TCFL 18 Portland // Episode 12 Recap

Say cheese? A pretty fun Episode before we get into the penultimate nitty gritty tonight. Let's start at the end: Unfortunately, we aren't going to get the usual overseas adventure for the Final Four -- but instead, a trip to the Oregonian coast. I imagine that we will get more vistas and shots of terrain tonight, but their night time arrival wasn't the best for such shots. Instead we got a beach scene that no one seemed to want to be a part of. I know that I've been hard on Jamie the last couple of weeks, but she has never been more relatable to me than when she was bundled up in a parka. I hate being cold. Also, Shota has never been more dad than buying a Tillamook hat then immediately wearing it.

 

The end of this season has the same sort of feel as the end of last season with both featuring a tour of cheese production. At the end of the Elimination Challenge, we ended up with the correct Last Three. Jamie by no means checked out. But someone doing sea bass and cheddar is definitely at the end of their rope in some capacity. What was most interesting to me is that the 30 minutes that Jamie earned in the Quickfire ended up being used to help Shota and Dawn.

Speaking of Dawn... this is becoming a real problem. I guess on some level you can say that she only forgot one element on one plate this time. So that's an... improvement? I love when you can see a divide between the Alumni Judges. To be clear, all of them are enamored by Dawn. And I think many of them are rooting for her to win. But some of them are exasperated at the timing issues. It's interesting that Dale -- who has been here the whole time -- is fed up. As an Alumni, he can't understand how or why Dawn keeps getting a pass for not putting things on the plate. On the other hand, you have Ed -- who has only been around for a couple of weeks -- completely enchanted by her cooking.

We did get a new Alumna this week. Shout out to Mrs. Commish favorite Nina. Unfortunately she replaces Kish who is gone way too soon. Where might Kish be? I'm glad you asked! She's hanging out with TCFL veterans Justin and Eric! Eric may be a defending champion, and is again in contention in this season's standings, but Justin has him beat in the "don't be awkward next to Top Chefs" department.

Now you might be asking why I saved the Quickfire for last. I did think it was a good challenge and kind of wish that it had happened with more Chefs in the mix. I definitely know more about citric acid now than I did a week ago. But the real reason why I left it till now? It's because through some light Google-ing, I discovered that those scamps at Oregon Tourism have the real deal Oregon Trail game on their website. Not only that, but the game is embedded for your enjoyment below (you might need to be on something other than your phone/tablet to play). Happy hunting, river fording, and dying-of-dysentery-ing! Until next week!