Episode 2
* Original airdate: February 5, 2009
* Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 502, "15 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
* Preliminaries: Following the previous service, a marching band awoke the contestants early in the morning and greeted with garbage bags containing food that they wasted. Unlike the last season, they will instead fish scallops out of big crates, and take the scallops to the kitchen, where they would be used for the day's team challenge -- shuck the scallops without leaving any cuts in the meat. The blue team won the challenge in a dramatic finish with J managing to have the last of six scallops be deemed good by Ramsay after an 0-for-5 start. They won by one piece -- 36 pieces to the red team's 35.
* Award / Punishment: The men take a helicopter ride to Catalina Island; Robert, however, was forced to take a ferry due to his weight. To his further misfortune, when Robert arrived at Catalina Island, it was time to head back. While on a submarine ride, Seth demonstrated a level of knowledge of Gordon's personal life, to a point that gotten Gordon to (jokingly) believe that Seth was stalking him. Meanwhile, the women stayed back to prepare a raw bar for the night's service, of which Lacey mostly slept through.
* Service: During preparation, Ji had sprained her ankle and she was in doubt to be able to take part in dinner service, but announced to Chef Ramsay that she would. Carol and Charlie both struggled with risotto, but Ben was able to bail Charlie out with a good one. Colleen was horrid on the fish station, leading Ramsay to assign Lacey to help her, but after continual mistakes, Colleen was reassigned to the the raw bar. To make things interesting, Chef Ramsay declared the team to complete their service first to be the winner. Despite the setbacks, both teams would complete their service.
* Winner: The blue team won, for completing their service first. The red team had one table to go when blue won.
* Nominees for elimination: Colleen and Lacey were nominated for elimination.
* Elimination: After Colleen and Lacey stepped forward, Ji announced that she had chosen to withdraw from competition, due to a sprained ankle she sustained during the raw bar preparation. She admirably completed service but felt that she wouldn't be able to carry on later into the competition. Chef Ramsay said she had been phenomenal and let her keep her jacket, as a token of her bravery. Colleen and Lacey were spared, to the apparent chagrin of the Red Team. As Andrea helped the wheelchair-bound Ji out of Hell's Kitchen, the Blue Team all rose and gave Ji a farewell standing ovation for her gritty performance. Ramsay then called on all those remaining to draw from Ji's perserverance, who Ramsay said demonstrated "courage at its best".
Subject: Hell's Kitchen Season 5 Episode 2 
Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:03 am
