So, What the Hell Happened on Last Chance Kitchen?

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Sorry if it feels like I’m spamming you. I did not expect this week’s Top Chef Power Rankings to become another two-parter, but here we are. Once again Last Chance Kitchen felt like it needed its own separate post. Here at the Content Report, I am but a slave to my content.

Yes, this will contain spoilers, for this and last week’s episodes of Top Chef and Last Chance Kitchen. Proceed in that knowledge.

So, as we covered last week, last week’s Top Chef (the whole hog episode), saw chef Sieger Bayer get eliminated at the end. Then, on the Top Chef after-show, Last Chance Kitchen, where eliminated contestants like Sieger would normally show up, Tom Colicchio instead came out and said:

“As you can see, this week’s eliminated chef is not here. Something really unusual happened during the competition so there’s no chef walking through this door right now.”

Sieger Bayer was nowhere to be found. But, as Tom explained last week, all would be made clear this week.

This week, things, at least as they relate to Chef Sieger, were not made clear. Instead, at the end of the episode, chef Justin Tootla was eliminated at the end of the episode (still love that name, excellent mouthfeel. feels like a job title for someone who plays the bugle).

BUT THEN, Tootla’s common law wife/life partner, Jennifer Jackson, who has had a lingering rope swing injury for the entire season (with much screen time devoted to it) was noticeably drooping on one side of her face. After missing two quickfires for medical reasons already, host Kristen Kish explained to her that Jennifer would have to step away from the show this season with the understanding that she would have a spot next season. She left the show, presumably to seek medical attention and get a CT scan and whatnot (she later said she did not have a stroke, and she is okay).

Kish then offered Jennifer’s slot on the show to Justin, as the most recently-eliminated chef. For his part, Justin declined, saying that he had to check with his life partner to make sure that she was okay first and possibly assist in her recovery(+100 life partner points!). The actual show ended with Justin on the phone telling Jennifer he needed to make sure she was okay before continuing, and her saying “You do whatever you think is best for you.”

Last Chance Kitchen, then, began after a title card that said “two days later,” and Justin saying:

“It’s been a very long couple of days, but Jen’s doing so much better. I know how heartbreaking it was for her to leave this competition, and for me to get back in it would mean everything. So we talked a little bit, and Jen definitely wants to see me on Last Chance Kitchen.

After that, Last Chance Kitchen started up, just like normal, with Justin competing against Rhoda, without ever dressing the most obvious open question, about what the hell happened with Sieger.

I reached out to Bravo but haven’t heard back. In the meantime, here is my best guess. If you want to call it “educated,” you may.