I've deleted it from my DVR so I can't go back and confirm this, but I seem to recall Emeril saying that he liked the flavor of Nick's duck, but it was too tough. That is probably why he didn't get dinged as much for it.

The problem with this theory is that we the viewers naturally would vote on who should win based on the the chef's performance for the whole season, but the judging is based just on the meal that night. We can argue about who had the better meal that night, but I can guarantee that is not what the instant poll people…

Not that I cared much about it, but I guess they are done with the story line involving Adam's sister? It just seemed like an abrupt end, with Adam furious with Hanna, running out of the apartment to go look for her at the end of last week's episode, to zero mention of it this week, and everything smooth and breezy…

That is exactly what I was going to say, but you said it better. Building that kind of tension, even though we know the protagonist is going to be fine, was an amazing trick to pull off.

If you really watched every episode of Top Chef and "loved them", then you lose credibility with me. The majority of the Texas season challenges were the worst sort of ridiculous reality show bullshit ever concocted and had NOTHING to do with cooking. The only thing that saved that season is the best chef in it did…

Nick knew that Shirley and Nina had bonded and probably thought it might not be beneficial to have someone so sympathetic to the competition on his team.

Well not really. It seemed that the way the judges decided to do it, was to vote as a group on who won each of the four courses. Nina took the first two, Nick the second two. So if Nina's desert was better than Nick's, it would have been 3-1 even if her swordfish totally sucked ass.

Well when Tom asked the panel, what was the worst dish of the night, Hugh replied, "Zeppole?" and he appeared to be on team Nina, so they must have been pretty boring.

Well shit. Nick clearly was in the zone for the finale. While I don't think Nina was robbed, I do think it was sort of dumb that the chefs did not see their kitchens BEFORE shopping for ingredients. It was unclear if this was part of the challenge or a blunder by Nina. I think she wins if she nails desert.

Jay S. FTW

Makes sense to someone who is actually interested in football, but since the Super Bowl audience include millions of people who don't give two shits about the sport, this is not likely to happen. I have another idea. Why not set up a stage outside the arena, and have the halftime show there as a genuine live…

Neither were "live" performances, but I am pretty sure from the sound of it, that Bruno Mars recorded a live performance, and performed to that, not a polished studio recording.

So what are the odds that Raylan is going to fess up to Art over his role in Nicky Augustine's murder? I guess it's a mini-cliff hanger fake out, but it sure seemed that that is what he was fixing to do just before the credits rolled.

Of all of the many murders on this episode, that one took me the most by surprise.

I loved Pam's torn purple hulk pants after she escaped her bonds.

At 7 months pregnant, I don't think you'll be seeing Gail in a bikini. I am sure the producers briefly considered having the finale immediately after LA just to make a bikini clad Gail a possibility, but then realized that too difficult to pull off.

This is Top Chef DC. Padma: Chefs for this quickfire, you're going to be cooking for one of DC's biggest celebrities, (dramatic pause), Tian Tian, the panda, the National Zoo's star attraction. Now Tian Tian only eats raw bamboo, so for this quickfire…

I wonder if someone in the writer's room tossed out "Pork Natalie?" before they settled on that one.

Wow, I have to try that. I saw this on Wired back in November. There are a couple of companies producing lower priced circulators that bring the price down to the upper end of reasonable for my budget. http://www.wired.com/review…

Or maybe she was actually doing a good job of portioning it, and he figured, well, that is gonna save me some time…