Original subtitles

Last time,

the doors closed on one team's dream.

I wanted to be here so bad.

Now, just five dream teams remain.

-[Reva] Let's do this. -[Tator] We got this.

[Jonathan B.] All looking to claw one step closer to winning

this Halloween war and $30,000.

[baker #1] Oh, my gosh.

-[Karine] We have a rat race -- oh! -[Jamie] Oh!

Today's challenge -- give it a unique Halloween twist.

[Cesar] Why does there always have to be a twist?

[Kristen] Every fault could be the difference between staying

and going home. -[baker #2] Yeah.

What did we do wrong?

[Mike] Guys, I think we have a pretty big problem here.

This is "Halloween Wars."

[main theme plays]

And then there were five.

Welcome back, teams.

[Kristen] There's only five teams left.

We've been doing really, really well, and we just have

to keep working and supporting each other because every single

challenge becomes more and more stressful.

By now, you've experienced enough horrors

in this "Halloween Wars" to keep you up at night.

-Definitely. -Like, for real.

[Jonathan B.] Today's challenge is only gonna make

those nightmares worse.

-Oh, my gosh. -[baker #1] Oh.

We want you to immerse the judges in a world of

a classic bedtime story.

[bakers] Oh, OK.

But...

give it a unique Halloween twist.

You must also create a beautiful treat that hides

a dark, delicious secret in its wicked core.

[Jamie] I'm feeling a lot of pressure.

All the seasons that I've done, I've made it to the finale,

so I wanna live up to that reputation.

We want you to go bigger

and bolder with this showpiece than ever before.

OK.

Your six hours starts...

[tense music builds]

now. -[baker #2 giggles]

[Tator] Go, go, go, go, go!

[Anthony] We cannot be in the bottom again.

-We can't, we can't. -No way.

That's too close.

-Too close. -[Anthony] Yeah.

You know what fairy tale always got to me?

-What? -"The Ugly Duckling."

Oh, that actually might be kind of fun.

Yeah, it resonates with you, huh?

-[both laugh] -This guy.

[Anthony] You know what would be creepy is like something almost

like a baby bird.

[Sabrina] Oh, like it's hatching out of him.

[Anthony] Yeah, it's like the real Ugly Duckling is like

coming out now. -[Cesar] I like that.

For this challenge, we're doing "The Ugly Duckling,"

a beautiful swan with an inner demon inside.

It's like convulsing and like something's coming

out of it, right? -[Cesar] Yeah, yeah.

The thing that they dinged us on last time was stiffness.

And so I think this neck is going to be really important to

sell movement, because swans have such a nice composed curve

to them. -[Cesar] Mm-hmm.

I'm so tired of being on the bottom.

Like, let's win.

-We need a win. -We need a win.

[Liz] Princess Avalon and King Beardie.

-Avalon's dragon. -And you know Avalon.

My daughter is obsessed with dragons.

This piece is actually inspired by my daughter, Avalon.

She has a pet bearded dragon.

And I just thought it would be really fun and help make it

a more personal story for me.

Stories are always super important.

So our plan is to create a giant dragon who is

protecting his treasure, and the prince comes to

rescue the princess, but the dragon takes

his treasure very seriously, and the princess is the most

treasured piece of all.

So you're gonna make the head out of pumpkin.

You could do some really cool spikes.

-I'll do sugar eyes. -[Mike] Yeah, yeah -- yeah.

I'm gonna make the wings out of gelatin.

It's gonna be tough.

I mean, it's gonna have to be a very specific pumpkin.

[Christophe] Bigger pumpkins tend to be soft.

But I definitely, I think it'll be really cool.

I want to be the first team that has won

"Halloween Wars" twice.

I believe in our team, and I believe in us.

All right, you guys ready to do this or what?

-Let's do it. -Yes.

-Let's do it. -Let's do it.

So the first thing I'm gonna start on is bears.

So for our piece, we're going with a tale inspired by

Goldilocks, but with a dark twist at the end.

Goldilocks does not, in fact, break in and enter,

eat some porridge, and then leave.

She actually gets caught by the bears and gets eaten.

Bears always have like that strong divot down the middle.

So we're gonna start with that.

I'm kind of known for details.

So I'm trying to make sure I bring that every challenge.

It's a bit tricky 'cause, uh, they keep getting bigger

and bigger and bigger.

You know, I get it, cater to the judges, listen to what

they say and try to make sure that, you know, we get

those requests in.

Sure to get all that texture in.

The judges are looking at skill level, so we're making

a piece that's designed to bring in lots of tasting work

for Jonathan, lots of really cool pumpkin work for Rebecca.

I mean, I think it'll be impressive if our team

showcases everyone's talents.

I'm going for cute, but kind of psychotic.

Kind of like you?

Bad, Jonathan, bad.

Oh, my God.

It's gonna be a little bit of a gauntlet for me today

because, uh, I'm gonna be doing a lot of pumpkin work.

I have to start on the body right away because that's

the foundation for our Ugly Duckling turned into

hideous swan monster.

Entering into the top five is really exciting,

but we honestly are feeling like we're the weakest link of

the remaining competition.

[groans]

So today we are out to prove that we deserve to be here.

We are extra motivated to

create the best piece in the competition.

Into this body, I am carving all of the feathers.

So I'm gonna create like a layered feather body and then

go in with a smaller tool and just individualize

the feathers a little bit.

One of the things that I'm trying to do is not just carve

the lines, but kind of bevel them a little bit,

like angle them out.

So that way it looks like one

is naturally coming out from -- from another.

It's not just like I'm ripping and zipping on a pumpkin.

There is a little bit of strategy in what I'm doing too.

I came into the season wanting to prove that I can be just

as good as the other carvers here.

I've looked up to Mike Brown and Tator's work for at least

ten years, so I feel like it's an overwhelming amount

of pressure. All right, body's done.

[Tator] One more hook, and then I can move on.

That was good.

We're doing "Three Little Pigs" coming for revenge with

a Big Bad Wolf butcher shop.

Basically, what I'm doing with this loop tool right now is I'm

making some intestines that are just on top of the display,

so it's gonna look real creepy and gruesome.

I am going to be carving all the different meat components.

You gotta have some intestines.

You gotta have wolf's feet.

You gotta have ribs and some big sausages hanging.

I'm carving some daikon sausage.

-It's a piece of meat, huh? -Oh, my gosh.

Oh.

So right now, what I'm doing is I'm soaking these rice

papers so that I get 'em very pliable.

So almost like the sausage that you would get at a butcher shop

or anywhere else, it's gonna be real ooey gooey and fun.

When it comes to The Howlers, we're the unit to beat.

You have to have a unit 'cause everybody is a cog in a gear.

No one is bigger, no one is smaller,

and that's how we like to work.

It's not a bad looking sausage.

[in funky tone] Not a bad looking sausage at all.

[normally] I'm working on my Pied Piper body.

This is gonna be his torso and his shoulder

and his stuffed sleeve.

My team decided to go with the story of the "Pied Piper."

But the rats, they already saw him coming and they're hungry.

So they're gonna completely dismember him

and carry him out of town.

So this is a fairy tale.

So we wanna go with the fairy tale vibe.

So old-fashioned clothing

and kind of cartoonish face. -[Jamie] Yeah.

[Karine] I want him to have kind of one eye upward and one eye closed.

-Yes. -So he looks a bit dead.

-Dead. -Since he is.

I will be doing the Pied Piper and I wanna make

him a character.

I want him to have bright colors

so our eyes is drawn to him.

Because everything else is gonna be kind of brownish

and darker colors.

He looks very weird right now.

-Yes, in the best way. -Yes, he does.

[Jamie] Last time we won our duel.

So we're feeling really good.

That positive energy coming off of a challenge where you did

well really helps you carry through to the next one

and gives you another level of confidence

that, you know, helps you do your best.

[Karine] My creative brain is in full swing right now.

[Karine speaks]

So, right now, I'm gonna add the last details to

our open eyes.

And there, we have an open eye. Yay!

One team will definitely not live happily ever after

in five hours.

All right.

[Liz] So I really want his face to be a key feature.

-Like, he's a big, scary dragon, you know? -Yeah.

I want him to have lots of spikes.

My contribution to the piece

is the pumpkin head for the dragon.

This is a really big piece, and we are taking a really big

risk at this point in the competition.

Can you tell before you cut the pumpkin, like,

if it's gonna be good or not?

Sometimes, but on these -- some of these bigger ones,

you just don't really know

until you cut into them. I just picked this one out.

The shape seemed about right, and we need something with

a lot of thickness to it. -Yeah.

Because the head's gonna be so big that we need to be able

to shape out, you know, the size of the head.

But you have to carve detail into it, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

-Golly. -Whoa.

Ah.

-That looks pretty thick. -Yeah, that's not bad.

-Does that smell weird? -Yeah.

[Liz] Ew.

Ew, that smells gross.

-You think it's gonna be OK? -I don't know yet.

I'm gonna start carving into it and see.

It's a little soft.

It's tricky to find the right pumpkin.

I mean, it's just the quality of the pumpkin.

They could be really stringy on the inside

and soft and mushy, and bigger pumpkins

tend to be soft.

Sometimes that becomes a problem, and you don't really

know that until you cut into 'em.

It's kind of luck of the draw.

How's that pumpkin looking, Mike?

It's really soft, Liz. Like, look right here.

What do you mean?

Well, like, I need to have the head shape be able to kinda

curve underneath the head so it looks right.

And when I start carving into this fairly, you know,

fairly deep, it's pretty soft, so I'm a little concerned.

It is one of the biggest parts of our overall piece,

so I am really nervous.

Guys, I think we have a pretty big problem here.

[Liz] Oh, no.

This is just way too soft and nasty, 'cause we need it

strong enough to suspend the head.

Yeah, I don't think it's gonna hold up at all, so I don't know

if we need to do something different.

[Liz] Christophe, Mike's gonna have to pivot.

[Christophe] So what are you gonna do?

Because if you don't have the pumpkin head, I mean,

you need to find a way to make the head no matter what.

We need a head on that dragon.

[Mike] Ultimately, I'm not

comfortable moving forward with pumpkin.

We can do the head out of modeling chocolate, but I have

to do the stairs. I've gotta do the lady.

-I've gotta do the wings. -Just let me sculpt it.

I can do it.

I can do it on modeling chocolate.

[Christophe] Modeling chocolate?

Have you ever used modeling chocolate before?

You have to -- you have to stay focused on what you want.

100% sure that you're gonna execute to your very best.

[Mike] And I think sculpting's sculpting.

I would like to sculpt this head.

I really would like to sculpt the head.

-All right. -OK.

I think the smartest thing to do

is to shift to modeling chocolate.

If you say you can do it, I believe you can do it.

We have more control of the modeling chocolate.

Whatever decision you guys make --

So I would like to do this, and I think it's gonna be

better for our overall piece. -Yes.

OK. All right, I trust you.

-I'm on board, I'm on board. -OK.

Well, I'm gonna start on the hands made out of pumpkin.

We have a new challenge.

They have to take those classic, bedtime stories,

the fairy tales, and give them a Halloween twist.

I wanna be able to look at their showpiece, know exactly

what we're looking at, have a feeling of connectedness

with the character, and then realize, "Oh my gosh,

we're in trouble. -[Andrew] Yes.

I'm gonna level with you and tell you that as a kid,

I had a very twisted brain, just as much as I do now.

Really? Can't te --

So I already was manipulating those fairy tales into

their own twisted, spooky ways.

I want to see if anybody here can be as weird.

-Yeah. -[Jonathan B.] Yeah.

So I need to start making my, like, rat gut inside.

Today's tasting element requires having a wicked core,

and my tasting element is going to mimic biting into a rat.

It is a spin on a peach cobbler cheesecake.

So I wanna have this peach thyme compote to go into

the middle of the cheesecake, and I'm gonna dye it red.

It's gonna have little chunks in it, so it feels like when

you're biting into it, it's like, you know, innards.

Whee! OK, putting in their guts.

I've got...

equal parts of chopped up peach and peach puree.

So we have a lot of, like, peach gooeyness along

with peach chunkiness, which is really gonna drive home

the nastiness of it all.

This is shredded phyllo, otherwise known as kataifi.

It's the same thing that chefs are putting into this viral

Dubai chocolate dessert.

That's what I wanna put on the outside of our rat.

-[Paulina] That's very wise. -[Jamie] Of our dessert.

I'm going to put some milk chocolate ganache on

the outside and cover it

in all those crispy hairs on the outside giving that hairy

little crunch that everybody loves.

And now I've got chubby little rat shapes.

Yay!

Oh, wow, just impale it.

I'm getting started on the spindles for

the four-poster bed.

My responsibilities are to make the bed, and that includes,

turning on a wood lathe, four different pedestal posts.

I'm really excited about that, honestly, because there's not

very many opportunities to turn vegetables.

Are you a carpenter by trade?

I am a professional woodturner.

You are, really?

I was one of the lead demonstrators at

the National Symposium this year.

Look, I mean, that literally looks like she's going to --

[Andrew] Are you on the cover of Woodworking Magazine?

I'm actually on the cover of the AAW Magazine.

[Andrew] See, I knew. I knew.

-Yeah. -And you should be.

The what magazine?

And I was voted Young Wood Pro of 2023.

You know what? That's what I was

gonna say about you. She remind --

I feel like she's like, The Wood Pro of 2023.

Yeah, that's what you were gonna say.

-My God. -I'm going now.

A wood lathe is a machine that spins generally a piece of

wood, but sometimes other materials as well.

And while it's spinning, you're carving it.

So you get really nice, concentric designs and really,

really intricate designs if you're good at it and if

you can control your tools properly.

[Jonathan] Holy moly.

[Elizabeth] This is like "Halloween Wars'" history.

-[Jonathan] I know. -Rebecca is crazy talented.

I mean, no one else can do what she does.

I do this with wood all the time,

all the time at home.

So turning with vegetables is not very different.

It's just a lot messier and more wet.

Seriously, Rebecca? Did you pack that on the plane?

[Rebecca] I found it.

It was just waiting here for me.

I am a woodworker, and I demonstrate all over

the world teaching people how to do woodturning.

Tool approach is very important when you're turning any type

of material.

If you get the wrong tool approach, you could get

a catch, and then that could ruin your piece.

You could break your tool. You could hurt yourself.

I started woodturning at a very young age.

My dad taught me when I was about five.

His rule was when I could stand on the bucket and reach

the lathe, he would teach me how to turn.

It was our little father-daughter bonding time.

My dad is still a woodturner.

To be able to bring it onto "Halloween Wars" and turn

butternut squash on a lathe is so much fun.

This one's for dad.

-Wow. -What is he making?

I've never seen anyone do this on "Halloween Wars."

I've never seen anyone do this, period.

[Rebecca] Jonathan. Elizabeth.

-[gasps] -Holy.

[Elizabeth] Oh my gosh. I love it.

-I wanna touch it. -[Rebecca] You can touch it.

[Elizabeth] What's -- right here.

Touch my butternut.

I don't want to touch your butternut.

[Elizabeth] I'd love to touch your butternut.

-Boop -- ooh. -[Jonathan] Wow.

OK, so I love this, but I'm also intrigued by some

scraps you have here. -[Rebecca] Oh, my scraps?

Yeah. Eliza.

-[Elizabeth] Yes? -We need guts.

[Elizabeth] Oh my gosh, that's perfect.

Whose tale will come to an end in four hours?

-Four hours left. -Why?

So I'm thinking the embryonic guy coming out of the mouth.

I think I want one of the eyes to be like super big.

For "The Ugly Duckling" story, my job is to create a really

horrific, ugly thing emanating from the mouth to sort of

represent the childhood turmoil and bullying that the swan had

faced and is finally letting that all go and wreaking havoc.

Just kind of working on a little hunched-up

sort of scraggly body.

It looks like a bird,

but it's also so like kind of humanoid.

Yeah, I think baby birds are perfect for that because

they're like the right combination of like cute

and absolutely disgusting.

The whole objective for my carving today is to make it

as disgusting as possible.

In the past, we've been criticized for being too

cartooney and emotionally, we haven't quite hit the tone

of Halloween quite yet.

So for this piece, we just need something that's

flat-out disgusting. All right, here we go.

-Little dude. -[Cesar] I like it.

-Love it. -Awesome.

-Love it. -[Sabrina] You're so amazing.

-[Anthony] Thank you, thank you. -Three hours left.

-How are you guys feeling? -I feel amazing.

-[Christophe] Good. -[Liz] Feeling really good.

-Keep going, keep going. -Don't ask me.

I wanna make sure that

we still have some carving in our piece.

So I'm focused on carving butternut squash for

the dragon's feet and claws.

I'm gonna make some dragon wings.

So the base of this is gonna be made out of wafer paper.

And then I'm gonna coat everything in a mixture of

gelatin and glycerin.

And then it will dry and be wings.

The height needs to be 38.

So I'm gonna put these on the top of the dragon to help

us get our height. -[Mike] Wow.

I did this, but the dragon was only this big.

OK.

And now you want to make them like this?

-It's like the same, right? -Oh, sure.

It'll either work or it won't.

This is the biggest wings I've ever made.

I've never made gelatin wings bigger than maybe

eight inches across. So we'll see if that works out.

[Christophe] It's so crazy.

-But it smells so bad. -[Liz] So bad, so bad.

[Christophe] So I cannot wait that you're done with this.

They said this gotta be big, so we're going big.

I took that seriously.

Being away from my daughter is really hard on me.

Not many people know this, but I never planned on being

a cake decorator.

I wanted to get married and have a lot of babies

and be a mommy. And I could not get pregnant.

And so for six years, we tried many different things

and eventually IVF.

And in those six years, I baked while

I waited to get pregnant.

And so I tell everybody that

my cake business was my first baby.

She was six years old by the time I actually had a baby.

And by then, I knew that I loved cake decorating,

and I knew that it was my passion.

I really want to win for my family.

You guys ready?

-Holy moly. -[Liz] It's like a real wing.

-Whoa. -Hey, teams.

-You know what this is? -[Liz] No.

-What? -A surprise pumpkin.

You never know what's gonna happen

when this bad boy comes out.

Well, the judges think every storybook tale

needs a good twist.

[Cesar] Why does there always have to be a twist?

[baker #2] What?

Could be anything from a physical addition on

your creation... -Smaller.

...to a second tasting element.

They're all in here. Let's let the fates decide.

The twist is...

[tense music plays]

[dramatic chord strikes]

I don't like surprises.

You must add motion to your showpiece.

-No! -[both laugh]

Seriously?

How much have we planned to put this piece together,

and now you just want us to just add a moving part?

No big deal. Thank you.

[Cesar] All right, come on, team, huddle.

-What do we wanna do? -You think of something to do.

-I'll be right back. -I got it.

I'll figure it out.

We're about halfway through this round, and our surprise

pumpkin gave a new twist for this challenge,

and that is -- they have to incorporate motion into

their show pieces.

And, you know, as we're getting further along in

this competition, everyone is going bigger.

They really, really want this.

And for us to add motion to something that is so heavy,

it's definitely risky.

I think maybe the most obvious thing is if we try to make

the bear that's eating porridge actually eat.

-[Elizabeth] So, like, uh... -Can we, like, uh...

-OK. -Like, this motion?

Yes.

We have to add some motion to our piece.

I'm actually okay with that.

I actually really like doing that kind of stuff,

so I'm down.

On the bed, like, eating the porridge.

We can have a pivot point from just the shoulder.

-Yeah. -[Jonathan] Yeah, that's cool.

Shoulder or... Yeah.

-[Elizabeth] Yeah. -Yeah, that'd be great.

[Elizabeth] The easiest way to get the motion that we need is to

have a little pulley system.

Now, we do still want a motor to activate that because

we don't wanna have to hand-do it, but what we're

gonna have is just a little hinge inside of the bear,

and then we're just gonna have a little piece a fishing line

on the end of the hand.

So that way, when the motor spins around that's concealed

by the bed frame, it pulls the string up and down,

so, therefore, it makes it look like she's eating.

Can I test this real quick?

[Elizabeth] Yes, you definitely can.

Ready for this?

Perfect.

I can see the frustration with Fright Squad.

They all know they're so incredibly talented.

Why are they always at the bottom?

They're amazing technicians,

but so is everyone else. -Right.

And when you're with the best of the best, you need

your piece to have personality. -Exactly.

[Shinmin] You need your story to be loud and clear,

and I wanna see all their technical skills, and I wanna

see that brought to life now. -I don't know.

I think we need, like, another sort of moving

component, maybe, if we can. Why not?

[Rebecca] I know how to make some motion device things.

You're just bending that naturally?

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, just with my hands and the pliers.

Not only are we gonna make the mama bear actively look

like she's eating porridge by raising her arm up and down,

I'm also gonna make this little meat processor to grind

the meat of Goldilocks.

And so we've got her legs all up in the meat grinder,

and they're moving around

and it's disgusting. I love it.

I've got it in the box.

I'm pretty sure this is the right motion that we want

for her legs.

[Elizabeth] One of the things I love about working with Rebecca

is we're both into the mechanics of things.

We don't have formal training.

We just look at something and can puzzle out, like how it

moves, how it should be made.

And so we think we're just gonna be able to do a few

little things that maybe some of the other teams just aren't

able to do as well.

We're making the most of our team's skills.

Everyone's elevating and bringing their A-game,

especially over here with The Howlers

and what they're doing today.

I'm working on my ground chuck right now.

For the tasting element, we're going to be doing a cake,

and it's gonna be a hyper-realistic ground

wolf cake, which consists of a chocolate cake,

buttercream, and for my wicked core,

I'm using the sour cherry pepper filling.

Mmm. Yummy.

[Kristen] So I'm using cake, and I'm gonna add some food coloring in it

and see if I can run it through this meat grinder and get like

a texture, so it looks like we have portions

of ground wolf meat.

[Reva] Did you know that she's like the queen of realistic cakes?

So this is just what we need to

take us over the edge for this competition.

I'm gonna do the filling portion, and she's gonna help

with the outside portion.

[Kristen] All right, let's see how this goes.

I had an idea to actually use a meat grinder and then add

some sprinkles to look like fat.

So, I'm hoping that the response is gonna be

big from the judges.

Actually processing...

[in unison] Through a meat grinder.

[Andrew] I love this. Ugh.

I -- who thinks about things like this?

The Howlers.

This wolf has just eaten two of the little pigs.

Of course it's gonna be fatty wolf meat.

Disgusting.

You've got two hours.

-You know what you like? -A challenge.

-Deadlines -- deadlines. -'Cause I'm crazy.

Now, look at Team Ghoul'd.

They're going very big, but they are nowhere near where

everybody else is.

I am a little nervous about it, but I'm adding,

blocking everything out with foil, and then I'm gonna start

putting modeling chocolate on, see if I could get

the details sculpted.

[Liz] Do you think we could make the head move?

[Mike] That's what I was thinking, too.

[Liz] I want you to have that done in one hour.

And Liz is making me have it done in an hour,

so I gotta hurry.

[Liz] We should just do a layer of buttercream real quick.

-[Mike] OK. -[Liz] And then throw

the modeling chocolate over that so that it sticks.

[Mike] OK.

I feel like I can do it, but if you could just guide me

a little bit. -Yeah.

[Mike] I had to pivot away from the pumpkin.

It was kind of soft on the inside, so the best option

was for us to move forward with modeling chocolate.

I think it's a risk, but I think necessary risk.

Smooth out and then cut intentionally,

and then we'll put the next piece on.

Pivoting to modeling chocolate is the right move

because he can get those details in there.

With soft pumpkin, you're never gonna be able to do that.

It is the right move, but it's actually the complete

opposite in terms of muscle memory from how he works.

When you're carving into pumpkin, you're removing

pumpkin to reveal the shape.

Now, with modeling chocolate, you're adding to it. -You're adding.

-But it's a risk. -It's a big risk.

Yeah, it's risky.

Can I do some fitting with our eye here?

Yeah.

Because this piece is inspired by my daughter,

it's so personal to me.

I'm just kind of crossing my fingers and hoping that Mike

can do this thing he's never done before.

[Christophe] I love it.

I knew it was the right call.

And I do feel like that amount of detail we're able to get

with the modeling chocolate, I don't know if I would

have been able to get with the pumpkin.

[Liz] You see what you can do when you want?

I have so much to do. I'm making the dragon.

I'm doing all the anatomy, the tail.

The dragon is really big.

So that's gonna be a challenge to get it covered

in the time that we have.

I'm just really scared that the dragon is not going to be

in a good place if I step away to the princess, you know?

I have to get started on this princess.

If there's no princess, there's no story.

It's not gonna make any sense.

I'm not gonna get away with not having the princess.

She has to be there.

So what do we think about Poisonous Perfection?

Because they are last season's champion, and they've been in

the bottom, and I feel like they're really trying to pop

and, like, come out of that rut.

When you come out fresh as a champion, you have this --

you have this confidence with you,

and I just hope that they're not feeling

a little bit rattled, 'cause they have been

either middle of the road or towards the bottom,

and they either have the chance to rise to the top

or fall away.

I'm gonna start working on pumpkin.

-Hey! -Ooh, pumpkin Jamie today.

-Pumpkin Jamie! -Whoo-hoo.

I'm gonna be jumping on to help out with some pumpkin work,

because we're gonna have a lot of pumpkin on there, and I want

Paulina to be able to concentrate

on this crazy rat pile.

And I'm just gonna make some rocks.

I'm guessing these stones probably need to be,

like, three-inch square or slightly larger?

-[Paulina] Yeah. -[Karine] Yeah.

[Jamie] OK.

For this challenge, we are creating "The Pied Piper,"

and it's going to be a wave of rats made out of pumpkin.

[Karine] It's the first time I'm gonna see you carve pumpkin.

[Jamie] Oh, my God!

People might not know this about me, but I'm also

a professional pumpkin carver.

I got into all of this literally because the first

time I went pumpkin carving, I met the whole pumpkin

community, and it felt like I had found, like,

the community I should be a part of.

And then my first opportunity on "Halloween Wars" opened up.

So many tours for me, so I recognize how lucky I am.

These are all happy tears.

We're going to add a kid's race car track and take one of

these little race cars and turn it into one of the rats.

That's our movement goal.

Guess we gonna -- we have to zoom him past that spot.

-[Karine] Go, go, go, go! -[both] Yeah!

[Karine laughs]

-Yay! -[gasps] Winning!

[Karine] Nice!

Is your story a fantasy or a tragedy?

We'll find out in one hour.

-Adrenaline does miracles. -[Paulina] Oh, God.

Really, I'm gonna focus a lot on painting that pile of rats

so that it looks really good and has variation in color.

My goal with painting the rats is to have a variety of base

colors for the rats.

[Jamie] Lots of deep shading, because that's what they're

definitely expecting.

Taking the judges' critiques in mind, we don't want it to

look like basically a mound of brown.

So we gotta give a lot of depth and distinction

between the rats.

So we have brown, white, and black base-color

rats, and then go back with black for all of

the in-betweens, the low lights, and a fine brush

for all the little wrinkles in the rats.

But I feel like because we have no time,

it's getting rushed, and it's not looking as sharp

as I want it to.

-I feel like it's messy. -[Karine] It is.

[Jonathan B.] Thirty minutes left!

OK, guys, I'm finally getting into the princess.

It's very important that we get the princess on this piece

because it's so personal to me.

My idea was for the princess to be my daughter, Avalon,

but we don't have a princess. I'm stressing out.

[Christophe speaks]

Oh.

I will.

I never incorporated people I know into a showpiece

on a competition.

Yes, so that I can just build her skirt so she's sitting on

the dragons to save time. She's sitting.

He's -- he's got her protected under the wing.

That's -- that makes sense. That makes total sense.

Sometimes my ambitions get away from me, and I just want so

badly for the piece to really communicate the story well.

My daughter has bangs, so I'm gonna give her bangs.

If I put out an unfinished piece, I will be devastated.

[Christophe] Wow, she looks like Avalon!

[Liz] I know, right?

-You only have 15 minutes left! -Oh.

[Jonathan] More guts, more guts.

[Reva] Let's do this. Let's do this.

[Tator] We got this.

OK, so we need ears and whiskers?

Uh, I think ears are more important.

-Yep. -Yes -- ears are.

[Reva] I can always do one more sausage.

One more sausage would be great if you have time.

[Reva groans]

-[Reva] OK, I'll do it. -On the...

Yeah, oh, my God, yeah, yeah, yeah!

That's a good choice.

I'm gonna take the shrivels from a pumpkin stem

and stick it right in as makeshift little hairs

on our critter.

[Christophe] Stop breaking all my jewelries.

You know how hard I work for that?

[Liz] Are you talking to me, Christophe?

[Christophe] Yes, somebody erased them.

[Liz] I am literally working and fighting for my life.

Stop talking to me!

Last three minutes!

[Liz] I mean, it's hard in the last few minutes.

I get anxious that things are not gonna come together.

[Jamie] Oh, my God! Oh, my God

[Elizabeth] Uh...

-[Tator] Gotta keep touching it up... -[Kristen] Yeah.

...here and there.

-One minute! -[Jonathan speaks]

-[Elizabeth speaks] -[Rebecca] One minute.

Oh, my God.

Every fault could be the difference between

staying and going home. -[Jonathan] Yeah.

[Elizabeth] Chocolate. White chocolate.

-[Sabrina] Uh-oh. -[Cesar] It's OK.

[Tator] They love the guts, huh?

-Ten, nine... -Uh...

-...eight, seven... -[Mike] And they're good, and they're good.

-Yeah. -[Liz] Oh, my gosh, you guys.

[judges] ...four, three, two, one.

Oh my God.

-[Christophe] Good job, Mike. -Let's never do that again.

-Come here. -No, no, no, no.

-[Tator groans] -Hug it out, ladies.

I love the idea of our piece...

I feel like it's messy.

...but I'm feeling like the rat pile is not quite

defined enough.

Bloodsuckers, why don't you tell us about

your little bedtime story?

[Anthony] Once upon a time, there was an Ugly Duckling

who grew into a beautiful swan.

But after years of bullying, its inner demon shone through,

and she passed it on to her spawn.

-Oh, it rhymes. -[Cesar] Ooh.

And tell us how you integrated the twist motion

into your showpiece.

We have developed a little contraption to make the wings

flap because, well, if you're taking one of her hatchling

eggs, Mama's gonna get a little upset, now won't she?

[creepy growl]

In a world of CG, this is the practical effects

that I was waiting for.

This swan that's puking up its child, for lack of better

words, that's my kind of swan.

Anthony, I love these embryonic ducklings.

I love the fact that their skin looks translucent.

And you only added just a little bit of blue to

the eyes and a little bit of the magenta to the beaks,

and they look super creepy.

You are certainly most improved this season so far.

You have really leveled up, and I'm really

proud of you guys. -[both] Thank you.

Tell us about your wicked to the core treat.

[Cesar] Today I made for you goose egg.

The secret core is a cinnamon milk chocolate ganache,

followed that by a hazelnut oat crunch.

On top is a white chocolate crémeux.

And for the yolk part of the egg, I did a yuzu gel.

As far as a wicked core, it could be maybe just a little

bit more cinnamon. -I agree with Andrew.

If you're going to do cinnamon, add a little bit of heat.

Just would add that kind of spice, devilishness

on the center. Don't be shy with the heat.

Yes, ma'am.

Poisonous Perfection, tell us about your showpiece.

[Jamie] The townspeople called in the Pied Piper, hoping that

he would clear out the rats, but little did he know,

the rats were hungry and ready to carry him out of town.

We added one of our rats, carrying him out.

Oh, look at him go.

[Andrew] Oh, oh!

I like that I can't see where it's coming out on

the other side.

The Pied Piper's blouse, I'd wear that.

And I am fashion forward, so I think we all know that that

means I think you did a good job on his blouse.

Paulina, you really took on a challenge to create so many

rats out of one piece of pumpkin.

I can see that it's a pile of rats, but were you completely

successful in finishing that? We were deliberating that.

Tell us about your tasting element and its wicked core.

Today, you will be eating one of our rats.

Ew!

[Jamie] It is a peach and thyme cobbler cheesecake.

-The core is full of rat guts... -Oh, gross.

...and that is our peach thyme

compote surrounded by a vanilla cheesecake with a oat and light

cinnamon flavor crunch on the bottom,

a milk chocolate ganache, and the kataifi,

or shredded phyllo, for the fur on the outside.

A whole rat textural experience for you.

Oh, I've never ate a rat before.

One of them just bounced around from tooth to tooth.

Ew!

I love that you used peach compote.

It just feels so gross to bite into it, but it's so delicious.

The kataifi brings that crunch that I really needed.

It's very bone-like.

Little rat ribs, maybe, if you will.

Like, you really did nail that wicked core of this.

-You executed this beautifully. -Thank you.

Team Ghoul'd, tell us about your showpiece.

[Liz] There is a legend that there is a princess trapped in

a tower with a dragon and all of his treasure.

So the prince sets out to rescue this princess from

her terrible fate.

But what he doesn't know is that dragons will kill anybody

that comes even close to his treasure.

And the biggest treasure of them all is the princess.

You had to add motion to your piece.

So the dragon's head goes back and forth

and smoke comes out of his nostrils.

[judges gasp]

-Whoa! -[Andrew] Wow!

Look at the smoke coming out.

-[Shinmin] That's amazing. -[Jonathan B.] Oh.

Good on you, Liz, for just busting out this princess

because you're cool like that.

Mike, I am glad you pivoted because this head is

so beautiful.

I've seen a lot of creations on "Halloween Wars."

I'm gonna say it.

The dragon is my favorite character I've ever seen on

any show. -Thank you, Jonathan.

[Jonathan B.] I love it.

Howlers, tell us about your bedtime story.

Well, we all know the story of "The Three Little Pigs",

but this is what happens when there's only one remaining pig.

We have Brick house here.

And he's tired of being the victim, so he's created

a wolf butcher shop.

And he is wreaking havoc on his tormentors.

[Tator] We have a little mechanism,

um, that's gonna make the eyeballs move.

[Andrew] Oh, look at -- look.

This technique you used for the meat, actually using

the meat grinder and incorporating sprinkles... -[Shinmin] Yeah.

...for the fat in there, gross, it's successful.

The pumpkin sausages,

you used rice paper for the casing.

-[Tator] Yes, that's correct. -[Andrew] Brilliant.

I can't get over the humor of it, though.

"No huffing, no puffing, no returns."

Reva, tell us about your wicked core tasting element.

[Reva] We have a chocolate pepper cake,

along with a sour cherry gelée and compote.

And then there's a little bit of a buttercream to sweeten

it up. -Oh, the texture is so gross.

-Ooh. -It's supposed to be wicked.

-[Andrew chuckles] -[Shinmin] I love how tart the cherry is.

It is so strong, it makes my mouth pucker.

So when we wanted something kind of wicked and just mean,

You gave that to us.

The cake itself is a little dry.

I think that if you were to have, like, a super moist cake,

this would be perfection. -Howlers, great job.

Thank you so much.

Fright Squad, tell us about your bedtime story.

[Elizabeth] In our fairy tale, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears,"

she breaks and enters into the wrong house and messes with

the wrong bears.

Bears catch her, so they turned Goldilocks into porridge,

and now they're eating her.

[judges] Oh!

For the motion, we had the bear's arm move,

and I built a small crankshaft to fit inside the meat grinder

for the legs to move and be ground up.

The crank of it, of her legs spinning around,

it's very funny.

This bedpost's super believable.

I am absolutely in love.

But, and I think we've talked about this before,

there's a lot of brown, and we wanna see just

a little bit more of a pop of color.

[Andrew] I do agree.

Listen to me when I say I want brighter, bolder colors.

Unfortunately, the bears were brown.

But I'm not understanding where the judges are saying that

we've constantly used brown on brown on brown, tone on tone.

Let's hope for the best.

Tell us about your wicked core tasting element.

Since our whole theme is porridge, it's a corn mousse

with a strawberry chipotle center,

and then it's a cornmeal cake on the bottom.

I like that I'm getting a little bit of

Goldilocks' blood here.

But I feel like I could use a little bit more of

the strawberry chipotle.

All we get is one or two bites, so you really

wanna make that count.

And if you're telling us you're giving us something wicked,

we wanna taste it.

Great job. Thank you.

Teams, you told five wonderfully creepy bedtime

stories that will give us all nightmares.

The level of talent here is, well,

wicked.

These decisions are getting harder and harder for

the judges, and that's no joke.

Now it's time for the story to end for one team.

I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea how the judges can make

a decision given all of the pieces.

We might have a chance, but at this point,

it's anyone's game.

[Jonathan B.] Fright Squad...

and Poisonous Perfection...

one of you is going home.

The judges feel like you're not

listening to their feedback about color.

I am so shocked we're in the bottom.

Fright Squad...

remember that note for next time.

Poisonous Perfection, I'm sorry,

but you're going home. -[Paulina] Oh, my gosh.

I'm very sad for our team.

I think we made some of my favorite pieces,

regardless of how they were critiqued.

[Karine] Oh, my God.

I'm mostly surprised that there was two other pieces that

I thought were worse.

[Elizabeth] Stop hugging her.

[Jonathan] Sorry, she's mine.

Of course, there are these little things that you would

change when you look back at your piece.

It's always hindsight, 20-20, and in the moment

you do the best that you can with what you've got.

Um... You know, I'm...

I love my team.

Definitely gonna miss everybody here.

This Halloween war is now down

to our final four. -Whoo.

We'll see you all next time. Get some rest.

-Thank you. -Thank you.

-Thank you. -Color, got it.

I'm not surprised the judges thought we were in the bottom

because of their comments about just brown.

But now we have to do a lot better.

Our next piece, it's gonna be like a blooming freaking

rainbow explode over it.

You want color, you're gonna get color.

Next time, to survive past this point, you've gotta beat

out the best of the best. -Oh, God.

-[howls] -[baker #1] Oh, my God.

-I need to find a pumpkin. -That's a whole lot of brown.

I thought we were going for color.

[Sabrina] Anthony is trying to use the lathe

for the very first time.

We're kidnapping your pumpkin carvers.

-[all] No. -What?

I need legs.

I -- I don't have time for that.

Mike's hands are actually shaking.

[tense music plays and ends]