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Susan is milking the crowd with intermittent cheers for USC. She has skirt steak tacos with a black bean and corn salsa, topped with roasted peppers. James loves the punch of her chili heat.

Wow, all the Masters did a great job today, with not many complaints heard. Susan is worried that her street food may not have too basic for the judges, while Susur thinks that he could go home for not making traditional tailgating fare.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe that there wasn’t a single mention of how badly USC got beat by Stanford.

The Masters come before the Critics to get their take on the food served. Gael loved the guacamole used by Jonathan in his taco but James found the tortilla to be tough and cold. He also criticizes the cut of the steak, saying that it was too thick. Jonathan says that he’ll take the knock against his tortilla but completely disagrees with James’ take on the cut of the steak. “It’s a TAILGATE,” he points out, gesturing wildly to indicate his irritation.

Insert uncomfortable silence.

Jay liked the ingredients of Tony’s pizza. James calls Tony an amazing cook but says that the crust was dry and tough. Tony vehemently disagrees, saying that the dough came out better than he could have hoped.

Insert awkward turtle.

Susan is next and Jay compliments her “serious plate that was big on flavor.” Gael loved the “afterkick” of her spice. Kelly wonders aloud if her seasoning overwhelmed the meat and Jay agrees, saying that if the meat hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have noticed. I don’t know that this is a criticism per se, as it actually points out the great flavors of her other ingredients.

Susur owns up to the fact that he didn’t get the concept of tailgating, which led him to create European and Asian-inspired dishes. Jay adored the beef but found the dumpling perplexing. Gael says that maybe a tailgate wasn’t the right time for a “high culture” dish.

Jay loved Marcus’ stew but found the burger dry. James disagrees, saying that the burger was a tasty, juicy mouthful.

Gael thought that Rick’s Baba Ganoush and slaw was fabulous, but James wishes that Rick’s ingredients were housed inside of the pita bread instead of on top of it, noting that everything “slid off” when they started eating.

I’m betting that Susan won this. As for the bottom, I’m predicting Jonathan and Tony.

Sure enough, the three tailgating newbies, Susan, Marcus and Susur, are asked to come before Critics Table as the three highest scoring Masters. My boyfriend is surprised that Rick didn’t get asked, but I’m thrilled.

Marcus gets 4 stars from Gael, 3 ½ from Jay and 3 from James. With 4 from the diners, he has a total of 14 ½ stars. Not bad.

Susur gets 4 stars from Jay, 3 ½ from James and 3 ½ from Gael. The diners bestow 4 stars so he has a total of 15. Susan should totally be able to top that.

And she gets 4 stars from James, 4 stars from Gael and 4 stars from Jay. She needs 3 ½ stars to win this thing - and she gets 4 stars from the diners. WOOHOO!!! Susan wins for the second time in this episode. Kelly tells her that with a total of $32,500 won for her charity so far, she’s earned the most money of any Master so far this season.

“Cha-ching, cha-ching!” Susur jokes.

Sour Jonathan, pissy Ricky, and POed Tony come out before the Critics as the bottom three. Rick makes sure to mention to the camera that this is the first time that he’s been on the “lower end of things.” Frankly, all three of these chefs have been in bad moods for this entire episode. Well, one chef is about to get in an even worse mood.

Rick gets 3 stars from James, 4 from Gael, 3 from Jay and 3 ½ from the diners. His total is 13 ½, which is definitely safe.

Jonathan gets 2 ½ from Gael, 3 from Jay and 2 from James. Ughhh, that hurts. With 3 from the diners, he only has a total of 10 ½. Trouble?

Tony gets 2 ½ from Jay, 2 ½ from James and 2 ½ from Gael, who voices her rating with the gravitas of a death sentence. He needs 3 ½ to beat Jonathan - but he only gets 2 ½ from the diners. He’s going home.

With his grouchy mood in the last two episodes, I’m not sad to see Tony go. His cloud of resentment will not be missed by me. Of course, this sentiment is not shared by his fellow Masters.

“My partner!” Susan exclaims, as she sadly contemplates life in the kitchen without her Italian friend.

“My lucky charm!” Susur calls out. At least he’ll have more room to cook from now on.

“Your partner and his lucky charm,” Tony replies disconsolately, though I doubt he’ll miss either role.

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