‘MasterChef’ season 6, episode 17 review: Was Derrick, Katrina, or Stephen eliminated before final four?

As we said going into Wednesday night’s new episode of “MasterChef,” this was a particularly hard episode for us to swallow. It is always that way anytime you’ve got as many talented home cooks as we have, and pretty fair editing across the board. We really did not get the sense that any one person was destined to do better than anyone else.

While there was a certain trajectory that you could have argued leading up to Katrina’s elimination, she was still someone many recently-eliminated cooks said that they wanted to see win in the end. We understand why. She may have been, at least from our vantage point, one of the nicest people we’ve seen on the show, and also one of the most passionate. She needed a break, and Gordon Ramsay may have provided her that courtesy of a chance to go to France. It was easy to get a little teary-eyed watching her exit package, and you could see how much the show really meant for her.

As for the final four, they are all now a skilled bunch. Claudia netted herself early safety and had a chance to really be spared from the second part of the episode, which involved cooking a variety of different foods from around the world. Nick won the second challenge courtesy of some excellent Mexican food, and Stephen did enough to place second with his Asian dish.

What’s so interesting about this season at this point is that there really is no villain. Everyone is reasonably likable, and they are all very skilled. This excites us as we enter the most unpredictable final few weeks arguably in the history of the show. Who knows what will happen? Grade: B.

Let us know below what you thought about this episode, and head over here for some other great news on the show! Also, you can sign up now to get some other tasty TV scoops sent over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)