Hey everybody it’s my first time writing on puretvnet.com so I hope you like my work. I’ll be giving you my thoughts on the latest episode of Hell’s Kitchen throughout the season. First off here’s my quick views on last week’s season premiere:

-I’m happy to see Robert back, though I wish they would have brought Ji back instead; she had a much better chance to win than he did. Robert did make me laugh a lot in the first half of the season but then got obnoxious and annoying towards the end. Luckily it seems the funny Robert from the first half of last year has returned this time around, but unfortunately the incompetent side of Robert seems to have returned as well.

-By the way, I read in a local paper that Robert hired Seth aka “Forrest” from last season to work in his restaurant. Considering Seth knew everything about Chef Ramsay except how to cook like him, this lowers my opinion of Robert a bit more.

-Already I cannot stand Joseph, Van, Lovely, Tennille, and Suzanne. Luckily all but Van and Suzanne seem like plants and should be gone in a few weeks.

-Early standouts are Robert (he’s made it far before), Kevin (experienced plus a good leader in the blue kitchen), Tek (reminds me of Ji from last year- hopefully she won’t sprain her ankle too…) and Amanda (love her personality and think the refrigerator/freezer mishap was just a mistake, not a sign of incompetence).

So now that you  know where I stand going into this week’s show here are my thoughts on episode 2: (NOTE: These thoughts are written while I’m watching the show, rather than after the episode ends):

-I agree with the women’s nominees for elimination, though I think the men should have put Van up instead of Andy since Van showed such a lack of respect for JP and the restaurant as a whole

-Robert looks really scary in the theme sequence, especially with his evil laugh

-If I were Chef I would have eliminated Joseph right when he started mouthing off during the elimination. I’m surprised Chef waited as long as he did before kicking him out. Though I was disappointed there was not an actual fight between the two of them- that would have been fun to watch.

-Unlike what Joseph says after his elimination, I don’t think he’ll ever get hired again after this tirade. Or if he is hired it will have to be by someone who doesn’t watch this show.

-I’m surprised Chef sends someone else home after the Joseph drama. Arguments could be made for all of them to go but it did seem like Andy made the fewest and least egregious mistakes of the four. Also while Tennille serving raw shrimp to a pregnant lady was a horrible move, as she pointed out she did not know the lady was pregnant until afterwards. It’s not like she knew the lady was pregnant and then was careless with the shrimp like the other contestants are implying.

-I am a bit surprised Chef eliminates Tony since Chef claimed he had potential in the first episode. I guess that potential wasn’t that strong after all. But at the same time he was a disaster on the fish station and his plea to Chef was not that convincing either.

-Robert back on the blue team- at least now it’s men versus women again. And thank goodness he’s not on the team “with no shirts on”- I don’t know if my eyes could handle that!

- I should have known those fire trucks in the previews were not indicative of a real fire in Hell’s Kitchen. I need to stop watching the previews for this show- they get my hopes up for no reason.

-How can those firefighters eat all that pasta and bread that early in the morning?

-While it is hard to function in the early morning I feel Lovely was just using that as an excuse for her performance. I am already getting tired of Chef Ramsay telling her “It’s not Lovely” when she messes something up though.

-Why do the teams put two of their weaker chefs (Andy and Lovely) on appetizers when it is so key to get off to a good start in this challenge?

-Andy does seem to be getting too much of the blame for the bread not cooking fast enough. Sure he started out not using all the ovens but once he did there was not much more he could do.

-Who puts one piece of chicken in a chicken alfredo dish? I don’t think Sabrina is going to last much longer on this show either.

-Ariel impressed me in the challenge, especially helping Lovely with the bread and showing a leadership role without being obnoxious.

-Poor Robert being on two losing teams in a row- and last year he couldn’t take part in some of the challenge rewards because of his weight. He just has bad luck with challenges I guess.

-Lovely is WAY too cocky after the challenge for someone who couldn’t even cook bread properly.

-Jim’s comment to the girls about having the spa people take the hair off a girl’s upper lip was a bit harsh. And this coming from someone who was starting to like Jim’s personality.

-This is a painful punishment for the boys, between Dave’s hand and Kevin’s ankle injuries. I don’t recall ever seeing contestants hurt in the punishments before. I hope neither of them pull a Ji and drop out since they both appear to be nice enough guys with cooking potential.

-Glad to see the two guys are sucking up the injuries and continuing on in the show. I can’t believe Kevin sprained his ankle tripping on a stair- that sounds like something I would do.

-Why is Chef Ramsay putting so many contestants in the dining room this year? First he had them serve tableside and now he is making them be waiters? Isn’t this show supposed to judge cooking skills, not service skills?

-I like that Dave volunteered to be a waiter so he wouldn’t hold back his team in the kitchen. It likely is easier to be a one-handed waiter than a one-handed cook. I don’t know why Chef seemed so puzzled by this.

-At least Chef picked Lovely to be the red team waitress so she won’t screw her team in the kitchen this week. The women were probably breathing a sigh of relief when they heard this.

-Robert’s description of Van as a “pitbull on a chain” seems quite accurate. Sadly it seems like he will last a while since he does clearly have cooking skills.

-Suzanne is way too much of a know-it-all. She may be right most of the time (like when she points out Tennille has too much oil in the pan for the scallops), but she could be a lot nicer about how she corrects people.

-I don’t know what it is with me siding with Andy tonight, but I agree that if Robert wanted him to use two pans to cook the scallops Robert should have left out two pans for him.

-Robert is starting to annoy me again. First he talks back to Chef and then he blames Andy for his mistakes. Could Chef really cut him before they go to singles?

-Tennille complains that too many of her teammates are talking to her at once so she can’t cook “her food. While I agree this can be frustrating right now her food has all been bad so maybe she should listen more to what her teammates are saying. If the red team loses I’d be shocked if she wasn’t up for elimination. Not only can she not cook but she almost set the kitchen on fire!

-But Lovely isn’t doing herself any favors either by taking 42 minutes to bring an order in. I realize JP told her to get some wine from upstairs but couldn’t she have given in the ticket BEFORE getting the wine? I guess she’s another contestant lacking in the common sense department.

-Amanda does seem to be absent-minded in the kitchen (with her not knowing what 3 X 3 is being a prime example) but, as she points out, this show is not about math, it is about cooking, which she still seems to be able to do, despite her lamb debacle. She at least is more competent than Tennille and Lovely (and less obnoxious too).

-Ariel continues to impress me during dinner service, as does Kevin despite his two bum ankles. It does make me wonder why Ji quit last season with just one sprained ankle when he has two and keeps going strong. Anyway I expect to see both of these two in the top five, and perhaps even in the finals.

-I never really understood why Chef makes his decision on the winning team based solely on the comment cards. Shouldn’t it be more about overall performance in the kitchen, especially on a night like this where the red team seemed to make more mistakes than the blue team?

-Tonight though the comment cards agreed with my assessment that the blue team was better. Robert should be thanking his teammates right now because if the blue team had lost he very well could have gone home.

-As it is Tennille should definitely go up for elimination with her second poor performance in a row. I hope Lovely goes up instead of Amanda since Amanda seems to have more potential and a much better attitude but I fear her lamb mishap may be too much to overcome.

-Ariel seems to be struggling with her decision over who to send up for elimination, and she fairly talks to Tennille and Amanda (and presumably Lovely) privately to get their thoughts. I am liking her more and more  as this episode goes on, especially when she says she hates having to send anybody home.

- And now I like Ariel even more for picking the overly defensive Tennille and the inexperienced Lovely to go up for elimination over Amanda. I know I’m probably giving more praise to Amanda than she deserves but I love her personality and she definitely has the most potential of the three.

-Chef could cut either of these two and I’d be satisfied but Tennille was worse overall tonight so I’m predicting she will go home. Especially after she throws her teammates under the bus by saying it is their fault she did so poorly in service. She just refuses to accept responsibility for her own actions. Lovely also makes good points that she kept her cool under pressure and got good comments from the customers.

-I agree when Chef says neither of these two are going to win, though I’m surprised to hear that since he usually doesn’t say things like that at eliminations.

-I did not expect Chef to send nobody home this week, even after Joseph’s elimination earlier in the show. I thought that Joseph’s elimination would count as the elimination for the second hour of last week’s show and that this episode would have an elimination of its own. Like Chef said both Lovely and Tennille got gifts this week, but neither will last much longer anyway.

-Glad to see Chef have a laugh at Joseph’s expense at the end of the episode. It shows he still has a sense of humor about those things.

So what did you think of tonight’s show? Did Joseph get what he deserved? How impressed were you with Dave and Kevin for pushing through the pain and Ariel for showing her leadership skills? Were you surprised nobody else got sent home? Post your comments below.

Watch the full finale of Hell’s Kitchen right here. I won’t spoil you with the winner, but let’s just say that I was a little disappointed. I can see why Chef made the decision he did, but I still would have liked to see the other person win.

Enjoy the finale of Hell’s Kitchen Season 4. I wonder what Chef will bring next season.

I love hulu for streaming the full episodes of Hell’s Kitchen. This was really one of the best episodes. I must admit that this show definitely has me thinking that Cory is going to make the finale. She might not win it all, but I think Cory is going to outlast the other.

I’ll leave out my commentary so I don’t offer any Hell’s Kitchen Spoilers, but let’s just say I wish that someone else was kicked off the show instead of who chef kicked off.

Enjoy the full episode of Hell’s Kitchen: