“Why?” he asked, shocked. “I am tired, there are no reasons for everything in the world!” I answered. He kept silent the whole night, seems to be in deep thought with a lighted cigarette at all times.

My feeling of disappointment only increased, here was a man who can’t even express his predicament, what else can I hope from him? And finally he asked me:” What can I do to change your mind?” Somebody said it right, it’s hard to change a person’s personality, and I guess, I have started losing faith in him.

Looking deep into his eyes I slowly answered : “Here is the question, if you can answer and convince my heart, I will change my mind, Let’s say, I want a flower located on the face of a mountain cliff, and we both are sure that picking the flower will cause your death, will you do it for me?” He said :” I will give you your answer tomorrow…. ” My hopes just sank by listening to his response.

I woke up the next morning to find him gone, and saw a piece of paper with his scratchy handwriting, underneath a milk glass, on the dining table near the front door, that goes….

My dear, “I would not pick that flower for you, but please allow me to explain the reasons further..” This first line was already breaking my heart. I continued reading. “When you use the computer you always mess up the Software programs, and you cry in front of the screen, I have to save my fingers so that I can help to restore the programs.

You always leave the house keys behind, thus I have to save my legs to rush home to open the door for you. You love traveling but always lose your way in a new city, I have to save my eyes to show you the way.

You always have the cramps whenever your “good friend” approaches every month, I have to save my palms so that I can calm the cramps in your tummy. You like to stay indoors, and I worry that you will be infected by infantile autism. I have to save my mouth to tell you jokes and stories to cure your boredom.

You always stare at the computer, and that will do nothing good for your eyes, I have to save my eyes so that when we grow old, I can help to clip your nails,and help to remove those annoying white hairs. So I can also hold your hand while strolling down the beach, as you enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful sand… and tell you the colour of flowers, just like the color of the glow on your young face…

Thus, my dear, unless I am sure that there is someone who loves you more than I do… I could not pick that flower yet, and die.. ” My tears fell on the letter, and blurred the ink of his handwriting. … and as I continue on reading…

“Now, that you have finished reading my answer, if you are satisfied, please open the front door for I am standing outside bringing your favorite bread and fresh milk…

I rush to pull open the door, and saw his anxious face, clutching tightly with his hands, the milk bottle and loaf of bread….. Now I am very sure that no one will ever love me as much as he does, and I have decided to leave the flower alone…

That’s life, and love. When one is surrounded by love, the feeling of excitement fades away, and one tends to ignore the true love that lies in between the peace and dullness.

Love shows up in all forms, even very small and cheeky forms, it has never been a model, it could be the most dull and boring form.. . flowers, and romantic moments are only used and appear on the surface of the relationship. Under all this, the pillar of true love stands… and that’s our life… Love, not words win arguments…

We’re into Week 4, and we have a pretty good idea of who doesn’t have a chance, but Timothy’s got the right attitude, declaring “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” True! Although the person who won the first challenge ended up winning the title like nine seasons in a row, but keep tellin’ yourself whatever cliches help you Top Chef at night! How about “Keep your chef eye on the food ball.” Look out, Angelo!

For this week’s Quickfire, **NON JOKE ALERT** the chefs must prepare a dish for new parents Padma and Tom, as well as a pureed version of that dish for their babies. I added the Non Joke Alert because I often interlace real things with jokes in these recaps, and that Quickfire really, really sounds like a dumb joke I’d write at 3 a.m. then forget to take it out before publishing the post even though it’s too fake-sounding to even be a plausible joke, but no, this was the actual challenge. Disclaimer: Babies do not taste / care about things. Oop! Too late! Challenge still happened.

The Quickfire won’t provide immunity, but it is a High Stakes Under the Table Porkbelly D.C. Campaign Money Challenge, and two chefs will receive $10,000. The chefs quickly get to work talking about how they have kids at home so that gives them an advantage, whereas the poor unfortunate kidless contestants have never cooked fancy meals then pureed them for their newborns under intense scrutiny (just part of bein’ a dad! Changin’ diapers and pureeing lamb confit and having a professional chef eat it and judge it!)

Kevin’s got a baby at home, so he knows to make roast duck, the Teletubbies of baby dishes. Angelo manages to out-nerd him, saying “I love educating my son, especially with flavors.” Teaching him the alphabet and how to walk is important, but what’s really important is getting him to eat poached tuna with fenugreek broth, which all babies can definitely taste and comprehend. Why are you beating up my kid on the playground as I’m telling you this, cameraman?

After the jump, the conclusion of Baby Quickfire and the start of Adulty Elimination Challenge:

Padma tells Angelo “Your baby food looked very elegant, very special.” If there’s one thing babies care about, it’s elegant presentation. If there are two things babies care about, it’s elegant presentation and putting Legos in their mouths because they don’t know what anything is.

Kelly finishes in the bottom, because Padma found a lemon seed in her baby food. First rule of cheffing – when you puree your chef dishes into baby form, you gotta take out those lemon seeds. You can’t be a great chef without knowing how to properly take seeds out of the baby forms of your dishes – just ask Dr. Babyseeds, the world’s #1 chef.

Padma picks Kenny as her winner, and Tom picks Tamesha, whose nose was really stuffed up in all her testimonials. Kenny and Tamesha celebrate by dousing each other with Swanson broth, which is frickin’ everywhere.

The Elimination Challenge is a tournament-style three-meal cookoff, where the chefs will be paired up to cook breakfast, then the two winning teams will be safe and everyone else will cook lunch, then two more teams will be safe and the remaining three teams will cook dinner and the bottom team will be eliminated. The chefs will be separated onto teams by being like “hey, we’re a team.” That’s fair. What happened to drawing bald eagles?

Chefs must create easy-to-prepare, easy-to-travel dishes for Hilton hotels. But can the chefs actually improve upon the classic $17 minibar Toblerone? Seems doubtful.

The judges panel consists of the Usual Suspects (Kevin Pollack, etc.) as well as chefs from previous seasons, including Hatty McSquashsoup himself, Spike, and Mike Isabella, who won like one challenge last season when Michael Voltaggio partnered with him, cooked everything, then inhabited Mike’s body like Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost to make sure he didn’t proceed to pee on what Michael had just made.

Ed & Alex end up together and attempt a pancakes dish, but Ed forgets to put a breakfast cake on one of the plates and Alex fails to get his hollandaise on in time, so the pair really seems to be on the same page. They don’t earn immunity, but they do earn swearing a lot. Clearly, these two are destined for elimination. OR ARE THEY?????????????? Top Chef cliffhanger! GE Monogram explodes.

Stephen & Andrea end up together, forming a Reverse Dream Team – they’re later joined by Negative Michael Jordan. The duo shocks the world, though, earning safety in the breakfast challenge, and the pair reacts accordingly. Tiffany & Timothy win Breakfast Immunity too, leaving most of the favorites still around for Lunch Warz.

The Lunch Round begins, and Angelo compares it to like “trying to get out of the pool but the piranhas are biting you.” You know, the piranha pool. But on Top Chef, you can’t choose to just not go in the piranha pool, like you can in real life. So it’s rough.

Alex is cooking scallops — seriously? The #1 most frequently ripped-on-by-judges dish (unless you count souffles)? But Lo and behold, Alex and Ed actually win with their scallops dish — Mike Isabella “likes the flavor profile – I can say chef things! Amuse-bouche!” — and avoid the Dinner Round. Angelo and Tamesha are safe too after their beef carpaccio earns high praise from the judges: “Not a lot of texture.” “There are a lot of onions.” “It is portable.” Throw those glowing quotes on a marquee ASAP!

Tom gets very personally offended again when someone uses canned beans — the NERVE! No chefs use prepared food, unless it’s Swanson broth, Uncle Ben’s Minute Rice, Dr. Pepper, or Toyota Pathfinder Sauce. Get a deal with Top Chef quick, Bush’s, or Tom’s gonna keep laying into your product every week.

The three remaining pairs have to cook dinner, and faux pas! Two of them make shortribs, and Tom really bitchily rolls his eyes when the second one is presented:

Just before you can lift a hand to wave goodbye to Kelly and Andrea, the Hilton lady announces “The winning team for me was the team wiz ze most wonderful flavors” (I thought the winning team was whoever makes the best celebrity couple combo-name?), and Kelly & Andrea take it. They win respective 6-day trips to Venice and Barcelona because they managed to lose two straight challenges then beat two other teams that also lost two straight challenges. Huh?

Kenny is shocked that he’s in the final two pairs, because he’s been apparently nailing the crap out of the flavors and techniques and synergy; move over Angelo, there’s a new reality-show arrogant sound bytes sheriff in Top Chef Towne! Kenny and Kevin escape, because Kenny can’t get eliminated yet, and Lynne & Arnold become the unfortunate victims of Murder-Suicide Elimination Week.

What went wrong for Lynne & Arnold? According to the judges, “It was a delicious dish, the only problem was that the pasta was a little undercooked.” Terrible! Get off the show, you pasta was a little undercooked rapists! Lynne leaves with one final parting shot, saying “Letting a younger chef take the lead, that’s my mistake.” Actually, not cooking the pasta, which was your only contribution to the dish and also its only mistake, was your mistake. Sorry to go all Mistake Police on you.

The balance of power seems to be on Angelo’s side, but the other Finale spots are still hazy, with Kenny, Kelly, Tamesha, and Timothy all seemingly in the running. We’ll start settling things next week, when the cast stars in a production of Twelve Angry Men and argues in a room for 60 minutes. Henry Fonda’s a Glad Bag.

Episode Thoughts? Favorite / Least Favorite Parts? Predictions? Leave ‘em all in the comments.