Original subtitles

Last time, eight teams of all-stars returned to a whole new Halloween Wars.

They're bringing in the heavy hitters. Head-to-head challenges forced four

teams into a do-or-die battle.

And one team's Halloween dream was laid to rest.

The skeletons.

I'm sorry, but you're going home.

Now, the seven remaining dream teams of cake, sugar, and pumpkin artists face a

massive new challenge.

Changing things up on Halloween Wars.

Oh, boy.

As they fight to get one step closer to winning the Halloween Wars trophy and

$30,000.

We know what you're capable of, guys. You're better than this.

Welcome to Halloween Wars.

Welcome back, teams.

Last time.

You got a terrifying taste of what this season has in store and how elite your

competition really is. Oh, yeah. This season, these teams are seasoned. To

beat the best, you got to push yourself past the best.

And today, we've got a few more surprises for you. Your challenge is

called Swarm Attack.

Capture the moment a swarm of insects.

overwhelm their victim.

Disgusting.

And to get our judges buzzing, create a treat with the extra bite of coffee,

tea, or spirits.

You've got five hours starting... Wait.

I forgot to mention something.

No way.

A surprise.

Not only are you fighting to continue on for a chance to win the grand prize of

$30,000, whoever comes out on top in today's challenge will win $3,000.

Let's go, buddy.

Changing things up on Halloween Wars.

$3,000 would be amazing. We want that money, and I really want to win this.

Okay. Now you can go. Go, go, go. Let's get bacon.

Go, go, go, go, go. Oh, gosh.

All right.

Let's show everybody what's what. Maybe, like, an exterminator?

Okay. So, roaches? So, I don't know.

What if they're, like, mutated somehow through, like, some type of radioactive

activity? Oh, okay. I like that. For our piece in this challenge, we're doing a

nuclear exterminator. There's been a toxic waste spill, and all the roaches

have gone wild, and they've infested the power plant.

Let's go, Fright Squad! Yes!

Bees! I mean, come on.

Is that too on the nose?

Because to me, bees are terrifying.

Maybe a play on, like, the queen bee, because she's the deadliest one in the

whole hive. She's a big boss. Yeah. Like us.

So I'm like the queen bee, right?

Yes. Zombies.

Like a zombie?

Or like a... Like a zom... Bee.

Oh, my God. It's perfect.

There's a swarm of bees, and they crawl into her mouth.

Wow.

That's terrifying, Lisa.

The story of our piece is a princess who went for a walk in the woods, only to be

swarmed by a pack of killer bees.

All that remains is her skeleton body.

In her crown, of course.

The worst death you can ever wish for. They sting her to death in her throat,

and then they make the hive in her stomach. Oh, my gosh. We have to have

lots of bees. How many bees can you make? I'm going to do as much as I can,

but I'm going to find something that is quick and smart.

Absolutely. Our piece for this challenge is going to be a zombie apocalypse,

because, you know, it's a bad pun.

And in the zombie apocalypse, this bear is going to be their new zombie hive.

Last week, we probably had too much on the board. Oh, absolutely.

We were in the bottom four, but I think that that is a learning experience.

We got to downsize.

Tight details.

All right, what I'm starting is like

a, since we're going to have a hat on them, males, what we're going to do is

do a gum paste hat bill.

That's got to be molded so it gets dry.

We're going to be doing a fisherman being overrun by the swarm of worms and

going to have all sorts of different worms and one busting out of him. All

right, Mark.

Hey, you got a lot going on today, man. This is the... We need all Mark all day.

So my responsibilities for this piece today are quite a bit. I'm going to be

making his entire body and face out of cereal and modeling chocolate.

And on top of all that, I'm going to be whipping up some finite worms to tie

everything together.

Yeah, so I have a... A lot on my plate today.

Thanks, Mark.

How would I agree to this, man? Come on.

Mark, should we just relax?

Yeah, right.

I've been doing cake decorating for a while, and getting a win would actually

feel like I have validation in this industry, even though I don't do it full

-time. Cake is more of the side hustle for me. I'm a structural designer.

The past Halloween War season that you know me from is Season 3, so that's

quite a while.

It's a little worm on there.

Dude, that's gnarly.

So winning this, I think, would mean a lot because, you know, my kids live with

my ex. I love to take them on vacations, and I could use that extra cash to do

that. All right. You're good?

Yeah. Thank you, sir. Yep. No problem, ma'am.

I think I was born to make zombies.

I think so.

Today in the challenge, I will be making mostly the bees because we need to have

a swarm of bees, and that's a lot of them.

I happen to have this great mold that I made once, and it's a bee-shaped mold.

It's a bit of a quicker way to make a lot of them.

Yes, absolutely.

And then I'm going to zombify them.

One down.

20 to go.

Yeah.

So I'm tasked with doing the bear.

I know it's going to be an undertaking, so definitely am working as fast as I

can.

So I'm just shaping the pieces I need to fit onto this claw, just blocking them

in, and then I'm going to sculpt them after they're blocked on.

Just need some good screws.

I need to find a good way to cover seams because it is a giant piece.

And that's always the challenge with pumpkin is how am I going to make this

in segments and make it look seamless?

This is one of those pieces of art where it looks like crap to start.

Just don't look until I'm done, please. Yeah.

I have been carving since I was a kid with my family. When I originally

started doing it, it was like gifts for family.

And I think I just got.

really connected to making people happy, creating memories, and to be able to

offer that to other people is really why I love to do it. Is my nose coming out

okay? Oh my god!

It's getting there. Yes, it is!

It looks like a bear nose.

Ish.

Hey, Tater, I have the body of the mummy going in right now. Okay.

Rice cereal treats.

Let's move fast. Let's move smart.

All right, so I'm just going to cover my rice cereal body with modeling

chocolate. We're going to do an uncovered pharaoh with the curse of the

scarab swarm coming at you.

Okay, got my pharaoh head on.

so i want to have like these demonic eyes riva so i'm just going to heat the

modeling chocolate underneath the eyes that i've made just to make sure they

stick because the last thing that we want are eyes falling out so i was on

season nine of halloween wars and we made it to the semi-finals I started

getting into making cakes after my oldest son was born prematurely. I

wanted to have this amazing big birthday party to celebrate him because it was a

rough time for a while. So I ended up making my son a seven-tier cake for his

birthday, and it just kind of grew from there. Before I came to this

competition, my youngest son said, Mom, can you win for once?

And so I think that I just wanted to prove to him that Mom's got this.

I'm just going to start.

doing all the details in the face and honestly super smart plan because if all

the details aren't perfect um we can always put wraps on it i know that the

judges are really big on details and a lot of different elements but i mean

those elements are only good if you can finish them but i think maybe that's who

we are as a team you play it risky I have these new texture rollers that I

like using and they're just super easy to control what you're creating texture

in. And anytime you have texture, it creates a new sense of realism. And I

think it's just more visually interesting. So when I do go in and

paint this guy, I'm going to have to not rely on paint as much to create

dimension. I can use the molds themselves.

Trying to put these panels in because the faster I can get this on, the faster

I can get this structure up so that Kristen can start putting her body in.

So I'm using butternut squash instead of pumpkin to get all the panels on this

sarcophagus because you get that nice thick meat that I can just slice through

and get nice panels so that when I attach it, it all will be the same

similar panel and it's easier to blend together.

It's hard to get flat cuts with a round pumpkin.

Everyone thinks, oh, well, you know, it's just, just the second round. Like

you got to save a little energy. No, there is no saving energy, right? I

didn't come on this show to go slow.

All right? It's get it done, make it big, make it go right.

I run food trucks for a living. I've been on season seven, lost.

Season nine, lost.

Tater, you have a quad over there.

Some of us are trying to get stuff done, baby.

We're used to you howling constantly.

Howl! So all these guys are looking and they're like, oh, don't worry about

Tater. He's just a joke.

Nah, I'm coming for you.

I'll loan you a couple dollars when we win tonight.

Oh my gosh, there's a lot of smack talk going on right now.

Look, there's $3,000 on the line. I'm about to be inside all y'all's brains.

Let's go.

I got to still build out her jaw so she looks like... Yeah, but the angle,

that's really great. Yeah, and her hands are going to be over her eyes like in

the moment that the bees were crawling into her mouth. She was alive for a

second. It was like, ah!

And then died in that pose.

Just in case it wasn't horrifying enough.

We are doing the three elements. It's going to be the crunchy part of the...

of the tastings. I'm making ladyfinger stocked with raspberry liquor, with

honeycomb, trill, and a little bit of honey on top. So what I'm doing is

really putting some pressure into my trill butter.

So it's really taking all the details of this mold.

You know, Christophe, I made that mold off of a real honeycomb, so it's going

to be super, super thin.

And so realistic, too. Super realistic.

I love it. I feel like it's just a little bit extra, you know? That's those

little things that I'm like... Oh, you made a honeycomb, but is it molded from

an actual honeycomb?

So now we have to go really delicately.

Oh, my gosh.

Yes. It looks like a real honeycomb.

It's almost like you know what you're doing, Christophe.

Oui. I got this bubble wrap that looks shockingly similar to honeycombs. Oh,

yes. I'll pour it, and then I'll sandwich it so we get the honeycomb

texture on both sides. Nice. Bubble wrap. Everybody loves bubble wrap.

It's good for getting out aggressions.

It looks shockingly similar to honeycomb when you pour chocolate on it.

Ooh, look at this. Look at, look at, look at. I think it's going to be super

cool. Jamie.

Why are you all up in my business?

What are you doing here?

Why are you questioning me?

It looks like we are doing the same thing.

Are you doing these?

Of course we are.

You are killing her.

Of course, Team Gold would do the same.

Of course.

So Jamie is taking over our bees because they are doing bees too. No, they are

not. They are. Is it sabotage?

They make the honeycomb.

They also made a honeycomb? But different than us.

What the heck? Both of our teams are champions, so they are definitely a

threat. I don't know what's going on here, but I've got my little, like, eye

on them.

I use a completely different technique over there. Well, what did you do for

your honeycomb? I'm curious.

Well, we have a mold of a real honeycomb.

You know what? Sometimes you need a little more ingenuity and not just

another mold.

You know, and sometimes it's just about the impression of something and not

making it exactly it.

Would you like to squeeze bubble wrap angrily?

Yes. Yes.

Last time we saw some of the biggest competition we've ever seen on Halloween

Wars because we have people that are the best of the best competing in head-to

-head battles.

This is big personalities and big talent.

Today they have to create a swarm of insects.

I think this can be very challenging because it needs to feel overwhelming.

Yes. And as we know, when you overwhelm a showpiece, it can look really messy.

The first thing you think of when you think of why bugs are creepy and gross

is how they slither, how they move. They've really got to work in those bugs

coming out. Now for their tasting element.

They have to create something that'll get the judges buzzing.

Because they're bugs?

I get that, yeah.

So they have to use tea, coffee, or spirits. All three things give you a

little buzz. All three things I happen to love.

So bring it. I want to get busy from this. Yeah, yeah.

I've never really carved sweet potato, nor have I carved carrots.

And yet I think that they will be the perfect shapes for my mosquitoes.

Our piece is a southern vampire enjoying himself a glass of blood shine when he

gets swarmed by the mosquitoes.

So, guys, what I'm thinking from the tasting element, the pus.

Oh, you know, mosquito bite. I know. Pus juice. So good.

When you bite it, you're going to get a gush of that pineapple moonshine. And

then you're going to get that little little buzzing from the dash one button

flowers. All right. So make a strawberry raspberry petafui.

I'm going to cast it in these nice little rounds, make it look like blood

blisters. I'm going to grind up these szechuan bun flowers.

The tasting element is a big factor. I want to make sure I'm giving them

something they'll remember.

Most of my competitors are going to go alcohol.

So I'm going in a different direction and using szechuan bun flowers, which is

an edible flower that creates intense tingling, numbing, and fizzy sensations

in the mouth.

Gives you something you never had before.

Once I inject that pineapple moonshine, it's just going to bust like a big pus

ball right in their mouth.

Okay, guys, a little taste.

Oh, I can feel it pulsating on my tongue. That's crazy. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. What's happening to my tongue? You like that? That's my buzz

sugar right there, baby.

That's what's going to give me my buzz.

Caesar is busting out new tricks that he hasn't pulled out before.

I feel like we have momentum. I think we can take home this $3,000.

Without a doubt, that's our buzz.

So I'm making our scientist.

What's our scientist's name?

Is it Steve? Can you be scientist Steve?

Yes, Steve.

Today for our challenge, we're going to be making Steve the scientist who

stumbled upon a wicked scary spider's nest and it sucked him in.

Spiders are everywhere. They're biting him. We want to show the judges that we

can put a piece out with three different elements of a spider that touches on

each other's strengths.

Marianne? She's going to be making a ton of sugar spiders.

Tanisha's going to be creating a massive cereal and modeling chocolate spider.

And I'll be whipping up some creepy crawlers out of pumpkin and butternut

squash.

You guys doing okay?

Yeah. Yeah. You know, we had some issues last time, so I want to make sure we're

in a good place. I know, I know, I know. You know what? I think that we're all in

such a zone right now. I'm not refereeing any boxing matches, guys.

Not me.

The last round, William and I had our little spat, you know.

We were all getting a little bit overwhelmed and I feel like it was just

like a lot of miscommunication.

I think we made this one too that like we all get to like focus on our

strengths and we're not trying to do things we're unfamiliar with. Yes, yes.

So I think that helps.

The heart of a warrior lies in everyone but My teammates are tougher than nails,

and I know what I bring, and I bring kind of a rough edge to myself, and I

think I need Tanisha and Marianne to definitely smooth out those edges.

I have a gaggle of children, four girls and one boy, so I'm definitely a girl

dad at heart. It's made me a better human being all the way around.

I have all the faith in you guys.

The judges exterminate one more team in four hours.

So I'm making roaches out of sweet potatoes.

I need something for the antenna.

Oh, that's perfect. Right? I'm making antenna for my roach with these rosemary

wigs, and then we're going to end up putting it over the shoulder of our

exterminator.

All I have to do now is give him some luster dust and details, and then he's

ready to go on the body as soon as Elizabeth is ready for it.

Ew. Yeah. That would go great. I know.

I hate it, and I love it.

Getting there. He's almost there.

The whole team is feeling a little bit disheartened after we were in the

bottom. So this is bloody important.

We need to really, really do a good job. I really want to win this.

Oh wait, he needs buttocks.

He needs a choosh.

He's terrified. He's scared. We're feeling some tension in the buttocks.

So I think they'll be kind of tight.

Jonathan? Yeah?

Do these buttocks say I'm terrified and I'm stressed and tense?

Yeah? Yeah.

Good. Yeah, definitely.

So this worm's got to be gnarly, right? Right.

I'm going to do two monster gnarly blood worms. Rather than try to carve all of

it on that crazy bin, I'm going to take a bunch of little baby rings like little

donuts, punch a hole in it, and we're going to fish them down the rod. So it

looks like a really segmented worm, right? This worm is going to defy

gravity. And to do that, we're going to have to build it piece by piece.

So I'm going to do it almost like little miniature donuts, one at a time.

Probably over 100 of them when it's all said and done.

Looking good, David.

Yeah, all day.

Which means everyone has to be cut to form, cut to shape. I absolutely love

this craft because, I mean, more power and respect to anybody who's willing to

sit at a desk all day, but it's not for me.

I actually transitioned into ice carving after getting bored with a business

degree. I run Frostline Ice Plus as a full-time ice carver and part-time

pumpkin carver. I was invited to Halloween War Season 3.

Did not win.

And then last season, we also were defeated. And we're here now to never

let that happen again.

You want to see how to paint a whole bunch of donuts at the same time?

That looks like something from, like, a competitive eating contest. Let's stay

fair. Yeah.

I want every segment to be perfect, and I want this thing to defy gravity,

because everybody else's pieces are going to be insane.

I present to you multiple painted objects at the same time. I didn't

really do a whole lot of shine pieces in the last episode, so I really want to

bring this one to life. So this thing has to be upper-decker, apex-style

carving. It's going to be very, very scary.

Hey, Dave, these are the teeth, and then you just sort of line them in. Just like

that. Hey, come on.

Liz, I'm going to start working on the crown, real talk.

Okay. There is no princess without a crown.

A lot of things can go wrong when you do a thin crown like that on the mold,

especially out of sugar.

I'm going to unmold the crown over here. Okay.

If you are molding it too cold, it might crack.

If you mold it too hot, it might stick.

It's so fragile.

You really have to pay really attention on the time, on the temperature. It's

really delicate.

So fragile is... I'm trying to bend it just to see the flexibility of the

sugar, but I have the feeling that the sugar is already too cold.

Of course, the crown broke.

No. It's so fragile. This is extremely important to the story of our piece, and

I am so panicked. It did crack because the tips of the crown is so fragile. I'm

going to have to...

Torch it a little bit and re-glue the tips. And I'm going to put it back

together. I think you might need to put it under a warmer.

Yes, Liz, thank you for the advice.

I appreciate it.

I do.

I think it's going to be amazing, this piece. You're already proud of it,

right? If it didn't break, then I wouldn't give you advice.

So, since it did break, I assume you need help.

For once, you're not the one who broke it.

We are trying to fix the problem, right?

Right now, it's not looking at the best, but it's not working.

We really have to have a crown because the whole thing is that she's the hive

queen. Yes. Otherwise, she's just some girl who fell asleep in a forest.

Let's just remelt this.

Should we do it now?

Yes, let's do it again, please. Let's do it again. All right, let's do it.

I've known Christophe for years and years.

He's like my brother if my brother was French.

Be stressed, Christophe.

Every time we are working on a project, my intention is to not disappoint you.

So this is the reason why I'm doing it a second time.

Christophe and I have competed together.

We've created recipes together. We've done show pieces together.

He might grump a little bit, but that's why I love him so much is he just, he

lets me boss him around.

Oh, beautiful.

Voila.

I don't want to say I told you so, but I'm just going to say good job.

We're bringing home that check for sure. Bringing home the check.

Today I'm contributing the character.

So one of the things that they critiqued us on was the movement. So this piece

has a lot of movement in it. From the overalls to the toes to his fingertips,

there's movement everywhere.

I start off with a sweet potato base.

I'm moving on to a squash thorax and head.

And for the legs as well as the nose, I'm going to be using carrots.

Whenever I'm carving, I just get in the zone.

Right now, I am just going in with my triangular loop tool, pulling little

pieces out without ripping them out of the squash.

So what that's going to do is it's going to make our buddy look all fuzzy.

I struggle with anxiety in my everyday life.

It's genuinely very hard to perform at a high level. I just want to make sure

that these mosquitoes don't just look like different elements glued together.

I want to make sure that one part naturally needs the next.

But in spite of my anxiety, I feel a zen whenever I sculpt. Like I'm almost in a

meditation whenever I work.

I made a tiny little cylinder.

I'm going to stick them on each side to make mandibles.

And I'm going to do that again.

for the antenna coming out. My dad's a therapist, and he'd be happy to know

that I found my inner peace.

Yeah.

Doesn't really get rid of the anxiety or anything like that, but we work on that

when we work on that. Dad's proud.

Got a skeeter.

Got a skeeter, skeeter? Yep, with some hairs and everything.

Oh, my boy. That's my man right there.

Aw, shucks, man.

Poisonous Perfection is making zombies.

And they're cool zombies. Yeah, they're really cool. You know what's really

great? The color striping on the zombies.

They're actually black and green. Yeah. So it tells the story. It's clever. And

they're crisp and bold and high contrast.

Yeah. So we can really see them. I'm going to start assembling my little bee

butts. Bee butts. My tasting element, I'm calling the bees butts because I'm

making bee butts.

It's based off of the bee's knees, which is a gin cocktail.

And it's going to have a juniper infused lemon curd mousse with a lemon honey

filling and a beautiful mirror glaze to create all of the stripes on the beef.

All I want now is a gin cocktail.

I am from Seattle, Washington, and I am a pastry chef and artist.

I do stained glass. I do paintings. I love doing hyperreal colored pencil

drawings. I also get hired for projects to do mural paintings, large-scale sand

sculptures. I ice carve, snow carve.

I love doing everything, and that's not an exaggeration. Of all the episodes

that I've seen of Halloween Wars, I've never seen anybody do a mirror glaze.

A mirror glaze is comprised of white chocolate, sweetened condensed milk.

Gelatin, water, a little bit of extra sugar. You basically just combine all of

these ingredients, and it just leaves this beautiful, shiny glaze. And it's a

little bit chewy on the outside.

It protects the mousse, and it creates just this beautiful outside.

There's a first time for everything, and hopefully it's pretty impressive.

Three hours and $3,000 on the line.

I am working on the arm, guys, so we can get this up here because then we can

start covering this guy. You got it, Mark.

You're doing it, bruh.

The arms aren't on. We got to get those things on there before we could do other

parts of the details.

There's some great sculptors here, for sure.

You know, there's some people that can do great anatomy.

I think my strengths are I stay in my lane, I know what I can do, and I know

what I can't do.

Hey, this one, we're here to help you.

Make sure you got all your stuff. Got it? Got it. Is that why you hide your

glasses so you don't have to see that large list that you have to do every

day? Yeah, right.

The challenge with doing competitions like this is, like, the time frame and

time management. We got to make sure that's right.

Gotcha.

What do you think proportion-wise?

Do you feel like the arms are a little small compared to the calves of this

guy? You could be from a touch. I figure the calves and the forearms would be

relative. Compared to the calves? Yeah.

When I look over and you realize you have to have an emergency team meeting

to fix a problem, it doesn't make you feel good.

You get it. I'm looking. I'm watching you.

Fatten him up. Fatten him up.

I added the arms onto our structure and kind of realizing that the proportions

weren't really accurate compared to his leg size.

Not going the way I thought it would.

Boo crew, they've got a lot left to do on that.

Mark is working on the main character here, and he's broad.

That's a broad fella. Yeah. I love a broad fella, but his proportions are a

little interesting.

The shoulders are squared, the knees are squared, the feet behind are squared.

I still got to cover those with skin, so I mean... The bigger the forearm, the

better. You know, like, you almost pop a forearm.

I think we'd beef another half inch. Yeah. Still?

This is a game of inches.

If that thing's not popping, we got problems. I still think they're a little

bit small a lot of times.

People don't like to be corrected, but it's really important the proportions

get to where they need to be. We will be very conscious of the size when we're

going. Trying to look normal, but of course, exploding inside, trying to

figure out how do I make the character a little more believable.

Oh, man.

Yeah. I mean, I would make him as big as possible. Okay.

If I'm noticing that the proportions are off on this piece, I can only imagine

what the judges think, because they are sticklers for all the details.

You guys are the sculptors, so you sculpt.

With these competitions, everything isn't going to go as smoothly as you

planned. You have to adjust for everything you do.

All right, gut check. How's that feel?

I think Mark's really talented. I think Mark's got a lot to do on this, so I'm

trying to get to a point where I can help him a little bit more.

Feel better?

Is better because as we go for adding worms and blowing them up and like

flayed skin would be good to go definitely better We adjust we may adapt

and make sure that we put out a great piece that we're proud of. Oh, man Okay,

the arm size looks much better much better

I'm making the hand right now So I'm making sure

like one is like almost reaching out towards the judges like oh like he's mid

Falling down to his melting in the toxic waste while the roaches are attacking

and eating him and on the other hand we're going to have his hand like up

like he's almost going to be trying to claw his mask off because there's going

to be roaches inside his suit i'm going to be making our exterminator so i'm

going to unmold my skull this is going to really help speed up making the face

this is the first challenge where my role contribution to this piece is the

entire character but it's a lot of work and I'm a little bit nervous about doing

a whole character by myself and in the time frame given. I've got to make sure

this reads as a human face.

I've also got to show emotion and distress.

It's on me and I mean I could cause my team to lose basically.

I don't know I feel like it's going okay but whenever I do that...

I tend to slow down because I'm like, yeah, things are going great.

So I need to keep up the feeling of everything is not okay. The sky is

falling. Just keep working.

It's a little bit intimidating, but I feel like I can do it.

All right, so I'm starting on the fur for the bear now.

And what I want to do is just make some strips.

And we're just going to cut like pieces of hair.

I'm going to have to work fast for sure. I have the structure of the bear and all

my blocked bear pieces on.

And a challenge with pumpkin is how am I going to make this in segments and make

it look seamless?

So I want to make sure I have enough fur pieces to cover the seams to make it not

noticeable. And then I'm going to put them down in strips and I'll give us

some bear fur.

Once we get them on the bear, it's going to be really hard to color them.

And I want them to have four different shades.

So I'm watering down some edible paint.

Pumpkin is not an easy medium to shade.

And we don't want it to just be a blob of dark brown and dark brown only.

Okay, Paulina, how are you feeling?

It's going to take forever to do this. Yes. So I feel like we've got to ratchet

it as fast as possible.

Team Gould, they're also making bees.

So I'm hoping the fact that we chose to do an animal and not a human character

being swarmed makes us stand out to the judges.

Yes.

Stakes are super high. I really want us to win $3,000 in this round. I think

we're very close.

Okay. I'm going to make the fishing pole.

Here we go.

I'm letting David run in the pumpkin lane and letting Mark run in the cake

lane, and I'm focusing on all of the sugar aspects.

Fishing pole.

Back home, me and my kids do a lot of fishing, so it's fun to do the fishing

poles. I think Mark and David are a little bit nervous about it because it

is really delicate, but you know what? We should take some risks. So I'm going

to try to give them something that nobody else will really try or they're

nervous to try.

Here, feel it.

See, that's going to be heavy.

Yeah, that's going to... It's still a little bit warm.

Yeah, that's actually too thick. I can taper it down.

Sugar work I learned when I was in pastry school.

It's not something I do a whole lot of on a regular basis.

Fishing spoon.

And let's get a fly going.

Florida's not exactly the best state to do that with humidity and stuff, so it's

exciting to get to work with it. All right, this is pretty delicate.

A lot of people are using molds for their stuff, which is fine, but if

everybody can buy the mold and everybody can do it, is it really that special?

Don't know.

There's a different technical skill when you're pulling sugar and you're making

it, you know, gravity defying. It's just one of those things that when you're

competing against the best, you'd like to think that it was more talent for

talent, less mold buying and making, but that's also an art.

Chappelle.

Fine, fine work here.

Yeah, we got it. We definitely got it. That's all Mark needs.

Yeah, I know.

So after the main structure of the body, his legs and his arms were finished, I

had to work on the face.

So we really wanted to make sure that we had a great expression of this worm

busting out of him and what your reaction is to that. We really want him

to be animated, but like more cartoony, like over-exaggerated, mouth open, his

eyes are wider.

So right away you feel his fear of what's coming at him. So we do the shirt

first to get the head in, then do the head.

I would do the pants first because the shirt goes over it.

Teams!

The judges and I are in the mood to mix things up. Oh, boy. Oh, no. We want you

to add to our Halloween haul with a second tasting element.

What? What?

I love a surprise in the middle of a challenge because I've got so much time

to add it to my plate.

No.

We polled trick-or-treaters to find their least favorite sweets.

Those unpopular candies are now your flavor inspiration.

You need to create a treat that not only complements the flavors of your first

tasting element, but also fits perfectly into your overall showpiece.

Wow.

Oh, and did I mention?

It's first come, first serve.

What?

I'm really happy that Liz picked the licorice, even though if everybody

doesn't like it, pretty confident that I can please the judges.

How are you going to make this taste good?

I swear it's good. Licorice is like anise, right?

Yeah. Anise is super, super good with raspberry.

It's perfect.

Really? Yeah, we're just going to use it wisely and not too much. I got chocolate

-covered raisins.

I said not raisins!

William, you're fired!

Call it an advantage.

Do you want to make me cry?

I'm the oldest that was in the competition.

My knee hurts. William, I thought we were on the same team!

I think for the cinnamon flavoring, I'm making Pharaoh's resin.

as I'm going to call it. Sounds even better that way. This just ties in

perfectly. I can make a toffee. It will look like the Pharaoh's resin. It will

have the flavors in it, and it'll be a nice design element to our

archaeological dig.

There we go. That's going to take a little while.

When that happens, we'll get butter and cream in there.

I want to win this because I want my teammates to experience the win because

they never have.

I've been on two seasons of Halloween Wars.

I made it all the way to the finale and won.

And another one, I was off the first episode.

I've been making cakes and pastries since 2000, but I was originally going

to sing opera.

That was my goal in life.

Now I have a bakery.

Merci beaucoup cakes.

It's going to be boozy. That's what I like to hear.

With the cinnamon, it is so, so, so strong.

Do I want my toffee to be that strong?

Not really, but I want to be noticed.

I'm putting in as much as I possibly can to have that taste, but to not overwhelm

the judge's palate.

I mean, that looks like resin to me because it's a pharaoh, so his resin

should be filled with gold. I can't wait to taste it, but I can't taste it now

because it's too hot. It will burn my mouth.

So I'm just going to work on these mummy bandages, Reva.

And then I'm actually using this.

wood grain mold because I want to have it like an ancient look. I don't want it

to be too perfect.

I want it to look decayed. So I think this has like the perfect texture

between a little bit of material and a little bit of tree bark texture.

I'm definitely nervous that we have taken on too much. You know we've gone

big which we did in the first episode and it paid off. There's a lot of

detail. Don't forget we got to get in there with the gold.

Just like if you put his bandages underneath his arm. Yep, I can fix

anything. I will edit anything.

There's just lots of nerves and I'm running over and over in my head. What

my goal is to be throughout the challenge, because if I don't stay on

track, then we're not going to finish this.

I know things aren't perfect, but I want to have everything. I don't want to get

sent home because we don't have a swarm.

Like we got to get everything on there and then we can perfect.

Yeah, I got you. I think I have a bit of imposter syndrome.

I'm always going to feel like I don't deserve to be here. I always question

whether, you know, I'm at that level.

I put a lot of pressure on myself.

I'm really of the mindset that, you know, you're up against yourself, and I

think I don't want to let myself get in my head and get intimidated, so I'm kind

of in the zone. We got this, guys. We just got to stay focused and keep going.

All right, let's do this.

Peppermint candy, here we go.

The second tasting element not only is going to pull Nose away from working on

the project as a whole, but it's also made with the leftover Halloween candy

that nobody wants.

Nose is talented.

This is going to be tough even for him.

We got to go real minty for this.

I have my rum coffee tasting element sort of settled and squared away.

And the first thing I think is I think we could do like a peppermint mocha,

which would bridge the two.

I think it would be complimentary to it. And, you know, we just have to really

make it punchy and minty enough so that it mimics that candy.

I'm rolling these in a little bit of cocoa powder to make them look like

dirt.

We're looking like this.

So we're going to keep it a little bit classic, but it ties right into the dirt

and the worms and everything.

And I think it's the right move.

But I need to try it with cocoa powder on it to make sure.

That tastes really good.

How will your swarms score with the judges?

We'll find out in two hours.

Two hours.

Two hours, man.

I'm still working on this stupid raisin thing.

I think what I'm going to do first, I'm going to rehydrate these nasty raisins.

I absolutely hate raisins.

A little brown sugar, a little water, and I'm going to add a little bit of rum

if I can track it down. For this new tasting element, I'm going to make rum

-soaked raisins, put them into a chewy caramel, and we'll cover them in milk

chocolate. They've been soaking.

So I'm going to strain these. Make sure you get out all the excess liquid.

Dude, I used to yell at my sister because she would tell my nephew that

raisins were candy, and I'm like, no, they're not.

Raisins are not candy.

Man, I used to get a box of those at my lunch. I'd be happy.

I picked up chocolate-covered raisins, which for me, personally, as a 50-year

-old, one of my favorites. But I'm guessing it's an aging-out ordeal. It's

not a sour this or that, but for me, I kind of like it. But these are beautiful

now. They've been soaking. They're nice and plump.

They're going to have a little flavor from the brown sugar and the rum.

Can I try a raisin? Yeah. I like raisins. I don't know why you don't.

What'd you grab? I grabbed a peanut.

It's banana.

Why is that banana?

I have no idea how to fix this situation.

What the hell? I can't.

Ugh. Okay.

Okay. It's like fondant meets banana flavorings.

But why is it a peanut?

If I don't come up with some really interesting ideas, we might be going

home. There is a reason that everybody hates this candy.

Okay, let's look at the upside.

I actually love real banana.

There's no upside. Don't lie to yourself.

I've really got to get over the fact that this is a nasty banana-flavored

stale marshmallow and got to get my brain thinking about something better to

make with it. Okay, what we don't have on here are like...

So what I'm going to create is an Italian meringue marshmallow, which is

going to give it that, like, gooey inside of a bug outlet.

I got my little woo-woo-woo.

This is going to be, like, the higher end, if you, like, walked into, like, a

good bakery version of a chocolate chewy roll. I'll be making an espresso

chocolate taffy roll, and I'll be filling it with a crunchy hazelnut

inside. And then we'll be forming them into little larva.

Thanks for your help. You're welcome.

Oh, this is a healthy one.

This one's been eating all the food and all the other larvae. I want to give the

judges another interactive dessert.

So rather than just keep it basic and on the display, we're going to make the

judges crack a sack or a nest of larvae. I'll be blowing a sugar

nest, and I'll be putting all my tasting elements in there. So the judges are

going to smash it, and then out comes all the larvae.

Good luck to them.

I'm going to unmold it.

The bees, Lisa.

We've made 200 bees by hand. Each bee is hand-molded. Every single one needs to

be painted with yellow.

I want all of these bees to be on this cake because otherwise, why did we make

so many? I mean, it's a swarm.

And then we need to glue wafer paper on with a little bit of isomalt, and we

have to do that.

200 times poison and perfection are doing the same thing as us it's going to

be really difficult to beat them so we decided to put a lot of details i mean

i'm talking about 250 to 300 bees only by themselves it's going to take some

time to do it oh perfect that looks great i will be making

pumpkin ribs the idea is to have them removable from our piece and it's

something that i've never done before but it's also fairly nerve-wracking just

because pumpkin is fragile and then the tasting element we're putting in here

and we're just going to have a shelf in here of the honeycomb yes correct and

then we're going to remove the the ribs out to reveal the treat inside of her

body so it's going to be decorated on the outside and the inside

The piece we created is like a bunch of details.

So we're making all of these pieces to the side, and you can't really do

anything until the other thing is done. Like, we can't put the tasting elements

in her chest cavity until the chest cavity is finished.

Mike needs to carve while, at the same time, Christophe is working on the

second tasting element. It's just everything waiting to go on the piece at

the last minute. So I'm adding my licorice into my batter.

And then I'm going to strain it to really capture just the essence and the

flavor of the licorice, but not the chewy gummy, whatever is coming from

that candy.

So for the second tasting element, I have decided to make a waffle in the

same concept as a crepe. In my hometown in France, we have this liquor, and

there is a little bit of licorice.

taste to it. And I remember when I was a kid with my brother, we used to make

crepe at home and we always put a little bit of liquor inside just to give this

taste of anise.

The butter with more anise liquor will really make the taste of the licorice a

little bit better.

This tasting element is my whole childhood, so it does make sense that I

bring this back. A nice drizzle of honey over the top.

You know, in life, if you do something with love, you can fail.

Love you, Kristoff. You're the best. That looks so good.

Unleash your little beasties in one hour.

Wow, that's a little nerve-wracking.

Oh, my God, one hour. Jeez. What?

Check these out. These are little baby brussels that are going to be scarabs.

So I pull the little baby brussel leaf out.

I'm panic-making beetles right now. I can't even count how many beetles I have

right now because I'm doing so many as fast as I can.

It's an infestation. It's a swarm, and we don't have the swarm. I'm going to

come in and trim a little bit. Not a lot, because they already have a natural

form of a wing.

There. Put it on the board.

Everybody work faster. Okay.

There's a lot of butternut squash legs to do, and I have just started.

I felt like I was ahead earlier, but there's a lot of details left on these

little tiny critters, and that's the most important part of the piece are the

actual critters.

So, like, I'm a little worried about whether I'm going to...

get it all done in time. So hopefully y'all have enough other scarabs to make

it look like an infestation. You know what I mean? It's like the flying ones

will be the little ones.

And then we have a whole bunch of those too.

Yeah. From the get-go, I was really nervous about the timelines.

There's a lot of detail and every single decision, because there's such fierce

competition, can be the difference between a win and a loss. We have to get

the actual swarm onto the cake. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I understand.

Right now it's hard because we don't have a swarm yet. Yeah, I get it. I am

moving as quick as I can.

Final push, guys. We have no time to, like, go slow.

Uh-oh, teams. Ten minutes.

Let's get the goo for the guts. Got the goo.

I'm feeling pretty good. Our proportions may not be as refined as we hoped, but

I'm really, really satisfied with all the other good details on our display.

Good God, that is nasty.

Get the head on. Yeah, I got you. It's pretty gross.

Okay,

I'm going to do it.

Put the fishing pole in and it is really fragile.

All right, bro, you got this.

You got it, bro.

You got this. You got this.

I don't want to look, so I'm not going to look. That's about as high stress as

you can get when people are counting on you.

My butt's clenching right now.

Dude, dude, dude.

You didn't build up anything around the hands, you good? Nope, we good. Any

little jar could actually break that piece and have it fall.

Oh, that looked really good.

My kids aren't going to want to go fishing no more.

This thing is incredible.

All done by hand, mind you. No molds, no cheats. It is all...

Artist only, hands on, it's beautiful.

Looking good, dudes.

Leave them. Leave them? Yeah.

They're so fragile. We need to just put them in and get fur around them. The

bear itself is not my favorite.

It looks like a mound of dirt. It's just like a ball.

When you have brown on brown on brown, it looks very muddled. You have to

really kind of study it for you to even realize, oh, that's a bear.

One minute. This is it. Hurry, hurry, hurry.

Take your time. Breathe.

Get it all. Get every detail, every shadow.

Come on, guys. Let's go.

Push it hard.

Just put a ton. Just scoop them up.

It's a swarm.

Ten. Nine.

Eight. Seven.

Come on, guys.

Five.

Four. Three. Two.

One. Time is up. Oh, yay.

Good job.

What you know about that?

Yes. Look at it.

We got this.

I'm just happy. I'm happy because I was so worried that I just couldn't sleep.

I'm upset. I'm not upset. I'm emotional because I'm just happy.

We did it.

I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that I carried my weight and

did all the things I needed to do. But there's just so many incredible teams

here. And I'm just hoping that what we did is enough.

Howlers, tell us about your swarm attack.

You have uncovered a sarcophagus, and you've opened it expecting to uncover

worldly treasures.

However, what you have uncovered is the curse of the scarab swarm, and they're

coming for you.

I'm scared. I love this so much, first of all. These scarabs, especially up

here in the front, are beautiful.

The Brussels sprout wings?

What sick, twisted weirdo even thinks to do something like that?

The scene here is so busy.

There's so much stuff piled down below.

And it works because you paid attention to color.

It actually looks like something I would see in a museum.

Tell us about your tasting elements.

We have a scarab bite. It is a black currant tea-infused ganache with

orange liqueur, along with a date caramel inside.

Not only is the scarab beetle beautiful, I feel like tea is so hard to register,

but I get it loud and clear.

And that makes it very elegant to me. And there is one nice punch of salt

right in the middle of this. And it just makes the whole thing seem really

powerful. And your second tasting element, what'd you get? We got the

cinnamon candy, which I actually like. And I interpreted that into a cinnamon

caramel. I also used some of the tea in that recipe as well to tie it all

together. The Pharaoh's resin.

The inspiration for that was the cinnamon candies, right? I love them,

but they also burn my mouth off. So I wanted a little bit more of the burning.

Cinnamon, when you add a little bit of heat, you not only taste it, but you

experience it. And I was really waiting for that.

Howlers, thank you so much.

Poisonous perfection.

Tell us about this swarm attack.

The hunter becomes the hive in this zombie apocalypse.

Zombies. Zombies.

I love that we can see the brains coming out of these bees.

Really, my favorite thing about your showpiece are all the different

textures. The textures are fantastic.

The honeycomb coming out of his brain.

You put so much work into creating the fur on the bear, but I'm struggling with

the bear.

It's reading really flat. And the reason is because it is just brown on brown.

And I know you went in there with highlights. I know you went with

lowlights. But you actually have to do more. Right now, it's just reading a

little flat.

They really knocked our bear for some reason.

And it really bothers me to see a judge ripping apart something that I see as

awesome. Tell us about your tasting elements.

I am a huge fan of a gin cocktail called the Bee's Knees.

It's the bee's butts today. It is a juniper and gin infused lemon mousse

with a mirror glaze for the striping.

The bee's butts.

It's giving me kind of key lime pie in such a great way.

I love the super bright citrus notes. I also like this mirror glaze that you

have. It just makes it like really chewy.

And our surprise element was a banana marshmallow candy.

That is our zombie larva.

And it is actually an Italian meringue marshmallow with fresh banana and a

peanut butter filling. Doing the Italian meringue marshmallow?

First of all, that's not easy.

Incorporating the peanut into that is a really smart move.

This is very successful.

Thank you. Poisonous perfection.

Thank you. Thank you.

Team Ghoul, tell us about your swarm attack.

We have here a princess who is trying to escape her future as a queen. And sadly,

she met her demise.

The way you did the honeycomb, it's art. It's absolutely beautiful.

That crown is stunning.

But the tips of the crown, I can't make them out.

I agree. It does kind of blend together. It's white on white on white, and the

crown could have some more color to it. It's hidden a little bit. You have to

really find it. We know what you're capable of, guys.

You're better than this.

Those hands are in front of that face. You can't see any of the details.

Huge missteps for somebody of that caliber.

Tell us about your two tasting elements.

We have a ladyfinger soaked with raspberry liquor, with a honeycomb trill

and a little bit of honey on top. The black licorice tasting element is

actually inside the cavity.

So we have to remove the chest.

Oh, look at that.

Rest in peace.

Okay.

And the little treat, it's a honeycomb infused licorice.

Cheers, everyone.

That was absolutely gorgeous. It's what you would top a crown with. It's such a

beautiful little piece.

I got the buzz.

The liqueur was very light, but I definitely tasted it.

And I think that it pairs gorgeously with the black licorice.

Your black licorice-inspired dessert really followed up nicely because it

does kind of feel like what you would eat after you've had another tasting.

My crown is off to you this time.

Team Gould, thank you.

Creepers.

This is our scientist, Steve, who was attacked by a swarm of spiders.

I love these pumpkin spiders here in the front. I don't love all the spiders that

came out of the mold because they look too clean. They look almost like store

-bought and you just threw them on there. And I noticed this look of both

kind of humor and terror on Steve's face is so successful.

The receding hairline that's kind of like blowing as he's moving as well.

What's the tasting element here on the display?

The boils are the triple espresso ganache bonbon.

Do it.

Did you hear that?

I love popping zits. I just wanted to get in there and get it. And then the

one wrapped in the marshmallow, it's a rum raisin caramel dipped in milk

chocolate.

It's a pus-filled spider bite that I got to rip off of his face and take a bite

out of.

So who am I to complain? It's great.

With your second piece, your caramel was like, move aside, raisins. I literally

did get my least favorite.

My least favorite, which is milk chocolate raisin.

It's a bummer for you because it's supposed to be a chocolate-covered

raisin-inspired dessert, and I didn't really get that.

Bloodsuckers, tell us about your swarm attack.

Our southern vampire was just trying to enjoy himself some barrel-brewed

bloodshine. But the thing about the South is that them are skaters.

Or as big as dolls.

It's such a fun story, such a fun concept.

I also love that there's so much movement, and it's so believable in his

body structure.

The anatomy on it is great. He's certainly swarmed, so you really knock

the swarming out of the park.

So tell us about your tasting elements. What are we eating today? We're having a

little bit of a blood chai.

So I made you a cherry raspberry patafui on the outside. It has a little bit of

dried Sichuan bud and flowers.

So when you eat it, you're going to get a little bit of a buzz.

And it should feel buzzy, too, because my lips are tingly a little bit. Yes,

sir.

The sting. I just want to make sure I'm not having an allergic reaction.

It's stinging. I got stung by the mosquito. I got bitten by the mosquito.

I can't even talk right now.

Bud and flowers are a little micro flower. So what they do is actually stop

the saliva glands from producing saliva.

The flavors to that are bold and sharp. And I feel, I feel bloodied by you.

What candy did you grab?

Chocolate malt balls. So I did a chocolate malt truffle. So I grounded up

the chocolate malt, a little houten, melted a little dark and milk chocolate

in there, a little pinch of sea salt and rolled it in black cocoa.

Those little warts are so small. And I was like, are you going to get crunch in

that tiny little thing? Yes, you did. And I did not expect that. Thank you.

For you to stand out now, we're tasting so many other things. That's quite a

feat. Thank you, man.

I'm very happy that the judges love the flavors of everything.

Sigh of relief.

Thank you, bloodsuckers. Thank you. Good job. Thank you.

Blue Crew, tell us about your swarm attack.

We all know that fish love worms.

We all know that fishermen love fish.

Did you know that worms hate fishermen?

Our infestation depicts what happens when the bait bites back.

Oof. Okay, first and foremost, Nils, I just have to talk about your sugar work.

This delicate wire-thin sugar piece on top, just bravo. Good job there. Your

pumpkin worms, I keep forgetting that those are pumpkin. They're so

incredible. I don't know how that was achieved, but it's very cool.

The thing that really bugs me is really the shape of the body.

It is so out of proportion.

It just makes the whole body not read realistically.

It's a little upsetting because you put your heart and soul into it, and, you

know, when those results don't come out the way you want them to, it's, yeah,

yeah. It's never fun.

So tell us what's in each of these tasting elements.

It is a espresso rum dark chocolate cake and then a mocha peppermint truffle to

brighten your breath up.

That is rich.

Mm-hmm. This cake just...

knocked me out. It is so strong. I feel like there's fire coming out of my

nostrils. Definitely buzzed. All the flavors are so bold with that. And then

your truffle using the peppermint candy for your inspiration. That mintiness, I

feel like I can breathe in Shinman's face now.

Nils, what mint did you use?

Peppermint extract.

Extract. Okay. It reads a little bit like toothpaste.

She's wrong.

Do you think these two go together though?

I felt like I was eating a really rich cake, and then I brushed my teeth.

It rubs you the wrong way, but if you're a competitor, that's always what it is,

and I don't think we're going to win it. But I do think we're going to be

somewhere in the middle.

What's up with this showpiece?

When there's a manifestation in a nuclear power plant, it's anything but

normal. Unfortunately for the exterminator, he was the one

exterminated.

I have pet cockroaches.

No, you don't. I feel like you're pandering to me with that.

Elizabeth, I have to talk to you about this face.

I don't know how you did it. I am getting the most emotion from this guy

than anything else that we're seeing here tonight. The green sugar blown

thing, I don't know what it is.

Oh, there's a reason for it. Well, I don't know what it is. You're about to

know right now. That is the second tasting element.

Oh, what? And you have to find the tool that can get you through it. Is it that?

Oh, it's, yeah, I found it. Oh, it's the mallet.

I know. Those two stay. Ready? You can do this.

Tell us what you made for us. The roach is a corn cereal, cocoa nib, and

chocolate crust with a popping rock candy.

It's an espresso martini mascarpone mousse. So it has vodka in it, a coffee

liqueur. And the idea is that you get all the textures of eating a roach.

I recommend you pull every leg off, you know, have the experience.

I am so sorry to my little babies at home.

Ow.

Daddy's not serious. He doesn't mean it. The date.

It's such a great choice with this. It really shines. I like that you didn't

hide any of the date at all. I mean, I know that it looks like a cockroach, so

good on you for that.

Texture, flavor, fizz, all of it. So this, you nailed it.

And then what's this? And that is the chocolate taffy roll. That is an

espresso chocolate taffy hazelnut lava.

For this little guy, I think that you're on to something with adding the nut to

that chocolate taffy. And even though this is the baby of those cockroaches, I

would eat another one. The judges loved our piece. There's $3,000 on the line. I

mean, I think we nailed it. It's fantastic.

It's all the stages.

So, great job. Excellent job. Thank you.

Teams, you make the judges' jobs extra hard because you are all that good.

But only one team can win today's prize the winner of this challenge and

$3,000 is

That's

$3,000 let's go

I would just like to say, when I came here, my little son said to me, if

you're going to leave, can you at least win something for once?

Maverick, I won for you this time for once.

Unfortunately,

we do have to send one team home.

And when you're competing at this level, it comes down to the details.

Two of you were in the bottom.

Poisonous perfection.

And Boo Crew.

I honestly did not see this coming.

The team going home today is

Boo Crew.

I'm sorry.

It's all good, guys.

Let's go.

It's all good.

Hey, no big deal.

It's heartbreaking for sure.

Part of it, definitely I feel responsible because a lot of the

proportion was on me.

All good, homies.

Don't worry about it. You know, being able to compete with my friends Mark and

David, I wouldn't have done it with anybody else. Probably added a few years

to my life with the laughing and all the fun we had.

Don't worry, guys.

Have a good one.

I will be back, and I will leave here with a check someday.

That was rough. Get some rest, guys.

You're going to need it.

To be able to win a competition this early and show that we're not just here

to have fun and games, but we're here to win, yo, made my day.

Next time, it's back.

The Deadly Duel.

I am fighting off more than I can chew.

This should be this arm. That should be this arm.

Don't think that safe is the way to go right now.

If things don't work out, it could be a disaster.

I'm trying to keep the most positive attitude that I possibly can, but I'm

dying inside.

Can we get a medic?

Medic. ASAP.

Does this change your perspective knowing that one team has less

teammates? We'll just tag team this. I'm going to paint. You fix that. Why would

a knife on their wrist?