Last time, the restaurant's opening day turned out to be a major train wreck, with very few dishes being served to the customers, and Carolann was the first to be ejected from the kitchen after standing around too much when it mattered. Can the remaining 11 possibly rebound from this disaster somehow?

The aftermath of a wreck

After an exhausting first day, the group returns to the dorms to get some much-needed rest. Dewberry, who was surprisingly nominated for elimination by Elsie despite having been assured by her that he was safe, spent some time in the bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror, thinking that he was alone in there. But the flush of a toilet proved otherwise, and who walked out of that stall? Elsie. Could we have a confrontation? Well, they just stand there, and Dewberry seems quite forgiving, even going so far as to give her a hug. That's not exactly what I'd call an exciting confrontation. But in a confessional, he noted that he would seek some payback if he were to have the chance to nominate someone for elimination. In another room, members of the blue team were with Jeff, mentioning how he lucked out and didn't get nominated despite how poorly he did. Jeff does admit that he felt Ramsay indeed wanted him out, and now feels that some improvement is needed. Make that a LOT of improvement.

Rude awakening for a gross task

The next morning, at 5:45AM, the sous-chefs, Maryann and Scott, come into the dorms to give the group a wake-up call. Literally. With a lot of noise. They tell the group to get in the kitchen "right now". They all wake up and files into the kitchen in front of Chef Ramsay. At about 5:55AM, everyone is lined up in their teams. Well, everyone except for Chris. He decides to get changed and brush his teeth, keeping everyone waiting. At 6:02AM, Chris finally enters the kitchen and gets into the line. At that point, Ramsay speaks up, pointing out how Chris was the last one in, and calling him lazy. He then goes on to say that despite the disastrous performance that everyone had the night before, they were going to try to put that behind them and move on. He then brings everyone into the kitchen for a challenge, and the teams line up on opposite sides of a counter, with covered silver trays lined up in the middle. There was also a zucchini on the table. They are asked to lift the domes, and they do so to reveal a bunch of squid. And they looked rather gross. Good thing this won't be an eating challenge.

To even out the teams for the challenge, Ramsay asks Michael to sit out, since he had prepared squid before. Apparently, they're going to have squid on the menu for the next day, so Ramsay demonstrates to the group the proper method of cleaning a squid. And I won't go into the details here, but I'll just say it involves that zucchini. They are then given the challenge, which is to clean as much of the squid as possible in 10 minutes. Whichever team has the most squid properly cleaned will get to have dinner that night with Ramsay, who will be doing all the cooking himself. The other team will get to clean the rest of the squid for the whole restaurant while the winning team is enjoying good food.

Ramsay signals the start of the 10 minutes, and the competitors begin cleaning. A squid must have all the tentacles removed, the guts completely cleaned out, the skin removed from the outside and inside, and no holes anywhere to count as a properly cleaned squid. After the 10 minutes are up, it's time to see how everyone did. Starting with the red team, Jeff, Jimmy, and Elsie managed 1 good squid each, Dewberry got 2, and while Chris had gone through 4, only 1 of them counted, bringing their total to 6. Over on the blue team, Ralph managed 2 clean squid, Jessica got 1, Wendy didn't get any (despite being a self-proclaimed perfectionist, which I'm currently having a hard time believing), and Mary Ellen got 2 to bring their score up to 5, which means that Andrew will need 1 to tie and 2 to win it for the blue team. He seems quite confident about how he did, and he even has a smile on his face, but that smile is wiped right off his face when Ramsay doesn't accept any of Andrew's squid. That means that the red team wins, 6-5, and they get to have dinner with the top chef.

The blue team get together in the dorm, where Andrew is clearly disappointed, as he thought his squid should have been accepted. The blue team then decide on some sort of a battle cry, which is Wendy's translation of "We will not lose again" in Mandarin. The teams then get dressed, putting on their jackets, and meet Ramsay in the kitchen at 11AM for a training session (which they'll need in the worst way). He explains to them, among other things, that they'll have to think along his lines over the next few weeks.

Dinner, then pain

Once the training is done, the red team gets cleaned up for dinner, while the blue team begins cleaning all the squid for the next day. Chris explains that this will be a big boost in the red team's morale, as they get dressed up for the night. Michael mentions how jealous he'll be of the red team, as they get to sit down and have dinner with Chef Ramsay, while he is knee-deep in squid in the blue kitchen. Then, the red team, all dressed up, walks out of the dorm and through the red kitchen into the dining room, where they sit down at a table along with Ramsay. In the blue kitchen, sous-chef Scott decides to point out to the blue team that they can see the red team in the dining room, drinking champagne. Back in the dining room, as dinner is served, Jeff asks Ramsay about how he managed as many restaurants as he has, to which he replies that he has had a phenomenal team for 10 years that he has pushed to the extreme, getting the best from them. As the red team enjoys their food, over in the blue kitchen, the squid keeps piling in for the blue team to clean.

After a long day, everyone has gone to bed exhausted. Well, everyone except Jeff. He's laying on his stomach in the halls, apparently sick or something. Jessica heads out to see how he's doing, but Jeff can only respond with a groan. She then walks past, saying "Whatever." Okay, I know that they're on opposite teams, but that was just mean. The next morning, 3 members of the blue team (including Jessica) gather to discuss what's wrong with Jeff, who is now asleep. We then hear from Jeff that he has had a history of kidney stones, and that one apparently showed up that night. But it seems that Jessica doesn't believe it, thinking that he may be a bit of a hypochondriac. Andrew, though, isn't thinking that, and wishes for Jeff to get better. Good to see that at least someone from the opposing team cares about Jeff's current health problem.

The teams get into their jackets, and begin preparing for the second opening of the restaurant. The only new menu item is the aforementioned squid, and Ramsay will be expecting major improvement over the first night. Just over 30 minutes before the restaurant opens (at 7PM), Dewberry has prepared a pasta for practice, and Ramsay asks him to taste it. When asked what he thinks of it, Dewberry says it's good, and Ramsay gets a taste of it himself. And he agrees. That should be a good sign that things should turn out better.

The teams then line up for some final words from Chef Ramsay before Hell's Kitchen opens. He says that they need to make up for the first night's disaster big time, and then he reveals that there is more to the punishment for losing the squid challenge the previous day. And that punishment is that the blue kitchen will have no air conditioning. He explains that he once had to work without air conditioning, and it was like a nightmare. He gets the teams back to work, getting ready for the night's service, as a couple guys enter with ladders and disable the fans in the blue kitchen. Scott points out the thermometer in the blue kitchen to the team, so that they can tell how hot it is.

Hot food, hot kitchen, hot temper?

The restaurant opens at 7PM, and customers begin filing in and are seated at the red and blue tables. The customers start ordering, and the orders begin filling up at the kitchens. Ramsay asks for appetizers from the blue kitchen, and after a bit of waiting, Mary Ellen has prepared a Caesar salad, which is immediately approved and served to the appropriate table. A good start for the blue team, whose kitchen is already up to 125ºF. The red team also gets off to a good start, with Dewberry's first appetizer also approved right away. Appetizers are served from the red kitchen, and the customers that got those are pleased with their food. Could we actually see a good performance all the way through this time?

Back in the blue kitchen, Ramsay is waiting for 2 risotto from Wendy. She finishes preparing the risotto, and Ramsay tastes it, but doesn't approve. Wendy has to make it again, but after a bit, Ralph ends up taking over the risotto while she goes on to something else. Ralph finishes it, and this time, it gets approved and served. A customer who got that risotto tastes it, and says that it's really good. Looks like Ralph has made a good impression overall so far. One hour into the service, and all the red tables have their appetizers. They're now ready to serve main courses, but they first need vegetable garnishes, which is up to Jeff. But he momentarily forgot about it, so he has to prepare the spinach with Ramsay yelling at him. It gets burnt, though, so Jeff has to start it again. However, the effects of the kidney stone from the previous night started to affect Jeff's performance, and he was losing focus, causing him to later on spill some food that was being prepared. Uh-oh.

At 8:30PM, despite the red team's good start, Jeff's problems have slowed down the team, and they have only served 4 entrees thus far. And despite the lack of air conditioning, and the temperature in the blue kitchen now at 140ºF, the blue team is now ahead, having served 10. Michael makes a mention of it being hot in there, and Ramsay reminds him of the orders that still need to be taken care of. Over in the red kitchen, Elsie needs some help with some salmon that she has to prepare, so she asks Chris for help. And being a nice guy, he heads over to help, letting her know what she should do to make sure the salmon is done just the way that it should be. That's teamwork. What Andrew and Mary Ellen are about to demonstrate in the blue kitchen is not. There's a Beef Wellington in the oven, to be done medium-rare, and while Andrew says it's done, Mary Ellen disagrees, saying that it's not ready yet. Ramsay calls for the Wellington, and Mary Ellen brings it out for evaluation. Ramsay says it's not good enough, though, and although he calls Andrew over about it, Mary Ellen claims responsibility for it. The Wellington goes in the trash, and once Mary Ellen gets back to the oven, Andrew says that she should have listened to him. She says to not yell at her until later, but Andrew clearly doesn't like that.

Over at the red kitchen, Dewberry is called over by Ramsay about the lamb and Beef Wellington that he had prepared. While Ramsay says he likes the lamb, he also says the Wellington was overdone, then gives the dish back to Dewberry. After Chris shouts some encouragement to his team, and Ramsay tells Dewberry to get back to his station, he tries to take a tray out of a pot, but it spills some liquid into a nearby pan, causing a brief fire. Oh dear. At least no one was hurt, unlike with Jimmy's spill from the first episode. Dewberry tries to explain to Ramsay that he's confused and he doesn't know what he's doing at that point. Ramsay then simply tells him to get back to his section. At 9:12PM, customers from the red tables are starting to lose patience. Oh, boy, here we go again. A customer goes up to the counter and wonders when his table is going to get their main courses. Ramsay, a little more calm this time, apologizes for the wait and mentions that the red kitchen is behind. But the customer says it doesn't do much for him, to which Ramsay fires back, basically saying the customer doesn't do anything for Ramsay. They talk some more, until the customer finally understands that they have amateur chefs there, and Ramsay tells him to go back to his table. At least there wasn't much shouting this time.

Ramsay turns his attention back to the red kitchen, where he calls for an order that Dewberry is apparently responsible for. He says it'll be ready in 12 minutes, but Ramsay didn't like hearing that, saying that the Wellington should be roasted. But Dewberry has no idea about that. Yeah, there's the confusion thing again. Ramsay inquires about whether or not Dewberry cares, and after saying he doesn't at this point, and admitting to being useless, Dewberry says "Goodbye," and starts to leave the kitchen, walking out on the team. That is, until he sees the look on Elsie's face. At that point, he feels that he just couldn't leave, and after mentioning his confusion once again, he gets back to his station as Ramsay yells at him about not deserting it anymore. Jeff tries to encourage Dewberry, saying not to worry about it, but Ramsay mentions to Jean Philippe, the maitre d', about how he hasn't cooked what needs to be cooked yet.

And here come some more customers from a red table or two, wanting answers about what's taking so long for their food to be served. He calmly explains that it is a new restaurant, and blows them off. Ramsay decides to use what just happened there as an example, explaining to Dewberry why he needs to get moving. Meanwhile, the customers that were just there explains to others about how they were told to **** off. One of them is clearly ticked upon hearing that. Over at the blue kitchen, we see that Mary Ellen has been able to get some main courses out despite the ongoing problems with Andrew. But Andrew, trying to play politics as if this was Survivor or something, tries to explain to sous-chef Scott that he was taking over control of gauging temperatures for her at her station. But Scott wasn't buying that, basically saying that he saw something different. Mary Ellen noticed what Andrew was trying to do, and when he asked to help her with something, she said no, and to just keep talking trash about her. He denies talking trash, though.

At about 10PM, customers from both sets of tables are starting to walk out unfed. Oh geez, not again. Then, someone walks in with pizza, and - What the...? Why is that guy in the dining room with 2 boxes of pizza, delivering it to a red table? And how on earth did he get in there with them in the first place? Jean Philippe quickly notices this, and walks over to the table, trying to explain to them that by law, food from outside of the restaurant is not allowed in there. But one of the customers tries to defend this illegal move by mentioning that they had not yet been served by the kitchen, despite waiting for so long. The maitre d' then makes a remark at the customer's education, and he starts yelling at Jean. This causes the customer to get kicked out of the restaurant. Chef Ramsay sees all this, and decides that that's it for this night. He asks both teams to shut down their kitchens, and the restaurant is once again closed down early.

Result time

The teams are lined up in the kitchen, and it's time for Ramsay to decide who loses. He starts with the blue team, saying that the customers hated their cold starters, but they did get plenty of main courses out, though they weren't that good. With the red team, 3/4 of their customers loved their starters, but almost 1/2 of them didn't get a main course, and Ramsay brings up the bit with one table going so far as to ordering pizza and getting it while still waiting for food to arrive from the kitchen! So with that, Ramsay declares the red team as the losing team. He then says that despite being annoyed by just about everything that Chris had said in previous days, he had turned things around on this night, making him the one to nominate two teammates for elimination this time.

The teams returned to the dorms, and Jeff explains to Chris that he was doing fine until the pain from the previous night returned, causing him to lose his focus. Chris then has a brief chat with Jimmy, then we see Dewberry explaining to Jeff that this was the worst day of his life. Eventually, Chris gets some time alone to think about who he should nominate, and he feels that it's still about the team at this point, and he wants the team to win.

Desertion and pain

Once the time comes, the blue team is once again watching from a table to see which member of the red team will be eliminated. Chef Ramsay asks for the first nomination, and Chris chooses Dewberry, because of how his emotions could end up hurting the team. For the second nomination, Chris chooses Jeff, because his letting his head get in the way could also hurt the team. Ramsay asks both Dewberry and Jeff to step forward, then tells Chris that he made the right decision in choosing both of them, feeling that they both indeed deserve to be in that position.

Ramsay then asks for reasons from the nominees on why they should stay. Dewberry says that though he did some decent work, the fact that he let his emotions get to him was inexcusable, and he promises that it won't happen again if he stays. Jeff says that he had been a team player the past couple of days, and that he showed the dedication to the team. After saying that Jeff's not a good cook, Ramsay thinks about his decision. We get flashbacks of Dewberry, first having a dish approved, then of him walking out on the team. We then see what Jeff did, spilling food as a result of the pain in his chest. After careful consideration, Ramsay decides that Dewberry is going home, simply because he had deserted his team. Dewberry takes off his chef's jacket, gives it to Ramsay, and walks to the dorm to pack up and leave.

Next week, the competitors will do some frantic grocery shopping, things get really heated between some of them, someone from the blue team is switching sides, the teams will be serving a dining room that includes food critics, and someone is actually going to stand up to Chef Ramsay.