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"Hell's Kitchen:" Season 1 Episode 5
Jan. 17th, 2016 08:55 pm So in this episode Gordon Ramsay changed up the menus so that all the contestants had to serve pasta dishes. First he challenged them to make pasta. The Red Team made more, so they won that competition. That evening, the teams each took it in turns to cook dinner and serve it to the guests. The Blue Team won the main challenge, despite Red's attempts to sabotage them by encouraging the guests to order the most difficult menu item, although I can't remember if it was for food or service. Michael was the best of the worst on the Red Team this time around, so he had to choose people to eliminate--and he took the opportunity to throw out Chris, the other professional chef on his team, passing over Jimmy, who appeared to have struggled the most with the tasks at hand.
I should say that I'm not actually terribly surprised by this. Chris was established pretty early on as a strong contender. At first, when everyone had to work as a team, this was a good thing, but as the number of players dwindles and it becomes more and more apparent that only one person can win, the most aggressive players are the ones who become the biggest targets the fastest. I can't help but notice that I don't think Michael has ever been in the position of eliminating someone before, and I wonder if he partly planned it that way so as not to make enemies early on. I wouldn't be surprised if later Michael gets thrown out at the first opportunity, now that he's signaled that HE'S a threat. Of course, that might not be for a while, as I suspect the show is hoping he becomes an interesting villain.
What this all means is that a player like Jessica, for example, might have a pretty good chance of winning, because it's not immediately obvious that she's a threat. Jimmy and Elsie don't seem like threats either, but once again, they seem out of their element enough that it probably wouldn't be believable if they won. It's hard for me to see Andrew winning either, but to his credit he did become more sympathetic this episode, as he seemed to be making a conscious effort not to be such a loudmouth (although he did have another shouting match with Ralph), and acted pretty nice to Elsie on one occasion.
I should say that I'm not actually terribly surprised by this. Chris was established pretty early on as a strong contender. At first, when everyone had to work as a team, this was a good thing, but as the number of players dwindles and it becomes more and more apparent that only one person can win, the most aggressive players are the ones who become the biggest targets the fastest. I can't help but notice that I don't think Michael has ever been in the position of eliminating someone before, and I wonder if he partly planned it that way so as not to make enemies early on. I wouldn't be surprised if later Michael gets thrown out at the first opportunity, now that he's signaled that HE'S a threat. Of course, that might not be for a while, as I suspect the show is hoping he becomes an interesting villain.
What this all means is that a player like Jessica, for example, might have a pretty good chance of winning, because it's not immediately obvious that she's a threat. Jimmy and Elsie don't seem like threats either, but once again, they seem out of their element enough that it probably wouldn't be believable if they won. It's hard for me to see Andrew winning either, but to his credit he did become more sympathetic this episode, as he seemed to be making a conscious effort not to be such a loudmouth (although he did have another shouting match with Ralph), and acted pretty nice to Elsie on one occasion.
