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As expected, Sarah immediately turns on Keith. When asked who made what, Sarah goes out of her way to mention that Lindsay was to prepare the shrimp cocktail. Unaware of the trap, Tom Colicchio states that he did not see that dish. Sarah quickly recounts the circumstances through which Keith was 100% in the wrong while she, paragon of virtue, did all she could to save the Pink Team from his various atrocities. Sarah may be a nice person, but her behavior in this sequence is beyond the pale.

Keith had anticipated this behavior (anybody would given Sarah’s behavior thus far) and is ready to honestly defend his actions. “I bought the shrimp. I looked at price, I figured about labor, I was just thinking about a lot under pressure.” Colicchio immediately deduces the source of underlying tension here, so he skips to the last page by asking if Keith was shopping by himself. “No, sir, I had a team with me.” Hugh Acheson picks up on Sarah’s vigorous head-nod denying this and states that while he feels for Keith, he would feel the same way had he been in Lindsay and Sarah’s situation.

To Keith’s credit, he does not name the others who were standing beside him when the ill-fated decision was made. Ty, whose dish sounds less popular, may have been sent home if he had. After all, as Keith explicitly stated his thought process during the purchase, Ty’s exact quote into the cellphone was, “Can you hear me now?” In a perfect world, that alone would be enough to vote him off.

Keith is quizzed about his decision to make a flour enchilada. Johnny Hernandez, who has proven himself as an insightful judge, describes the ways that corn would have brought out the flavors of the dish better than flour. For no apparent reason whatsoever, Sarah jumps into the conversation by announcing that as someone raised in Texas, she knows that a flour tortilla is wrong. At this point, Sarah has officially gone too far.

Padma points out that since this was a team challenge, a savvy contestant should have provided this tidbit of knowledge to Keith. Caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Sarah attempts to blame this on Keith as well, stating that he was not interacting with any of the people who had made it clear that they hated him for the Great Shrimp Mistake of 2011. Go figure. Worst of all, it’s not even true. As I mentioned earlier, Keith was encouraging dialogue among his teammates. They just weren’t having it because they were pissed at him.

Keith finally takes the offensive if only for a moment by saying the following. “If she had an opinion about something, then say that. You love driving the bus, hitting people. We had an army of corn tortillas. Even though this is an individual competition, we worked as a team.” He is then asked if he would have switched to corn had it been suggested. He confirms that he wasn’t married to flour and was open to suggestions, which he was.

The judges are left to marvel at the chaos on the Pink Team. Padma marvels that any dishes were delivered at all, given the chemistry issues in the kitchen. She’s not wrong. The fact that the meals served were quite good on the whole speaks to the natural talent of the various cheftestants. In the end, however, someone has to go home and it’s readily apparent that three of the bottom players have locked in on the fourth as the fall guy. The judges have no choice but to assume that the information they have been given is accurate and the fact that Keith was brutally honest when questioned works against him. In the end, even though Ty deserves to go home for his cooking and Sarah deserves to go home for her behavior, Keith is the first official contestant of Top Chef: Texas to be eliminated.

“Flavor wise, Keith did a nice job.” – Tom Colicchio evaluating a dish for which Keith was sent home over 15 competitors. You got hosed, Keith. You got hosed big time.

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