‘Hell’s Kitchen’: What in the world are you crying about?

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This is what it all comes down to: executive chef Rock and nanny Bonnie duking it out for top honors in ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ But that’s next week’s finale.

This week we watched the previous six contestants return to take sides for the final service -- it ended up being boys vs. girls again -- and to see Julia completely fall apart. She cried into the arm of a chair. She ran into the bathroom and cried into a handful of toilet paper. She cried again in the kitchen. And then cried as she talked about why she was crying. What gives? She arguably walks away from ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ with a better deal than next week’s runner-up will. (Remember, chef Gordon Ramsay offered to personally pay for the waffle house chef to attend culinary school and then come back on the show.)

Julia was our favorite for her gumption and spirit and the fact that she cooked ‘real food’ instead of hoity-toity fare. We’d hoped that it would come down to her in the final. And that prediction still might come true, although certainly not in the way we had envisioned it: Julia was the second-to-last cook picked by either side, in part, both Rock and Bonnie later said, because they were worried about her emotional state. Well, Bonnie might have that, and more, to worry about.

Julia said that in her heart of hearts, she wants Rock to win.

-- Rene Lynch