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Rick, for his second dish, has made a oaxacan black mole with a plantain tamale. It looks absolutely delicious. I want to lick my television. Gail confesses that she's never had a mole that good and James says that he could taste every ingredient that went into it. Tom has the best line, saying, "If this is what inspired him to make Mexican food, it's brilliant."

Round 2 has extremely strong dishes from everyone but you gotta think that it goes to Rick.

For the third dish, Michael makes a ginger-stuffed rouget fish with a mango salad and fresh wasabi. To me, though, the fish looks like a big, fried turd. Hosea remarks that the wasabi is a little intense. Elan says, "it's crispy and nice, but that's it."

Hubert comes out with a lamb chop with vegetable mousseline, blanched garlic and vanilla merlot sauce. I gotta say, it looks extremely similar to Dale's deconstructed ratatouille in the Season 3 finale. Hung compliments the vegetables, which he says are cooked perfectly. Tom thinks that the garlic is too raw (which is strange because Hubert had been so proud of the way that he'd prepared the garlic, blanching it in three different liquids to remove the sharpness) and Padma thinks that the infusion of vanilla likens the dish unpleasantly to dessert.

Rick, on the other hand, has made an achiote-marinated cochinita pibil, which apparently is a suckling pig, resting on a sunchoke puree. Gael immediately compliments the puree, saying that it's far more sophisticated than she'd thought it to be. Padma takes a moment to remark that most foodies don't give Mexican food the same status as French or Italian but that there's nothing un-sophisticated in Rick's menu.

Rick has hit another home run and takes Round 3.

For the last dish, Michael has made brined short ribs with cabernet. Padma says that his dish stole her heart, Harold loves the basil salad and Jay loves the story that went along with it (I didn't hear any story but whatever).

Hubert has made two dishes (never a good idea in a finale, right Tiffany?) and combined them into one: sweetbreads with perigoro truffles and wagyu beef cheeks with a celery puree. The diners don't say much other than random remarks about the truffles. Strange.

Rick finishes his menu with an arroz a la tumbada with a tomato broth. It looks like some rice with a bunch of seafood thrown in...which, it turns out, is overcooked. Tom points out that the mussels are dried out. Jay says that it's not Rick's greatest dish, comparing it to someone's "granny putting on a pair of hot pants and dancing at a disco." Ouch.

I think Round 4 goes to Michael. Seeing as how Rick was the only one who won two rounds in addition to the convincing way in which he won them, I'd have to say he's the winner here.

Back at Critics Table, there's much praise and much criticism going around. Everyone loves Michael's shortribs, appreciated the gnocchi and really enjoyed the polenta. However James feels lacked the fish interpretive flair. Jay says that there's a difference between simplicity and underworked and finds this dish to be underworked.

For Hubert, the stew he served as the first dish was absolutely stunning, warm and soothing with rustic touches but elements of pure sophistication, but no one enjoyed the raw garlic in his lamb during the second course. Kelly echoes Padma's earlier complaint about the vanilla being too sweet as well. For the last dish, Gael Greene in particular loved the beef cheeks and the sweetbreads. James comments on how you always feel "cared for" by Hubert.

With Rick, there are effusive compliments flying across the room. The BBQ quail was scrumptious and the watermelon salad was "genius" according to Gael. The mole was "phenomenal" according to James. Jay says that he just wants to sit around making guttural noises of appreciation instead of talking about that dish. As for the fourth dish, the seafood stew, the main complaint is that the ingredients were overcooked.

Still, nothing has convinced me that anyone other than Rick has won this thing.

The Masters come back out and the scores are announced.

Michael gets four and a half stars from the diners, four and a half from Gael, three and a half from James and four and a half from Jay. Those are some really solid scores (other than James) and he has a total of 17. That will be hard to beat.

Hubert gets only four stars from the diners, four and a half from James, four from Gael and four from Jay. Wow, only James liked him better, though with 16 1/2 stars, he's only half a star behind Michael. But half a star is enough. Either Rick takes this thing or Michael is the new Tom Chef Master.

From the diners, Rick gets four and a half stars...same as Michael. Jay gives him four and a half and James gives him four and a half. If he gets four stars from Gael, he wins the whole shebang.

And from Gael Greene...four and a half stars!!! He's done it! He has 18 stars and he's dumbfounded. Rick is so happy and you know what? I am, too. He's been a class act the whole way and he really deserved this win.

"Viva Mexico," says Rick. His dad was a pit master in a BBQ shop and now his son is a Top Chef Master. What a great ending.

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