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My sister bemoans, “I hope Alex doesn’t win, otherwise, he’ll be murdered by Ed.” Ooops. Someone get out the axe because ALEX WINS THE CHALLENGE. Wow. I predict that Alex will pay for this win over the next couple of episodes.

The three chefs head back into the Stew Room, and when they inform everyone else that Alex has won, he receives only tepid applause. Kenny calls Alex’s win “total BS” because he says that there’s no way that Alex could have finished that pea puree at The Palm.

But it matters not. On the bottom we have Kelly, Andrea and Kevin.

Gail didn’t like whatever was in Kevin’s tomatoes. “All I got was heat,” she says. “It hit me like a ton of bricks.” She further questions whether Kevin even tasted his dish. “Didn’t you think it was too much spice?” she asks. Tom didn’t like that his lamb wasn’t seared properly, while Art saw his sloppy cleaning of his lamb bones as an indication of a lack of care.

With Andrea, she admits that she doesn’t really like swordfish. “I don’t cook it often,” she says. Art argues that this feeling was reflected in her dish, also criticizing her couscous as “goopy and overcooked.” Tom thought that there was way too much vanilla flavor in the dish.

Kelly had attempted to pay homage to classic steakhouse flavors and starts discussing the intention of her dish. Tom looks at her strangely and asks, “Do you know why you’re here?”

“I think maybe it was a little too salty,” she says.

“OH YEAH,” Padma exclaims.

Tom agrees that the overuse of salt lead to her being in the bottom, with Gail chiming in by saying that layer after layer of her dish was too salty. “It was a slap in the face,” she says.

To me, the harping on Kelly’s salt level means that she’ll be going home. It almost sounds as if the dish was inedible due to the salt content. If that’s right, then Kelly should be packing her knives shortly.

The final three are called back out. They were supposed to deliver a power lunch but they left the diners wanting a power nap. Kevin’s lamb was way overcooked, Kelly ruined her dish by oversalting it, and Andrea gave them a dish that was unfocused and heavy on vanilla.

And in a monumental twist, ANDREA is going home. I can’t believe it. I didn’t think the judges hated her dish; I certainly thought that Kevin and Kelly made bigger mistakes. I’m not sure I understand the judges’ decision.

I think Kevin and Kelly feel the same way. They immediately double over in shock and relief. Kelly begins to cry and Andrea gives her a big hug. She understands (even if we do not) why she deserved to go home and she’s accepting her fate with a smile. I really admire how she’s taking it. She’s not looking at elimination as an indication that the judges hate her or her food. She just knows that she didn’t deserve to stay in the competition after that dish.

In her final interview, Andrea says that her mistakes were more mental than anything else. She respects the judges but doesn’t need four people to tell her that she can cook. She knows she can cook. She didn’t play the game well today. She certainly didn’t want to go home this early, but she can’t change it and will move on.

And the competition will move on without her. We certainly didn’t lose a contender for the title for Top Chef, but I’ll miss having her kooky personality around.

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