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Of course, Richard is overlooking the fact that Mike Isabella on his team didn’t present a dish either…but whatever.

Back in front of the firing squad, Spike states that their team’s strategy was to put out the worst dish first.

“Wait a minute, you thought that CASEY'S dish was the worst on your team?” Gail exclaims incredulously. Spike responds that Jamie’s dish was the worst but she refused to serve it. Tom annoyingly notes that the strategy backfired on them, as if it wasn’t already obvious to everyone.

As for Spike’s dish, he tries to put the blame where it belongs: in Angelo’s hands. He notes that Angelo took over his dish and stuck in elements that he hadn’t intended. Tom, again, notes that his shrimp were too bland, and Tony says that while Spike’ soup was good, there were too many hands in the dish (duh, Tony).

Tom invites Tiffany to blame Angelo for sabotage, but she takes the high road, saying that they are each responsible for their own dish. Gail then cuts Tiffany down from the high road, saying that the salad was “flaccid” and that “something on the spice rub didn’t sit well with me.” Tom compares her dish to drinking wine with no finish, saying it “dropped off.”

Tre, has immunity and can’t be eliminated, so the judges don’t deal with him too much. They do pointedly note, however, that the salmon was oily and overcooked (and who overcooked it?) and that his dish was absolutely their least favorite. If it weren’t for immunity, Tre would be going home.

Padma criticizes Casey’s dish as being “too heavy,” and Tony notes that it was largely due to perception: if there had been more farro and less pork, it might have seemed lighter. Casey completely disagrees. Tom notes that she was simply beaten by a better dish.

The judges discuss amongst themselves who should be sent home. Padma notes that Tre is lucky he had immunity, Tony says that Spike needed salt and not yuzu, Padma doesn’t think Casey understands the problems they had with the dish (though Tom thinks Casey understands but simply doesn’t agree), and Gail wanted more flavor from Tiffany’s dish.

My sense is that Spike goes home. He under-seasoned his shrimp and didn’t stand up to Angelo the way that a Top Chef should.

The four chefs are lined back up in front of the judges. Casey had a great dish but ended up being beaten by a better chef, Tre gave the main part of his dish to someone else, Spike had under-seasoned shrimp and Tiffany had a bland piece of tuna.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand Spike’s going home.

“I got screwed. I’m totally bummed for leaving early; there are others here that are worse than me,” Spike says disconsolately. I don’t disagree. “I think that some people on the team had a strategy of not serving their food, while others had a strategy of messing up other people’s food.” Again, I’m not sure I disagree.

It’s just too bad that those two individuals weren’t up for elimination. They certainly should have been.

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