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Joining Chris C. on the top are Lindsay, who cooked her dish perfectly, and Ty, who seemed to win in the concept stage. The real surprise is that Chris C. does not win for one of the cleverest dishes of the season to date. Instead, Ty wins and thereby receives $5,000. Alas, he does not earn immunity for his triumph, which truncates the celebration a bit. Still, Ty acted like a pro in the last episode, owning up to mistakes that were not even his own. Karma rewards him with a Quickfire Challenge victory.

The Elimination Challenge is where the fun begins. Padma announces that she hopes that the chefs, currently standing in line formation, hope the person beside them. The reason is because they are being paired into groups as they cook in a…wait for it…game challenge. A beautiful bit of camera work unveils the money shot. Beverly and Heather are paired together by fate. Beverly’s look is passive while Heather’s camera monologue is bitterbitterbitter. Here is the exact combination of teams with their entrees:

• Team Boar: Lindsay and Chris C., cooking for Jon Shook


• Team Duck: Beverly and Heather, cooking for John Currence


• Team Elk: Grayson and Chris J., cooking for Tim Love


• Team Quail: Edward and Ty-Lör, cooking for Vinny Dotolo


• Team Squab: Paul and Sarah, cooking for Anita Lo


• Team Venison: Dakota and Nyesha, cooking for Bryan Caswell

Based upon last week’s published power rankings, Nyesha and Dakota appear to be the best team on paper followed by Paul and Sarah then Grayson and Moto Chris. Beverly and Heather appear to be middle of the pack, while Ed and Ty and Lindsay and Chris C. seem to be the worst pairings. In reality, Ty’s experience with meat helps a great deal with game while the Beverly/Heather duo seems every bit as disastrous as that Kim Kardashian/Kris Humpries wedding that lasted about an hour and a half.





The other judges for this episode are famous chefs who are having their favorite game prepared by the contestants. This is a party Tim Love hosts once a year and I presume these six people are frequent attendees. Bryan Caswell requests the venison dish, Anita Lo solicits squab, Jon Shook begs for boar, John Currence demands duck, Vinny Dotolo calls for quail and Tim Love gets what Tim Love wants, which is elk.

By the 18 minute mark of the episode, the story for the rest of the episode is clear. Beverly and Heather are oil and water. To her credit, Beverly listens to Heather’s requests, acknowledges her logic and (too often) cedes to her demands. Beverly is about to learn the same harsh lesson that Europe did during the 1930s. Appeasement never works. From the start of their shotgun marriage, Heather shamelessly bullies her smaller counterpart into creating the meal she wants, one that isn’t quite “so Asian." Classy.

The aspect of their bickering that engrosses me as a viewer is that the other duos frequently have their eyes wander to Beverly and Heather. Their relationship is so contentious that in the middle of a cooking competition that will define the careers of several participants, they cannot ignore the drama. This is exactly the sort of conflict that reality shows such as Jersey Shore and Bravo TV’s own Real Housewives of Beverly Hills expend so much effort to fake. The situation only grows more chilling when Beverly reveals that she was in a relationship so abusive that one day she simply packed up what she could and left town. Heather’s vile behavior is forcing this woman to re-live her worst life experience. This is not the reason I watch Top Chef. There is a genuinely uncomfortable element to tonight’s episode.

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