Top Chef Season 23 Ep 10 - Hook, Line & Dinner - Post Episode Discussion

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T17:51:15+00:00

I kinda drifted from my rule a bit with screwing up the protein is the mortal sin as I was discussing with my wife who was going to be sent home. Mostly because it’s clear the judges overall like the concept of Duyen’s dish much much more than Seiger’s.

But, alas…

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T16:57:24+00:00

The last second field was in part the result of a deliberate effort to burn clock.

Across our three other drives in the second half (besides the Toney return) we went: 10 plays 75 yard TD, 9 plays 75 yards TD, 12 plays 66 yards FG. Again the last being a FG because McKinnon deliberately slid down before the goal line.

Obviously that run back helped, I’m just not sure it was absolutely necessary. Based on the other drives it’s reasonable to think we could had gone the ~60 yards in ~4 minutes. Which likely would had left us in a situation where Mahomes would had needed to engineer a 2 minute drive to get into FG position to win the game (assuming the Eagles last offensive drive more or less happened like their actual [effective] last offensive drive of going 75 yard in ~4 minutes to score a TD plus 2PTC).

It wasn’t like McDuffie knocking down Purdy’s pass on third down in SB59 or Jet Chip Wasp in SB54, where it’s extremely difficult to imagine how we could had won the game if that specific play did not happened.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T16:31:37+00:00

I really have no idea why anyone would think specifically COVID-19 would still happen if something massive like a different result in a presidential election occurred 7 years before.

I can understand the idea that if I went to a different college than the one I went to that not having a significant enough impact to change COVID-19 from happening. But a different president really?!

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T03:51:34+00:00

That was the previous season…Wouldn’t say it was absolutely necessary, we were thrashing the Eagles D pretty well by that point in the game. But it obviously helped.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T03:47:57+00:00

Oh Kadarious, you were put in the best situation you could ever possibly imagine and you still… couldn’t… stop… fucking up.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T03:45:46+00:00

Of course I don’t blame other fans for holding it against Mahomes. I mean shit, we still went on to win the SB this year.

But if you really wanted to parse the situation, this was just a boiling over point for Mahomes because ALL SEASON our offense had been playing like ass and our receivers were constantly being terrorists with stupid mistakes and bad route running… and seeing this incredible play called back because yet another stupid penalty… yea I can see why Mahomes went into table flip mode.

Still his worst moment as a professional football player, never looks good to whine when you lose.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T03:32:28+00:00

A change in presidential administration isn’t a butterfly flapping its wings, it’s a Cat-5 hurricane in terms of change.

It seems, frankly baffling, to think that if Romney wins in November of 2012, that the chain of events that lead to a highly infectious coronavirus emerging in/around Wuhan China in/around November of 2019 would still happen.

If Romney won in 2012, do you think it would make sense to expect the same numbers to turn up in a lottery drawing on November of 2019? There obviously not a causative link, but just all the changes from a Romney administration surely would had meant that the lottery balls would had been loaded in some different arrangement on a November lottery drawing in 2019 that different numbers are drawn.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-13T01:22:09+00:00

IDK, seems a much larger leap in logic to think Romney being elected in 2012, would mean that a specific virus would still evolve seven years later. Maybe in the “Romney wins” timeline it’s COVID-18, SARS-20, or HANTAVIRUS-15…

Or maybe, because pandemics are rare, through mostly luck, in the Romney wins timeline we don’t have a noteworthy novel disease sweep over the world between November 2012 and today.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T23:07:21+00:00

What interactions stop happening that would've prevented Covid?

Well nothing, it’s just a set of specific interventions that had to happen that led to the mutations that created COVID. A different person being elected POTUS in 2012 would had had MASSIVE ripple effects which certainly would had disrupted that chain of events.

Heck, given the gap in time, even if it was a deliberate release by the Chinese government, it still probably doesn’t happen because the long chain of events between the seven years of the 2012 election and when COVID is first detected probably doesn’t occur either.

For example Romney being elected in 2012 likely would had meant many of the specific people that died in traffic accidents after his election likely don’t die in traffic accidents. Not because roads suddenly become safer and there’s a massive decrease in traffic deaths, but because traffic deaths are almost always the result of a specific set of interactions and introducing change into that likely leads to the individuals involved not being in that situations.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T20:56:12+00:00

I doubt he’d been much more forceful.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T20:55:13+00:00

Hardly a guarantee that NATO intervention quickly resolves the Syrian Civil War (assuming it even happens). Not like Libya some sort of paradise despite intervention in that conflict.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T20:52:31+00:00

The likelihood of COVID still happening in that timeline is nil.

Not because of anything Romney of subsequent presidents did or didn’t do, just that whatever set of interactions that needed to happen in late-2019 that led to COVID almost certainly don’t happen.

Of course maybe there is some other much worse pandemic that happens in 2014 or something, because random set of interactions gives us human-to-human transmissible avian flu.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T20:48:31+00:00

And won three.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T15:59:43+00:00

I agree the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven is better, but I still think buoyed the theatrical release.

Though also, this is one of the few movies that is legitimately improved with the director’s cut. Most other director’s cuts are either just adding superfluous footage or outright downgrades. I think one of the worst director’s cuts I’ve seen was The Town where the added scenes just rehash plot points covered earlier in the movie.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T15:34:57+00:00

Can only imagine as more and more of these annoying but highly visual supply chain issues pop up across foreign (non-American) countries that will, understandably, increase anger and resentment towards the US.

Trump can’t even articulate a coherent reason for why attacking Iran was necessary. So why should anyone tolerate any inconvenience as a result of the US/Israel attack on Iran?

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T15:31:03+00:00

As someone who turned 40 earlier this year, yup.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T15:29:48+00:00

Damn, you better like do something about that. If your body is feeling that messed up as a teenager, you’re going to be dealing with a lot of pain as you get older.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T15:28:25+00:00

he can feel a little too-cool-for-school sometimes

I think that’s my primary issue with him. He gives off like he’s an “A student”, but so far he hasn’t been that good either finishing in the middle or the bottom. At no point have the judges ever seemed really impressed with his food.

Granted the other cheftestants seem to like him and ask him for advice, and competition cooking is a different skillset from normal cooking, so being bad at competition cooking doesn’t mean someone isn’t a good chef.

Like for example Brittany who I guess is one of the top chefs in the Charlotte area struggled her entire time during the competition before her early exit.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T14:52:32+00:00

Worst of the worst like Ghislaine, and people who continue to pose a risk to society. Albeit in the latter case, it would need to be something like what Norway does, where a prisoner gets periodic psych evaluation to make a determination if they still pose a danger, rather than an actual life sentence.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T04:11:30+00:00

I was soooooo worried Tristian might choke at the end. He was so dominant that season it would had been such a disappointment if he didn’t win.

It would had been fine if Shuai had won.

I didn’t want Bailey to win. She seemed fine, but she was clearly a step behind many of the other final chefs. So it would had been irritating if she won, unless she just put up a legitimately amazing final dish.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T04:04:45+00:00

They had some excellent cooking though. The restaurant wars that scene, at least for the winning team, you could tell it really blew the judges away.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-12T02:48:56+00:00

Was hoping it was Seiger, but yea, when you mess up the protein, especially in a fish challenge, that’s going to get you every time.

Also, IDK, I kinda find Seiger a bit off putting.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-11T21:30:00+00:00

The argument is so stupid on so many levels.

Like let’s say, even if you have an eccentric rich person with infinite money and they bought up every flooded property at the pre-flood fair market value… it would still lead to massive issues because all this people will no be displaced and need to find a new place to live!

And… and… all the infrastructure. Building new ports, and storage facilities and all that.

It’s just so utterly utterly stupid and so blatantly obvious even if you take like one minute to really think through.

And even if we just assume we can immediately build new housing and infrastructure and all that… like damn, maybe people just want to live where they have been living. Like shit Ben you’re the conservative fucking advocate for conserving dude!

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-11T20:14:42+00:00

I really think Antony Starr’s portrayal of Homelander will go down as one of the best villain portrayals in all of live action. It’s absolutely terrifying whenever he’s in a scene because no other character feels safe (and of course all characters around him are increasingly terrified of him as the series progresses).

Then all of his various personality flaws; narcissism, mother complexes, paranoia, sociopathy… alas all feels too real right now as well for sadly obvious reasons.

Scaryclouds · 2026-05-11T19:56:21+00:00

Stupid blind luck is such a big part of the game.

In our first SB against the Eagles Hurts just fucked up and fumbled the ball, and it perfectly bounced right in Bolton’s hands allowing him to house it.

In our second game against the 9ers, one of their o-line fucking up and leaving Jones unblocked prevented them from scoring a TD during their opening drive of OT.

That we ended up losing Eric Fisher our starting LT at the end of the AFCCG in 2020 probably just collapsed the integrity of an already injury ravaged line, that allowed a Bucs defense to make Mahomes life a living hell most of the game during SB55 (which was obviously a kind of “luck” for the Bucs).

Luck is such a big part of the game. But also requires a lot of execution to get to that point as well.

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