Last week, 12 new aspiring chefs entered Hell's Kitchen, but Tiffany didn't last long, as she was the first one eliminated.  11 are left; who will go home next?

Early fatigue

Having just gotten through the first elimination, the teams return to the dorms, and Bonnie is talking to Melissa about the arguing that went on in the red kitchen that night.  And Joanna seems determined to do better so as to avoid being so close to elimination again.  As long as she learns to shut up...  Meanwhile, the guys are all concerned about Aaron, who apparently hadn't been eating much.  He doesn't want to let his team down, but the fact that he seems to have been getting tired easily is making him a weak link on the blue team.  This could be quite the problem brewing.

Something smells fishy

At 3:13AM, everyone is fast asleep.  But that doesn't last too long.  At 5:56AM, in comes the familiar sight of Mary Ann and Scott with pots clanging loudly to wake everyone up!  It never fails to get everyone up and out of bed quickly!  Soon enough, the teams are in the dining room, still not fully awake yet, and Ramsay reminds them how embarrassing the first dinner service was, mentioning that thousands of dollars of food went in the garbage bin.  He then tells them that they need to understand where food comes from, so they're going to head out and catch their own fish!  Does this mean a fishing trip?  Bonnie seemed to think so.

Oh, but this is Hell's Kitchen!  When Ramsay said they were going to catch fish, he meant it literally.  Just outside, the back door of a truck slides open, and a couple of guys start throwing the fish to the teams!  And they have to catch the fish and put them in their buckets!  It was chaotic at first, but they eventually got themselves organized.  During this, Ramsay made a few comments about some of the fish being bigger than Eddie.  Once the fish were all caught, the teams brought the buckets back to their storage rooms, and again, Aaron was tiring out easily.

After that, the teams are lined up in the red kitchen, and Ramsay says it's time for their first challenge.  Aaron swears, then after apologizing for that, he starts crying again.  Here we go...  He says he's feeling dizzy.  Ramsay decides to send him back to the dorms to relax for a bit.  Luckily, that evens out the teams for the challenge!  Speaking of which, Ramsay starts by showing them a Dover sole, an expensive fish.  He shows them how to properly prepare it; carefully peel the skin off, then push out all the roe (in other words, fish eggs).  That's it.  The challenge is essentially that; prepare as many Dover sole as possible that meets Chef Ramsay's standards.  And they have 30 minutes to do it.

Once the 30 minutes are up, it's time to check how well they did.  Eddie only managed to have 2 ready, and only 1 was done properly.  So, that's 1 point for the blue team so far.  Brad scores 2 points, Vinnie strikes out, and Rock only manages 1.  With 4 points so far, Josh, who was excited about this challenge at first, hopes to score big.  And he does, with 4 perfectly-done fish bringing the men's final total to 8!  Now, for the women.  Melissa starts them off well with 4 of her own.  The men seem nervous about that.  With Julia scoring 2 more for the red team, the men have a good reason to be nervous.  However, Bonnie and Jen both fail to score any points, bringing it down to Joanna.  She has 3 fish ready for inspection, so for the women to win, they all need to count.  The first one does...  The second one does, tying up the score 8-8...  It's down to the last one.  And... it counts!  The ladies win, 9-8!

With that, the red team wins a nice reward; Ramsay is going to bring them out to the Pacific for a fishing trip, with lunch!  As for the blue team, as part of their punishment, they'll have to prepare all the Dover sole in the restaurant, which will be served in the next dinner service!  Ramsay then sends the ladies to the dorms to get dressed, because the boat is waiting.

Fish everywhere

As the guys are busy prepping the Dover sole, the ladies come through the kitchen, on their way out to their trip.  And Aaron?  He's still in the back, resting.  Later, the women are on the boat, fishing.  They each manage to catch some small fish, but Ramsay comes through with a rather nice catch himself!  Of course, he can't resist comparing it to Eddie.  Back at the restaurant, 4 hours into the punishment, Aaron finally arrives to join in.  But it's not long before he says he wants to quit.  As in leave the competition!  The other guys do manage to convince him to change his mind, though.  But one has to wonder if Aaron can really keep up, with the way things have gone...  Back at the boat, lunch has started, and Ramsay is telling them about how they need to be more like a team from here on in, now that they've come together as one.  We'll see if this puts an end to the arguing that we saw last week...

At night, the ladies have changed into some, well, more comfortable clothing.  And it's getting the attention of the guys.  Bonnie, in particular, gets some attention, especially after Josh asks her where the potatoes are, and Eddie asks her to reach for some cookies on a high shelf.  Yeah.  Meanwhile, outside, Aaron tells Julia that he feels intimidated by the other guys, but Julia says that they may be just acting like they know everything.  Aaron also mentions that it's hard to find rest, due to how intense things have been.  Well, what did you expect?  Just look at the name of the show!

Hoping for a better service

The next day, during prep, Ramsay gathers the teams for a moment, and tells them that they have a special for tonight: pan-fried Dover sole.  And as the second part of the punishment for losing the fish challenge, someone on the blue team will have to serve it tableside.  And that someone is Aaron!  With that, prep resumes, and in the red kitchen, it seems like Joanna got the message about teamwork, as she doesn't start arguing when Melissa tells her to make sure of something.  Could this be a sign of a major turnaround?  Over in the blue kitchen, Rock is starting to feel that Josh is trying to lead with his mouth, rather than by example.  Could this also be a sign, but in the opposite direction?

At 6PM, Aaron is out in the dining room to get ready for his tableside duties.  Ramsay tries to encourage him that this should be an easy job for him, but Aaron doesn't seem to be reacting or anything!  JP seems to notice a vacant look in his eyes, then Aaron collapses into the seat behind him!  Uh-oh.  Aaron recovers soon enough, though, saying that he just passed out for a moment.  Hopefully, that won't happen during the dinner service.

Bones to pick?

Speaking of which, the clock strikes 7PM, and Hell's Kitchen is open.  The ladies seem ready to work together.  The guys get the first order, and they acknowledge it in unison.  Aaron, on the other hand, has decided to greet the customers personally for some reason!  That wasn't what Ramsay had in mind, so he tells JP to get Aaron away from them.  In the blue kitchen, Eddie is trying to make spaghetti, but others are trying to help.  Problem is, this is confusing him, and it's screwing up the spaghetti.  So, Ramsay, after seeing what happened to it, tells the others to get away from Eddie, then tells Eddie to control his section.  In the red kitchen, Ramsay calls for an order of 1 scallops and 1 spaghetti, but apparently, Bonnie thought she heard something else; she's doing 3 scallops!  Because of this, Ramsay calls her a "dumb blonde".  After that, Bonnie repeatedly says, "I'm okay."  Hmm.

Back in the blue kitchen, Vinnie is trying to cook the Dover sole that Aaron will eventually be serving tableside, but Ramsay is watching from a distance, and from what he can see, the fish is burning.  Vinnie says it's a golden brown, then Ramsay calls for it to go on the hot plate.  Turns out that Ramsay was right about one of the Dover sole.  So, they'll have to be redone.  Over with the red team, Jen has stepped up her game, and the ladies are actually getting appetizers out quickly!  Soon enough, though, the blue team gets some Dover sole out, and now, it's Aaron's time to shine.  All he has to do is bring it to the table and debone the fish for the customers.  He starts the first one at 8:20PM.  JP is telling him to do it quickly.  But Aaron finishes it at 8:35PM.  Yeah, it took him 15 minutes to debone a fish.  That's slow.

In the blue kitchen, Eddie has a pair of risottos at the hot plate, but Ramsay has a problem with it.  He has the entire blue team taste it, before mentioning that it's "way too peppery", and that it wouldn't even be served to a pig!  That had to hurt.  So, Ramsay pulls Eddie off that section and puts Brad in.  In the red kitchen, Joanna had just realized that she forgot to cook some lettuce for an order!  She remains silent for a moment when Ramsay calls for it, though, and he is on her case about it for a bit.  She seems to be close to breaking down afterwards, but at least she tries to stick with it.  Despite her problems, the red team does have 23 entrées served at this point, while the blue team only has 9.  Josh brings some Wellington to the hot plate, but it's overcooked.  Then, while redoing it, Ramsay asks if it's cooked, and he says yes.  He is then asked if there's an raw pastry in there, and Josh says yes.  Oops.  This isn't looking good at all.

Back in the dining room, Aaron is still trying to debone the Dover sole, but apparently, customers are finding bones still in their food.  JP brings the complaints to Ramsay's attention, and this brings Aaron over to the hot plate to hear it.  Aaron's excuse?  It's dark and he's trying to rush himself.  Ramsay says it's supposed to be one big bone coming out of the fish, and tells him to concentrate once he gets another Dover sole to serve.  In the red kitchen, Melissa is doing the spaghetti AND the garnish.  She says it's to help Joanna, who had problems with it earlier.  Ramsay tells Melissa to just let Joanna do it.  Then, we find out that the red team only has 3 tables left, and Ramsay wants them to keep it together for just a while longer!  And that's exactly what they do, as according to Ramsay, they're now sounding like a team!

But the blue team is still struggling, and Brad's risotto is also "too peppery"!  Josh is trying to prepare some chicken, but Ramsay notices that it's dry!  Now, he's fed up.  He calls the blue team together, and makes a big decision; he kicks them out of the kitchen, and he's gonna have the red team finish their orders!  Wow.  And good timing, too; the ladies had just finished serving their half of the customers!  And believe it or not, they manage to pick up the slack, and finish the blue tables as well!  Wow.  In Season 1, the first completed dinner service came in the 4th episode, and in Season 2, it took a bit longer.  Here, it's only the second episode, and we already have a completed service!  The red team really surprised me tonight!

Stating the obvious

With the service over, Ramsay has both teams gathered in the red kitchen, and points out how Aaron greeted customers at the start for some reason.  He apologizes for that.  Ramsay then says that he feels unsafe with Vinnie behind him, because he covers up mistakes.  Ramsay then goes on and says that Eddie did badly, to which Eddie replied that he got confused when teammates were trying to help.  Since it's obvious that the red team won this one, Ramsay says that the least bad of the blue team was Rock.  So, he'll be the one responsible for the nominations tonight.

Back in the dorm, Eddie tells Rock that Aaron, Vinnie, and himself are the main choices to be nominated.  Eddie then says that he's strong during prep.  Aaron tells Rock that he would like to stay, but he understands if he's picked to go.  Aaron seems to be feeling pessimistic about his chances, and the way things have gone, I can't blame him.  Josh simply tells Rock that he doesn't want to go home.  That's it.  Now, Rock has to ponder "what to do, what to do, what to do..."

First man out

The women are sitting at the nearby table this time, as the men are lined up and ready for the elimination.  After verifying that a decision has been made, Ramsay asks for the first nomination.  Rock chooses Eddie, because he's unsure if Eddie can come out of his shell and become an asset to their team.  For the second nomination, Rock chooses... Josh?  Wow.  Even Ramsay seems surprised by this, considering Aaron seemed more vulnerable.  Anyway, Rock chose Josh because he's all over the place.

After stepping forward and being asked to say why they think they should stay, Eddie says that he learned he needs to speak up and stand up for himself, while Josh says that he felt really embarrassed about being kicked out of the kitchen, and he wants to come back and do better.  Ramsay says this isn't easy, as we see flashbacks of Josh's dry chicken and Eddie's peppery risotto.  With that, Ramsay decides that Josh is getting another chance.  That means that Eddie, who had problems with spaghetti and risotto tonight, is the one to take off his jacket and leave.  Ramsay then simply sends the others back to the dorms.

Next week, the teams get a different kind of wake-up call thanks to a trumpet playing "Reveille", they serve breakfast to America's finest, a reward takes one team out to sea, and someone makes a disastrous mistake during the dinner service.