‘Hell’s Kitchen’ review: Have the black jackets finally arrived?

For at least the first ten minutes of “Hell’s Kitchen” tonight, we genuinely started to think that Gordon Ramsay was going to torment us all over again when it came to handing out the black jackets. This tradition usually happens at the final six, and then he made it appear this time like it would not be until the final four.

So instead, the chef pulled a fast one here! Not only did he give the remaining five contestants black jackets, but he also brought in their families in an effort to revive and rejuvenate the rest of the cast. This led to an individual challenge that Mary won, and thus got to avoid the terrible task of having to pick up garbage outside and take care of the environment.

There is one thing that we have very much noted already when it comes to the contestants: This is a kinder, gentler group of chefs left … at least for this week. We didn’t see any major fighting or name-calling, and the contestants left seem to mostly get along and are reasonably nice people. Isn’t that somewhat of a shock compared to seasons past? Granted, there’s no guarantee that it will stay that way given the sort of competition that is coming up.

There was no elimination this week, which is somewhat frustrating from the standpoint of the show really delivering something conclusive. The cliffhanger instead was waiting to see what sort of chefs end up competing against the black jacket team in dinner service; we don’t know if they are past contestants or not, and they could be even stronger than that.

Who are you rooting for at this point on “Hell’s Kitchen”? If you want to check out some more news when it comes to the show, all you have to do is click here.

Photo: Fox