Month: September 2009

The Amazing Race 15 Episode 1

Last year, brother/sister duo Tammy & Victor were The Amazing Race 14 winners. The Amazing Race returns for season 15 with a two hour premiere. The Amazing Race 15 cast consists of 12 teams with a preexisting relationship.

Or at least it will consist of 12 teams for the next few minutes anyway. In a thoroughly lame twist, one team will be eliminated at the starting line. The race starts off in LA, which is convenient since half the contestants are from California and half wish to get work as actors/models following the race.

Just beyond their backpacks is the first challenge. The team that is unable to complete the challenge will be eliminated right there. It’s like the Family Edition. One team won’t even get out of the US. They will need to search the wall of over 1000 license plates for one of only 11 from the Shinagawa district of Tokyo, their first destination. At the very top of the clue is the symbol for this district, but nobody’s paying attention to that. Justin realizes it eventually. In the meantime, some teams are making dumb luck guesses. Phil will be handing out tickets on a first come, first served basis.

First flight (leaving 12:45PM): Maria & Tiffany, Marcy & Ron, Meghan & Cheyne, Herbert & Nathaniel, Gary & Matt, Zev & Justin
Second flight (leaving 1:15PM): Sam & Dan, Mika & Canaan, Garrett & Jessica, Brian & Ericka, Lance & Keri

Both of the final two teams didn’t bother rereading the clue until they were the last two teams standing, and it was then that both realized what they were looking for. Unable to complete this first task, yoga instructors Eric & Lisa have been eliminated from the race.

The poker players are already bluffing. They say they work for an organization that deals with homeless kids in LA.

The first stop os a television studio at the base of the Tokyo Tower. When they land, Maria & Tiffany are already having their first argument after missing the first shuttle.

The second flight lands earlier than expected, putting the gap between flights at just 8 minutes.

When the contestants arrive, they’re in a room where there’s apparently a game show going on. I’m expecting people wearing padding and falling into stuff, but the words I see are sushi and roulette. The host will spin a wheel containing 9 sushi rolls and 2 wasabi bombs. The sushi should be fine, but wasabi is extremely spicy. Ron and Cheyne get the first wasabi bombs, which they must eat within two minutes. Both of them finish the wasabi to advance to the next task, leaving the remaining teams at the mercy of the roulette wheel. Lame. You wanna talk about dumb luck. Garrett and Justin are the next ones to get wasabi, and they do okay as well. Maria is the only one get wasabi on the next spin, but she’s unable to finish in time. So the next time it’s Maria again. This time, she finishes with 1 second to spare. Big Easy and Lance go next and complete the task. Then Canaan is next, and he does fine. Brian and Gary are next. Gary completes the task, but Brian does not. Dan finally gets his shot, and he finishes in less than half the time. That leaves Brian all alone in the studio. He must wait again for the wheel to land on him. On his second try, he just barely finishes the wasabi. I can’t imagine Ericka’s cheerleading is helping him any, though.

Teams must then get their group of studio audience members to Konno Hachimangu Shrine, the pit stop for this leg of the race. Already? Because this a searching task through chaotic streets, it does provide some degree of hope for the teams who got screwed on the road block.

Meghan & Cheyne have the strategy of asking as many people as they can. Marcy’s looking like she may be a few eggs short of a dozen. Zev & Justin are stuck in the group with the woman with a broken shoe. Maria & Tiffany are trying to hook up with Sam & Dan, brothers who are gay. Brian & Ericka run right into a guy who knows exactly where they’re going and takes them there. Sam & Dan split off from Maria & Tiffany to go follow another team and see if they know what they’re doing instead. In the meantime, Maria & Tiffany have lost two people from their audience group and need to go find them. They aren’t alone. Mika & Canaan have left one person behind, which they don’t realize until they arrive at Phil. Despite the drama this leads to, it looks like only a matter of a couple minutes that they end up losing. Maria & Tiffany, however, have decided to just check in, without enough people.

First: Meghan & Cheyne (win a trip to Aspen and Vail)
Second: Zev & Justin
Third: Lance & Keri
Fourth: Marcy & Ron
Fifth: Herbert & Nathaniel
Sixth: Brian & Ericka
Seventh: Gary & Matt
Eighth: Garrett & Jessica
Ninth: Sam & Dan
Tenth: Mika & Canaan
Non-eliminated: Maria & Tiffany

Maria & Tiffany have incurred a two hour penalty for not completing the challenge, and they will also be faced with a speed bump in the next leg, which they will be advancing to.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 15 Episode 2, which airs next on CBS.

Survivor: Thailand Episode 6

Prior to the challenge in Survivor: Thailand Episode 5, Jeff asked whether anybody wanted to switch tribes. Everybody declined, but the two people who regretted it, Stephanie and Shii Ann, were the two people who received votes. In the end, Stephanie was voted off the island.

Robb tells Penny that Ken said she was considering voting him out last night. Penny denies this, so Robb confronts Ken. Ken can’t figure this out. Everybody else told him they were voting for Shii Ann, but they voted for Steph. Ken was the only one who told him the truth. During this conversation, Ken tells him some more truth. The first vote was indeed between Robb and Jed because everybody hated Robb. That was a week and a half ago, and now he’s questioning it.

Boatless Chuay Gahn is still swimming toward their water source, about 3 miles. The men have it in their head that they’re going to swim to the island across the way. They think maybe it’s about a mile away, but the women are worried that it’s a lot further than that. It is. Of the three, Brian’s the only one who’s a good swimmer. The other two are just floating along for the ride. When they finally arrive, there’s no boat in sight.

Everybody on Sook Jai agreed to not eat the bananas and instead let them to get ripe to avoid eating them all. Robb apparently does not agree with that. As if he’s not a big enough outcast, Robb grabs a banana. If he’s hungry, he will eat a banana. He doesn’t intend to listen to anybody. Food on Survivor is huge. People have been voted out over much less than one banana.

The reward challenge is to launch balls and catch them in wicker baskets. Reward is a Thai feast with local entertainment. Shii Ann sits out for Sook Jai. Robb scores the first point. Ted scores but Robb scores again to take the lead 2-1. Robb scores again to take the lead 3-1. No score on the fourth balls. Robb scores again to take the lead 4-1. Chuay Gahn take a timeout and switch to match Ted up against Robb instead of Brian. Clay scores and it’s 4-2. No score on the next round. Brian scores to make it 4-3. Ted scores to tie it 4-4. No score the next time, and the previously happy Ken is upset with Robb. Rather than arguing, they need to come up with a new plan because going to Robb every time obviously stopped working a few points ago. No score again. Ken scores a point to win reward for Sook Jai.

Helen thinks the guys were tired during the challenge because they swam over to the other island looking for the boat.

Following the feast, Robb and Ken go on a walk, where Robb says he’s learning not to take the place so much for granted, and whatever beef they had has been squashed.

Jan has found an unborn baby bat on the ground. Let’s have a funeral for Oscar. Brian wants to know whether she’s losing it.

The immunity challenge is called Thai 21. There are 21 flags in the circle, and they must get the 21st flag to win. They are able to grab 1, 2, or 3 flags at a time. Robb sits out for Sook Jai. Sook Jai takes 2 flags. Chuay Gahn also takes 2. Sook Jai takes 2. Chuay Gahn takes 1 to bring them down to 14. Sook Jai takes 1, then Chuay Gahn also takes 1, and Sook Jai takes 1. Chuay Gahn takes 2 to bring it down to 9 flags. Sook Jai is looking to Shii Ann to make their decision. They take 3 to bring it down to 6. All Chuay Gahn has to do now is take 2 flags to win, which they do. Sook Jai takes 3 to leave 1 final flag. Chuay Gahn wins immunity.

Whatever bonding he may have done with Ken earlier, the result here is obvious. Robb is going home. Nonetheless, he’s said he had a breakthrough and learned some things he will take with him for the rest of his life.

Still, Shii Ann realizes that half of her tribe still doesn’t like her or trust her, and she feels the same way toward them.

When voting for Robb, Shii Ann has an old proverb. A wise man knows much but says little; a fool knows little but says far too much.

Votes
Shii Ann
Robb
Robb
Robb
Robb

By a unanimous vote, Robb has been voted off the island. It sounds to Jeff like the person who inspired their spiritual growth has just been voted out.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Thailand Episode
7 Assumptions.

The Beautiful Life Cancelled

Well, that lasted about a week. The CW has cancelled its DOA new series The Beautiful Life: TBL after just two episodes. The show’s first episode had just 1.3 million viewers, fading to 1.1 million for its second outing. If they really want to give Ashton a show, why not give Beauty and the Geek another shot?

At least The CW still has The Vampire Diaries and, well, that’s about it at this point. Monday nights are limping along, Tuesdays are fairing even worse (with Melrose Place on life support out of the gates), and even the previously dependable Top Model is struggling, now down under 3 million viewers.

The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 3

After playing games about whether or not they were interested in each other, Stefan and Elena finally ended up kissing at the end of The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 2.

Following her encounter with Damon, Caroline wakes up with blood on her neck. She tries to sneak out without waking him, but he’s right in front of her before she notices him move. Then she tries to hit him with a lamp, which obviously isn’t going to do anything.

Bonnie now wants Elena to take it slow, after having been the one to tell her to go for it in the first place.

Tyler believes he can hit Stefan upside the head with a football while he and Elena are talking. He believes wrong. Stefan hears that thing coming, turns around, and catches it, then throws it back. Having seen this throw, Elena now wants to talk him into joining the football team. Yeah, he doesn’t really seem like a team kinda guy. Oh, and Matt and Tyler hate him.

When he’s done showing off his football skills, they go to history class, where Stefan again proves to Mr. Tanner that he knows more than him.

After class, Stefan decides to try out for the team. Tanner, also the football coach, just wants to see him get hit, so he’ll give him a chance. Matt and Ty will be happy to oblige.

Caroline shows up at practice and looks just fine, aside from the scarf she’s now wearing.

Stefan proves to be a formidable wide receiver. Even Matt’s impressed. Tyler, however, wants to see if he can injure the new guy. Well, he can try.

Bonnie’s obsessed with numbers today: 8, 14, and 22. Pointless discussion or some sort of clue?

While they’re eating dinner, Damon and Caroline show up. He’s gonna need an invite from someone who lives in the house. As much as Stefan may try to prevent this invite, he’s free to come in anyway.

Katherine died in a fire. It wasn’t exactly what you would call yesterday, though. The fact that she dated both brothers is not lost on Elena.

Stefan likes Caroline’s really nice scarf. Can he see it? No, she can’t take it off. She really can’t.

That night, Elena has a dream that she’s rounding second base with Stefan. When she takes off his shirt, he turns into Damon. As she wakes up, she fails to notice the crow in her window.

Following Damon’s advice, Elena has decided to quit cheerleading. It’s just not important to her any more. She shows up at the game with everybody else anyway. While there, she gets a necklace from Stefan. So what’s this necklace’s purpose?

Bored with the festitivies and angry that Stefan’s already a starter, Tyler decides to pick a fight with Jeremy. After some punches are thrown, Tyler learns that if he wants to fight, he’ll have to fight Stefan. He punches him. No impact. Then Jeremy gets up with his broken bottle and slashes Stefan’s hand. Obviously, this wound heals right away. He pretends that it wasn’t his blood, but Elena knows what she saw.

After that, Elena needs to find out what’s going on. If only she knew a psychic witch. When she touched Stefan, Bonnie got a feeling, a feeling of what she imagines death to be like.

When Damon meets up with Elena, he’ll bet she thinks about him and has even dreamed about him. Right now, she wants to kiss him. That mind control doesn’t work. Guess that explains the necklace.

Although Tyler still hates Stefan’s guts, Matt is coming around.

Stefan has managed to figure out the small bit of humanity still left in his brother. Damon loves Katherine and always has. Not that that humanity will prevent him from killing the coach for no reason.

Bonnie finally figures out what those numbers mean. Building 8, a car with 14 on the license plate, and the number 22 next to the trail of blood. Creepy, but not the most useful vision.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Episode 4 Family Ties, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Survivor: Samoa Episode 2

Because she kinda sorta but not really crossed Russell, Marisa was voted off the island in Survivor: Samoa Episode 1.

Hunter H says that he got rid of Marissa because he doesn’t want to worry about her strong mind. Isn’t she one of the people he called a dumbass last week?

Betsy and Russell agree with each other that they don’t trust each other.

Yasmin hates the outdoors. You’re on the wrong show.

Jaison was shocked by how aggressively Russell H acted at tribal council. If he thought that was aggressive, he’d better just wait because it will get even worse as time passes.

Russell H’s got a new plan: find the hidden idol. He starts searching in the middle of the daylight with everybody standing right there, and somehow this works. Great job of hiding that thing, producers. He immediately tells Jaison.

Mike and Betsy are the next two on the chopping block for Foa Foa.

The challenge is a battle to retrieve three balls and pass them to three other tribemates, who will attempt to shoot them into the opposing basket. Typically, these battle challenges are a bad idea. This challenge is for immunity, reward (fishing gear), and a twist. Monica sits out for Galu. Liz scores the first point for Foa Foa. The women get rougher than the men were and are warned about choking and aggressive hits to the head. John scores for Galu to tie it. Probst warns them they’re right on the line of getting ugly. Dude, this challenge is your fault. You want a rough challenge, you’ve got it. Anything resembling a cheap shot will result in elimination. With a kick to Russell S’ knee, Ben has been eliminated from the challenge. Jeff calls this first time in the history of Survivor that this has happened (refer to Survivor: Thailand Episode 3, another battle challenge). With that, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Foa Foa’s too outnumbered to be a factor. Erik scores for Galu to take the lead 2-1. Then Laura scores to win immunity for Galu. What a poorly planned challenge.

The twist involves the leader. Russell S must select one person from his tribe to accompany someone else back to camp. Yasmin is chosen. She has been given something to open in private, presumably the clue to the already discovered idol.

Mike will be staying behind to have medical look at him. It doesn’t seem that it’s the poorly planned challenge that caused his problem, though. Rather, it is the physical activity. He’s suffering from very low blood pressure, and it keeps dropping. They will be pulling him from the game, without a choice.

Foa Foa’s now down to 8 members, but tribal council still looms.

Shambo said that spear fishing is her thing. It’s apparently not. She’s unable to catch anything and instead does some floating in the water. To make matters worse, she broke the mask.

When Yasmin visits Foa Foa, she insults them. She’s there to help because she doesn’t want this to be a cakewalk. They’re too inept to do anything on their own, so she’s there to save them. When she’s done with her condescending speech to the tribe as a whole, she wants to talk to Ben in private, except it’s not very private because everything she says is yelled. He tackled her like a dude, but he ain’t gonna apologize. So she runs her mouth some more.

Yasmin receives a clue to the idol. She knows it’s up a tree, but she won’t bother to look.

In the middle of the night, Ben is making as much noise as he can, working along as he would during the day. His tribe really doesn’t need much more reason to vote for him. Regardless, Betsy is the weakest link, so that may be his saving grace.

When they go to tribal council, Betsy is the only one to bring her bag.

Ben still believes he can win this game.

Votes
Betsy
Ben
Betsy
Betsy
Betsy
Betsy

By a unanimous vote, Betsy has been voted off the island. She warns that they need to open up their eyes, and based on the previews, maybe they will.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Samoa Episode 3, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 3

The stop in Phoenix in So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 2 brought us Sasha Mallory, Allison Becker, Willem de Vries, Jacob Jason, and Jonathan “Legacy” Perez. Tonight we head to Boston, where Mary and Nigel are joined by Tyce Diorio.

Teddy Tedholm says he’s whimsical. Whatever that’s supposed to mean, I’m not getting this dancing, but the judges love him. He’s going to Vegas.

I’m not sure what to expect from Jean Lloret from how he starts, but when he gets down to his power moves, he proves to be an excellent breaker.

Kimara Wood will be joining him in Vegas.

Channing Cooke has been waiting until she turned 18 to be on this show. Nigel thinks she’s got everything needed. Tyce would like to see her go further. He asks for more guts on the stage. If she’s looking for clear guidance, she ain’t getting it here. She advances to choreography.

Brian Casey is a 6’8″ tall tap dancer. They’ll probably pair him up with some girl who’s just shy of 5′. Nigel is impressed by his feet, and he’s going to choreography.

Russell Ferguson is a krumper, and he’s hoping to be the first one to ever make it to Vegas. Nigel says that was buck, which what we’ve gathered from Lil C is a good thing. His concern is that krump is too one dimensional. Tyce thought that was filthy and dirty, and Russell’s one of his favorite people there in Boston. He will be getting a shot at choreography.

Fabrizio “Breeze” Jenkins may or may not have just injured himself. He acknowledges he fell in the middle of that, but he just kept going. Tyce tells him he’ll need to train and gives him a no to choreography, but Mary and Nigel say yes.

His advance to the choreography round turns out to be pointlesss, as Breeze is unable to continue without being able to do the turns after having fallen earlier and landed the wrong way on his ankle. Brian will not be going to Vegas. Channing, however, will be, and so will Russell.

Married couple Karen and Matthew Hauer are cha cha dancers. Mary calls her a hot tamale. She’s Jennifer Lopez hot with solid technique. They will be both heading to Vegas.

Gene Bersten has fallen in love. With himself. Cat can’t help but roll her eyes at him. Although he’s a good dancer, his arrogance will be a big turn off, and I don’t see him getting the female votes he’s expecting. Mary’s worried about his out of control facial expressions, but he will be advancing to choreography.

Paul Magliato is, uh, well, it’s not clear what he’s doing. Tyce is afraid. Aside from the fact that he wasn’t really what you would call dancing, he’s 46, which puts him outside the age range for the competition to begin with. Mary says he’s off his rocker.

The final dancer of the night, Kevin “K’Bez” Hunte, auditioned during season 3. Mary still doesn’t know whether he’s strong enough. He’s good but not great. Tyce wants to know why he didn’t show off his contemporary, which he says he’s been training in. He will be going to choreography. Why choreography?

K’Bez obviously makes it through Vegas, and so does Gene.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

The Biggest Loser 8 Episode 2

After she and Julio fell below the yellow line in The Biggest Loser 8 Episode 1, Alexandra was voted out.

Shay doesn’t think Julio should be here due to his low weight loss. As a percentage, Amanda and Dina lost less than he did, but they had stronger partners. Should they, too, not be there?

Seeing how hard the vote has been on them, Allison makes a proposition. At the next weigh-in, they have the opportunity to keep everyone above the yellow line. They must lose a combined total of 150 pounds. If they can, everybody is safe. If not, two people will go home.

Daniel knows the potential perils of week two. He lost 3 pounds last season. Mo’s hope is to coach them into that 150 pounds, and his message to Julio is that he owes them. With his poor weight loss the first week, Julio’s got the most potential to pull off a big number.

Julio’s safety elicits wows from Bob and Jillian. More surprising to them is the twist for the week. Jillian suggests just picking two people to go home right now. Her message to them is proper diet. Watch your intake, but don’t starve yourself.

Bob tells Dina that she needs to chill out, or she won’t make it very far if she keeps spinning her mind out of control. Stress is the worst thing she can do to herself at this point.

Mo returns to the hospital to visit his partner, Tracey, who collapsed during the first challenge. He gives her the news that she’s got the chance to come back.

Shay remains frustrated with Julio, believing that he’s not working still. He walks out of the gym for a bahtroom break. He returns 2 hours and 19 minutes later. Everybody else was working out when he left, and everybody else is still there now. He also doesn’t seem to know how many calories he needs to burn. If he continues to slack off for another week, I agree with her that he should go home.

Tracey is out of the hospital and ready to get started on the ranch, even though she’s feeling weak. This experience has served as a big wake up call. If she can collapse at age 37 after just 1 mile, think what another 50 pounds and 10 years would do. The doctor has allowed her to come back under restricted exercise, which means her nutrition will be even more important than it would be otherwise. Having one extra person may bode well for the house because it gives them an extra shot at losing that 150 pounds.

Curtis Stone has 7 tips to share with the contestants, which Allison will quiz them on later. The prize is a 15 pound advantage.

Which plate contains the correct portion size for a family of 4?
Mo and Tracey choose the correct plate that is 3-4 ounces of 4 servings.

Name 3 out of 5 ways of cooking without oil.
Baked, poached, and steamed. Shay and Danny score another point.

How many calories are in this popular chain restaurant’s chicken season salad?
1010. Liz and Danny are correct. Just because it’s salad doesn’t mean it’s healthy if you load on the dressing.

How many fewer calories are there in a serving of zucchini combined with pasta rather than just pure pasta?
248. Amanda and Rebecca are correct.

How many calories would you consume if you had one 16 ounce glass of soda with 3 refills?
747. Answering 789 calories, Abby and Allen are incorrect.

Which dessert is less than 150 calories?
Cup of strawberries with half an ounce of melted dark chocolate dipping sauce. Answering the parfait, Antoine and Sean are incorrect.

Name 2 of 3 reasons why it’s important to add protein to any snack.
It makes you feel fuller and gives more fuel to your muscles to work longer. Rudy and Dina score a point to win the challenge, bringing their goal weight loss down to 135 pounds.

The challenge involves 4 rafts separated by balance beams. Their job is to get every person across the balance beams from one raft to the next. Everybody must get on each raft before moving on. They have one shot. If one person falls off, they lose. If everyone reaches the first raft, they get a 5 pound advantage. The second raft is an additional 5 pounds. The third raft is phone calls from home. If they complete the challenge, they get another 10 pounds, for a total of 20 pounds. Each balance beam is narrower than the one before it. They all cross the first balance beam for 5 pounds. The second balance beam is harder, but they all make it, securing an additional 5 pound advantage. The third balance beam requires a lot more teamwork, but they make it across and get phone calls. Keep your eyes on the prize, folks. That 10 pounds and staying here another week beats a phone call to someone you haven’t talked to in a week. The final beam is 6 inches wide and more wobbly than the others. Everybody makes it to win the challenge and get another 10 pounds. That brings them down to 115 pounds they have to lose to prevent anybody from going home.

Jillian’s ready to kill Julio to get him to work.

Bob wants Shay to gain strength from her experiences, rather than continuing to play the victim.

The 115 pound goal comes out to a little more than 7 pounds each.

Amanda: 240 pounds (-4, 1.64%)
Rebecca: 255 pounds (-6, 2.30%)
Pink Total: 495 pounds (-10, 1.98%)

Tracey: 228 pounds (-10, 4.20%)
Mo: 327 pounds (-9, 2.68%)
Purple Total: 555 pounds (-19, 3.31%)

Antoine: 341 pounds (-8, 2.29%)
Sean: 411 pounds (-11, 2.61%)
Red Total: 752 pounds (-19, 2.46%)

Allen: 296 pounds (-10, 3.27%)
Abby: 221 pounds (-11, 4.74%)
Green Total: 517 pounds (-21, 3.90%)

Liz: 247 pounds (-10, 3.89%)
Danny: 394 pounds (-12, 2.96%)
Brown Total: 641 pounds (-22, 3.32%)

Rudy: 400 pounds (-14, 3.38%)
Dina: 237 pounds (-8. 3.27%)
Blue Total: 637 pounds (-22, 3.34%)

Julio: 375 pounds (-19, 4.82%)

Daniel: 293 pounds (-7, 2.33%)
Shay: 443 pounds (-16, 3.49%)
Orange Total: 736 pounds (-23, 3.03%)

As a group, they’ve managed to lose 155 pounds, enough to not only be safe for the week but to beat their original goal of 150 pounds.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 8 Episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 11

Sabrina was sent packing in Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 10.

Having made it to the final 6, the blue and red teams are now done. Break out the black coats.

The challenge is to recreate a dish based on seeing and tasting it. They will be divided into three teams of two: Van and Ariel, Tennille and Kevin, and Suzanne and Dave. Kevin knows right off the bat that the fish is turbot, and the others all eventually end up at that same conclusion. They all answer the same on the garnish, calamari. At Ariel’s suggestion, she and Van go with celery root for the puree, while the other two teams pick parsnip. For the sauce, Ariel and Van go with star fruit, Kevin and Tennille pick grapefruit, and Dave and Suzanne choose passion fruit. As time’s ticking down, Van drops the fish, running the risk of yet more undercooked fish. At least it’s not halibut this time. Ariel and Van get close in presentation, but that’s not gonna win them anything unless they’ve nailed the dish as well. Kevin put the garnish off to the side. Too far to the side, as they forgot to include it in their dish. The correct ingredients are: turbot, white onion (everybody missed it), calamari, and passion fruit. Kevin and Tennille aren’t even in this due to their lack of garnish, so it came down to the sauce, which Dave and Suzanne correctly identified to win the challenge.

For their reward, Dave and Suzanne will get to meet the winner of Hell’s Kitchen season 4 at Chef Ramsay’s restaurant. The punishment will be to do a prep for that night’s service for couple’s night with a beautiful romantic setting.

Suzanne asks Christina whether she was the know it all on her season. With a yes answer in place, Suzanne believes she can win this. Not sure what’s given her reason to believe that, but at lesat she’s staying positive. Dave’s having great fun, except for that he’s stuck being there with Suzanne.

Dave and Suzanne are treated like outcasts upon their return, but Tennille realizes that they still need to work together because every mistake costs the team.

Kevin is on tableside service, while Suzanne is on hot appetizers. The coordination of timing between the two is critical, so Suzanne cooking the incorrect quantity will not get them off to the best start. Kevin’s left having to buy time for them because Suzanne’s 2 minutes is more like 5 or so. Suzanne’s hope: you don’t have to be that perfect to win this show.

Van’s on fish again. New night. More screaming. First he starts to cook too early. Then he sweats into the food.

Tennille’s taking the lead on the meat station and is the first hint of good communication to come out of the kitchen tonight. Her lamb is also perfectly cooked.

Van delivers undercooked halibut. Oh no. Not this again. Then Ramsay ends up in the fetal position on the floor.

At least the lettuce is not undercooked. Ariel left some lettuce on a burner that’s on, then she turned around, resulting in really well done garnish.

Ramsay walks out of the restaurant. Maybe now they’ll get some peace.

With Ramsay gone, Tennille takes it upon herself to take control. She seems to be doing a good job, but Ariel’s limping around and not having it. Dave tries to bail Ariel out but realizes she seems defeated.

Then Kevin takes over at the pass to prove that they can still get this done on their own. When he gets them caught up and heads out to the dining room, that leaves Suzanne in charge. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, though. So Van has to do it for her. Her strategy it turns out is simple. Don’t do anything at all because she doesn’t want to be blamed. With that attitude, go home.

When he returns, Ramsay throws out Suzanne, Van, and Ariel, leaving Tennille, Dave, and Kevin to finish dinner service. Suzanne may have some hope here. Van’s closing in on a meltdown.

The three remaining chefs finish dinner service, and when it’s over, Tennille is told that’s the best anyone’s done on meat. Since those three are all safe, they will be able to choose who should be up for elimination of the other three.

Dave’s considering a strategic move here, which would mean the nomination of Ariel. In order for this to work, though, she has to actually go home. Not happening no matter who she’s up against.

The two nominees are Suzanne for her refusal to help at the pass and Ariel because she burned some lettuce (is that really the best excuse you could come up with?). When asked whether Ariel’s one of the weakest chefs, Tennille responds that she does not believe so. Suzanne and Van should be up there.

Ramsay asks all three of them to step forward. Ariel’s name is called, and she immediately assumes she’s being kicked off the show. Nope, she can get back in line. Next time he calls your name, staying put would show more confidence. Van can hand over his jacket. Wrong choice. For her refusal to work on the pass, Suzanne should not have been given yet another chance.

Dave is upset with Tennille for saying that Van was one of the weaker choices. In reality, it was Dave’s own fault. He should not have made that stupid attempt at a strategic play without giving it some additional thought. Burnt lettuce? Really?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 12, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.