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The teams collaborate further with their diner. Aaron is Jewish, which means no pork (to the detriment of Carmen). Elizabeth doesn’t like shellfish. “What if I made a fish dish that didn’t taste fishy?” he asks.

“SHUT UP, RICK!” I yell at the TV. “SHE DOESN’T LIKE SHELLFISH.”

Aaron wants his wedding cake to be made of carrot cake (what a weirdo) and Elizabeth likes bananas foster (“but we need a cake, too,” notes Jody). This is gonna be tough for all involved.

A frenetic montage of shopping (Restaurant Depot and grocery stores) take place next. It’s so jumbled and frantic and fast-paced and full of edits that I actually thought that it was a promo for what would happen “after this commercial break.” But no, that’s actually how they edited the sequence. Weird.

The Masters return to the kitchen for six hours of cooking. That certainly seems like a long time to me (it’s too long to do ANYTHING continuously, except maybe play Final Fantasy XIII) but the Masters argue that it’s not enough time to really get their dishes ready.

There’s a good amount of drama going on. Many Masters are second-guessing the choices of their fellow team members (Jonathan doesn’t like the cut of beef that Marcus chose, Carmen is concerned that the beef is going to be too spicy for the groom) while others are struggling with dishes that they’ve never made before (Susur has never baked carrot cake but he’s giving it a go, and Jody has never made bananas foster but she’ll do her darndest).

Finally, we’re at the wedding, though the Masters look absolutely beat. Jonathan is “pretty-ing” up Susan’s cake, but it looks absolutely disgusting. Seriously. It looks like one of the most horrific dishes that I’ve ever seen on Top Chef. It’s revolting. It looks like a cake in the shape of a Mayan temple ate a lot of berries and frosting, and then threw up on itself.

Meanwhile, Susur’s desserts look amazing.

The Critics arrive just in time for hors d'oeuvres, and luckily, they’re fantastic all around. The Red Team has a lobster roll (“delicious,” says Jay) and some seared tuna (“sophisticated,” says James) from Marcus, and a crab cake (“nice,” says Jay) from Carmen. The Blue Team has a potato fritter from Susan (“perfection,” says James), a savory pancake from Jonathan (“very, very good,” says Jay) and some pancetta (“I like it a lot,” says Gael) from Jody.

Onto the entrees. The Blue Team brings out roasted chicken from Jonathan, a seafood mixed grill from Rick, and lamb with a medley of vegetables from Jody. Jody’s dish, in particular, is risky because the bridge said that she doesn’t like lamb. Luckily for her, it pays off. The bride LOVES the lamb, and James calls it “shockingly good.” The roast chicken also draws compliments “[Jonathan] is the master of chicken,” says Gael, though Rick’s seafood is too sweet.

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