"The Contestants' Mothers Vote"
Tonight's episode is that one episode in every reality show that reaches a critical moment where the person eliminated is truly the biggest loser of the season. To come this far, to suffer through all those late nights and to hear yourself called "donkey" more times than you can count, and
still not make it to the finals? That has got to be brutal.
I loved seeing everyone's mothers visit
Hell's Kitchen this week, especially
Chef Ramsay's! It's easy to sometimes forget he's human, and seeing his mother in the flesh was a good reminder. It was also a great morale booster for the chefs to have their mothers there. In this episode especially, the pressure was on and it was nice to see some relief from it, if even for a moment! And lucky Jen got to spend the whole day with her mother. Did it bother anyone else that when she got the $1,000 shopping spree, she didn't buy anything for poor Rock and Bonnie, at home slaving away cleaning the dorms? I seem to recall that being a point of contention last season, but Rock and Bonnie didn't seem to mind.
As for the real challenge of the night, each person got to take control of the kitchen. I think it was this event that secured Bonnie's placement in the finals. She screamed Chef Ramsay's ear off during her practice round and annoyed me so much during her tour of duty that she must have been doing a great job! And alas, Jen is a goner. There seems to be a pattern here that the chef who wins the first challenge gets sent home that night. Last week Julia won the trip to Vegas only to be eliminated post-kitchen service, and tonight Jen. By the way, I almost died when Chef Ramsay called Rock's name: "Rock, you've got to go. [pause] Into the final." I know that I should know better by now, after three seasons of Chef Ramsay's twists and turns, but he nearly got me tonight.
Now the end is near and it's time to gear up for the finale, which begins next week. The old chefs are back and I can't wait to see our good friend Cowboy Aaron!
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