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Carl should thank his lucky stars that he gets to go last, with the great amount of time possible to finish his insane foie gras dish. He brings out a foie gras en geleé with black pepper, strawberries, and fine herbs. Padma cannot understand why Carl decided to make this dish given the time constraints. Hubert notes that Carl set himself up for failure. Emeril laments the under-cured, raw liver. Harold is dumbfounded by the dish. Gail tries to soften the blow by pointing out that the herbs with strawberries are paired perfectly. “It’s a nice salad with watercress and geleé,” Tom says pointedly.

Jeremy is unquestionably the clear winner of the night (sigh). Hubert says that of all the dishes, it’s the only one that he could imagine putting on his menu. Jeremy is blown away and spouts off all the normal bro-y words and phrases you can imagine. Rock on, dude.

The remaining two spots will be allocated between the last three chefs. The judges make clear pretty quickly that Marjorie is safe. Though she made some mistakes in cooking her lamb, the rest of her components were well done. And she didn’t set herself up for failure the way Carl and Isaac did.

Carl acknowledges that his ego got in the way of the challenge, leading him to pick a dish that he had no right trying to make in three hours. “There’s no substitute for proper process,” Gail chides him. As for Isaac, he didn’t cook with the type of finesse needed to pull off a ballotine.

The judges are thus presented with a tough decision. Carl’s presentation was better, but Isaac’s had more flavor. Carl’s liver was not rendered well, but Isaac’s meat was very dry. When asked which dish the judges would rather eat again, Hubert says that he’d at least dig into the foie gras, while Gail would rather eat overcooked duck than undercured foie gras.

In the end, the foie does Carl in. Marjorie and Isaac join Jeremy in the finale, and Carl is asked to pack his knives. Carl is understandably frustrated - he was doomed from the start, and though he tried to pull it out, it was too Herculean of a task. Carl says that he’s enjoyed the journey beyond belief - from cooking in a vineyard to using solar powered ovens in Death Valley. But who knows? With Last Chance Kitchen beckoning, maybe he’ll be back.

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