It all comes down to this.  It started with 12, and it's now down to 2.  Last week, the entire dining room was finally served completely, and by a sleep-deprived trio, no less, but Jessica's chicken wasn't good enough to keep her around.  So, that leaves only Michael and Ralph to battle it out in one final challenge.  Who will win their own restaurant?

The end of a long road

We pick up right where we left off last time; with Ramsay letting Michael and Ralph spend some time with their families.  They use that time wisely; as there are hugs all over the place, as well as some brief chatting.  Michael responds to his wife Lola's question about whether or not they work 24/7 with a "yeah" (maybe not literally, but I bet it feels like it to them), while Ralph's family is confident that he'll win.  Afterwards, they say their good-byes, and the families leave.

The next day, after finally getting a good night's sleep, Michael and Ralph are out in the backyard, talking about how they've been through 10 others to get to this point in the competition, and how Michael is apparently obsessed with owning a restaurant.  Then, just as Michael asks about what "the devil" has in store for this day, the phone rings.  Chef Ramsay is making another call.  Ralph answers it, and is given instructions for them to be in the dining room in 2 minutes.  I guess they'll find out what "the devil" has in store soon enough.

Their biggest test

Michael and Ralph sit down at a dining room table, where Ramsay is waiting.  He congratulates them both, then telling them that "the biggest test ever" lies ahead.  He then tells Michael that he'll need to be more assertive, and Ralph that he sometimes moves a little too quick.  After seeing the confidence in both of them that they'll win, Ramsay asks them to stand up, and once they do, and they move into position, he's ready to explain the final test.  And at that point, a drape drops down, in between the contestants, and dividing the dining room right down the middle.

Ramsay then explains that the side that Ralph is on (with the blue kitchen) will be his restaurant, and the side that Michael is on (with the red kitchen) will be his.  Their task is for each of them to design their restaurant, create their menu, and run both kitchen and dining room for the final dinner service of the competition.  Essentially, they'll each be trying to run a restaurant.  Ramsay then tells them to start thinking of what they would consider to be their dream restaurant.  And they have under 56 hours before that dinner service gets under way.  Of course, they'll be needing some help, so Ramsay brings in John Janavs (designer) to help with the design, Jean Philippe for the style of service that they want, and of course, the sous-chefs, Maryann and Scott, to help with the menus.

First, each chef meets individually with John about the design.  Ralph wants the people to have a good time, while Michael is looking for something simple.  Ralph would like to see a big mirror on a wall and some caricatures, while Michael would like to see that those who sit in a booth would get some more privacy.  Next, they each meet with JP.  For uniforms for the waitstaff, Michael is looking for all black clothing (including trousers, for both genders), while Ralph would rather see the men and women dress differently.  When JP suggests the idea of the women wearing black pantyhose, Ralph seems a little surprised.  Yeah, I'd have been surprised, too.

Later, the construction to transform Hell's Kitchen into 2 separate restaurants begins.  As the crew works on that, the chefs start thinking about what their menus will look like.  Michael includes things like pheasant, halibut, duck, and ribs, while Ralph includes things like steak, filet mignon, and lobster, but with an Italian twist.  Afterwards, they decide to get an early sleep, while the construction in the dining room continues.

Construction concerns

The next day, at 7AM (36 hours before the final dinner service), Ralph is in the dining room, checking out the progress of the transformation so far  Soon enough, as Ralph goes back to working on his menu, Michael enters, and checks out some of the dinnerware that will be used in his restaurant.  But then, John arrives to give Ralph some bad news; they don't have enough wallpaper.  They have less than half of what they need.  Ralph doesn't like this, but John says they'll try to ship it in from Pennsylvania and have it picked up at the airport at Midnight.

Then, John meets with Ramsay about the styles of the dining rooms.  Michael is going for a contemporary type of room, but Ramsay feels that not many people would want to stay in such a room for long.  Ralph is going for a steak house type with some twists, but Ramsay is concerned that it may not be original enough of an idea.  Ramsay expresses some nervousness about it, but John tries to assure him that he'll be calmer when he sees the finished products.

A signature challenge

As the transformation continues, Michael and Ralph are busy prepping some food in their respective kitchens.  Then, at 2PM, Ramsay calls them over for a bit, and explains the importance of a signature dish in a restaurant, and how people will travel from anywhere to a place with a great signature dish.  He asks what Ralph's will be, and he responds with a Bistecca Fiorentina (porterhouse steak for two, Italian style).  Ramsay shows concern about it not being for one person.  He then asks Michael about his signature dish, to which he replies with a short rib osso buco with roasted red garnet yams and the natural juices from the braising liquor.  Ramsay then asks for both of them to prepare their signature dishes.

Once the dishes are prepared, they serve them to Ramsay at the hot plate, since the dining room area is still under construction.  After complimenting both on the nice smell and the presentation of the dishes, Ramsay explains that he won't taste them, but some random people on the streets will, and they'll evaluate the dishes.  With that, they head out.

Arriving at a spot along a street in Hollywood, Ramsay explains that they'll have a little challenge with this, as the people will determine which signature dish is better, and there will be an advantage for the winner, which will be explained later.  They then begin stopping people on the streets to get them to judge the dishes.  The first person prefers Michael's dish, while the second picks Ralph's.  A 1-1 tie to start.  Michael then gets on a streak, scoring 4 points in a row.  Ralph tries to explain to the people what his dish is, in an act of panic.  He eventually does get into a streak of his own, scoring 5 in a row to take the lead, 6-5.  But the next 7 people end up preferring Michael's dish (though the 7th of those likes Ralph more than Michael), putting Michael back into a big lead, 12-6.  And Ramsay ends it there, giving Michael the win for this challenge.

Feeding the builders

Upon returning to Hell's Kitchen at around 6PM, the chefs check out how much progress was made with their dining rooms while they were out.  Ralph says that what he sees wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but knows that not everything has to happen exactly the way they're envisioned.  Meanwhile, Michael likes what he sees with his side.  They then return to the kitchen to continue prepping for the next night, when the final dinner service will happen.

Soon, in comes Ramsay to talk with them again.  This time, he explains that the next night, each of them will be running the place from the hot plate, where he had been running things in every dinner service beforehand.  He then says that they'll get some practice with it at this time, while cooking for the construction team.  Michael will be at the hot plate first, and Ralph will cook alongside the sous-chefs in the blue kitchen.

Dress rehearsal, Part 1: From Quiet to Loud

The orders are taken from members of the construction crew while they're still working, and once the first ticket is in, Ramsay lets Michael give the order.  Ralph feels that Michael doesn't have a loud enough voice for that, and so does Ramsay, as he gives Michael a few pointers on yelling out those orders.  Soon enough, the food is ready, and Michael sends out the dishes to be served to the construction people.  Later, at one point, after plenty of silence from Michael, he comes out of the blue and yells to the chefs, "You guys cook like old people ****."  It got a few laughs, even from Ramsay, who then feels that Michael is starting to understand what he has to do.  And soon enough, they're done.

Dress rehearsal, Part 2: Sabotage

They switch things around; Michael cooks with the sous-chefs in the blue kitchen, and Ralph is at the hot plate.  New orders start coming in, and Ralph reads out the first order, which he does rather well.  As time passes, food is served to the construction workers.  But when it comes time for crab risottos to be served, Michael intentionally leaves out the crab in a few of them, and quietly tells Scott about this.  He did this to try to expose a possible weakness in Ralph.  And sure enough, Ralph lets the crabless risottos pass.  Also, as he gets them out, he refers to JP as Jean Pierre.  And he apparently kept doing this.  And Jean Philippe didn't like this.

Soon, when the construction people that got the risottos notice the lack of crab, JP returns them to the hot plate, noting the problem.  Ramsay also hears this, and compared the situation to a "kick in the bollocks."  Ralph goes to Michael, pointing out the lack of crab, but Ramsay tells Ralph that he should have noticed this before sending it out.  Later on, Ramsay then notices something about a salmon dish that Ralph didn't, and points it out.  But Ralph sends it out anyway.  Ramsay is concerned that Ralph is more concerned in getting the food out than maintaining quality.

Afterwards, Ramsay explains that both have weaknesses that need to be sorted out; Michael has to make sure he runs the staff, and not the other way around, and Ralph has to up the quality of the food that he sends out.  With that, he asks them to shut down the kitchen for the night.

To be like Gordon Ramsay...

Later, back at the dorm, Michael is apparently trying to do his best impersonations of Ramsay's yelling, possibly for practice for the next night.  And Ralph is getting a kick out of this, laughing a bit.  [It should be noted that they used clips from this bit in previews for this episode to try to make it seem that things would get ugly between them.  Talk about false advertising...]  Michael knows that he'll have to be more assertive, and he wants to get that taken care of before the dinner service.  Then, he is out in the backyard, and like he did in a previous episode, he looks up at the billboard advertising Hell's Kitchen and talks to it.  And in the dining room, the construction continues through the night.

The next day, at 7AM (12 hours before the dinner service), Michael and Ralph are up and getting ready for the big day.  Michael is making sure his menu is ready, while Ralph checks on his dining room, which is almost complete.  And he likes what he sees.  John then explains to him that the wallpaper came in as expected, so they could complete it soon enough.  Then, Michael checks on his dining room.  As he does so, John comes in and mentions a couple of things; the booths aren't there yet, and something doesn't seem right with the room's looks.  John then says he'd like the beige sections to be painted red.  Michael decides to go with it.

A blast from the past

Ramsay then calls over the chefs for another brief chat.  After reiterating that both their restaurants will be open, and that only one can win it all, Ramsay explains that they will each need some staff in the kitchen, and that he hand-picked these people to be in the kitchen, cooking the food that Michael and Ralph will be sending out to their customers.  He then introduces the staff, and the first one to enter is... Dewberry.

Yep, Ramsay has brought back previously eliminated contestants to be in the kitchen, cooking for the 2 restaurants on this night.  After Dewberry, Ramsay then calls out Wendy, Andrew, Jimmy, Elsie, and Jessica, who each line up on the other side of the kitchen.  Each of the finalists will get to pick 3 of them, one at a time, alternating turns.  And because Michael won the signature dish challenge the day before, he gets the first pick.

This is how the teams turned out (in the order picked): 

Michael's team: Jessica, Jimmy, Elsie
Ralph's team: Andrew, Wendy, Dewberry

Okay, I'm surprised that (a) Andrew was picked so soon, and (b) Elsie wasn't.  And apparently, Ramsay was also surprised that Elsie wasn't picked until later.  And so was Elsie, who claims to be bitter about it.

The teams then split up, and Ralph immediately talks to his team in the blue kitchen to establish some teamwork before they begin.  An envious Andrew wasn't exactly comfortable being in this position, though.  Meanwhile, Michael and his team head out to the backyard and he lets them know what is on his menu for the night.  But Jessica, who had been aligned with Ralph for most of the competition, wishes that Ralph would have had the chance to pick her instead of Michael.

Back in the blue kitchen, Ralph is showing his team, now in their new chef's jackets (with the blue colour), a list he made called "Points of Success."  And on the top of that list: attention to detail.  Considering that was a weakness of his during the practice service the previous day, I'm not surprised.  Ralph does have his concerns of each of his teammates; Andrew being all over the place, Wendy possibly crumbling under the pressure, and Dewberry having walked away once before.

Signs of a potential disaster?

At 11AM, prep is under way in the red kitchen, and Michael is expressing his confidence in his team.  But just after he says that, Jessica, while carrying a big tray of food, knocks something off the counter, and onto the ground, making some noise.  Whoops.  Meanwhile, in the blue kitchen, Ralph tells his team that he wants the prep done in 4 hours, and he can't afford any errors.  Dewberry's response: "You what?"  I think the finalists may be in for a rough night.

As prep continues, Michael is called over by Helen Harwell (art director) for a bit, and she tells him that the booths have actually arrived.  This is great news for Michael, as he really wanted the booths for the dining room, and he figured it wouldn't be the same without them.  Meanwhile, JP calls Ralph over for a bit, and Ralph gets the name wrong again.  Yeesh.  After a bit of scolding about that, we get an aside from JP about what he's been through in Hell's Kitchen during dinner services thus far (as in getting yelled at by customers), and he says that whatever he gets on this night is going directly to the finalists.

JP then introduces Ralph to his dining room staff, and they are dressed quite nicely, in red shirts with black ties and black pants for the guys, and red shirts and black long skirts for the ladies.  Ralph welcomes them to "Frank and Lulu's", the name he apparently chose for his restaurant.  He explains the name; those are the names of two departed dogs, one belonging to Ralph, the other belonging to a friend of his.  On the other side, Michael meets with his dining room staff, who are all dressed in black; some have ties and some don't, regardless of gender.  Um, yeah.  He then mentions the name he has given his restaurant: "Lola Pop".  It's named after his wife, and it's one of his pet names for her.  Awww...

Be careful when using a peeler...

Back to prep, and both teams are working hard to make sure they're ready for the dinner service, while in the dining room, the final touches are being made in both restaurants.  In the blue kitchen, Ralph asks Andrew if he can get a box of artichokes onto the water in 10 minutes, and he says no.  Ralph asks if it can be done in 15 minutes, and Andrew says that he'll try.

But at 5:32PM, under 90 minutes before the dinner service, as he continues peeling the artichokes, he accidentally cuts himself with the peeler pretty badly.  Uh oh.  Wendy suggests that he get a medic to deal with it, and Andrew does so, leaving the kitchen.  Upon seeing the medics, as they wrap up the cut on what appears to be his left thumb, they say that he has to go to a hospital, but he says he wants to be back ASAP, not wanting to let Ralph down.  Back in the kitchen, Scott lets Ralph know of the situation, and he tries to encourage his team to work as hard as they can despite being down a man.

Minutes later, Ralph is in Ramsay's office, letting him know what happened with Andrew, and when asked, Ralph says he's not sure if Andrew will be back.  Ramsay asks if there's a backup plan, and Ralph says his only option is to work one of the stations himself while at the same time dealing with the hot plate.

Ramsay then asks Ralph to show him his restaurant.  He does so, as they walk into Ralph's dining room, and Ramsay seems impressed at what he sees.  He then meets the dining room staff, and Ralph explains what they're wearing, including fishnet stockings for the ladies to go with their uniforms.  Ramsay compliments the looks of the guys, but says the ladies look like grannies.  And they take it in stride.  Afterwards, Ramsay heads into the red kitchen and calls over Michael to show off his dining room.  They enter the room, and Ramsay is once again impressed, especially by the booths that were added.  He then meets Michael's dining room staff, in their interesting uniforms.  Ramsay says the guys in shirts without ties look like ballerinas, but he seems to be alright with the staff's ensemble overall.

Back in the blue kitchen, with Andrew still at the hospital, Ralph is trying to continue encouraging his team to pick up the slack.  But with 15 minutes left before the service starts, and running through the front door and back into the kitchen comes Andrew.  The team is excited.  He says that he just needed 4 stitches for the cut, but the fact of the matter is that he's back, and Ralph's team is back at full strength, just in time for the service.

Then, Ramsay calls over the finalists, and lets them know that he's impressed with what they've done, and lets them know that he'll still be there, but he'll only be shadowing them this time, as it's their restaurants and their kitchens.  (Basically, he'll observe, and make occasional comments to the camera about what he sees during the service.)  And with 5 minutes left, Michael and Ralph are now dressed in the proper clothing for a head chef, and they each line up their respective teams and give them some final words of encouragement before the dinner service starts.

The final duel

The clock strikes 7PM, and for one last time this season, Hell's Kitchen is open for business.  But this time, it's as two separate restaurants: "Lola Pop" (Michael's half) and "Frank and Lulu's" (Ralph's half).  The customers file in to the dining rooms, and the orders are taken.  As Ramsay lets the finalists know that the doors are open, Michael and Ralph hug, wishing each other good luck. 

Michael receives his first tickets, and he reads them to his team in the red kitchen.  He seems to have gotten better in that aspect, but after he read the orders, the team is silent.  He then gets them to talk out loud, like they should.  Meanwhile, Ralph gets his first tickets, and reads them to his team in the blue kitchen.  At least they respond quicker.

In the red kitchen, Michael repeats an order, but Jessica asks if there was a lobster in another order and he said "Away".  Michael realizes that that wasn't the order he meant to read out at that point, and he corrects himself, giving a different order.  This causes some confusion in the red kitchen, and as we see Jessica try to blow out another fire in a pan (yes, it's happened to her in past episodes, if you don't remember), Ramsay notes to the camera that they're now cooking as individuals, and not as a team like they should be.  But despite this, appetizers are still making their way from Michael's kitchen to the customers.

In the blue kitchen, Ralph tells Wendy to keep the pans hot.  And she said she needs pans.  Then, he repeats an order, and Wendy seems confused, thinking he said one of one thing and two of another, when it was the other way around.  Then, Ralph decides to help her a bit, leaving the hot plate for some time.  Ramsay notes that the starters aren't coming out from that kitchen, and that Ralph shouldn't be leaving the hot plate.  Ralph tells Wendy to have a pan ready for a pair of scampi, and she just stand there, confused again.  Definitely not a good start.  But Ralph did have a backup plan for the possibility of starters not being sent out soon enough; an antipasto cart.  One of his waitresses wheels a cart of food to the table to serve them.  It not only keeps the customers happy, but it also gives the kitchen some breathing room.  I guess with a team like Ralph's, he'll need as much breathing room as he can get.

At 8:15PM, Michael has had all his starters sent out, but one of the customers soon notices a plastic ring in her food.  JP brings the dish back to the red kitchen and tells Michael about the ring.  Michael shows the ring to Elsie, who was responsible for the dish.  She apologizes.  Michael then asks Jessica for some lobster, but she says she's dealing with rice paper at that point.  Michael asks about the rice paper, and Jessica says she's just one woman.  Michael asks if Jessica can just say "Yes, chef," and she says he's not helping.  Elsie and Jessica then start bickering with each other over the oven.  Michael tells then to stop, but Jessica talks back.  Things are not looking good for Michael as far as teamwork goes.

Meanwhile, Ralph's kitchen has finally got most of their appetizers out, and now, they're working on their main courses.  And Ralph tells Dewberry to not put fish into the spaghetti pasta, just as Dewberry puts fish into the spaghetti pasta.  Oops.  Ralph has the pan of pasta thrown out, to be started again.  Then, as Dewberry gets some black truffles to Ralph, he says he may be ready to pass out.  Geez, first Andrew's cut, and now this?  Ralph does what he can to keep Dewberry from passing out, telling him to throw some water on his face.  He does so, but it's not helping, as he's now just standing around, not doing anything.

Then, JP calls over Ralph again, and this time, Ralph gets the name right!  Better later than never, eh?  Anyway, JP tells them that though the food is good, they need to get the main courses out faster.  So when Ralph reads out a new order, he tells the team to step it up a bit.  But Dewberry, who is still ready to pass out, walks out of the kitchen!  He sits down outside the kitchen in a hallway, on a crate.  Scott asks Ralph if Dewberry will make it, but Ralph is unsure.  (It's around 9:30PM at this point.)  Scott suggests putting him on starters, but Ralph says he'd die.  Ramsay notes that this is a critical stage in the service, and losing someone at this time is not good.

Ralph tells his team that Dewberry will be needed for the next table, and this prompts Andrew to head back and check on him.  Dewberry doesn't think that he can do it, but Andrew is trying to encourage him to at least try.  But soon enough, Andrew is back in the kitchen, and Dewberry is still in the back.  Ralph tries to keep his team together, instructing them on what to do now.  But soon enough, Dewberry returns to the kitchen, ready to get going again.  The team seems relieved, as they continue.  Ramsay notes that the team is now back up to full speed, and that Dewberry's return is a great sign.  Ralph even brings up his "Points of Success" to remind Dewberry of them.  And after Dewberry gets a dish up to the hot plate, Ralph gives more encouragement, comparing him to a rock.  He says he'd rather hear Ralph compare him to "Brad Pitt's wife".  That got a good laugh from a few people, including Ramsay.

It's 10:03PM, and over half of Ralph's main courses have been served, while Michael's main courses are also moving out quickly.  But one customer complains that his steak is not medium-well, like he asked.  JP brings the dish back to Michael, who then tells Jimmy to get it cooked up.  He then reminds the team whose service it is this time, being more assertive than ever before.  Meanwhile, Ralph asks for a time for some ravioli, and Dewberry says 2 minutes  But Ralph says that's what he said before, and asks what happened.  The response: "Gotta get it working."  Yeah.

Back in the red kitchen, Michael asks for some steak, which Jimmy promptly brings to the hot plate.  He then calls out another order, and Jessica says it's coming right up.  Ramsay notes that things are really getting moving on Michael's side, as his team is listening to him now.  And this shows, as his team is getting out the last of their main courses.  Ralph's team have done so as well, and now both teams are working on desserts.  Ramsay notes that both Michael and Ralph are now doing very well, with the customers on both sides being very happy, and since both finalists are still pushing their teams, it's becoming harder for him to determine a winner.

And soon enough, as both teams work smoothly, they get all their desserts out, seemingly without any problems.  Once the teams have both completed their services, they start cleaning up, as Michael and Ralph each thank their teammates for doing as well as they have, in their own ways.  Then, a couple of customers from Michael's side come up to compliment him for the good food, as Ralph looks on.  And then, Ralph yells to the customers on his side, thanking them for coming.  And with that, the final dinner service is over.

Who was better?

Afterwards, Ramsay gathers everyone in the kitchen.  After asking how they're feeling, Ramsay appears ready to announce his decision.  But he's not ready to make that decision yet.  He does tell Michael that since he wanted an L.A. restaurant, he got customers from L.A., and he tells Ralph that since he wanted a New York restaurant, they actually flew customers from New York to be there tonight.  Yep, they spared no expense to ensure fair judgment  Ramsay then says he'll look at the customer comment cards, and combine them with their performances to determine the winner.  He then sends Michael and Ralph back to the dorm, telling them that Maryann and Scott will let them know when he's ready.

As they walk back to the dorm, we hear an aside from Ralph, where he thinks he has an advantage, saying that he's stronger.  But in his own aside, Michael says he doesn't really fear Ralph.  Outside, they both talk about how well the night went on both sides.  They then split off, Ralph staying outside, and Michael heading into a bedroom.  And they both look at pictures of their significant others.

The door to victory

Eventually, Maryann and Scott arrive with blindfolds.  After making sure that Michael and Ralph are ready, the sous-chefs have the finalists blindfolded, then lead them outside to the backyard, then through another area or two, before arriving at a different room, with 2 doors.  And yes, Ramsay is waiting there.  He asks them to remove their blindfolds, and once they do, he congratulates them for being there, and compliments their outstanding performances on this night.  And because it's that close, he's depending on the customers' comments, more than ever.

Ramsay mentions that those customer comment cards included one critical question: "Would you return to this restaurant?"  He then says that one of them got a 90% yes vote, which is amazing, but not as amazing as the 94% yes vote that the other got.  Ramsay says that any new restaurant with either of those figures could be considered highly successful, but on this night, only one was enough to win.

Ramsay then mentions the doors that each of them are standing in front of.  He says only the winner's door will open.  He asks them to turn around and face the doors, and on the count of 3, to open their doors.  Outside of those doors, we see the dining room, which is filled with a large group of people, waiting to see who will emerge victorious.  The doors are up on the balcony, and the sous-chefs are standing across from them, some distance away.  As Ramsay begins the count, the finalists place their hands on the door handles, ready to open them.

1...

2...

Wait for it...

3!

And we get a commercial break.  A long one, at that.  No better way to build up the suspense for us viewers, I guess.  Anyway, once they return from the break, they rewind back to the count.  Once again, here we go.

1...

2...

Wait for it again...

3!  And the winner is...

Michael!

He walks out onto the balcony to a thunderous applause from the crowd, and it seems that he can't believe it.  Back in the room, Ralph is leaning his head on the door in disappointment.  Back in the dining room, the applause continues, as Maryann and Scott congratulate Michael, and we see that both Michael's wife and Ralph's fiancé are there as well.  Soon, Ramsay brings Ralph out to the balcony as well, and as they head downstairs, we see the previously eliminated contestants also applauding.  And Michael and Ralph are both greeted by their significant others.  Soon enough, the confetti is flying, and the champagne is brought out.

But wait!  Ramsay quiets everyone down, then makes an offer to Michael.  He offers Michael a chance to go to London with him to be part of one of his famous restaurants, and work with him to become a top chef!  It's either that, or own his own restaurant now.  Michael thinks about it, and he decides to accept the offer and go to London!  They shake hands, and the party really begins!

And with that, Hell's Kitchen is closed.  But will it reopen for a second season?  I don't know, but I personally wouldn't mind seeing it.  If a second season does happen, you can bet that I'll be watching.  See ya!