This is it.  The final showdown is under way, and the dining rooms are being remodeled.  Last week, Rock and Bonnie chose their teams for the final dinner service, and for one last time this season, it'll be men vs. women.  Who will prevail?  Who will be the head chef at the Green Valley Ranch resort in Las Vegas?

2 different plans of attack

The teams make their way back to the dorms, and meet in separate rooms to prepare for the dinner service.  Bonnie tells her team that she picked them because she feels the women were generally better this season.  The other ladies say that they'll do what they can to help, but Julia, in an aside, says she's still rooting for Rock.  Hmm.  Speaking of whom, Rock gets right into stations with his team.  He feels that he knows the strengths and weaknesses of the other guys, so he's confident.  Vinnie's only concern about the menu is that he hasn't done it before.  Brad knows that they have to do what they can, and to do things as Rock wants them.  As Rock's team is getting themselves ready, Bonnie's team is just laying back as she explains what she expects from them.  Melissa asks if she has recipes, and Bonnie says, "Not yet."  That doesn't sound good, and Melissa is nervous about it.  It turns out that Bonnie is nervous as well, since the recipes haven't been worked out yet, and the women haven't worked with this food before.

At 11AM, 8 hours before the final dinner service starts, the teams go into the kitchen for prep.  Things are going smoothly on Rock's side, as he feels he needs to keep his team motivated.  On Bonnie's side, we get what could be a hint of what's to come, as Bonnie is telling Julia where to put certain food, and Julia says not to treat her "like an idiot".  But while prep is going on, the dining room construction continues, and John Janavs (the designer of Hell's Kitchen) needs to pull Bonnie aside for a moment.  He lets her know of a problem; they ran out of wallpaper, so they had to go and get a different wallpaper.  Bonnie isn't pleased with this, but now, she just wants to get through this.  Back in the blue kitchen, Rock is paying attention to detail with the food, and when Josh asks him if something is soft enough, he says it's too soft.  Then, Rock pulls Josh aside to the back to give him some motivation.  Basically, Rock feels that Josh doesn't trust himself, but he can work with it.  Meanwhile, Bonnie has noticed that Melissa has overcooked some prawns a bit, and tells her not to cook them so much.  Melissa gives it another shot, but they're overcooked again.  Oh, boy.

Final preparations

With 1 hour to go before the dinner service, the dining rooms are still not ready yet.  But Rock and Bonnie have something else on their minds; Ramsay is about to check their menus.  Bonnie's menu includes a chèvre salad as an appetizer, an egg fettuccine as an entrée, and some chocolate truffles as a dessert.  Ramsay tastes these dishes; he's impressed by the salad, he felt the prawn in the fettuccine was overcooked (Bonnie knows whose fault that is), but the pasta itself is good, and the truffle dessert is too small, so she needs to do something about that.  Meanwhile, Rock's menu includes a chicken breast and crab cake (surf & turf) as an entrée, a pan-roasted prime rib eye as another entrée, and a vanilla bean milkshake with double chocolate chunk cookies as a dessert.  Upon tasting, Ramsay likes the rib eye, but when it comes to the surf & turf, there's too much garlic in the rice.  As for the milkshake and cookies, Ramsay says it's a bit clumsy, and the milkshake doesn't need to be as big as it is.  Afterwards, Ramsay notes that these are 2 different menus, with Bonnie's being light and Rock's being heavy, but they still need to drive their kitchens from the start.

With about 30 minutes left, Rock's dining room is finally getting booths put in.  As the workers scramble to get that done in time, Ramsay checks Bonnie's completed dining room.  Bonnie describes it as "simplistic, but classic and elegant".  Ramsay likes that one could relax right away upon entering the room.  Bonnie notes the hardwood floor, but Ramsay likes the fact that it at least has carpets.  In the end, Ramsay compares it to a neighborhood restaurant with panache.  Then, with construction on Rock's dining room finally done, it's time for that to be checked.  Ramsay notes its elegance, as well as the lack of salt and pepper on the tables, showing confidence that the food will be seasoned properly before coming out of the kitchen.  Overall, Ramsay seems impressed with both dining rooms.

At 6:55PM, just 5 minutes before the doors open, Ramsay calls the finalists over for one last bit of advice.  He tells them of the only way to run a kitchen: "You run it, or it runs you."  And to make sure they look like they're running things, he gives them "head chef" uniforms, and tells them to get changed!  As they do so, Bonnie feels like she just graduated, and Rock has been waiting for this moment for a long time.  Soon enough, they walk back into their kitchens, ready to go.  They talk to their teams one more time; Rock wants them to be honest with their times, and Bonnie wants them to be honest if they screw up.

One last set of problems

It's 7PM.  For the last time this season, the doors to Hell's Kitchen are open.  This time, it's Bonnie's "Neighborhood Hideaway" against Rock's "Home-Style Bistro".  The orders are coming in, and Rock gets the first one.  He calls it out, and his team responds and gets going.  Same thing happens with Bonnie's team when she gets her first order.  Things start out quite smoothly on both sides, as the first appetizers from each kitchen are served without any problems.  But of course, this being Hell's Kitchen, problems are bound to arise, and Bonnie finds that out when she calls out her next order.  She gets no response.  Bonnie tells her team that she wants to hear it from them the whole night, and then, they respond.  She has a feeling that they still don't take her seriously.  Then, Bonnie asks Julia how long it'll be for 2 cauliflower and 2 scallops, but again, no response.  Bonnie tries to get her attention, and it takes a few tries to get a response.  In an aside, Julia says that she just wanted to get this over with, so she wasn't paying much attention to who was doing what.  Hmm.

In the blue kitchen, Josh is working on the chicken and crab.  He brings some of it up to the hot plate, but Rock notices that something was wrong with one of them, and tells Josh to cook another one quickly.  Rock says he needs it in 30 seconds, but Josh says he needs 1 minute.  That could be a problem.  In the red kitchen, Jen is doing what she can, and she is trying to communicate to her team, but Bonnie tells her to do more.  Jen wonders just how much more she can do.  Then, Julia tells Bonnie that she needs okra for the fettuccine, but Bonnie doesn't respond, apparently busy with something.  Now, it's Julia trying to get Bonnie's attention!  But still no response.  Ramsay notices this, and tells Bonnie about the sudden silence in her kitchen.  That gets Bonnie speaking up again.

At 8:09PM, appetizers are still being pushed out of the red kitchen despite the communication problem, but Josh is holding the blue kitchen back.  Ramsay notices that Josh is making too many crab cakes in advance, and pulls Rock aside to let him know that he needs to pay attention to these details.  Rock tells Josh to not freak out.  Brad is concerned, because this is causing some of his food to be overcooked as well.  Then, at 8:27PM, Bonnie has moved on to entrées.  But Melissa then tells her that they only have 4 orders of fettuccine pasta left.  This forces Bonnie to tell JP to let some customers know that because of the low supply, some of them may have to settle for normal spaghetti.  She is disappointed, because the fettuccine is supposed to be her signature dish.  Ramsay asks Bonnie how many portions of it they started with, and she admits to not knowing this.  He tells her that she should have known, because she's supposed to be running this.

Back on the blue side, Rock is still expecting chicken and crab from Josh.  But Rock notices that one of the crab cakes is burnt, so he tells Josh to restart with another.  With that, Ramsay pulls Rock aside again, this time to tell him that he needs to make a decision concerning Josh, since he is screwing up the whole thing.  After that, Rock again tells Josh to get it together.  But after seeing that more crab cakes have been burnt, it's time for Rock to make that decision; he tells Josh to stop and switch stations with Vinnie!  Vinnie admits that he wasn't prepared for this, but he might as well just do what he can.  And after getting through some confusion, as well as a bit of Rock's yelling, appetizers are finally being served from Rock's kitchen once again!

Meanwhile, there's a good news/bad news situation in Bonnie's kitchen.  The good news: the ladies are communicating.  The bad news: what they're saying is what Bonnie doesn't want to hear.  Melissa informs her that they're short on prawns.  But she's not the only one with bad news for Bonnie; JP returns a dish to her because a customer says it's cold and undercooked!  And the dish is what was supposed to be fettuccine, but is now spaghetti!  And with not enough prawns to remake the dish, this is a big problem!  JP goes to talk to the customer, and comes back, saying they just want the pasta.  So, at least that remake won't need whatever prawns are left.  But again, communication is down.  This is becoming a nightmare for Bonnie.  Then, as Bonnie is trying to get communication going again, Julia tells her to just be happy that she's getting food at all!  Uh-oh.

At 10:09PM, Rock's team is doing a lot better now, and they're getting entrées out quickly.  He knows that this is it, and he's doing what he can to keep the team going.  Meanwhile, Bonnie's team is now on desserts, and she asks Julia to wrap something up.  She tells Jen to do it for her, but Bonnie hears this, and reminds Julia that she was the one asked to do it.  Julia counters, saying that she was already in the middle of something else!  And so, an argument ensues, with neither side giving in, until Bonnie just goes back to the hot plate.  After finding out about this, Ramsay reminds Bonnie that she is supposed to be running the kitchen.  Luckily, that is the last problem we see, as we then see the finalists pushing their teams right to the end of the service!

Afterwards, the teams are cleaning up, and Ramsay tells Rock that he now knows what it's like to be at the hot plate with someone screwing up as much as Josh did in the kitchen.  Rock feels that this could hurt his chances of winning.  Bonnie thanks her team for the help, and Julia, despite the argument, tells her that she doesn't hate her.  Then, Rock gets another visit from his wife and kids, who were apparently dining there tonight!  It certainly provided a nice boost of confidence for him.

Time to reflect

With the teams lined up in the kitchen, Ramsay notes that this was a tough one, before asking Rock if there was something he wouldn't mind changing if he could go back in time and do so.  Rock says that he would have gone back to the signature dish challenge and won it for the first pick.  And if he had the first pick, it would have been Jen, because she impressed him the most!  This also would have meant that he wouldn't have had the last pick, and therefore, wouldn't have Josh on his team!  Ouch.  Ramsay then asks Bonnie what she would change if she could, and she says that she would have double-checked things during prep to make sure she wouldn't run low on supplies.  Ramsay then says that this was the strongest night for the finalists, especially since they completed their services.  He adds that this is a tough decision for him, because they didn't give up, and they both showed leadership qualities.  But he's not ready to make his decision yet, because he still needs to check the customer comment cards.  With that, Ramsay tells Rock and Bonnie to say good-bye to their teammates and return to the dorms to relax.

Once in the dorms for the last time, the 2 of them hug, and reflect on how hard a night that was.  Rock felt that things should have gone more smoothly than they did, and Bonnie felt that she had proven herself to everyone.  In the meantime, Ramsay is looking at the comment cards, using those and his observations in the kitchens to come up with a decision as we see flashbacks of the dinner service.  As they still wait, Rock is feeling nervous, and he even tells Bonnie that he thinks she won!  Bonnie just says, "Whatever."  Bonnie knows that Rock is a strong competitor, but she does hope that she isn't the one to walk away empty-handed.

The door to one's future

Finally ready with a decision, Ramsay meets the finalists in his office.  There, you can see that line of 12 hooks on the nearby wall seen at the end of each episode, with chef's jackets hanging on 10 of them.  Of course, above the 2 empty hooks are the pictures of Rock and Bonnie.  Ramsay tells them that they both ran their kitchens (and not the other way around), Bonnie has surprised him the most, and Rock is, well, rock solid.  After mentioning just how tough this decision was for him, Ramsay asks them to stand beside their doors.  As is customary at the end of a season, to reveal the winner, each finalist has a door leading out to a balcony in the dining room, but only the winner's door will open.  Ramsay reminds them that one of them is about to open their door to their future as the head chef at the Green Valley Ranch resort in Vegas, with a $250,000 salary.  He tells them to put a hand on their handle, and to turn those handles at the count of 3.

1...

2...

Wait for it...

3!

As always, they cut to a commercial at this point.  And as always, I mention it at this point.  And I'll keep mentioning it as long as they keep doing this.  Hey, I don't mind!  Anyway, after the break, as always, they go back to the start of the count.  So here it is again...

1...

2...

Wait for it...

3!  And this season's winner is...

Rock!

Upon seeing Rock's door open, the crowd gathered in the dining room starts cheering and applauding!  Bonnie immediately goes over and tells Rock that she's so happy for him!  Ramsay tells Rock to hold his head up high as he walks down the stairs and greets his family again!  In an aside, Rock says that he owes everything that he does to his family, and he felt that he showed his kids that if you stick with something, you can do it!  In another aside, Bonnie says that she thinks Ramsay did make the right decision, and that someday, the right opportunity will find her.  Ramsay explains in his office that Rock deserves to win because "he's a very confident cook, and he has become a really good leader."  With that, it's time to celebrate!

And that ends Season 3 of Hell's Kitchen.  Yes, a 4th season is on the way, and I'll be looking forward to it as much as I did this one.  See ya!