'Hell's Kitchen' - A Quick Take on Episode 5

My goodness, each week it seems like someone on the show becomes the demon seed of Gordon Ramsay.

But, the problem is... Gordon Ramsay can get away with it and the chef-wannabe can't.

Tonight it was Melissa. She's been a bit in the background for the last few episodes, so it was her turn to shine. Well, perhaps not shine, but go nuclear.

We knew from the promos for this episode that some fools... er, a bride and groom, chose Hell's Kitchen to serve their reception. I find something inherently wrong with the concept, but they never ask for my opinion.

The challenge had the Red Team (women) and Blue Team (men) shopping for ingredients for an appetizer, meat, and fish entree. They had $100 to spend. The women got off to a good start coming in at $97.50 while the men overspent and had to lose ingredients they needed to knock off nearly forty bucks. Remind me not to send them shopping with my grocery budget money.

In the kitchen, it started -- Melissa decided she was the only one who knows anything and started bullying and bossing the other women. And, mind you... she was totally wrong in her direction! Julia tried to speak up. She had taken the duck out of the stove so the other dishes could catch up and it wouldn't be overcooked. Melissa slammed it back in the oven. The men weren't doing great, but they didn't have a misguided maniac bullying them.

The bride and groom to be were the ones to judge the challenge. Melissa, much to Ramsay's spitting rage, tried to block the duck dish from being served. There it was. The men won their first challenge. The women got the nod for their crab appetizer, but the men won for both the meat and the fish. The men were off to a spa for some pampering while the women had to decorate the restaurant (with the help of an overly stereotypically gay decorator) for the reception.

The men relaxed and rebuilt their spirit while the women started bickering over the decoration task. Oh, it was actually Melissa trying to boss the others and the others not wanting to be bossed by her. It wasn't quite a brouhaha. Where the Bonnie, Julie, and Jen made their mistake was by not mutinying on the spot. It could have saved them.

As the teams cooked for the actual reception, Melissa not only kept up her dictating and nasty ways, but she was making costly mistakes. The men finished serving three minutes ahead of the women. For the first time, the teams served the entire dinner to all of the patrons.

The men won for both the time factor and better teamwork. Ramsay chose Jen to decide which two from her team would be nominated for elimination. She's soft on Bonnie. We knew that. But she also respects Julia. It was pretty much a given that Melissa should be nominated -- it was just the second person up on the chopping block which created her dilemma.

In the end, she chose Melissa for the night's performance and lack of being able to work with others. Then, to Bonnie's shock, she chose her. Later Jen told Bonnie that she loved her and thought that given the choice between the two, Ramsay would definitely choose to send Melissa home.

But it wasn't meant to be. Nope. He sent her to the Blue Team and Bonnie back to the Red Team. No one went home.

Next week should be interesting as Rock and Melissa had a dust-up during the wedding service tonight. She botched her potatoes after he explained to her several times how to do them, then tried to say he mislead her. I want a brouhaha!