Okay, the preview shot of all five of the remaining cheftestants holding hands while facing judges table is kind of freaking my shit out. That's a sight I'd never expect to see in a million years. I wonder what that's about.

I'm wondering about next week, too. It looked like Tom was working front of house or something.

I can't believe that either Spike or Lisa are going to end up in the final four. SO WRONG.

I know. I mean, seriously, has Spike done anything memorable besides be an asshat? And Lisa ... oh, dear god, she needs to go. The degree to which she's blind to her own faults is staggering. And she was totally a complete tattle-tale in school, wasn't she? The pair of them are truly horrid.

Stephanie, Richard and Antonia I'm all right with.

Man, I hope Bourdain does a blog for this episode. I cannot WAIT.

DEAR SPIKE AND LISA,

OMFGGETOFFMYTVNOW

The thing is, though, Dale clearly does not have the chops to be an executive chef. He was just like Nikki in the Wedding Wars - deciding early on that his team was too irritating to deal with (understandable given the players involved) and abdicating all responsibility for his kitchen. And he failed to really cook anything good enough to make up for that. He's clearly a talented cook, but mentally he's just not up to this kind of competition.

I have no idea how Spike's lasted this long. The only really standout dish he's made was that idiotic soup, and the only reason THAT was so good was because he fucked over his teammates by not helping with anything else on the menu. This week was the same thing - he didn't even COOK his dish! His one dish. Which he took credit for even though HE DIDN'T FUCKING COOK IT.

I'm not sure why Lisa thinks she can cook "Asian" food (and bless you, Tony B, for pointing out that Asia is, in fact, a pretty big place) when she can't even cook rice. Seems like a pretty basic skill to not have.

Dale's own fault because he was assy early and people think that he's going to be a problem on a team.

Yeah there's no way Antonia would have picked him for her team.

I'm not sure why Lisa thinks she can cook "Asian" food (and bless you, Tony B, for pointing out that Asia is, in fact, a pretty big place) when she can't even cook rice.

MADDENING!!! Come on! I've cooked sticky rice! it's not that hard! (even though her's was a toothless tranny mess it did make me crave mango sticky rice like whoa. I'll have to make it to the sat. farmer's market this weekend where there's a stall that has it. YUM!)

This is two weeks in a row that she's screwed up a rice dish. At least she refrained from blaming Dale for taking it off the heat this week, given her "I'm being sabatoged" ravings last week.

That said, earlier in the evening I caught a Throwdown I'd DVRd and even Bobby Flay has rice issues (he couldn't get it done right for a jambalaya and desrvedly lost).

Lisa's attitude (beyond being a rat) is just apalling, though. Early on, when she did some winning dishes, I just thought it was a temprament thing, but it's clearly killing her limited ability to cook (much as Dale's hissy fits and inability to play well with most others undermines his abilities).

The other team was such a refreshing blast of almost zen calm, it was soothing. Plus I loved Stephanie's kinky boots.

At least she refrained from blaming Dale for taking it off the heat this week

But she did yell at him about it rather than just taking care of business.

But she did yell at him about it rather than just taking care of business.

Yes, but she didn't bring it up at the judge's table.

Bwah! Somebody on another board just said Lisa has the worst case of kitty-butt face since the Church Lady.

abdicating all responsibility for his kitchen. And he failed to really cook anything good enough to make up for that.

Yeah, if his dish hadn't been nasty, maybe they could have gotten rid of Lisa. But lack of leadership AND lack of cooking? Yeah, no.

The other team was such a refreshing blast of almost zen calm, it was soothing.

I was thinking about how on these talent/skill shows, I don't mind boring, when it comes with actual talent and skill. It's nice to watch people who are good at what they do trying to do well, you know?