Hell's Kitchen Brings Back the Familiar

Rock will learn next week if he wins Hell's Kitchen. (Photo courtesy of Fox.com)

Hell's Kitchen isn't over yet.

Although Monday's episode of the Fox TV show featured the two finalists, no one was eliminated. In fact, eight people were brought back. The most recent contestants ousted from the field returned to Gordon Ramsay's kitchen and the finalists, Rock and Bonnie, divided up sides as if this were a game of sandlot baseball.

The teams feature four men and four women in a kind of cultural study that proves people will stray to the familiar no matter how much they say they dislike it. Bonnie took Melissa, even though she threatened to strangle her a few weeks ago. And Rock picked Vinnie, a mediocre cook, instead of Julia, who had won high praise from Ramsay.

The two top chefs were told to prepare their menus for next week's season finale, when the winner of the grand prize - a Las Vegas restaurant of his or her own to run - will be decided.

Monday's episode was mostly filler, with a recap of the show's previous two seasons and highlights from this year, which included memorable breakdowns by the aspiring chefs and too many Ramsay-isms, which are expletives and inventive insults meant to toughen the hides of people who are supposed to be tender with flavor. Go figure.

We don't want to spoil it for you - although we kind of already did months ago - but the Bodog Sportsbook is not offering reality TV odds for Hell's Kitchen because, as the Beat first reported, curious betting on one of the contestants led to the revelation that Fox production staff had leaked the identity of the winner. The entire series was taped weeks before its first episode aired. But there are still reality TV odds available on your other favorite shows as well as crazy ways to bet on celebrities and their weird lives.