‘Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen’ finale: Should Brooke Williamson, Casey Thompson, or Jamie Lynch return?

Tonight, the finale of “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen” arrived on Bravo, and this was a chance to see precisely who COULD be taking a step further to returning to the competition, and cooking for the grand prize in Mexico.

Let’s go ahead and get some of the bad news out of the way now — Bravo was not going to be so kind as to give up all of the goods right now in terms of who was returning. This is just NOT their style. They like to keep this secret in particular under wraps until the final episodes actually start to air.

The biggest thing that we can offer here in terms of insight is that following her jaw-dropping elimination from the competition, Brooke Williamson is probably going to go right back in. Based on how her first season of the show ended, we do think that there’s something rather remarkable in the idea of her coming back and potentially winning. We still think that she is the biggest threat to defeat Sheldon Simeon, even though she’s not even in the competition at present.

We also know that Jamie Lynch is done — he had a great run, but was eliminated in the first part of the “Last Chance Kitchen” finale. He had a heck of a great run, and we give him all the credit in the world for battling through so many different showdowns. Maybe someday he’ll get a chance to come back and dominate much of the competition proper.

The choice here comes down to Brooke versus Casey Thompson, and while we’re decidedly pro-Brooke (she was our winner pick before the season), Casey’s no slouch. She’s won in “Last Chance Kitchen” before, and has more collective “Top Chef” experience than anyone in this competition. She can defeat Brooke and make it back there. As much as we’ve gone on and on already about how Sheldon and Brooke are the likely winners, the thing to remember here is that this is a show that doesn’t tend to really adhere to an edit. Take a look at season 7 for some evidence of that, since it felt like Angelo’s season all the way through.

Who should re-enter “Top Chef” proper following this finale? Share in the comments below! (Photo: Bravo.)