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My thoughts, somewhat disjointed:

The Quickfire was pretty cool and yes, salt and pepper should be freebies. Salt is the obvious throwaway guess. I understand that there's lots of pressure, though, and the mind goes blank in those situations.

Stephan's crush on Jamie is amusing and cute.

Danny always creeped me out and just didn't seem to have that Top Chef quality. What was up with the blue team and their lack of inspiration? And the deconstructed sushi? I can respect that they wanted to experiment (albeit it sounds like a bad idea that could end up good) but they chose the wrong diners to experiment on.

I wanted to taste that lamb. On TV it looked so good.

Watching this episode was strange because I knew Gail in our youth. This sometimes weirds me out a little when I watch the show anyway (there's an adult version of Gail on TV, older than the Gail in my memory). During much of the episode I wondered what her "real" bridal shower(s) was (or were) like.

I was very happy to see Daniel go. Barbeque sauce? What? Aside from all of his boastfulness and stupid choices his extended football referree metaphor in his exit interview was just the icing on the cake. "Really? How much longer is this metaphor going to go on? Oh, could you explain how referees make bad calls some more on a FOOD show?"

I'm getting kind of tired of Ariane. She cooked: a turkey. A really, really well known (and not original) salad. The lamb, as has been mentioned above, which she did not time well. I think Jamie deserved this last win.

I think Fabio is cute and very funny ("Do I know how make hot dog? No!"), and hopefully humbled by this week's judging.

Perhaps Jamie needs to cook something that requires a fork. Up to this point everything that has been done well is a soup or a puree. I think she'll make it far, but I wonder about her ability to cook main courses.

The quick fire challenge was NOT name those ingredients but name that sauce. Do you think the vegetable oil was really that evident? I think the straight up taste test they've done in the past is much more entertaining.

I can't stand Fabio, he's so arrogant. When people were going on about his charm, my exact words were "Huh?"

I like Jamie, and Ariane (I admire how she's bounced back).

In a previous thread people discussed food terms they can't stand, I think I mentioned "deconstructed" as something I could do without. Thanks Eugene.

Thanks, Tasty. That's exactly what I was going to say. If you can figure out what you're tasting, you know what ingredients normally go into it; you don't have to necessarily taste them in order to know that they're there.

@emilydev: the gist of the quickfire was a bracket where two contestants at a time tasted a soup or sauce and then see who could name the most ingredient (thus testing the palette). Stefan was able to identified turmeric out of the Thai green curry.

Ed, I totally agree about the salt and pepper. Though I guess they all should have been able to taste it and thus are on the same level. If they didn't think to pad their count like that, then they probably aren't cunning enough to get too far in. Hosea winning with "oil" was kind of blah as well.

@brooke: yeah, I think it was weird that Ariane won too. All she did was barely get the lamb cooked and needed everyone's help to plate on time. It wasn't her idea and all the things that made the dish special were from her teammates. Especially since Fabio cooking fish correctly wasn't a hit. The lamb might be a bit harder, but both are basic chef skills.

Am I the only one who thinks it was odd (to put it mildly) that Ariane won considering her actual input? The idea was Jamie's, the marinade that made the lamb as flavourful as the judges claimed it to be, was Radhika's, and all Ariane did was basically put the lamb in the oven - and even this she didn't do quite right (that is, too late), which almost resulted in a complete disaster for the team. For that, she ends up wining the challenge?

While I agree that Jamie should "suck it up", just because crying over spilt milk never changes anything (and never looks good), I believe that the judges got the winner wrong (they did get the loser right though). Tom himself, in his blog, admits that had the judges known more about the way the dish originated and evolved, their decision could have been different.

So glad Daniel is gone, he was a knucklehead. Kudos to Jeff's sorbet and Hosea for beating Stefan in the quickfire - that was awesome!
Carla needs to speak up or she will be next...
Jamie needs to suck it up - so what if you've been in the Top 3 each time?
Obviously you're missing somethng and need to step it up so you can win next time! Don't hate on Ariane for winning...
I did like that the rest of them helped out the Borrowed team when time was short - that won't last long :)

I don't mean this in a pervy way or anything, but (okay, I'm being shallow here, I admit it)... even though I'm old enough to be Fabio's mother, I think he's probably the sexiest cheftestant they ever had on Top Chef. Charming... yeah, okay, maybe, but those George Clooney eyes kill me.

I felt so bad for Carla! Daniel added a component to her dish without asking? Without allowing her a taste first? He deserved to go home for that, alone. It was so arrogant, it made Stefan seem humble, fercripessake. If I were Carla, I would have ripped the little SOB a new one. She needs to start speaking up!

I like Ariane a lot. But, I feel for Jamie. She really wanted that win. At least Ariane had the humility to be surprised.

And, last but not least, was anyone else really happy to see Jeff's sorbet win out on that plate after Stefan gave him such a hard time about it? That was awesome!

P.S. @Pupster Daniel's "time of the month" crack pissed me off, too. He just really rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning.

Danny should have gone home simply for dropping those mushrooms into Carla's salad. Period. And Carla should have said as much.... I know she didn't want to "throw him under the bus," but in this case it was a fact that he singlehandedly blew her dish.
The fact that she didn't know till plating? Outrageous.
I am super glad he is gone. What an oaf.

I thought the format of the QF challenge would've been more challenging if they had each contestant name as many ingredients as they could in a head-to-head; instead competitors were dropped without getting a chance to demonstrate how many ingredients they could identify out of a 40-ingredient sauce. Danny, as per usual, came off as ignorant and over-eager. I found him annoying and was happy for him to go. Though most annoying of all was Gail's pooh-poohing of Team Blue's fish for being "politically incorrect," the food police should not be dictating whether or not a dish is well-executed based on whether or not an ingredient is de rigeur. Between her ignorance of the international usage of avocado as a sweet ingredient and her judging food by political criteria rather than culinary, I am not a fan of Gail at all.

Corn Muffins - omGAH yes!

yummmmmmmmmmmmmmy Pumpkin Cheesecake :)~