Given that I have to write this blog before the show airs each week, I receive the DVD of every episode several days in advance. For heated conclusions like the one we saw tonight, I have plenty of time to re-watch every detail in order to get to the bottom of each issue. For the record, Antonia never said to Spike's face she would not make soup for the Earth Team's course for the Four Elements Meals On Wheels charity ball. However, she did say it privately to the camera in what we call on-set an OTF ("On the Fly interview"). Therefore, I guess she technically was not lying at the end of the episode when they got into a steaming debate over her insistence on doing a Beef Carpaccio with Mushroom Salad and Sunchoke Aioli, which resulted in their teammate Zoi's leaving the competition. Nevertheless, looking back at the footage, it is obvious that Antonia certainly bulldozed over Spike's butternut squash soup idea and steered them toward what she wanted to do in a passive-aggressive manner.

So who really is to blame for what went wrong on the losing team this week. Is it the fault of Spike and Zoi for not stepping up and insisting Antonia should not get a say because she has immunity? Or is Antonia to blame for not allowing her teammates to take the lead, knowing she was safe and their necks were on the line? Thinking back to the Judges' Table, had she not had immunity, there may have been a strong argument for sending Antonia home. I have no doubt that if Spike and Zoi were asked who was responsible for the dish and Antonia could have been eliminated, they would absolutely have blamed the concept on her. And rightfully so. The dish was her idea and was clearly the weakest course of the night. But this is irrelevant for many reasons. First, because she did have immunity, but also because it was not the concept of the dish that caused them to lose. In theory, raw beef, mushrooms, fresh herbs, and sunchokes all have perfectly earthy flavors and can easily be combined to create a savory and rustic dish that without a doubt reflects the element they were assigned according to the theme of the meal. Ultimately it was the execution that failed.