MALARKEY!

And I wasn't really noticing the crazy either until it was pointed out to me. It's a little like rewatching a mystery and seeing all of the clues you missed.

Speaking of Brian, I think we saw him at the Omni San Diego. He was walking through the lobby in his chef's jacket with someone. (At least, I think it was Brian. It was some TC person. I remembered it more clearly two weeks ago.)

Well, that's the place to see him. I keep having vague thoughts that I've seen C.J. somewhere around Orange County in the past, but it might have been some other unbelievably huge person.

Speaking of C.J., I was terrified for him the entire episode as soon as he didn't get immunity. Even though he didn't really seem to do anything wrong during the episode (artichokes are many people's bane) his head was so very much on the chopping block if his team fowled up.

He's cemented his place as my favorite. Aside from the both being from O.C. thing, I imagine that I'd handle myself pretty much the same way in those circumstances. The sarcasm would just flow.

Now I want to got to the tour! Jesse, kat?

I would so be down for a NY tour outing.

TC: I'm not sure how much longer my Hung love can survive, despite the continued monkey references. What is with the running around the kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off? And unfortunately, he's turning out to be just not a very good cook. Sad.

I do enjoy CJ, but Trey is still my favorite. I hope he wins. Anyone who can make good grits is aces in my book.

It would be so odd (but good odd) to wind up with African American winners of both TC and HK.

Looks like next week is new menus and at least one name change -- one of the restaurants in the preview was called "Quartre."

If they had to do the same menus, I don't think I'd see the point. The menu was half the problem to begin with. Actually, that goes for all of it, except for the composition of the teams.

You know, it would be excellent to wind up with two African American winners and I like Tre better than Rock.

I think that they could makes some changes otherwise there would be no point and they might as well have named Rest. April the winners and canned Howie or Sara.

I've liked Dale well enough but picking scented candles? And then saying that he didn't have a good sense of smell??? Crazy! I guess he was just trying to make excuses.

I love that they are having a do-over. That seems like it would be an important quality to determine in a Top Chef -- figuring out how they respond to a bad review.

Yes -- it does.

I'm just so longing for Howie to be eliminated. I will be really disappointed that he doesn't go. And I am a little bit disappointed for Hung that he didn't finally get an elimination challenge win.

The extra for next week is already up I'm now a bit worried for CJ - it seems to feature him.

I've liked Dale well enough but picking scented candles? And then saying that he didn't have a good sense of smell???

This. Plus, isn't a good sense of smell important for a chef? I mean - as a judge that comment would put me off no matter what else he ends up cooking, and I like the dude.

I'd have rather heard him say that they didn't realize how strong the candles were in the store - competing scents can be overwhelming when shopping - but they should have caught it as soon as they were in their dining space.

As for Brian - I think he was completely rattled when the judges showed up and they were the first table to be served. The team had no chance to settle into service or work out anything - they had to be spot on from the git-go, while the other team had more of a chance to get in a routine.