It's weird, because it used to be S2. Either a show had enough storytelling for more than one season—so S2 was great, building on the 'what works and what doesn't' experimenting of the rougher S1. Or the show had enough story for one season, and the subsequent seasons indicated it really should have been mercy killed…

This season we've had two Doc-only episodes and one Ten-K-only. Plus how many Murphy-centric episodes? But apparently none of those count for you—one Addy-centric (and none have had Warren on her own, since S2) and you perceive that there is no 'balance' and it's all women all the time.

If the challenge is "you must use every ingredient you take," then you should not gaze in bewilderment at something and mutter "maybe?" and toss it in.

Not now, but I won't be surprised if in April Josh breaks up with Anna, is single for 10 seconds, then starts dating this girl who sends him really cool emojis and he's never felt this way before, even though it's only been a few weeks. And Anna and Valencia having a killer bonding duet.

That would take pride of place on my future resumés.

For a guy who's been dating her a couple of weeks, and doesn't badmouth his exes…

Aha, nice catch. I missed that it was puff pastry but yeah, you aren't making puff pastry in that time frame. Regular pie dough should have been doable, depending on how long the filling needed.

I love that the winning dish was greens. And that other highly praised dishes were built around eggplant and okra. I don't think anything was vegan, or even vegetarian, but a few years back the seven dishes served as one balanced meal might all have been "I seared some meat and then made a pan sauce."

A few seasons back people rolled their eyes at jackfruit, sure it was placed, but now the large Whole Foods near me sometimes has it.

I make them by souring milk, since I always have lemons but need to specifically remember buttermilk. But I can see this being a case where if you're going to retrofit biscuits into the meal, they should be with the ingredients you're confident in using—a classic really simple dish that you need to just nail.

I'm just utterly adoring Jim, chef of Alabama. His personality screams "doofus who goes out early" but then he gets in there and cooks great food, his 'huh?' flavor combinations work, and he won't be bumrushed into making biscuits.

I thought Meat Failure was doomed, actually. And would have axed Meat Failure or Veggie Killer over Shy Wallflower.

So make them, Emily.

I really liked that they all seemed to pay close attention to the hosts, as that is a classic rookie mistake—ignore what's supposed to inspire you so you can make this dish you make at home and show the judges your vision. Yet when it came to planning the menu their brains turned off.

You know, the electoral college hasn't met yet.

I thought "mess up basic cooking of the protein" was a guarantee of going home. People who make pastry at least were ambitious enough to make pastry.

There was one year when they cast two people straight out of culinary school, demonstrating that this is a bad idea and should never be repeated.

I was initially meh on the rookie-veteran theme, but it has really paid off so far. Last week with the two very different challenges—the rookies got the complete open-endedness of "all the dishes you can make with chicken" and the veterans, who wouldn't fall for that, got "here's a classic dish that doesn't need…

What the heck was in that massive roll over his shoulder? They were cooking for 10, so maybe needed 12 servings of everything. Bearing in mind that there will be seven substantial dishes in this meal (and eight in the one they eat just after), not just your seared meat dish plus some parsley, so servings should be on…

Maybe a week out of sync? I like LCK, especially for the relatively straightforward challenges, but would tend to watch the show, come here, then go to LCK at some later point.