Finally, Howie asks if he can "address the panel, please." Padma tells him to go ahead. Howie states that this isn't a team competition because there's only going to be one winner, "And in order to win, you gotta send everybody else home. And I think I really had a grasp on that from the beginning, and, you know, I'm trying to see past that right now for the first time in the past few weeks. I'd rather send myself home then see this guy [jerking his thumb at Brian], who showed a helluva lot of leadership go home, so I'm gonna withdraw myself from this competition." Padma delicately wrinkles her beautiful brow and turns to Colicchio. Colicchio frowns back and looks down at the table. "It's a judges' decision, Howie, not yours," Padma tells him. Whatever, you're going to make that decision anyway. "Then…" Howie says, the wind taken out of his sails, "Make your decision." Colicchio says they have a bunch of things to discuss, "So, why don't you guys, sort of…get out of here."

In the back, Sara ventures to Howie that she thought he still had a lot of fight left in him. He does, but he adds that he also has a lot of pride left in him, too, and he will be in control of his own destiny. "Fuck them," Howie adds. At the table, Padma comments, "Well, that was interesting." It sounded dubbed. As did her, "But no matter what Howie said, WE make the decisions." Oookay! They rehash how they liked Casey's beef and CJ's seafood sausage. "He did have bright, happy flavors," Dana adds. Happy? They also thought Sara's bread pudding was delicious. They didn't like Howie's dishes, Dale's yogurt mess, and Dana adds her objection to Hung's salmon mousse. "It just was soooo baaaaad," she laughs. In the back, Hung says he's sick of defending his dishes "to these four guys." CJ argues, "Hung -- you did it because it was easy, you said that!" Hung doesn't deny it. Back at the table, Brian's ahi poke/tartare is being discussed, and Colicchio seems to think they really don't need any more tartares, but his real problem is with Brian's leadership. In the back, Brian curses how pissed he is that the judges are trying to make it out like he did a bad job. Casey assures him he did a good job. "I FUCKING DID!" MALARKEY! agrees. The judges reach their decision.