Katrina's help. And I think the fact that he doesn't remember indicates that Frank is not really Frank, but someone else using his body, or his image. Nobody has gone to Irving's grave to check for a body. They should do that ASAP. I agree with others that it was probably the drink Katrina gave him that caused his reflection to disappear.

Teee heee! Lost killed them all!!!

I'm a woman and I don't like how Melissa has played the game. Twice in the competition she talked about her dish being about her showing her technique, which basically involved her ability to cut vegetables. Tom had to tell her they (the judges) knew everyone's "technique" was perfectly fine and that they were judging on the flavor of the dish for her to get it. She can obviously cook, as she has proved the past 4 episodes, but she did herself say her plan was performing on average levels (flying under the radar) and pouncing at the end. Some may think that's smart, but I think it's lazy and dishonest, but I guess that's par for the course for someone who calls herself a professional chef and doesn't follow simple rules of etiquette in the kitchen, such as not taking something that is on someone else's station, without their permission. I personally like contestants whose objective is to win every single challenge, and cook with that objective. You shouldn't work so hard that you burn out by the end of the season, but it's not OK, IMO, to aim for the middle of the pack. How underwhelming. So, for me, she's not as deserving as some of the other chefs who have left everything on the line in order to actually be the Top chef every challenge. It's one thing to try and fail, it's completely different when you don't even try.

I'd like it if it was a double-blind picking. The judges should all make a spoon and then the contestants who get picked by more than one judge should try their dishes blind and pick the judge based on taste. That could be fun. I started watching this show this season and watched season one in the middle of watching this one. I like it, although I do think the episodes are way too long. I was rooting for Gabe to win since he has clearly been the best performer throughout the competition. Good finale.

I don't support a Melissa win.

I don't want to enter into this discussion, as I think the rules for the show were respected in that decision (the person who cooked the best dishes that day won), nor do I have an opinion as to who is better overall (Richard or Stephanie), I just mentioned this as something some people still say about Stephanie's win, much as some others hold LCK against Kristen's win. My point was that the only two women who have won had circumstances around their season that make some people question their win and that if Mei won, there wouldn't be any such circumstances surrounding her win. I don't want to delve into whether those circumstances are strong enough to question either win, I'm just pointing out that they exist.

That's how I remember it. And, in my opinion, it wasn't appropriate at all. It makes me see Melissa's comments about being besties with Mei that much more hypocritical. No professional chef would consider, even for a nanosecond, that it is ok to take something from someone else's station, and no regular person would do that to someone they referred to as a friend. So, yeah, I tend to not trust Melissa that much and I take everything she says with a huge grain of salt. I admire Mei for letting that go and moving on. I'd have a hard time forgetting, let alone forgiving, anyone who basically stole something from my kitchen, in a competition setting, no less. But, maybe Melissa apologized off camera and that helped build the relationship she now has with Mei. Or maybe Mei is just waiting for the right time to strike back and taking advantage of a helpful (perhaps out of guilt) Melissa. Who knows. If they can get along after that, I'm fine with it, but I will always hold clam-stealing as a negative mark on Melissa's professionalism. I'd rather see someone who plays the game honestly win than someone who relies on tricks take the prize. I've liked Mei's cooking from the very first episode and I think she would be a worthy winner. If she won, she'd be the first woman to win "untarnished", and what I mean by that is that there would be no possible doubt as to her abilities and no asterisk attached to her win. I'm sure Stephanie is a great chef, but there's always that little doubt about her win: what if Richard had not choked? Would her best have won against Richard's best? We'll never know. I wasn't very happy when Kristen was eliminated in the RW challenge in her season and was happy to see her comeback from LCK, but there will always be people who say her win was unfair because she didn't face the same challenges in LCK as the other competitors. Mei, OTOH, got the finale on her own, facing every single challenge they threw at her and consistently being in the top. So, there would be no room for doubt as to her abilities. As an added plus, she has played the game straight and relied only on the quality of her food. No gimmicks, no stealing, no backstabbing. I like her all the more for that. This episode highlighted the one thing about the judging that I don't like. I'm always pretty much ok with their decisions because we don't taste the food, so, I have to trust those who actually eat it, but I don't understand why they have challenges if not meeting the challenge doesn't mean an immediate elimination. What I mean is if the challenge is "cook chicken" and someone cooks the best salmon dish to ever grace the Earth, I still think that person has to be eliminated. In my opinion, if you're going to spend the time thinking about and designing challenges, then the judging should be: 1) Does this dish meet the challenge? If yes, move on to criteria number 2; if no, the person is in the bottom. 2) Is this the best tasting dish of all the dishes that met the challenge? If yes, the chef wins the challenge; if no, the chef is safe. Based on that, I think George should have stayed, but I don't like how he was brought back into the competition, although I don't think that's his fault. So, I'm a little torn on this one. Also, Gregory playing it safe is not to my liking at all. I love Asian flavors and Tom Kah is one of my favorite dishes, but I don't want a safe chef to win Top Chef. It's called Top for a reason, I hope. There are thousands of chefs executing safe dishes perfectly everywhere, that's not a reason to give them a title or catapult them to fame. Again, IMO. I expect a competition to crown someone who is far superior to others in the same field and that means being better than the rest, not doing the same thing others do every day. I'm hoping for a Mei - Doug finale, as I think those two are the best cooks, the most consistent, the most risk taking and the most professional of the bunch we got this season.

I totally agree, AHS always feels to me like he throws everything at it, including the kitchen sink. I think he needs someone to help him edit himself and keep focus. He did extremely well with The Normal Heart, so he can do a more focused story. And as beloved as Asylum is, I thought it was too much: we had the horror of the asylum itself, a sadistic nun, demonic possession, serial killers, Nazis, aliens, medical experiments.... it was just all over the place. I'm 100% sure that was Meep. He had the blue feather suit on, that was a very distinctive costume.

Thank you for summarizing this for me guys! I guess we'll see who won next week (GAH!!!). I'm rooting for Doug!

There is the Real Academia de la Lengua Española (The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language). I was born in Venezuela, my parents (and everyone before them in my family) were born in Spain. I learned English translating songs from The Beatles when I was 12 and a few years later I attended Babson College in Mass. I now live in Spain but I have traveled to many Central and South American countries and I'm familiar with several accents. No one outside of Spain speaks Castilian Spanish, and even some Spanish territories outside of Europe (The Canary Islands, for instance) have a completely different accent. One of the main differences is the pronunciation of the letters "C" and "Z", which sound almost the same in Castilian-like an exaggerated "th" English sound, but are pronounced like a regular "S" in every other Spanish speaking country in the world. Not to mention that even within countries the accents vary (and this includes continental Spain: a person from Andalucía does not have the same accent as a person from Madrid). I don't think it's fair to expect the designers to have a perfect Castilian pronunciation. That would be like a person who speaks British English expecting that all other English variations (American, Australian, Caribbean, etc.) sounded the same as the British version because it was the "first" one. Languages evolve as societies change, as it should be. As for the designs, I thought Michelle had the best bathing suit, but I wasn't wowed by anyone's full garment. The lace ones looked terrible. Who the hell wears lace to a beach resort? Do you know how hard it will be to get the sand out of it? I've been to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Aruba and the Cayman Islands and I never saw anybody (local or tourist) wearing anything made of lace. If you wore any of the lace pants presented on that runway and sat down for more than 15 minutes (say while eating lunch at a restaurant), that lace against your bare skin will leave marks. After 20 minutes it will start to itch, and at the half hour point it will feel like it was cutting into your skin. Don't these people have a small amount of common sense?

Glad to read that Doug is still kicking. I can't watch LCK because I'm outside the US and the Bravo site doesn't allow foreign IPs to watch. I'd appreciate it if someone in this thread would post a short summary of the LCK episodes for those of us who follow the show from abroad. Or if someone knows of a way to watch LCK and he/she would PM me that would be even better.