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Hey all I’m still smarting from Amanda’s elimination last week but you have to figure Suzanne’s not too long for this show anyway. She may last a few more weeks for the drama but once the rest of the weaker chefs (Sabrina and Andy) go home she may be next. Or maybe Chef will wisen up and get rid of the know-it-all if she has another bad week. You figure one of those three are likely to go home tonight unless someone else really screws up.

-With all the focus on Andy in the recap I’m guessing that’s not a good sign for him. Though I think calling Amanda “disappointing” was a bit harsh.

-Suzanne is actually quite humble and sincere when apologizing to her teammates after elimination. Somehow I don’t think that will last.

-And kudos to Ariel for showing some leadership while talking to Suzanne about how she needs to focus more on interacting with her teammates. She is definitive but respectful- the kind of leader I like.

-Mmm crepes- I’ve never actually had them but I’ve had blintzes which I think are similar (and delicious!)

-Suzanne probably was overcompensating for her lack of team spirit by offering her teammates everything (and I mean everything) they could possibly need, but I still thought her teammates were too hard on her. Better this version of Suzanne than the bossy, know-it-all version.

-Wow I guess those crepes really are harder to make than they look. Though in the end they all came out pretty decent looking.

-JP is judging- awesome!!!

-First up is Van and Ariel I wonder if JP remembers his little run-in with Van early on in the season.

-Ariel wins, though I don’t know how salmon is really a breakfast…

-Tennille v. Andy. Tennile’s sounds weird but Andy’s decision to do ham and cheese is clever. Wow he won- maybe there is hope for him yet.

Suzanne v. Kevin. Suzanne spends a lot of time describing her dish. Chef always hates this, but I still think her teammates overreacted again. It’s like every little thing Suzanne does wrong gets scrutinized just because her teammates hate her, which just doesn’t seem fair.

-JP is not really doing much judging – he’s basically just nodding in agreement with Chef Ramsay so far. I wonder if the two disagree on a crepe what will happen.

-Chef announces the winner of this round, further showing who the real judge is. I guess Chef can’t sit on the sidelines for too long. Anyway I’m surprised it was a tie between these two since it seemed like they liked Suzanne’s a bit better. But of course they did it that way so that it will come down to the last round, as usual- Dave v. Sabrina.

-The men should have this in the bag with Dave, which of course means the women will win.

-Kevin thinks they have it in the bag- oh yeah the men are screwed. And Chef’s reaction going into commercial just confirms my fears.

-Ew I can see why Chef reacted like he did- Dave’s crepe looks like someone just threw up on the plate. Between this and the fig fiasco of a few weeks earlier it seems challenges aren’t really Dave’s thing. I still think he’ll make the final three with Kevin and Ariel but if he doesn’t step it up it may be the other two fighting for the prize.

-Wow they won’t even taste Dave’s crepe. Ouch. I wonder what happens if Sabrina’s stinks though- will there be no winner?? Or will the red team win because there’s was at least edible?

-It doesn’t matter because the red team wins. I still can’t believe Chef told Sabrina her dessert was Whistler worthy. Maybe she can surprise us all and make the finals.

-So in the end only Tennille didn’t get a point for her red team. Maybe she is the weakest link after all.

-On the men’s side it was Dave and Van who let them down, but of course the blame will be put on Dave’s shoulders because he was last. Though in this case I think he deserves most of the blame- Van’s idea and filling were decent but the crepe itself was bad. Dave’s was just a disaster.

-Supposedly Andy is going to cut his hand really badly while prepping both kitchens in the punishment. Van better watch his back since he’ll be the only one left on his team not injured…

-Good to see Dave take full responsibility for his poor performance in the challenge.

-The girls are learning pantomime- that’s kind of lame reward. Though I guess it could help them with communication in the kitchen. Their communication now certainly can’t get any worse. And I’m sure the red team is happy to “fake punch” Suzanne for a few hours and get some of their anger issues out.

-Haha I love when the losing teams have to eat tongue and other disgusting sounding body parts for lunch. Though Andy actually likes eating pig’s head- that actually explains a lot.

-Maybe if Dave did throw up on the plate after eating the tongue his plate would have looked like his crepe he made for Chef.

-Did Andy just cut himself on a grater? Cutting yourself with a knife is one thing but cutting yourself on a cheese grater takes some skill. Although technically he got hurt in his own kitchen it looked like so it wasn’t the punishment’s fault (this time).

-He CUT THE TOP OF HIS FINGERS OFF! Holy cow that looks painful- it looked like he had small holes on each of his fingers. At least I think that’s what it looked like- I turned away once they showed all the blood.

-I wonder if Andy will miss service while getting stitches. Though according to the preview everyone does so bad in the service that they are all kicked out of the kitchen, so maybe this injury will actually allow him to stay for one more week. If that happens things will get interesting since I wonder if Chef would cut Sabrina after she did well in the challenge. Then again Amanda won the challenge for her team last week and it didn’t help her that much.

-There is all this talk about the men having no shot even though they are (only) one person down. I guess that means they will win service. Fair enough since none of them deserve to go home yet except Andy, and Chef never sends people home who miss service.

-Wow Andy is back already- I’m amazed. He probably would have been better off staying in the hospital all night since now there is a good shot he will go home.

-Andy doesn’t know what is going on since he missed a lot of the prep. Normally I would sympathize with him but it seems like he never knows what is going on even when he is present the whole time.

-Good for Dave stepping up and doing the risotto for Andy- another sign of a good leader.

-Sabrina may well be in trouble. She insists the risotto she cooks tastes good, but Chef thinks otherwise. Whenever contestants on Top Chef insist their poor dishes are good they are sent home, and that may be the case tonight as well.

-At least Sabrina’s next risotto was good. She is maddeningly inconsistent, and I think Chef’s constant criticism is part of his way of motivating her. You can tell who he really thinks is garbage and who he thinks has potential, and I think Sabrina falls into the latter category.

-Kevin criticizes Andy for not being able to make a simple crepe, but if I remember correctly all of them (including Kevin) struggled to make crepes in the challenge. A bit hypocritical, don’t you think?

-The red team tonight is communicating, which is a good start. Plus it allows Chef to see that it really is Suzanne screwing over the team. She says she’ll be ready with a dish in three minutes and then two minutes later says she needs six more minutes. It seems she’s not a good judge of how long it takes the dish to cook. I’ll give her credit for being honest with her team and saying she needs more time but she still must learn how to better judge the timing of her dishes.

-Too bad Chef wasn’t in the kitchen to see Suzanne’s breakdown. She does admit to Chef that she is the one who needs five minutes (that’s how I interpreted her comment of “I need five minutes” to Chef, though others may conclude she was being selfish again and only referring to herself, not the team). But of course right when I give her credit she goes and blames the oven for her troubles. One step forward, two steps back.

-Wow Dave looks like he is literally in four places at once. AND he has only one arm. AND his dishes impress Chef. Maybe he will make the finals after all.

-Suzanne finally does get called out, this time for cutting the lamb too soon. It seems like this is a common mistake on this show- don’t these people watch prior seasons? Anyway I think her earlier mistake was worse than this but at least she’s getting what she deserved last week and earlier tonight.

-Dave can do four different dishes with one arm, but all Andy can do with one hand is make salad? And he can’t even do that right! Unfortunately I think the blue team is going to win tonight so he’ll be safe another week, even though he’s by far the weakest chef left in either kitchen.

-I just realized that if the men win the next two services Andy will be into singles. He’s like this year’s version of Matt from season 4, cut finger and all.

-Ha Chef just said the same thing I said- that if Dave can cook with one arm why can’t Andy cook with one hand??

-Suzanne then forgets how the lamb should be cooked. Forget what I said earlier about Sabrina- it HAS to be Suzanne or Andy going home tonight, right?

-Well maybe not, especially after Sabrina challenges Chef, claiming he wants her to put too many spices on the frog legs (which I don’t think I would eat even if they were covered in spice). I think Suzanne has been worse tonight than Sabrina has been but Sabrina is almost talking back to Chef, and he hates that.

-If so many people are supposed to get kicked out of the kitchen tonight, I’m surprised Andy, Sabrina, and Suzanne haven’t all been shown the door yet.

-Well Andy is the first one thrown out, which isn’t surprising considering he’s been the worst so far tonight. And he even calls out Chef in the process, saying he is too mean in the kitchen. One small problem with this logic: Chef wouldn’t have to be so mean if Andy was more competent.

-And Sabrina and Suzanne are not that far behind. I think those three are the next to go in some order, and I won’t miss any of them.

-It is a good sign for Tennille and Ariel that Chef trusts them enough to finish service despite losing half their team. The remaining blue team members are equally as impressive. As I said before this will likely be the final five.

-Hmm there is no winning team tonight, which means Andy still has a shot of going home. But I don’t get why Chef has them only pick two people to put up for elimination when it’s clear whichever one of the three banishees they don’t pick will be put up there anyway. I guess he just wants to heighten the drama and put the contestants against each other in the deliberations.

-I would put Andy and Suzanne up since I think Sabrina’s mistakes were the least egregious. But I don’t think it matters since all three will be put up anyway. Between Suzanne and Andy it’s a tossup over who was worse, though I think Suzanne actually can cook and just has timing issues, while Andy can’t cook that well. So Suzanne seems to have a bit more potential (plus she might be kept around just for the drama like she was last week).

-The two teams agree with me, which is good, though Sabrina is celebrating a bit too much for someone who will likely be on the chopping block too. I wonder if that’s a precursor to her going home tonight.

-Now the blue team has turned on Suzanne also, and wants to put Sabrina up instead to guarantee Suzanne will go home. I agree that if Andy goes up he is likely gone but I wonder if Chef would get rid of Sabrina over Suzanne since Sabrina talked back to Chef so much. Though if I were on the blue team I would get rid of Andy, who is clearly slowing down their team, and keep Suzanne around since she is tearing the red team apart.

-Though I guess the blue team came to their senses and put Andy up. And surprisingly Sabrina is not asked to join them. Between these two it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. Andy is less competent but Suzanne is more annoying so I don’t care either way but based on tonight it should be Andy. At least Suzanne somewhat knows how to cook.

-At least Chef finally knows now that the red team wants Suzanne gone. I thought for sure she’d be a goner when I heard that but then Andy pulls the injury excuse again. Not a smart idea with two other injured players standing behind him. It could really go either way.

-And sure enough Andy is sent home, as he should have. Chef seems to like Andy’s attitude (it’s better than Suzanne’s for sure) and tells him to stop panicking. I think that was a problem for him- he would feel rushed and make stupid mistakes. But a head chef cannot act that way in the face of pressure.

-But that’s not all. First Chef calls forward Sabrina and I think she’s a goner. Then he tells Suzanne to take off her jacket, only to tell her to switch teams. Dang I get fooled by that trick every year. At least the red team will be happy now with her gone, though the blue team doesn’t seem to like her much either. This is probably her last chance- if she can’t get along with the blue team she’s a goner.

-So what was the point of Chef calling Sabrina up for elimination just to tell her to get better??

-Next week the blue team is “thrilled” to see Suzanne join them, the teams make their own menus, and Dave gets ANOTHER injury. Man that guy needs a bodyguard 24/7.

Thoughts on tonight’s show? Did Andy deserve to go home? Did Suzanne deserve another shot? Post your comments below.

Check out the full episode 9 video here courtesy of hulu.com: