Guest Judge: Rich Moonen, who is a champion of conscientious cooking. The Quickfire: the first-ever Top Chef Tag-Team Cook-Off. Knives were drawn, and nothing was on them, until it got to Jennifer, who got one with the words "first choice," and Michael, who got "second choice." Jennifer went with Kevin, Mike I, and Laurine, while Michael got Bryan, Eli, and Robin. Each team had to make one dish in 40 minutes, with the chefs passing the dish down the line 10 minutes at a time. And they couldn't talk to one another, AND had to wear blindfolds before they cooked, so essentially they didn't even know what dish they were making. Crazy!

Interestingly, both teams put the chefs you would logically consider to be the weakest - Robin and Laurine - in second place. Jen and Eli started off, picking ingredients and getting things prepped. So much happened that I honestly can't report it all, but it looked like Jen's team seemed to have a decent sense of what she was trying to accomplish, while Michael's team seemed a little less focused. Pulling up the last leg, Kevin abandoned the oil that was mean to poach the fish and instead pan fried it in butter. Michael created a whole mess of components that left me dizzy. Jen made the mistake of calling her black cod trout, which I'm sure must have been embarrassing. Ultimately the win went to Jen's team, and they won $10,000. SWEET!

Jen's team also got an advantage in the next Elimination Challenge, which was, of course, Restaurant Wars. Moonen gave his two-floor RM Seafood restaurant at Manderlay Bay over to the two teams. For once, the teams were not responsible for décor (good), they would only be judged on the concept, menu, food, front of the house experience, and service. There was an additional sustainable fish element that didn't amount to much. The Blue Team had an additional twist: they opted to put their $10,000 Quickfire prize on the line, and if they won Restaurant Wars, they would EACH get $10,000.

Team Jen - now the Blue Team - decided to avoid a dessert, since those are historically death for Restaurant Wars teams, and put Laurine in the front of the house. Team Michael - now the Red Team - decided to go with an American concept, and Michael and Bryan started butting heads almost immediately. Meanwhile, Eli got stuck with front of the house. Red Team went with the restaurant name Revolt - a mix of their names, and boy, that's a terrible idea, i.e. "revolting" - while Team Blue went with Mission, to reflect the architecture of the restaurant they were working in. The Blue Team went for the more refined upstairs space, while the Red Team went with the more lowkey downstairs space.

Robin started chaffing under Michael's direct leadership style and constant questioning, while the Mission team seemed to work together quite well. However, they seemed to be running significantly behind on time.

Diners seemed confused by the concept of Revolt, especially how the name reflected the menu. But they got over it quickly. The judges loved Michael's chicken dish, while Eli's arctic char was accused of being one-dimensional. The judges bitched openly about the wait between the first and second courses, but they loved Michael's melt-in-your-mouth cod, but were lukewarm on Bryan's meat and potatoes dish, which was served, well, lukewarm. Robin and Michael TOTALLY got into it over the plating of Robin's dessert, and Michael told her the fuck off (a little more polite than that, but not by much). Although they ended up loving Robin's pear dessert, and they were equally pleased with the mint and chocolate ganache dessert Bryan made. So the Red Team pretty much nailed it.

Up at Mission, the lack of desserts was immediately noticed by the judges. Hmm. I distinctly remember the judges yelling at teams who didn't know how to make desserts, saying that if they couldn't execute one they shouldn't have put it on the menu. That seems like a bit of a contradiction. When the first dish was served, Laurine kind of disappeared, and the judges found both of the dishes lacking in flavor. The second dish, the fish course, was majorly delayed, and most of the blame seemed to be foisted on Laurine and the inefficiency of service and lack of communication with the cooks. When the fish dishes did arrive, both of them were roundly dissed by the judges, and they singled out Jen's cooking, which had me worried. Kevin got some props for his pork plate, especially the sausage, but all in all it was fairly clear who the judges preferred, and the members of Team Blue could hear the bell tolling for them.

Judges Table: Revolt was called in first, and were of course the winners. Tom said it was across the board the best Restaurant War restaurant they've had in six seasons. Good on them. Robin tried to take total credit for her dish, which was not what we saw - earlier in the episode she openly praised Michael for giving her some direction on the dish - and when Michael called her on it, she rolled her eyes. Michael won the individual win, and got the $10,000 that the Blue Team gave up earlier. And when he decided to split it amongst his teammates, Robin rolled her eyes again. She is awful. And then Bryan, clearly in a snit, told Michael to keep the money, and they got into a passive-aggressive dialogue. Boy, that is a lot of decades-long resentment bubbling up, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse.

The Blue Team got drubbed soundly. Almost everything was criticized. The judges were shocked to learn that Jen was cooking her seafood to order, which they thought was ambitious, but a poor decision. When Jen learned her brown butter sauce had broken when it was served, she was totally distraught. Sad. Toby said that Laurine looked like a deer in the headlights in the service role, and Tom criticized her for not taking leadership on her lamb dish, which she said she would do. And then Tom pointed out that the kitchen badly needed a leader, and there wasn't one.

The judges acknowledged the Mike I didn't really do anything wrong, but Jen and Laurine both seemed to be in serious danger. I like Laurine, I am proud that she is a Rochester native, but if it's a choice between her and Jen, I pick Jen to stay. Jen is among the finest chefs ever on this show, male or female, and I'd hate to see her go home this early in the competition - especially before Robin or Eli.

Interestingly, the poll asked which Voltaggio brother is the better cook. Bryan was winning 2 to 1. That's a surprise. I guess people think he's kind of a dick.

Ultimately,  it was Laurine's time to go. That's sad, because honestly, she did seem like a really cool lady. You can tell that every member of that team felt put through the ringer, especially poor Jen, who seemed totally demoralized.

Next week: Natalie Portman!