After last night's episode there's a good chance I'll be skipping next week's finale. I've followed the show since the first episode of the season, but I simply don't care who wins at this point. In a shocker of an elimination, Elia and Sam --- my best guesses for winner since the beginning --- got cut, leaving us with Ilan and Marcel. So basically, jackass vs. jackass. Who am I supposed to be rooting for here?
Marcel was an obvious choice. It's a cardinal rule of reality TV that your "villain" makes it to the final episode. But picking Ilan over Sam or Elia smacks of the producers deliberately manufacturing drama at the end. Up until this episode Elia had been Marcel's sole ally on the show (more on that in a minute), and Sam is a first-class pussy and likely wouldn't have engaged Marcel at all. That leaves us with Ilan, who, for me at least, actually stole the asshat off of Marcel's head a few weeks back during the "seven deadly sins" challenge. I'd liked Ilan up until then, even if he was petty and catty at times. But he really soured my opinion when he badmouthed Marcel's food to their guests, and then proceeded to lead the We Hate Marcel fan club for the rest of the season. He's done a lot of shitty things to the kid, not the least of which was his participation in the infamous near-head-shaving last episode. I'm sure the two of them will hiss at one another all throughout the finale, but I don't like either of them, so I really couldn't care less.
One more note: Ilan further pissed me off with his 11th hour coupe attempt, in which he goaded Elia into interrupting the actual elimination at Judges' Table to assert that Marcel should go home because he had been cheating the whole time. We're given no proof to back this up, but Ilan and Sam both encourage Elia to speak up (Sam, of course, backs down --- he really is a coward), and then when the time comes, Ilan (I believe) starts, and then leaves Elia to twist in the wind by not backing up her allegations of foul play. Real classy move, guy. The whole thing did give us the best moment of the episode, however, as head judge Colicchio literally rolled his eyes in disgust when he saw the pathetic move being played. Colicchio can be a bit of a shit, but if you had to put up with this crew, you would be too.
