As I admitted last week, I generally hate reunion episodes. I hate them the most when they’re sandwiched in before the finale — we want to find out who wins, not re-hash old clips! — but even now that we know who won the title, I’m still not a big fan. Some of the segments come off as loving tributes to the oddballs on the show, but mostly I find that reunion episodes feel like a series of awkward, fake attempts to force contestants to “own up” to bad behavior or talk about what was clearly a difficult emotional moment. Every so often you get a moment like Season 1′s Stephen sincerely apologizing for acting like a douche and those are worth watching. But I think it says something that I have to go all the way back to Season 1 to think of a moment when I felt like the reunion episode added something to the season as a whole!
Specific thoughts about this particular reunion episode in the comments.
1. I do not care what Elia Aboumrad thinks about Tom Colicchio
My iTunes episode was littered with promises that we were about to see an Elia-Tom throwdown. That annoyed me because the constant hyping of the “showdown” makes it seem as though what Elia has to say about Tom is at all relevant. Perhaps the producers felt that they needed to call Elia out on the whiny, immature attacks she made on Tom’s integrity, but I would rather have seen them not talk to her at all and watched her sit there silently the whole episode. She is not worth Tom’s time. Or, frankly, mine.
2. The Jen segment wasn’t as painful as I expected
When facing the inevitable questions about her elimination and her reaction to the criticism, Jen was calm, apologetic but not self-flagellating. She handled it like a pro. Phew.
3. OK, some of the segments were fun
I enjoyed the Angelo fashion sequence and the bromance sequence. I also enjoyed the return of Fabio’s pet turtle — actually, the whole Fabio sequence. And the Muppets snarking on Padma. That was fun.
4. Uh … what got into Padma?
She usually seems so low-key (at times, practically sleepy). But suddenly she’s making jokes about motorboating Antonia? What are they putting in her tea? Or is she just surviving on gin & tonic now?
5. Did Andy Cohen just pronounce “ingredient” as “uh-greedient”?
Seriously, who is this guy? Why is he on TV?
6. Am I missing something with the Elia-Tom thing?
The chefs seemed more supportive of Elia than I’d anticipated. I really, really, really don’t like Elia, so maybe that’s coloring my judgment. What’s your take?