Last night’s “Hell’s Kitchen” episode on FOX was gruesome, but also telling in how things might shake out in the coming weeks. The theme was French food, which is a cuisine that inspires many chefs to become chefs in the first place. The initial challenge? To make crepes, something that can’t be as easy as it looks, and that was proven when most of these chefs had trouble with them. Anyway, they had to create four dishes each–breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert–and with 8 remaining contestants, they would each be responsible for one.

Gordon Ramsay and Jean Phillippe would be the judges, and Van squared off against Ariel first, with Van’s bacon, egg and cheese crepe having a nice filling but failing on the crepe. Ariel’s smoked salmon crepe won–red team up 1-0. Then Andy’s ham & cheese crepe beat out Tennille’s spicy shrimp and black bean crepe, which was too spicy. 1-1. Kevin and Suzanne both presented nice dinner crepes, so they both received points. 2-2. But when Ramsay called Dave’s dessert crepe “diahrrea on a plate,” it was easy for Sabrina’s poached pear/chocolate/cinnamon crepe to earn the ladies the victory.

So the red team was whisked off to mime lessons and a French lunch, which, admittedly, is a prize that would make me want to poke my own eyes out. Meanwhile, the guys had to prep the kitchen, and eat some very disgusting items like cow’s tongue and head cheese. Ewwwwwww.

Then at dinner service, we had another accident, when Andy almost entirely sliced off the tips of three fingers on a mandoline. They didn’t even give us a chance to look away…..and I am shuddering as I write this. But Andy got stitched up and returned, though he was having trouble keeping up the pace.

Meanwhile, Sabrina made a bland risotto and Suzanne was confused about how to keep time. Suzanne then really messed up by over-cooking lamb chops. Ramsay was keeping an eye on Dave, who with one hand was running rings around everyone else in the kitchen. Then after Ramsay had seen enough of Andy, he threw him out of the kitchen. He wasn’t done. He then kicked out both Suzanne and Sabrina, leaving Ariel and Tennille; and Dave, Kevin and Van.

They finished the service, but Ramsay was clearly pissed. He asked the teams to come up with two consensus nominees for elimination, and while Suzanne was obvious, they struggled on who to choose between Andy and Sabrina. Andy was the choice, making Sabrina breathe easy for the moment.

After hearing them state their cases, Ramsay kicked out Andy along with his patched-up fingertips. But he wasn’t done. He asked Sabrina to step forward. Would this be a double or triple elimination? No chance. He told Suzanne to go to the blue team and Sabrina to get back in line. So we have some drama unfolding….Suzanne and Sabrina are now on opposite teams, and the guys now have to deal with Suzanne’s selfish antics. Meanwhile, Tennille has managed to survive after being on the chopping block the first few episodes. It’s amazing, really, that she’s managed to do this.

So we’re down to 7–Tennille, Ariel, Suzanne, Sabrina, Van, Dave and Kevin. I think Ariel, Dave and Kevin are the only ones not to face elimination, and they appear to still be the favorites. What do you think? We’re getting down to the wire, with maybe six weeks remaining in the season. See you next week…