S16.E05: Walking The Plank

[Drogo]

A shocking elimination forces both teams to regroup and chart a new course as they take on the Seven Seas Seafood Challenge, which gives the chefs 30 minutes to prepare a fish dish using a variety of fresh ingredients.

Later, guitarist Joe Perry and singer Estelle are invited to the dinner service.

[riprock]

Watching Ramsay pulverize salmon is unusually mesmerizing. 

[backformore]

when did this show get so damn BORING? 

[preeya]

Big mouth Andrew is really getting on my nerves. He should have been one of the nominees, but of course that doesn't fit the script.

[mertensia]

Couldn't we just have watched the Pirate Singers sing for the show tonight?

[placate]

This show is really short if you fast-forward through the recaps and the great reward and suffering of the other team, which I don't care about. I do have a question though, why does everyone in this show smoke?  I've worked at two restaurants for years, once as a manager.  I was aware that one of our hosts took "smoke breaks" despite not being a smoker.  None of the chefs I have ever worked with smoked.  They do get quite angry when you send something back for a recook but I can't believe every single contestant on this show smokes.  Do they give them herbal cigarettes for some reason?

[mertensia]

Half the chefs/line cooks who work at the hotel where I work (and it's a finer-dining restaurant) smoke, so it never surprises me when I see them puffing away on the show. 

[Michel]

The men really, truly are a mess.  They can't get their shit together, they can't complete any service but the third, and they devolve into yelling, screaming, and finger-pointing every time they lose.  And worst of all, they nominate one of their members who didn't even mess up tonight.

Not that Aaron was ever going to win, of course.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  But that was all kinds of unfair.  You just know Ramsay wanted to kick out either Devin or Johnny.  I have to wonder if the producers told him to eliminate Aaron since he doesn't cause drama and Johnny and Devin do and will?  Either way, poor Aaron.  But he was always going to be a target on that team of totally nasty men because of his age.  Probably best he leave now.  But now that one convenient scapegoat is gone, the men are going to have to go after each other again to find another one.

Heather's final confessional of the episode made me like her a lot more.  She clearly hated what the men did to Aaron just as much as I did.  In fact, all of the women seemed unhappy that he went out that way.  Good for them.

The women continue looking like the stronger team.  Hell, even when they lose challenges, they don't dwell on it too long.  And they even seem to get along much better than the men do.  The men only seem to get along when they win challenges, but are otherwise at each other's throats.

I do think that Kimberly is the weakest among the women, and might be the next one gone if they lose another service.  I'd figured since the first service that she, Gia, and Jessica were the weakest of the women, and with the latter two gone, she seems the most reasonable to be gone next.  Heather, Ryan, Aziza, Shaina, Heidi, and Wendy all continue looking extremely solid and strong, though.  And on the men, I really hope we don't lose Devin anytime soon.  As of now, he really seems like the only truly decent guy on that team.  Paulie doesn't really seem bad, but he's cocky.  Cocky in a way that I think he's heading for a fall.  Or maybe I just hope he is.  Koop seems all right, too.  Matt, Andrew, and especially Johnny can go home at any time, and I won't miss them.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Michel

[spiderpig]

This is the first episode I can remember where they cut directly to commercials without their clever pitchfork visual puns.

The men nominated someone who didn't commit any glaring booboos that I recall, while others ruined salmon after salmon and steak after steak.  It kills me to see food of that quality go to waste.  (Do you have to smash $25+/pound salmon into mush, Gordon?  Heat it up some more and I'd eat it.)

Ryan's finally getting some facetime.  His biggest criticism of her is that she's too quiet.

Ryan for the win.

[Brattinella]

Seriously, wasting all that expensive meat and fish!  That's a crime!  If you didn't throw a tantrum GORDON, maybe that expensive food wouldn't be garbage on the floor!

[backformore]

Wendy seems a bit unhinged to me.  One minute she's tearful and seems meek and quiet,  hoping her grandma will be proud of her, then the next minute she's yelling and  angry, dropping F-bombs and looking like she wants revenge on everyone who has wronged her.

[PepperMonkey]

I'm sorry: Ryan's voice drives me CRAZY.

Cannot believe Andrew DIPS SNUFF. Seriously. He. dips. snuff. I am so disgusted by that I can't even look at him anymore. We should not have to watch that on television.

Most of the men are total douchebags. Wait, I think I meant all of them are. Or at least none of them have proven any differently to date.

Finally, I cannot believe I am watching this. I swore it off a few years ago and have no idea why I came back. Help!

Edited October 22, 2016 by PepperMonkey
I misspelled douchebags. How does that happen on the internet?

[Michel]

On 10/22/2016 at 0:34 PM, spiderpig said:

This is the first episode I can remember where they cut directly to commercials without their clever pitchfork visual puns.

Actually, they've done it quite a few times this season.  And they did it at least once last season, during the punishment segment in Frank's boot episode, after Sous Chef Aaron verbally shut him up when he realized he was trying to brown-nose him.

Edited October 28, 2016 by Michel

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

5 hours ago, spiderpig said:

This is the first episode I can remember where they cut directly to commercials without their clever pitchfork visual puns.

Might've been something with the feed provided to your local station. The commercial breaks had those on Hulu.

3 hours ago, PepperMonkey said:

I'm sorry: Ryan's voice drives me CRAZY.

Cannot believe Andrew DIPS SNUFF. Seriously. He. dips. snuff. I am so disgusted by that I can't even look at him anymore. We should not have to watch that on television.

Most of the men are total douchebags. Wait, I think I meant all of them are. Or at least none of them have proven any differently to date.

Finally, I cannot believe I am watching this. I swore it off a few years ago and have no idea why I came back. Help!

Andrew's snuff habit is revolting.

I suspect you returned for the same reason a lot of us do: it's usually entertaining, especially with Gordon's periodic outbursts, and the show telegraphs everything to the point where you can have it on as background while dinking around on your smartphone, just looking up when something interesting's about to happen.

As for tonight's elimination: I would've eliminated the thoroughly unpleasant Andrew, whose steaks tonight sucked, and sent Aaron over to the red team in exchange for someone.

[MajorWoody]

This episode served to showcase some of the females as potential finalists, while showing the repeated failures of the men , both in the kitchen and as jerks in general. 

Also, Joe Perry, who must be in his mid to late 60's, looked like he spent 6 hours in the makeup chair before his brief camera shots. We also got the weekly requisite shot of some random dude pushing a forkful of grub in his piehole and saying "This is good". 

More phony drama buildup for the Seafood challenge, nothing like showing your potential executive chefs lack of experience by having several of them speak of their lack of knowledge about various types of smewhat common fish. 

Johnny should be sent back to McDonald's, or wherever he flips burgers, in the next week or two. Andrew , who seems like a somewhat competent cook but a complete douche as a person, not to mention a total slob with his drool cup, should also be sent packing shortly. He can then get back to the Running Deer Inn, or whatever dive he came from, and get back with his fellow flannel wearing woodchucks swilling Genny Cream Ale in between mouthfuls of chewin' terbaccy.

I found it funny how they made fun of Aarons attire at the day trip, while the others were in various stages of hipster d-bag over the top outfits. 

I am still amazed as to how purported professional chefs can plate a protein that even on TV is easily observed as being way under cooked. 

This might be the first season with zero males in black jackets.

[Michel]

On ‎10‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 8:40 AM, MajorWoody said:

Johnny should be sent back to McDonald's, or wherever he flips burgers, in the next week or two. Andrew , who seems like a somewhat competent cook but a complete douche as a person, not to mention a total slob with his drool cup, should also be sent packing shortly. He can then get back to the Running Deer Inn, or whatever dive he came from, and get back with his fellow flannel wearing woodchucks swilling Genny Cream Ale in between mouthfuls of chewin' terbaccy.

This might be the first season with zero males in black jackets.

@MajorWoody, that wouldn't bother me at all if it was all women in the black jackets.  The majority of them seem way more competent than the men do.  But I kinda don't think that Ramsay would do that, as much as he really sounded like he wants to.  FOX won't allow it.  They'll want him to get at least one man there.  As of now, the only one of the men I can truly see hitting the black jackets is Paulie.  He hasn't screwed up much in services, he's won every faceoff in the challenges (as he'll tell you himself in confessionals), and he seems to be the one the men's team respects the most.  Andrew is getting a heavy enough edit that I think he might get there, as well.  Devin is a maybe, but I think he'll fall short of the black jackets.  I definitely think Johnny, Koop (despite my not having too much of a problem with him), and Matt will be out of here before then.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Michel

[DropTheSoap]

The men's team seems to be a collection of massive egos with average talent. The whole dynamic doesn't really support working as a team. 

The women's team has some of the ego, but also a lot more willingness to work as a team.