The existing renovators have earned their place in the competition after proving yesterday that they are the better half of the competition! But now, one will lead the pack and summons one eliminated contestant to come back! It all begins now!
The contestants walk down South Bank where the judges are already waiting for them (it’s a very rushed opening) already. They remind the contestants (despite the fact only existing renovators will be competing today, all contestants are there) of the time they have had already before telling them what they will be doing today.
Baz reminds them what happened in Brisbane when it flooded before Robyn tells them they will be creating a piece of street art for the people of Brisbane to see in South Bank. The street art will be a permanent fixture in the South Bank precinct. Brendan tells Natalia that she will especially love this challenge. We then get a back story on Natalia.
Only Jason has built street furniture before, but he doesn’t want to say anything because he feels like he always talks himself up.
Brendan reminds the existing renovators that they will be the only contestants competing today before we welcome the special guest of the day, Alexander Lotersztain.
When he is welcomed, he tells us a little more about himself. We see some of his work which looks incredible. He tells the contestants what may work in South Bank.
Alex tells them they will be working with steel today, which excites Natalia, and Robyn tells them that they will be given 5 hours to design and get built, their furniture. She also tells them that the people of Brisbane will be voting for the winner.
Brendan reminds them again that the winning piece will win a permanent place in South Bank while the winning person will get the opportunity to bring back one eliminated contestant and choose which house they join.
Alex gives them some more advice before their challenge begins.
Keenan and Mel design and straight away, Keenan comes up with a ‘flawless’ plan, as described by Mel.
Peter and Nathan are planning as the sole members of their group while Michael and Jarrad put their designer hats on for the challenge.
The sky blue team are looking around South Bank for inspiration, but Jason already has a bit of an idea coming.
As a steel maniac, Natalia already has ideas running through her head.
The renovators then head to a steel mill and they are overwhelmed with the amount of material on offer.
Peter has a flower-like design for his furniture and his steel is already being prepped for laser cutting. The grey team go one better; their steel is already being cut and Christie runs through what the computer does to program the cutter as if we would get what the hell it does.
Keenan and Mel’s steel has been laser cut already and Keenan is already working with the workers to put the bench together, hoping it all fits together.
The sky blue team work on their quote to put on the bench and Luke comes up with the beautiful saying; ‘May all out hearts be with the Brisbane flood victims, January 2011’.
They talk through their design and the team find out that the bending of the sheet metal will take four hours on its own! A lot longer than expected. The rest of the process doesn’t take too long, but if the sky blue team want to finish on time, they have to beat the other teams to the sandblaster.
To Nathan, and he has come up with a basic design. Hopefully his craftsmanship pulls through for him and he can win the challenge. Brendan comes over and breaks one side of his chair and Brendan talks about how fragile steel can be, haha.
He chooses red as a colour for his chair and while Alex doesn’t sound happy with the choice, he is going to go with it to lure votes his way.
The grey team get a visit by Alex and Robyn and Natalia tells them that their seat is inspired by the Ibis, which is somewhat iconic to South Bank. Alex knows there is a lot to do, but Natalia likes the challenge.
The navy blue boys are working on a seat inspired by the arbour and Robyn and Alex seem quite impressed by their idea, not commenting much.
Peter is working with his idea, but the laser pattern cutter is not working properly and reading his design, slowing him down. Here we go with the stress!
After the break, the green team are working on their steel chair and are trying to be as precise as possible.
With two hours down, Christie and Natalia are concerned that they aren’t as far as they want to be with the girls concerned that the formation of the frangipani flowers are not up to scratch. Natalia may not have enough time to do what she wants to do.
Peter and Alex visit the green team and they are very excited by their design and the one half of the seat Keenan and Mel have already completed.
The sky blue team have called their seat, Noah, due to the flood analogy. They are putting their metal through the tedious task of metal bending and due to the intensive labour the job requires, Kathy says they have to change their design.
They discuss their design options and while Jason isn’t happy that the design has to be compromised to finish on time, they have to just let it go. Jason is still worried that they won’t finish on time.
Meanwhile, the pattern cutter is finally working and Peter is over the moon.
Natalia and Christie have decided to frame their frangipani leave bench arm rest to make it look a little less natural.
Meanwhile, Jarrad jokes that he is doing all the working while Michael is doing all the talking (due to Michael talking to the camera, explaining what is going on). Nathan meanwhile is very happy with the progress of his chair.
Back to the navy blue team and Michael has had to change plans because the press the factory has is not the right size for his metal and they will have to do it by hand, slowing them down immensely.
After the break, we get a few more shots of Brisbane River during flood before we head back to the factory and Jarrad and Michael are still trying to manage without a metal press.
Meanwhile, Keenan and Mel get their steel chair powder coated before Mel begins to paint it bright green. I’m wondering how long it will take before vandals come and spray paint these chairs.
August is frustrated that a lot of the work has to be done by the helpers and Natalia and we get a shot of Natalia telling August off for, well, I don’t really know why.
Nathan is now also painting his chair and the red looks nice, but will it blend in with its surroundings?
Brendan and Alex are visiting the navy blue team who don’t know if they will have enough time to finish their structure.
Ok, this episode is frustrating me so much! It seems that EVERY bloody episode is made up of the contestants just so hopelessly behind schedule that they most certainly won’t finish. I have no idea how or why Michael and Jarrad are behind time because the producers are not conveying what exactly the problem is. The camera keeps swapping to one team, and then another, and then another so quickly, that we don’t even get to take in what is going on! Jeez, anyway, back to episode.
I think the problem is now that Jarrad and Michael’s steel is the wrong type for the setting with Alex saying the body would rust due to the salty water of the river beside it.
Meanwhile, the sky blue team are finishing their chair while the judges discuss how exciting the challenge is. To me, this is by far the most boring and frustratingly confusing challenge to date!
Meanwhile, Keenan and Mel’s first half of their chair is finished and they are so happy. They quickly do the second half before they finish.
Meanwhile, Peter gets Brendan and Alex to help him test out his new flower table and leaf chair design which doesn’t look too bad.
With 30 minutes to go, the contestants are finishing up. The grey team and navy blue team are finishing their initial designs ready to put them into the blaster- at the same time! There is only one blaster and it is a race to the finish because apparently, there won’t be enough time for both teams to get it in (but of course there will be).
The navy blue team finish first and despite Natalia trying to slow the boys down, they get their chair in before the grey team.
And now for the saviour part; the sandblaster guy has let BOTH teams put their chair in together!
As they wait, Natalia and Michael tease each other about how much time is left and how slow the process will be to get both chairs finished.
With five minutes to go, Natalia realises the navy blue team boys are upset that they won’t have enough time to paint their chair. But August funnily tells his team that Michael would be bitter because his chair is ugly.
Time is up and Natalia says that it doesn’t matter that their chair wasn’t coloured because if the chair can’t cut it as a concept, what would a bit of colour do for it? I would have to agree with that, Natalia!
With that, the chairs are delivered to the South Bank area and are placed in position. The public are all standing by, watching it all unfold; how nerve racking.
After the break, we get a look at the chairs in action and they look quite good. Peter’s chair and table however looks a bit too small. My favourites have to be the navy blue team’s chair and the grey team’s chair.
Brendan then talks to the contestants and congratulates them all on a good job. He debriefs on the challenge, sends them off, and brings in the Brisbane public to vote for their favourite. Again, we get a few good compliments from the public while the judges pass on what chair they like. Brendan loves the sky blue team’s chair and Alex loves the green team’s chair (I like this one too). Soon, voting closes and Brendan tells us that unlike yesterday, the voting wasn’t close with the winner getting almost double the nearest competitor.
It is time for the verdict, and with 102 votes, the winner is… the shop! And I look forward to seeing their chair in South Bank when I visit there in December!
The judges praise their job as the team gives comments on their own job. Natalia is over the moon and humbled by the win.
The judges thank Alex for his time in tonight’s episode before he leaves.
Now, it is business time.
The shop (and I thought it was just one person) now gets to decide as a whole group, who returns and what team they return to. Fittingly, the grey team is the only team without any possible candidate to bring back!
The judges ask who really wants to come back, and all of them want to! To make it easier (or harder?), Robyn asks some of the eliminated contestants what returning to the competition would mean.
The shop then go and deliberate on who should come back, and after a short while, they come back with their verdict.
They decide to bring back, after an ad break, Sam! With that, Sam is returning to the competition (which is sad, because I see her as a bit of an extra!), but what house does she return to? Sam is happy to hear that she is going into Pete’s house. She’s a little too happy, either she really loves Peter, or really hates the sky blue team! I think she is just over the moon to be back but we do hear that from day one, Sam wanted to be in Peter’s house.
With that, the other contestants have lost all hope on returning but in true TEN reality television spirit; they don’t care at all!
The eliminated contestants are then sent off, with Sam also heading off to get ready for her time on the orange team!
With that, the episode ends, and it is more of a relief for me than anything. I didn’t find it particularly engaging, nor did I find it easy to watch. It was too faced paced when really, for a challenge like this, it doesn’t need to be. It was very choppy with the scene constantly changing before, as I said, disallowing me to digest certain scenes.
I personally don’t mind the thought of a returning eliminated contestant although I know some of you do. I guess if Sam is the only person to return, I would be happy. Too many people is what I think killed it for MasterChef.
Other than that, not much else to say, I just can’t wait to see what that bench looks like in real life. Oh, I must point out, I do like the idea that this show allows for some of its products to be blended in to everyday life.
Courtney’s Verdict: 6.5/10
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