In the kitchen, Marcel darts around preparing the next course, and we hear Son of Sam telling Cliff that he'll come back when it's Cliff's turn to serve because he doesn't plan on helping Marcel. Because Marcel didn't help him. Who's being adolescent now, Sam? Marcel asks Cliff if he wants to help out. Marcel tells us that no one would help him out. There's a crash in the kitchen and the camera looks over to see a pan of salmon on the floor. I don't know for certain whether Cliff intentionally knocked the salmon to the ground or if he just couldn't catch it, as he tells us. Given what happens later, I would not put sabotage past Cliff, but I really believe that it just fell.

After the commercial, Son of Sam tells us, "For a minute, I thought about not helping Marcel. I'm not that guy; I wanted to be." No, you're just that guy who stands by and laughs while someone is attacked by someone else twice their size. Congrats, Sam, you are That Guy. Marcel remedies his salmon situation by simply serving smaller pieces of salmon. His third course of Alaskan King Troll Caught Salmon with Beets, Celeriac, and Herb Salad is served with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Cloudy Bay. I believe that's the Sauvignon Blanc that is popularly believed to have made New Zealand wines famous. Some diners bitch about the beets but others like them. Over at the judges' table, Colicchio snarks on the very thin heart-shaped potatoes that seam up the middle of the salmon fillet. "Oh, my god, that is SO precious," Gail says. Hard to tell if she's being sarcastic or not. Ripert says the salmon is "very rich" and Colicchio adds that because of that, the dish is "crying out for acid." "Lemon juice!" Padmadala announces. Yes, very good, dear, lemon juice is an acid. Go eat your fish. Ripert thinks the Sauvignon Blanc has a "certain acidity" that goes well with the salmon. I haven't heard him say that the dish needs more acid, so I always took his comment about the wine to mean that the acidity of the wine balances the richness of the salmon.