Do you folks care that Lee and Sharone snipe about each other's dishes? Because they do. Lee thinks Sharone overcomplicates things. Sharone thinks Lee uses too much expletive-deleted fennel. Girls, girls, you're both pretty.

So as you know, the judges will only be tasting the three dishes they find the most appealing. Considering we've heard from everyone but hat-wearing Mike, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he's not going to wind up among those three. But I've been misled by crafty editors before.

Not this time, though. They pick Sheetal, who thinks her pan-roasted tenderloin with blueberry wine sauce and creamed Brussels sprouts tastes good, though she concedes she has no real basis of comparison. Gordon thinks it looks immaculate. Graham calls it a -- say it with me now, people -- "restaurant dish." But how does it taste? "A dream come true," Gordon says, after one of those MasterChef dramatic pauses that ceased being dramatic weeks ago. More to the point, she managed to balance the acidity of her sauce with the richness of the meat. She gets a thumb's up from the judges, even after Joe and Gordon argue about whether some olive oil should be drizzled on the dish. (Joe is pro-olive oil, Gordon is against, in a debate that devolves into insults about the British people's inability to grow olives on their sceptered isle

The judges summon Whitney and her pan-seared venison with southern gravy and roasted Brussels sprouts and potatoes. Gordon is justifiably concerned about the gravy. "I give you the most amazing cut of venison, and you go a stick a gravy on it," he says, more than a little wounded. After tucking in, Gordon confirms that the venison is well cooked and that the dish works. "It works better than it looks," he says, which is probably more of a compliment than it comes across as. "You've managed to confirm to all three us that you know how to cook venison," Gordon continues, "which is quite rare at 22 years of age." Gordon ordered his backhanded compliments in bulk this week, apparently.