The fifth episode of Season 20 of Hell's Kitchen aired on June 28, 2021. In that episode, the chefs deciphered emojis for dishes, one team finally broke their losing streak, and an early front-runner lost their voice.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Kevin was ecstatic with his new teammates as he deemed Megan a badass and Victoria talented. With Emily rounding out the trio, Kevin felt the blue team had the strongest three women and felt the blue team’s chances were high. Meanwhile, there was an uncomfortable silence amongst the group on the red side before Morgana asked her new teammates how they felt. Sam said the team switch sucked as he was not happy about relearning a new team dynamic. Despite that, Morgana and Josie were willing to work with Sam and Payton, though the latter said he would dish back any attitude the women gave him. Sam then stated he was not there to make friends as he wanted to win. Josie reminded everyone to be patient with their new team, though she also wanted to be tough on the men.
Team challenge[]
The following day, both teams came downstairs to see a giant TV screen with a text app. Ramsay communicated to the chefs through the screen, asking them to read out his texts. Ramsay said the previous night was plagued with communication problems could have been avoided. Payton was shocked that Ramsay was using emojis to tell all of this. After that, Ramsay came downstairs and sternly said communication was important. Even though texting was the preferred way for the Young Guns, Ramsay reminded them that face-to-face communication was essential to run a successful kitchen. With that in mind, Ramsay told everyone to take off their jackets for the Emoji Jacket Challenge. Each chef was given a new jacket from the Sous Chefs that had emojis on their backs, and it was their job to have their teammates decipher them. Kiya was not happy about that because she never used emojis on her phone. Finally, Ramsay made it clear all the dishes must be made precisely by the recipe.
Both teams had 45 minutes to cook their dishes. Sam figured out that Josie was making a fried chicken sandwich while Kevin told Emily that she was making burgers and fries. Emily tried to give her new team some hope, but she was nervous about relying on someone else’s help. In the red kitchen, Kiya was told by Keanu to make fish and chips with tartar sauce, though the former was stressed out as she was making a British dish for Ramsay. Victoria told Megan to make eggplant parmesan while Morgana figured out Brynn’s dish, crab cakes. Trenton had the fish and chips jacket, but Keanu and Kiya struggled on Payton’s dish. They initially thought it was a Philly cheesesteak, so Payton went with that and made a mushroom sauce. Trenton went on autopilot in the blue kitchen and decided to add capers and mayonnaise to the tartar sauce as he deemed the recipe a guideline. At the same time, Steve asked Antonio for a count on his meatballs, which were three. Ten minutes left, Josie did not want to waste her chicken and asked Sam for his opinion after hammering it. Sam told Josie to start over, much to her dismay, as she wasted a dead animal. In the blue kitchen, Steve told Victoria to add parsley to her crab cakes while Kevin was second-guessing his simple dish. Four minutes left, Brynn decided to add an extra bit of seasoning to her dish. At the same time, Kevin double-checked Antonio’s recipe. Eventually, everyone had their dishes cooked and plated on time.
After making sure that everyone understood the emojis and followed the recipe, Ramsay said he would judge each dish head-to-head. The team with the most points won. The first round was fish and chips, a favorite of Ramsay’s as he had a fish and chips shack across the corner. As Kiya and Trenton presented their dishes, the latter said he added mayonnaise and parsley into the tartar sauce. That shocked and angered Ramsay as he assumed Trenton deemed his recipe boring. Josie knew Trenton should not have done that. After looking at Kiya’s back, Trenton confirmed there was no mayonnaise on there. Ramsay told Trenton he could make his own fish and chips once he had his own restaurant and Michelin stars. Trenton dug himself deeper when he revealed the corn starch into the breading. Kiya felt Trenton insulted Ramsay for adding the extra bits. Regardless, the fish was cooked well, but Kiya’s fish and chips dish won as she followed the recipe. The red team led 1-0. On the spaghetti and meatball round, Morgana spoke quietly when describing her dish, leaving Ramsay concerned. For Steve, Ramsay noticed he did not toss the pasta into the sauce, even though it was on the recipe. Steve blamed his teammates for not telling him that, and Morgana won that round, making it 2-0 for the red team. Even though Steve felt the blue team’s communication skills proved to be poor, he knew it was something they could work on. Brynn’s crab cakes were criticized for adding paprika, while Victoria grabbed the wrong herb instead of the parsley. Neither scored that round, leaving it 2-0 for the red team. Antonio’s dish tasted good on the Philly cheesesteak round, but Ramsay was frustrated when Payton revealed the added mushrooms. So, Antonio won that round, and the red team led 2-1. While Keanu successfully followed the eggplant parmesan recipe, Megan lost that round for adding sherry vinegar when it was not needed. The red team led 3-1. Kevin’s fried chicken sandwich had the edge over Josie’s as she added paprika and won that round. Kiya got annoyed because the point of the challenge was to follow the recipe. With a 3-2 for the red team, it was time for the burger round. Sam’s burger was praised for having a beautiful seasoning but criticized for dense minced garlic. When it came to Emily, Ramsay noticed something and had her read the recipe off Sam’s back. It turned out that the onion was missing, and Emily revealed that Kevin told her to put it into the sauce. Even though it had a good layer and tasting good, Ramsay gave the win to Sam. The red team won 4-2, and Sam was happy to get out of Hell’s Kitchen finally.
Scoring[]
| Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
| Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiya | 1 | 1 | Trenton | 0 | 0 |
| Morgana | 1 | 2 | Steve | 0 | 0 |
| Brynn | 0 | 2 | Victoria | 0 | 0 |
| Payton | 0 | 2 | Antonio | 1 | 1 |
| Keanu | 1 | 3 | Megan | 0 | 1 |
| Josie | 0 | 3 | Kevin | 1 | 2 |
| Sam | 1 | 4 | Emily | 0 | 2 |
| Results | 4-2 | ||||
Reward[]
The red team was rewarded with a ride on the High Roller and lunch at Chayo. As the red team went back upstairs, Payton called winning a fantastic feeling as he felt the holy lights were shining on him and Sam. He even felt this would be a bonding moment with their new teammates. During the reward, the red team took in the views as they took photos as Josie thought she saw the blue team at the Eiffel Tower.
During lunch, Brynn toasted to the new red team while Josie called it her favorite reward, thanks to the food and the mechanical bull. As the red team took turns, almost all of them got flung off the bull while Keanu worked on the bull before falling off.
Punishment[]
The blue team was punished by cleaning the Eiffel Tower while wearing French maid outfits. Still, Steve was not upset as he would rock out his maid outfit. During the punishment, Emily and Megan saw how dusty it was as Trenton sarcastically said it was all thanks to the desert. Trenton felt embarrassed to be wearing the maid outfit while Antonio wanted to eat Mexican food.
Before service[]
Later that night, both teams prepped for dinner service as Victoria felt nervous about working with the blue team due to many unknowns. Payton was confident about the garnish in the red kitchen, but Josie said it was time for him and Sam to prove themselves. Once both kitchens were ready, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Miss Behave was in attendance that night. Kiya and Antonio served a shaved white asparagus and frisée salad with fried egg tableside. As the red team got their first order, Sam and Brynn talked about appetizers. Despite not being a dream team, Brynn was pumped as they worked in a frantic way to Ramsay’s impatience. Despite Sam needing more garnish on the flatbreads, he and Brynn got them accepted. With red team appetizers leaving the kitchen, Kiya cooked tableside and made a pee joke about asparagus. On the blue side, Ramsay pulled Antonio aside and had him wipe the sweat off his forehead. Megan deemed that gross. As the blue team worked on appetizers, Emily said she would help them win by being a team player and show Ramsay she could be his next head chef. Thanks to Emily’s help, the blue team sent out a stream of appetizers.
With both teams at a good pace, Ramsay began firing entrées in the red kitchen. Sam reminded Payton that he was taking charge, but the latter felt confident as garnish was not complicated. However, Morgana was unsure about Payton as she compared him to a lost puppy dog as he acted too cocky. When the entrées went up, Ramsay noticed Payton served the wrong garnishes for the order, serving New York striploin fries when the Wellingtons and halibut needed carrots and turnips. Brynn told Payton to ask if he was unsure of something while Keanu was not happy with his poor performance as she yelled out the correct garnishes. Despite that, Payton deemed it a learning experience as the red teams served their first order. Payton thought he learned from his mistake on the following order, only to send out the wrong garnishes again. That time, Ramsay had everyone up to the front and told Payton that he brought up Wellington garnish. When an embarrassed Ramsay asked how that happened, Brynn accused Payton of not knowing the menu. However, Payton argued he did know the menu, leading Brynn to retract her statement by saying he did not know about garnish. Regardless, Ramsay told the red team that this was elementary, and Payton felt the red team and Brynn did not want him around. Still, Payton wanted to prove himself and got the proper garnishes up to the pass. Ramsay pushed Steve to become vocal in the blue kitchen and told the blue team to act as a drummer for perfect rhythm. Trenton felt everyone was focused as their communication was there and called it amazing. Despite Kevin asking for two more minutes for resting, the blue team’s communication remained strong. Ramsay wondered if it because there were women in the blue kitchen and the blue team served beautiful lamb.
Josie feared they were sinking in the red kitchen and asked Morgana if she could help with mussels. However, Morgana did not respond and only asked if they dropped the halibut on order. Ramsay told Josie not to treat the kitchen like a kindergarten and ordered her to show some responsibility. Josie then turned on her angry eyebrows and became more assertive towards Morgana and Payton. While Josie’s New York striploin was well-received, Morgana’s halibut broke in the pan, and she asked for six minutes on the refire. Ramsay got upset because nobody told him that and had the entire team sit at the chef’s table and eat the wasted entrées from the pass. Ramsay told the blue team not to switch off when most of them did not respond to his order in the blue kitchen. Megan thought Kevin got overwhelmed when Ramsay shouted, but he took a calm approach on the order as he did not want to freak out and cause mistakes. Using his breathing techniques, Kevin was able to go through the order at a calm pace. It worked as Ramsay pulled Kevin to the front and praised him for his spot-on Wellingtons.
In the red kitchen, the red team finished eating the food and went back to work. Ramsay reminded them about the Emoji Jackets Challenge and asked if they needed an emoji on his back for help. When Morgana walked up her fish, it turned out that her halibut was raw. Morgana wanted to cry out of frustration, while Josie felt the former was gone due to a weak mindset. While Morgana got her refire accepted, Ramsay warned her to wake up. On the following order, Keanu tried to calm Morgana down while Brynn wanted to get through the night as a team. When the entrées were walked to the pass, Ramsay called the team forward and showed them Morgana’s raw salmon. Having had enough of the red team’s embarrassing performance, Ramsay kicked them out of the kitchen and asked them to name three people for elimination. As the red team walked back to the dorms, Sam was upset he could not win a dinner service no matter what team he was in, while Keanu cried all the way. In the blue kitchen, the blue team finished strong on their comeback service, and a happy Trenton said he could kiss everyone on the mouth.
Post-mortem[]
In the dorms, Josie asked Morgana if she felt the pressure that night. Morgana quietly argued that everyone who worked on fish had someone else, but Josie reminded her that she could have asked for help. Then, Josie told Morgana to speak up more as she could barely hear her. Morgana said that Payton’s mistake on garnish sunk them, but while he tried to brush off the fact he sent up the wrong garnishes, Sam said it proved Payton did not know the menu. Still, Payton said he had a different system with the blue team than with the red team. However, that comment caused Sam to believe Payton was over his head and felt his team switch argument was invalid. Still, Payton did not feel support from the red team. Kiya reminded the red team they had to pick a third nominee, and Brynn asked Morgana if she had anything else to say. However, Morgana left in tears, causing Payton to feel that girls took things too personally. For the third nominee, Josie considered Keanu due to her shouting, but the latter disagreed. Keanu felt they were nominating her out of intimidation and said they had no proof. Kiya nominated Josie as she only found her voice that night compared to the other services. However, Josie argued she helped Kiya with fish on the opening night. Still, Kiya felt Josie was a weak link and the red team struggled on naming a third.
Elimination[]
Once both teams came downstairs, Ramsay deemed the red team’s night disappointing. Josie announced Payton as the red team’s first nominee and Morgana as their second. As for their third, Josie said Keanu because the latter looked scrambled. However, Keanu argued that she was not, and Ramsay agreed with her. So, Ramsay told Keanu to stay in line before calling Payton and Morgana down. During their pleas, Morgana said she learned from her mistakes that night and wanted to push herself. Then, Payton felt the red team did not have his back and said Brynn was the most vocal. However, Brynn argued against that and had no idea what Payton was talking about. Continuing with his plea, Payton said he was improving on his voice. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay called Payton but sent him back in line with a warning to wake up. Then, Morgana was eliminated for her poor performance on fish and her lack of voice all day. During her exit interview, Morgana was disappointed as she should have asked for help and did not perform to her standards.
After Morgana left, Ramsay told Payton that he dodged a bullet and warned him to get it together. While being dismissed, Payton knew the red team was pissed at him due to his plea and knew it was his last chance. Trenton felt the blue team’s morale was different than before and wanted to keep winning so he could win. Finally, Keanu said she would not stop fighting and said karma would get to the people that threw her under the bus.
Ramsay's comment: "Morgana might be baby-faced, but tonight, she behaved like a baby when the fish station struggled. The protégé I'm looking for needs to be confident and outspoken. Morgana was neither."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The episode title is based on the idiom of agitating a situation to cause trouble. In this case, Payton accusing the red team of not having his back during the elimination ceremony.
- With this episode, the blue team of this season sets the record for the worst start to a season as they lost the first four challenges and first three dinner services. This episode also marks the first time since Episode 1105 - 16 Chefs Compete Part 1, where the red team won the first four challenges over the blue team.
- This is the third time Ramsay asked a team to nominate three people for elimination and also the second time Ramsay asked only one team to do so after Episode 1502 - 17 Chefs Compete.