Meanwhile Sheetal is still struggling with the "To Boil or Not to Boil" question vis à vis her crab. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do this," she says. Fortunately, she's got an entire commercial break to sort out her feelings. Maybe the time we return, the crab will have bored itself to death.

Back from the commercial, Sheetal steels herself, and as the soundtrack pulsates with the intensity of a summer blockbuster, she drops the crab in the pot. Unfortunately, in her haste to do the deed, she drops the crab awkwardly enough so that it manages to grab hold of the pot's side and she's forced to bang it down into the water in a sequence that I'm reluctant to admit was a lot more comical than it should have been. "Sorry," she says to the crab, as she slams down the lid. "Sorry." "I do not understand you," the crab says, "as I am a crab and incapable of speaking English. Also, this boiling water has, in point of fact, killed me." No time to pause for a few hymns and some solemn remembrances of the crab's rich and full life, though -- if Sheetal's going to kill a crab, then by Thor's hammer, she is going to win this contest. She'll be making a Thai-style crab curry. And then sending a condolence card to the crab's widow.

The judges stand over Sharone's station and comment on the many, many ways his dish could go horribly wrong. "This is the first time I've ever seen you nervous," Joe says. Perhaps your frank and honest discussion of his likelihood of failure might be contributing to that. Anyhow, Sharone thinks his toughest competition is Lee, which is fitting since I still can't tell the two of them apart. Lee doesn't think Sharone cooks from the heart. Me-ow, ladies.

Let's cut to the cooking chase. Time expires, and the contestants wait to see which three dishes the judges will choose to taste. I don't want to go out on a limb here, but it's probably not going to be Slim's effort, which she did not finish in time. "It looked like a pile of crap on bread," Slim says of her dish. That is a generous assessment. Gordon wants to know how Sheetal is feeling. "Awesome," she says. Everyone gives her encouraging round of applause. See, once you kill one crab, it's easy to make it two.