Thursday, December 14th, 2006

Time	Event
12:34a	And I will pack my knives and go Mia was talking from the very beginning of tonight’s Top Chef as if she wanted to quit, so it wasn’t much of a surprise at the end when she did. When she lost the Quickfire Challenge, she took a defeatist tone and said she was homesick. It was obvious during the Elimination Challenge that her team was going to lose, even though it had two of the most talented chefs, Cliff and Elia. The other team had more high powered personalities, and thanks to Betty they got off to the right start, deciding to dazzle with a huge variety of dishes for the cocktail party. Now, I don’t go to cocktail parties, so at first I wasn’t sure what the judges would think about quantity over quality. It turns out quantity trumps quality when there isn’t enough quality to dazzle anybody. Elia’s team shopped at a specialty shop, and they worked slowly both in prep at the kitchen and on site at the Warner Brothers lot. Their table was empty half the time. Sam’s team shopped at Restaurant Depot, and they worked together and worked quickly. At the party, they had people coming back for more. Thanks to better organization they were able to provide it. I don’t think the judges had to deliberate very long to decide on the winner. Elia probably should have been eliminated tonight. She was the team leader, and she had a harder time coordinating four dishes than Sam had with thirteen. And any time Mikey is designated as the person who greets the public, you’re already in trouble. The only person he doesn’t embarrass is himself. Cliff, who had immunity, didn’t need to attack Mia, but she went a little overboard defending herself. (I liked it!) And then, after all that drama, Mia decided to throw herself under the bus. It seems she got as far as she thought she deserved in the competition, but even more than that I think she just didn’t want to deal with Cliff any more. (1 Comment | Comment on this)
10:49p	Something muddy Yul might be the godfather of Survivor: Cook Islands, but I’m not sure he deserves to win. He’s still in the game only because he found the hidden Immunity Idol, and he’s worked it pretty well. I disagreed with the way he used it at the time, to turn Jonathan, but everyone keeps voting out weaker competitors because they can’t get rid of Yul. You can’t argue with the results. But Yul talks too much and with too much authority. He is also a little too free with information, and that’s a currency worth plenty in the game. At tonight’s Tribal Council, he made me groan when he admitted that part of the reason he returned Jonathan’s hat was to curry favor with a jury member. The smarter thing to say was that it was a group decision, and they just wanted to do something nice. I don’t think anyone still in the game would have denied that. He’s right about one thing. Anyone going in front of the jury one-on-one against Ozzy would lose the vote, with the possible exception of Adam. Ozzy has played the best game, and he never steps on anyone’s toes or speaks when he should be quiet. It’s a big advantage not to have made enemies, and to be seen as a pure player. Becky, Sundra and Yul had better think about getting rid of Adam, though, because most of the jury is made up of his former tribe mates. Tonight’s ouster of Parvati was a good move, because she can win challenges, but Adam is the next biggest obstacle to any of the three of them winning the game. Once the hidden idol is taken out of the game, I expect a big revolution against the godfather. The others have been falling in line behind him because of it, and because he’s been a quiet leader. He’d better win immunity for real once he can no longer use the idol, though. By the way, I’m almost always wrong about these things, and I’m quite sure something completely unexpected will happen in Sunday’s finale. (1 Comment | Comment on this)

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