Original subtitles

Last time...

[Anthony] Oh, my God.

[Jonathan B.] A horrifying challenge left our all-star team scrambling.

[Shinmin] Every fault could be

a difference staying and going home.

You are certainly most improved this season.

[Jonathan B.] Landing Fright Squad and Poisonous Perfection

in the bottom of the pack.

The judges feel like you're not listening

to their feedback about color.

And last season's champions went home.

-Poisonous Perfection. -[Reva] Oh, my gosh.

[Jonathan B.] I'm sorry.

This Halloween War is down to its final four.

[Anthony] Let's go, go, go, go!

[Jonathan B.] Vying for a place in the semifinals.

Will you shut up?

[Jonathan B.] Now, the remaining teams must scrap and claw

to survive another battle.

We're kidnapping your pumpkin carvers.

-Oh, no. -What?

I don't have time for that.

[Cesar] $3,000 on the line. We're taking that check home.

-[Anthony] Yes, sir. -We got to move.

We got lots to do.

[Rebecca] If we can't get this done on time,

we're probably going home.

[Jonathan B.] All for a chance to continue towards the Halloween Wars

Championship and $30,000. -[Christophe] Let's go!

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

On an all-new Halloween Wars.

[Jonathan B.] Welcome back.

Eight teams entered and only four remain.

To survive past this point, you've got to beat out the best

of the best.

[Sabrina] We're down to the last four teams.

We really have to push ourselves to like compete with

the level of talent that is here.

Your challenge?

Create supernatural pets you might find in the spookiest

of pet shops. -Ooh.

[Anthony] OK, sounds fun.

And for your tasting element, we want you to work with

the official flavor of Halloween.

-Pumpkin. -Oh.

[Rebecca] Yeah, of course!

We expect to be blown away.

-No pressure. -Yeah, sure.

Sure.

[Cesar] Even though the judges said that we're the most improved,

one good comment does not mean you're the best at

everything you do.

And because I like raising the stakes...

Oh, God.

Win today, and earn an extra $3,000.

Whoa!

Yeah! Money!

You can just deposit it in my account now.

You're not getting this money, Tator.

-Not this time. -Doubling up, baby.

-I got three grand earlier. Let's go. -Nope, nope,

no, that's mine, baby.

We won the first round that there was a $3,000 prize,

and we want that money.

We want that validation that we are the team to beat.

You've got just six hours. And, Tator, when does it start?

-Now? -[Kristen] Oh, my gosh.

Kids, you keep me young.

[Elizabeth] We are here by the skin of our teeth.

You know what we're gonna do differently, though, this week?

Vomit color onto our piece.

So much color, they're gonna be like, "Oh, oh, gosh,

it's so bright." -What screams color?

-Chameleons. -Oh, chameleons.

Yeah, they color change to everything.

Our oversized chameleon is gonna be going crazy inside

the pet store, eating other animals and just

breaking things.

-I want it to be impressive. -Absolutely.

I want there to be so much color in the judges' faces.

Go big and just destroy everybody.

I'm going to get started on this ghoul head.

-OK. -It's going to take me a while.

OK, sounds good.

Our plan is to make a post-apocalyptic pet shop.

The focus will be a pet shop owner who's going to be rocking

back and forth in an all-chocolate rocking chair,

surrounded by a few surviving pets who are living off of

radioactive material.

Huh?

For my testing element today, I am doing...

You know what I'm gonna do?

What?

I'm gonna try to cook the pumpkin in the microwave.

Because it's fast. Five minutes, it's cooked.

-Oh, really? -It's a competition, bro.

[Christophe speaking]

Five minutes. Let's go.

It's hot.

Yeah, it's good.

-[Tator] Hey, y'all ready for this? -[Reva] Ready, yes.

-[Tator] Let's get 'em. -[Kristen] Yes, ready.

Since it's kind of like a haunted evil pet shop theme,

I have an idea that we can have an evil parrot perched

and hanging and ready to snap at the innocent animals

below it.

So the game plan for today, I'm going to work on the parrot

and the entire parrot stand.

-Hey, Tator, I'm feeling... -[Tator] Yeah.

...pretty nervous about this, uh...

-Yeah? -[Kristen] The parrot, yeah.

I mean, it's gonna be big,

'cause we're going bigger

and bigger every time. -[Tator] Yeah.

You're one of the best cake artists here.

Like, I don't think any of these other cake artists

can touch you, OK? -Thank you.

[Tator] I have faith that you can handle this.

You're gonna make a beautiful feathered bird, and we're gonna

get that $3,000. -I got it.

[Tator] Believe in yourself.

I love doing outside-of-the-box,

larger-than-life things, but the judges now expect

really big pieces from us, and I see Fright Squad's going big,

so I need to push myself. I want to win this.

[Tator] So right now, I'm just getting the dog's body carved out,

and I'll attach legs and the head.

So I'm contributing a puppy. I'm contributing a kitty.

And then I'm going to be adding cages to the piece.

So right now, I'm working on making the body of this puppy.

I am going to work on the detail.

The paws is going to have just some little lines in there,

and now I can firm up.

Over the past seven years, I have tried to build

this toolbox.

I have learned different textural elements, adding in

corn silk in different areas to create different things that

can add to our piece.

None of these other carvers even mess with dry corn silk

till I started to.

I've done this technique before.

I know they like the way it looks.

I just have to make sure that the shading is right so that

they fall in love with it, right?

-It's gotta sell. -[Kristen] So cute.

-[Tator] Yeah? -Yeah.

[Tator] And move on to this cat.

[Elizabeth] I feel like at this point we have to pull out all

the stops because otherwise if we don't finish first,

people are going to see us as not really much of a threat.

And then why are we here?

Because we do great pieces, but we just keep getting pushed

to the bottom. So we have to go big.

For my part in our piece, I'm going to be focusing on

sculpting the ginormous chameleon.

Because the judges have been on our butts about color,

our team's plan is obviously color and lots of it.

And also, our chameleon is going to be larger-than-life

to impress the judges.

But, you know, with going big, there's problems,

because you want to make sure that you still bring

the quality, and it takes longer to do things that are

this big. So it's risky.

[Jonathan E.] Elizabeth, you got this.

If anyone ever believed in you, it's me and Rebecca.

Because this chameleon is so big, it takes a long time to

get the cake on there alone and sculpt it,

and then the chocolate ganache coating and then after that,

it's covering it in fondant, so that way, they can actually

airbrush a lot quicker. -Elizabeth.

[Elizabeth] Yes?

That's a whole lot of brown.

I thought we were going for color.

Would you shut up?

I am not done yet.

I'm not gonna lie, I have a little bit of PTSD from

the previous challenges and the comments.

-I was just making sure. -It's too soon, OK?

I can, like, almost hear this little high voice pitch roar

coming from it. It'll screech, eeh!

-What do you think? -It's freaking impressive.

-Elizabeth. -[Elizabeth] Yeah?

We're making fun of your brown chameleon.

So you know.

I'm building a cat right now out of rice-cereal treat.

A scary, ugly, cute, ugly, cute cat.

This cat is going to be on top of the decapitated head

and just kind of looking at you like...

[hisses]

[Cesar] All right. All right.

Pretty nice. Pretty nice.

For our piece today, we're calling it Nine Lives, No Refunds.

Three demonic kittens are up for adoption.

They're playing on a cat tower, eating the head of the owner.

For this tasting element, I'm doing hairballs,

pumpkin fudge, rolling it in sugar shards.

[Anthony] I'm just going to get right to work on having some

squashes assembled. I'm going to round them out.

I'm going to add some texture afterwards, so that way

it'll look like a scratching post.

For this piece, the first thing I'm working is

the cat tree that our three demonic cats

will be hanging off of.

It'll be made with a wooden base, and I'm going to use

butternut squash to give it a realistic texture.

I think details like those in my work are what the judges are

looking for.

So I'm gonna drill in.

I'm gonna use this fancy drill.

I tried to take a note from Rebecca and use the lathe.

I'm sorry.

So I need to first drill into a squash and put a dowel inside

of the squash and then use the lathe to round it out to

get the nice texture that a cat tree with scratching posts has.

We were the most improved team last time.

I want to keep that energy going into the next round.

I'm going to use the... What's it called again?

-[Cesar] The lathe? -The lathe.

-Olé, olé, olé, olé, olé. -[Anthony] Never used it before.

I'm going to try now.

This is my first time using the lathe,

but the remaining competition is almost absurd

and unbeatably good.

OK, now I just gotta figure out how to use this thing is all.

And I want to be at their level, and dare I say,

I even want to beat them.

And the extra $3,000, oh boy,

that would really put some fire in our step.

Does this go back any further?

[Rebecca] Anthony is trying to use a lathe for the very first time.

I don't know if I'm impressed or like I'm nervous for him.

[Rebecca] I -- I'm nervous.

It can be a dangerous machine if not used properly.

I definitely admire that Anthony is trying to push

himself and try something new and attempt the lathe.

There we go, OK.

I really do appreciate that it was potentially me that

inspired him to try it, but I'm a little nervous

because I've been turning for about 30 years.

So that's what got me to where I am.

Honestly, if I wasn't in a competition,

I would race over and help him.

We're going to see what happens.

Oh, no.

[Anthony] Oops.

Oops.

Using the lathe is absolutely a technique I would love to use

to impress the judges and give the cat tree texture that'll

really stand out.

But I think inexperience caught up to me because I wasn't quite

figuring it out.

And maybe learning it on the day of competition is

not my best bet. -[Sabrina] What's the matter?

And they have bitten off a little bit more than I could

chew for this one. -No problem.

-Do what you got to do. -You sure?

-We OK with that? -Of course, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, if you got to shave, shave.

-Do what you got to do, brother. -OK.

-I have an idea. -[Anthony] Hm?

It might be faster to just cover it in fondant, so maybe

you just take over modeling one of the cats.

I take over one of the cats?

OK. [Sabrina] Yeah, you take over one of the cats, and then

I'll take over covering the tree. -Yeah!

I'm the type of person where I'm like, "OK, I'll do it.

Like, I'll handle it."

Fondant is a quick and easy way to do it, rather than him

carving a bunch of pieces by hand.

Sounds good. Yeah, I would love to sculpt some modeling chocolate.

Yeah.

For the tasting element today, they got the official flavor of

Halloween, which is pumpkin. -Pumkin!

So what do you guys as judges looking for in a pumpkin

tasting element? -[Shinmin] Yeah, pumpkin is very subtle.

-It's always so enhanced by the flavors of pumpkin spice. -Yeah.

-But that's sort of what everyone expects, right? -Yeah, we're definitely

gonna get that today. -You expect the clove, you expect the cinnamon,

you expect the nutmeg.

But I would love for pumpkin to step up front center.

Yeah.

Well, there's 3,000 on the line at the end of this

challenge today.

So we'll see how this shapes up or carves out.

So right now, I'm just kind of toasting up the pepitas

to open up the flavor a little bit. -[Tator] OK, nice.

[Reva] I'm kind of making almost like a fancy rice cereal

treat, but not.

It's going to be with caramel and make it like a little ball.

So today's challenge flavor is pumpkin, and I really want to

incorporate our bird aspect into the tasting, and I'm going

to go with pumpkin seeds as the main feature and then also

adding in a pumpkin caramel on the inside.

So it's gonna kind of look like a bird seed treat.

OK, so I'm using the pumpkin puree in the caramel

to add that extra flavor,

so it's not just the pumpkin seeds. -They won't miss it, yeah.

Yeah, it has to be very pumpkin dominant.

When using pumpkin as a flavor,

to me, it doesn't have a lot of flavor.

So I'm gonna be incorporating all the traditional spices,

and I'm also gonna be adding in a little bit of mace.

It has a little bit of a stronger profile than nutmeg.

Just want to punch through with the flavors.

My flavors and my tasting elements have been so spot on,

but I would say the biggest threat right now

is Team Ghoul'd.

They have a lot of tricks up their sleeves that I know that

they haven't used yet, so I feel like I cannot make

a misstep here.

I hope they like this.

-[Kristen] I think they -- -I feel like I'm thinking

outside the box on it a little bit.

Not only do we want the win, but we want the extra $3,000.

We've already won it before, and of course, we want

to win it again. -Oh, it looks amazing.

That looks so good, Reva.

I think the judges are going to love it.

[Reva] If I was a bird, I'd want to eat this.

Four hours!

I'm going to start kneading some fondant, and I'm gonna

cover the inside of his mouth, and then I'm going to start

covering because he's a big boy.

These judges are tough.

They're hard to please, so the strategy is we're going

to go a little bit bigger.

Because our character is so ginormous, I'm not really going

to have I have a lot of time to do much of anything else.

[Jonathan E.] OK, I'm casting my aquarium pieces.

Gotta make sure it's nice and clear.

On this challenge, I'm doing all sorts of sugar work.

I'm creating two aquariums with pulled seaweed,

with blown sugar fish.

I'm making all the elements of the eyes on

the actual chameleon. So it's a lot of sugar work.

But we need to really, really push ourselves to go

bigger and better.

OK, so I'm trying to blow a fish out of sugar.

And while it's still soft,

we can blow some air into it.

We don't want these fish too big because we want them

to look lifelike.

Make them little fishies.

Then you have the body of a fish.

We've had to fight the entire time to really be here.

We were in the bottom last week.

It messes with you mentally, but we are super motivated

to really wow the judges.

We are going to show them why we deserve to be here.

A little fishy. Goldfish.

Bloodsuckers, we've seen them improve -- improve each week.

-[Shinmin] Yes. -So I can't I can't wait to see

what they're going to show us today.

And also, I understand the pressure they're under

right now because they know they have to deliver.

-I feel like Bloodsuckers has surprised themselves even. -Yeah.

And they're on a high right now with how they're feeling about

the last challenge and all the compliments that we gave

them with the last challenge. So, yeah, you're right.

There's a lot of pressure behind that.

And as we've seen with previous seasons of Halloween Wars,

it's not about peaking early.

It's about riding that momentum and just getting better

and better with each challenge, and that's big, too. -And growing, yeah.

-Yes. -Absolutely.

[Cesar] So I'm making the water bowl for the cats.

-When I press this down... -[Anthony] Yes.

[Cesar] OK, you want to take a sit spatula.

And I tell you two, you're just going to give it a press.

-[Anthony] Press. -[Cesar] OK?

In this piece, there's three demonic cats playing on a cat

tower, and I'm going to make a little water bowl.

So I melted some isomalt, a little glucose syrup,

a little water. All right, here we go.

So the technique is where you took negative air pressure

and basically pulled up to create a bubble into your

sugar, instead of blowing it. It's a very cool technique.

The right pressure will get you the right bubble.

Too much pressure, you'll pop the bubble.

When I was growing up, I was actually destined to

be a priest.

As divine intervention, I took a baking and pastry program.

I loved it, and I worked my way up to where I am today.

Come on, come on.

Ah, you mother's goat.

Give me a diff -- I need a bowl.

When I was pushing down, I didn't have enough pressure,

so I kind of mushed together a little bit on the edges.

So, I'm going to do it again. I'm going to try it again.

I'm going to

make this work.

I want to try to impress the judges.

I'm not necessarily known for my sugar.

I'm more known for my tasting elements.

But it's the details that matter.

I have to bring my A game for my sugar work, because if I

don't bring my A game, we're going to go home.

Nice surface tension. Nice bowl.

Come on, baby.

Come on.

Don't do it to me.

Be nice.

I'm getting nervous about doing this bowl because,

you know, you know, I spent a lot of time on it,

but we need to win this money.

We just need that validation to make -- say to us, "Hey,

we know we belong here."

Beautiful, beautiful. Come on.

-Mama? -[Sabrina] Yes?

[Cesar] You're going to be proud of your baby boy here.

[Sabrina] Looking good, Cesar. Thank you.

[Jonathan B.] Teams, brace yourself for another surprise.

-What? -[Rebecca] What?

We're kidnapping your pumpkin carvers.

-Oh, no. -I need legs.

[Jonathan B.] This is a carve off.

Each of you have just 30 minutes to create one evil toy

for your supernatural pets. -30 minutes, huh?

I have never participated in a quick carve challenge ever,

so it's stretching my comfort for sure.

Whoever wins this carve off

earns their team an extra assistant

for the rest of the round.

[all] Oh!

That is a huge advantage for today's $3,000 prize.

For our piece, we are going big, and we've got so many

things to do.

It would help so much to have an extra assistant.

Your 30 minutes starts...

now, get up here, let's go.

-[indistinct cheering overlaps] -Go, go, go, go!

-[indistinct cheering continues] -We got this!

-[indistinct cheering overlaps] -Come on!

Carving something in 30 minutes to completion is kind

of a challenge, but I'm going to work my butt off.

I'm going to try to get that win.

You guys ever carved in 30 minutes a pumpkin?

-Oh, hell yeah. -No.

30 minutes is just too long, though.

Normally, when I do a speed carving, it's 15.

So I'm carving a toy snake.

When you have 30 minutes, you have to create something

that is recognizable, has a lot of motion.

I'm pretty excited because none of these guys carve fast.

These guys sit back on their stool, and they sit

there, and they carve, and they carve, and they carve.

If I can get into their head, I'm going to.

He's all talk, all gas. That's all he is.

Come on, Anthony. Show these old carvers

what you got. -[Andrew] Look at the articulation

happening in Tator's snake.

-[Jonathan B.] Oh, so much articulation. -Broke another section there.

Tator's getting a little too confident, though.

I'm making a little stuffed fish.

I see most people are just using sort of the meat.

I want to try something a little different

and incorporate some of the skin to create that color

and texture variety.

I'm incredibly nervous because I've never actually done

a quick carve.

And what makes it worse is that I've looked up to Mike Brown's

work for at least 10 years, and Rebecca and Tator,

they're inspirations to me.

It's an overwhelming amount of pressure.

If there's any time to bring it, it's going to be right now.

[Cesar] Anthony, you got this, baby.

Don't let them old folks take you out, man.

[Shinmin] There's a lot of pressure here.

-They want that extra assistant. -Yeah.

[Shinmin] Because someone is walking out with $3,000 today.

[Jonathan B.] And someone's going home. Look closely at Mike's hands.

Mike's hands are actually shaking.

[Mike] I'm making a eyeball.

It's pretty difficult to do eyes because there's a lot of

depth in them.

And so I wanted to show that technique.

Such a cool, realistic eyeball.

-[Christophe] It is. -[Andrew] With, like, the eyeball [indistinct] --

[Jonathan B.] With the viscera from the eyeball.

Five minutes, guys.

You have five minutes left to carve.

We've got such a large chameleon that I think it needs

a big buddy to go along with it.

So it's going to be a little beetle plushie.

Because it's got everything. It's got roughing a pumpkin.

It's got fine detail. It's got smooth shading.

It's got texture. It's got all of it.

I hope that I can display my carving skills to the judges.

[Jonathan E.] Come on, baby. Details, details.

Everybody, countdown with me.

[all] 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,

3, 2, 1!

Time's up!

That's my boy, right there, that's my boy!

While I feel like my carving is really good, I honestly

don't know who's gonna win.

But an extra assistant would come in so handy.

[Shinmin] Mike's is really gross. It gives me, like, the ick.

[Jonathan B.] It's like a hairy eyeball.

Love the texture and the stitching in Rebecca's.

[Shinmin] Also the largest.

She used the shape of the pumpkin very, very well.

[Jonathan B.] Yeah. Tator's carved a full snake.

Snake has a face as well, right?

-And a whole environment that it's, like, slithering through. -[Jonathan B.] Yeah.

Anthony's fish is really cute. It's got so much texture.

-[Andrew] And it's a cat toy, right? -[Jonathan B.] Yeah.

[Shinmin] I also love that he kept the skin of the pumpkin on some

of the pieces. -[Andrew] And the eye.

-How is that made? -[Shinmin] It's like a button eye.

The moment of truth.

The winner of the first ever

carve off on Halloween Wars is...

Judges?

[Shinmin] Bloodsuckers.

[Cesar] Anthony!

Oh, my God.

We may not have won this big challenge yet, but just saying

that I have a win over these amazing carvers,

it is incredibly gratifying. -Good job, brother.

Anthony, bro. That was a clean piece.

A little flat fishy, but a clean fish.

-Great job, buddy. -So happy for you.

That's my brother. That's my brother, yes.

That's what we need.

-OK, let's get to work. -OK.

I still need to finish the cat and then also cover

the structure of the cat house. So, uh, fondant.

-[all] Yay! -Welcome to team Bloodsuckers!

So I can have the extra assistant help me cover the cat

tree structure while Anthony focuses on carving the head

and Cesar works on making whiskers and the litter box out

of sugar. -[Cesar] Let's go.

Anthony, we're halfway there. How are we feeling, brother?

[Anthony] Uh, doing OK.

I'm just trying to rush this head out.

The meat of my pumpkin done.

I can help Sabrina, and I can make extra stuff.

If you need help with that, please let me know.

-Oh, she's helping me. -[Anthony] OK.

Sorry, can't hear you.

I'm busy talking to my extra assistant.

-That's my boy. -[Tator] That was beautiful.

[Cesar] That's my boy right there, gentlemen.

[Tator] Get him, get him.

Three hours left.

[Reva] You gonna be too far from it. Here, I'll move it to you.

It's so heavy. Can you help me?

-You got it? -[Reva] Just a sec.

OK.

OK.

I get the bird hung up on the board, and now I have a lot

of feathers to make.

-Oh, smokes! -That bird's really, really big.

So...

OK.

We wanted that bird to have a big presence, but I think

Kristen got a little lost looking over at other people

making, you know, maybe a bigger animal,

so she wanted to have a bigger animal presence.

We just have to adapt the design a little bit.

OK.

[Reva] We need to have at least one crate.

-[Tator] OK. -'Cause that's that -- right?

We have to figure it out, because it can't just be cake.

[Tator] And I've still got to add a puppy, I've got to add

a kitty, and I've got to add this toy snake I just got

done carving.

There's a lot of components, not a lot of space.

Sorry, guys, I didn't... I just wanted

it to be larger than life.

[Tator] It's a pet shop, and we've got one pet right now.

-You know what I mean? -Yeah.

-So we've got to nail the other pieces. -Yeah.

And get them on there somewhere.

Yeah, I don't know about those cages.

I don't know about them either.

-Are we cutting this for real? -We can't use it.

The last thing we want is the judges saying that

our board looks cluttered. Maybe not crates.

Are you OK with that?

So the hard part about doing that is the cage kind of sells

the pet shop idea.

Put the puppy on the ground, I guess, and the cat will go

on the ground as well.

We're in a timed competition, and if you have

to change anything. It adds so much extra stress.

And we have this money on the line.

And I just see it just, like,

flying away from us ever so slowly.

That bird better look beautiful.

-That's all I'm saying. -[Reva] And scary.

-[Tator] And scary at the same time. -You've got two hours.

Ah, two hours, guys. We got to move.

We got lots to do.

As usual, I have planned way too much for myself.

I still have to do all of the fine details for the pet

shop owner. -[Christophe speaking]

[Liz] I know.

Make it a rabid rabbit, and then finish

the chocolate dog.

I am starting to really feel the pressure.

How fast can we make a rabbit?

It's a big blob, right?

I feel like his name is Ned. Ned the rabid rabbit.

I noticed that Elizabeth's piece is very big.

Like, really big.

Seeing her piece definitely makes me nervous, so I have

to make sure that I deliver on what I promise.

Rabbit's going in. He's so cute.

Elizabeth has spent all her hours on that

one chameleon.

If that chameleon doesn't come together, they're not gonna

have a showcase.

I am going to selectively place the lights.

I'm going to do my best to kind of conceal them because

it'll be nice and lumpy there anyway.

Almost done already with the lights.

It's coming to life.

Finally, I'm ready for fondant.

This chameleon is such a big undertaking.

I know we're really, really pushing ourselves,

but I'm almost questioning if we made the right decision

to go this big. -It's a little risky.

But I think we can do it.

We are running out of time, and he's just white now.

45 minutes on the clock.

[Elizabeth] Now I can start airbrushing.

Mm-hmm.

We still have to add every single bit of color

on the chameleon body.

And if we can't get this done on time,

we're probably going home.

[Jonathan E.] Let's freaking go.

Keep going, get the sugar pieces on.

We've got 45 minutes left, and we still have

an albino chameleon.

This is the thing that has been kicking us in the butt is

the fact that the judges want so much color

and we haven't been giving that.

I'm using a scrap piece of paper to use as,

like, a stencil almost to get, like, the most random

patterns because...

the pattern needs to look intentional.

I can airbrush pretty quickly, but I've never ever airbrushed

something of that magnitude in that little time

and with that many colors.

It's a little bit scary because, like, we keep getting

put in the bottom.

And so, you know, we really want this one to go well.

[Jonathan E.] Good job, Rebecca. Good job, Elizabeth.

Good job, Jonathan.

[Elizabeth] Good job, everyone.

Team Ghoul'd, the overly ambition might have

gotten the better of them. -[Andrew] Look at Liz.

-Yeah. -Liz looks frenzied and panicked.

Well, they are still sculpting, and at this time

in the competition, they should be finessing,

they should be shading, but they are still

building their characters.

You know what would be so nice right now?

-[Christophe speaking] -A second freaking assistant.

-[Mike] Sorry, guys. -[Christophe speaking]

[Mike] Sorry.

Now, The Howlers, that bird is getting bigger and heavier

and thicker, and you can see... -Yeah.

...that perch getting

lower and lower. That makes me nervous.

[Reva] They're just waiting for Kristen to be done

with this giant macaw.

Now it's just a matter of getting them all the items

on there. -[Kristen] Yeah.

And I mean, it makes sense.

This bird got a little bit more oversized than expected,

which caused like an avalanche of a lot of problems.

Where do you want him?

I think he comes back here in the snake.

[Kristen] You want the snake up front?

I feel like he's going to get lost.

-[Tator] I figured we could -- -Don't move the snake.

-[Tator] Yeah. -I just had it there.

The cages that I wanted to do, they can't go on the board.

So we're just going to have a bunch of pets?

It just doesn't make sense there, does it? I'm just asking.

[Tator] You can put it wherever you guys want.

-[Kristen] No, no, look from back here. -Just put guts in between it.

Could the dog have been eating the snake?

-Like, too? -[Tator] Yeah, that's fine.

If that's what you all want to do.

We're just not very happy right now

with the entire situation.

And it's like, one of the things I like to do is

tell a whole story with a piece.

I really think we can put the chameleon with the little

bit of broken glass mouth. -I mean, if it doesn't need it.

I think we should face outward.

[Tator] I don't want to have to tell you what you're looking at.

-Put the chameleon up front. -None of it makes sense.

No, it's gonna go right there, but it doesn't --

like, the whole piece doesn't make sense.

This is insane. This is a rough challenge.

[Reva] Ugh.

30 minutes.

I don't like how this cat house is moving.

[Jonathan B.] I don't either.

Aside from its wonkiness, it's too smooth.

Like it should be carpet-y looking.

It also looks so fair.

-[Cesar] Still got to do this side, that side, this side. -[Anthony] Yep, yep.

[Cesar] I'll just make one long rope if I have to.

-Do it. -[Anthony] Do it.

Heard, give me the color.

30 minutes left, and it's incredibly stressful.

We want to cover up the cat tree with carpet texture

and the twine that they scratch at.

Sabrina doesn't quite have one of her cats finished,

and we are all just scrambling. -[Cesar] $3,000 on the line.

We're taking that check home. I'm telling you right now.

[Anthony] Yes, sir.

I'm concerned using fondant instead of squash for the cat

treat isn't looking as good, but we just need to get

a finished piece on the board.

[Sabrina] This cat's pretty much ready to go on whenever you guys

are ready. -[Anthony] Give me a sec, OK?

-Ten minutes left! -[Shinmin] Ten minutes, ten minutes.

[Andrew] Come on, guys, ten minutes, let's go.

Towards me, turn it the other way around.

That's it. Hold.

-[Jonathan E.] Final touches, final detail, final detail. -[Elizabeth] Yeah.

-That's an eye. -[gasps]

[Tator] The eyes fell off the gecko.

[Jonathan E.] Oh, my God! It's OK, it's OK, it's OK.

We got to do this. Fast, fast, fast.

[Elizabeth] Oh, OK, the eye came off.

Just pull the chocolate off

and then put fresh on and stick it back on.

[Jonathan E.] I know, I'm gonna do it right now.

Somehow it just didn't break. I don't know.

Well, that's good. At least it didn't break.

[Jonathan E.] I don't know how. It just separated.

No, no, I think we're good.

-Oh, it's stuck on now. -Good.

-[Rebecca] Good. -[Jonathan E.] It's stuck, stuck, stuck.

[Cesar] What else, guys, what else?

[Sabrina] Just don't make it look too messy.

-[Cesar] I hope not to -- -[Sabrina] No, OK.

-No, no more, heard. -It's already a lot.

Yes, ma'am.

-[Tator] More blood, more guts. -[Kristen] More blood, more guts?

-[Tator] More gore. -[Reva] Let's go.

Let's go. That looks great.

[Liz] Brush the back of his hand a little bit, please.

-[Christophe] The back of his hand? -[Liz] Looks kind of flat.

[judges] 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,

3, 2, 1.

Time's up.

-[Elizabeth] We did it. -[Andrew] Breathe.

-[Rebecca] Oh, my gosh. -[Andrew] Take a breath.

I'm sorry. Love you.

Ow, that hurt.

I really thought that this piece was going to help my team

win, and I'm really nervous that we could be going home.

-Good job, guys. -[Anthony] Beautiful piece.

-Beautiful. -Amazing work.

Howlers. Tell us about your showpiece.

[Kristen] In this pet shop, Polly doesn't want a cracker.

Polly wants your soul.

-Wow. -Ooh.

[Andrew] The two animals, I still can't get over the fact that those

are pumpkin.

However, they kind of read as stuffed animals to me.

There's a little open space in the front, which I don't need

a cluttered board, but I feel

like it could be a little more intentional.

Like, maybe the animals could come forward a little bit more

so we can see everything a little better.

I love the size of the bird. I love that it's so menacing.

However, this isn't really reading as a pet shop to me.

You put so much effort into the bird,

but it's missing the details that would make it feel

like a pet shop.

Feeling pretty disheartened.

I'm definitely feeling like

we can kiss that $3,000 goodbye.

Tell us about your tasting element.

[Reva] Well, what we have here is a classic birdseed treat.

It has the brown butter pumpkin crispy treat on the outside,

and inside Is a salted honey pumpkin caramel.

[Shinmin] Mm, I love that they look like bird feed.

I think it's only the texture that was a little hard for me

to get through, but once you get in here,

the flavors are so lovely, and it just tastes healthy.

Like, I feel like this is an energy bowl.

I don't need to work out today.

I disagree with Shinmin.

I liked biting into it, and I liked feeling like

a little birdie having his bird treat.

Also, I don't think I've ever had a pumpkin caramel.

That is a new way to experience pumpkin for me, so I think

it was a slam dunk.

-Thank you. -Thank you.

Hey, Bloodsuckers.

Tell us about your haunted pet showpiece.

[Anthony] Our freaky felines Luna, Venus, and Henna are up

for adoption.

Now, they do scratch and

they don't like strangers, but they are potty trained.

I'll take it.

I love that you took that fish from your carve off battle

and brought it here and you painted it, you elevated it.

Looks like a toy that they would be clawing out.

So it's super cute.

And Cesar, I know that you spent many attempts making

that sugar bowl, but you made it so thin and I admire that.

It's absolutely beautiful.

The cat tree stresses me out a little bit because I feel

like it's going to tumble and it feels a little like

a fun house cat tree.

I'm feeling disappointed because our piece today,

it didn't go quite as I imagined.

I just feel like we kind of

like let them and let ourselves down.

So tell us about your pumpkin tasting element.

[Cesar] So today, you're gonna have hairballs.

So I made a pumpkin fudge with a little pumpkin spice,

and I added a little cayenne pepper in there as well.

I folded in some pepitas, rice cereal trees,

a little feuilletine, and roasted peanuts.

And on top, sugar shards.

Mm-hmm.

My cats don't have any fur, so I don't get any hairballs.

So I'm really excited to actually get to eat a hairball

for my first hairball experience.

Thank you.

I don't think I've ever had pumpkin fudge before,

but I'm feeling it.

Cesar, I feel like you're famous for putting so many

different flavors into your tasting, and often we can't

taste all of them.

And this time, I taste everything.

I taste the pumpkin.

I taste even the maple that you added to it.

This is so yummy.

-I ate two. -Oh, you did?

Yeah. They're that good.

-Thank you. -[Jonathan B.] Thank you, Bloodsuckers.

Fright Squad, let's talk about your haunted pet showpiece.

[Elizabeth] Our little chameleon, the owner forgot to feed him,

so he broke out and decided to help himself.

And unfortunately, anything that's small enough to fit in

that mouth is on the menu.

Poor bird.

Poor fish.

[Elizabeth] We've got color

oozing everywhere.

I'm hoping that this will please the judges.

Well, I said, "I wanted color."

And you definitely gave us color.

And what I love about the fact that you gave us color is,

you didn't just do color for color's sake.

You chose like the most colorful possible animal, so.

Thank you.

You actually were listening when we said that.

Even our chameleon kind of makes Andrew look a little bit

fair and pale in comparison.

I also love that the spots are color-changing.

Smart move.

The one thing is, the character that's actually

closest to us is that bird, and it's not the same attention

to detail as the rest of your showpiece.

We can even see, like, fingerprints that are on

the tummy of the bird, so just think about that.

Tell us about your pumpkin tasting element?

[Jonathan E.] So it's a pumpkin cake with a burnt maple cheesecake,

a bourbon pumpkin pie, and then maple candied pecans.

Jonathan, I love that pairing your pumpkin with maple.

It's just such a good flavor booster.

This is such a powerhouse of a dessert.

Every flavor that you described has come out.

You really do get the pumpkin here, which I really

appreciate, and that's what I was hoping for today.

I could eat three of them, so great job.

-Thank you so much. -Elizabeth's is spectacular.

Definitely makes me nervous.

Team Ghoul'd, tell us about your haunted pet showpiece?

[Liz] Welcome to Pappy's post-apocalyptic pets.

Everything from rabid rabbits to radioactive fireflies.

You can get everything you need and it won't even cost

you an arm and a leg, because he doesn't need one.

This came together just beautifully.

It is so atmospheric.

One look at this and I know exactly where we are.

I can almost like smell the swamp, you know?

I love that little fish with the three eyeballs.

Where's the pumpkin tasting element?

-It's... -Oh, God.

[Andrew] Gourmet dog food?

[Christophe speaking]

The honor is all mine, Christophe.

[Christophe speaking]

I'm not getting as much of the pumpkin as I would like.

I like that you used a croissant instead of,

like, a brioche, because it gave it a nice layered texture.

I agree with Andrew, though.

I don't really taste the pumpkin as much.

But if you didn't say pumpkin, I wouldn't even know that

it's in here. It's very subtle.

Thank you, Team Ghoul'd.

Teams, you showed us all today why you deserve to be in

the final four of Halloween Wars.

Delivering perfect little pet shops of horror.

Team Ghoul'd and Fright Squad,

you created deadly and demonic

pets that stood head and tails above the rest.

The winner of this challenge and $3,000 is...

-Team Fright Squad. Congratulations. -Oh, my God.

-Good job, buddy. -I can't believe it.

We finally won. And we're winning the $3,000.

-That's incredible! -Thank you, guys.

Oh!

[Elizabeth] Liz has come ahead of us so many times.

But, I mean, we did bring everything.

I'm glad that we finally did a piece that

the judges appreciated.

So that's the good news.

Now it's time for the bad news.

And with the level of competition here,

the judges' decision was difficult to make.

This is the first time in the bottom for the Howlers.

It's very stressful.

The smallest of details can determine your fate.

The team going home today is...

No one.

That's another twist you weren't expecting.

I honestly feel like I won the lottery.

If we had gone home, I would have felt like everything

was my fault.

And I really am so happy that we have the chance to

redeem ourselves. -We got you!

Howlers and Bloodsuckers, one of you escaped elimination

this time.

So make it count, because next time,

someone will be going home.

-We'll see you all again soon. -Thank you.

Get some rest, but go have fun.

-You're all safe. -[all cheer]

When you do get a win, it gives you a full sense

of confidence.

And I need to make sure that we still carry out some

fantastic pieces. And I'm still going to fight.

And I'm going to give it everything I have.

And so is my team.

[Jonathan B.] Next time on "Halloween Wars."

Welcome to the Halloween Wars semifinals.

Emotionally, it's survival of the fittest at this point.

Getting a spot in the finale

is all that matters at this point.

[Rebecca] This is a really big risk, guys.

If you need a hand, just ask me.

I can't take a break.

[Liz] Nothing matters but this challenge right now.

[Reva] Dang it.

It all broke. It snapped in half.

So that's where we're at right now.

-[Liz] They're going to know. -We're going to push through.

Stay focused. Do what we do best.

-[Tator] Ready? -[Reva] Yeah.

-[Tator] Got this. -[Reva] Yeah, we got this.

[Tator] Finish strong, y'all.

[Jonathan B.] One of you will be going to the finale right now.

This was your best work of the season.

Ta-ka-ta!