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Sara believed that they grabbed too much, and so the group winds up with nowhere near enough. Eddie laughs at Travis over this. I do not believe that Eddie will be Travis’ next Asian sexual conquest.

The meal preparations are largely uneventful beyond the Lemongrass Incident and the rest of Team Travis. Janine recognizes that she has messed up the shrimp dish. Justin watches in horror as the preparations go awry. For the second straight episode, he resists the temptation to aid a flagging competitor. Instead, he notes during his interview that a fried dish should never be dipped in sauce because such behavior negates the crispy nature of the protein. Justin then quotes Napoleonic battle strategy, something I haven’t heard anyone do since that Sports Night episode. If you don’t know the one I mean, A) Shame on you. B) It’s that Napeleon’s battle plan was simple. “First we show up. Then we see what happens.” That really explains Waterloo, doesn’t it?

The three teams feel like they have been divided into three basic groups: The Best of the Best, the Best of the Rest, and The Poor Bastards Stuck with Travis. The Red Team absolutely kills the challenge. They present second. Before they do, the Orange Team lowers expectations by delivering some food so bland that Tom laments every dish. He honestly confides that he loves Vietnamese food so much that all the first batch of meals have made him do is want to go to a good Vietnamese place afterward. Tom, ask Travis to introduce you to his boyfriend’s grandmother. You’ll feel like Adrian Cronauer by the end of dinner.

What does the Red Team do differently? They basically copy the menu of their predecessors while delivering superior dishes across the board. Even the random people in the restaurant offer comments about how much better the second batch of Pho is compared to the first. By the time the Red Team is done, I am convinced that the Orange Team is going to be on the bottom this week.

Then, the Green Team presents their fare. I’ve seen more popular food at restaurants currently being shut down by the Health Department. Here are a few random comments from the judges:

“There’s no balance in the dish.”
“I don’t like the texture of what was inside the spring roll.”
“Can we talk about this atrocious rice? It feels like they oiled the water.”
“This dish is totally weird to me.”
“Their miss with the red sauce was sooooo epic.”
“That shrimp was hammered.”
“That was not broken rice. That was like baby food.”

Only Stephanie’s dessert macaroon is above the fray. Travis, amusingly enough is probably safe as well because while his dish was imbalanced, Tom didn’t hate it as much as Gail and Eddie (natch) did. Since Tom generally gets the last call on elimination, Travis has successfully led his fellow lambs to slaughter then received a call from the governor to gain a stay of execution for himself.

Moments after the judges finish conversing, the Red Team is invited to the back to have hosannas hailed upon them. Justin, Shirley and Nina in particular are lauded for their accomplishments. All three of them have established themselves as upper echelon competitors thus far this season. I expect them to celebrate Justin again, but I am surprised when Shirley is revealed as the winner for the second time this season, the other being a Quickfire. She joins Carrie as the only multi-time winners thus far. I mean it when I say that all of the best players thus far somehow wound up on the same team.

Judges Table is brutal for Team Travis. Eddie harangues Kid Ego for failing to craft an authentic dish. Janine laments her decision to trust Travis by cooking a Vietnamese dish with a tomato-based sauce. Eddie again assails Travis with a simple, valid comment, “It’s almost like you (Travis) saw a UFO and then told them to draw it.” Janine nods her agreement.

From the way the discourse proceeds, I begin to realize that Travis’ behavior has worked against him. Eddie does a fantastic job of framing him for the crimes of others. When the judges announce their decision, however, Tom reminds Eddie that even if he led them down the wrong path, each individual has a personal responsibility to follow it. And Padma notes that everyone is in charge of their own dish. In this case, Janine has delivered the worst one, and so she is eliminated. Summarizing: an Australian woman crafted a Vietnamese dish based on the advice of an American who claimed but did not demonstrate expertise in the relevant cooking style. That is a vicious way to lose.

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