[Jonathan] Nine teams are vying for a coveted spot
in the Halloween Wars main competition.
Two teams have already advanced.
- And tonight... -[all laughing]
...another batch of cake, pumpkin, and sugar artists
face off in our second qualifying round.
Don't touch it. No, no, no.
-It was fine. -[groans]
[Jonathan] But only two will move on to the main event
and earn the chance to win the title of
Halloween Wars champions
and the grand prize of $25,000.
Halloween Wars starts... right now!
Pumpkin Posse, Snax Sabbath,
and Deadly Intentions,
[in demonic voice] welcome to Halloween Wars.
[all laughing]
Oh, my God.
Look at him. [laughs]
Wow, I guess I was just possessed
by a demon, which makes sense, because
we're celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the iconic movie,
-The Exorcist. - [contestants clapping]
In all its head-spinning glory.
Tonight is another qualifying round,
but only two teams will advance.
And if that doesn't make you want to crawl on the ceiling,
I know what will.
Our Small Scare.
The devil works in mysterious ways,
and only if it can keep its identity a mystery,
just like how the devil hid in plain sight
when it possessed Regan
in The Exorcist.
So, in this Small Scare challenge,
inspired by that creepy classic,
each team must imagine a demon
with a fresh, new disguise
that can help it hide in plain sight.
This one is gonna be hell
because you only have 45 minutes to get it done.
The winning team will get the advantage
of picking their pumpkin first in the next round.
And your time starts...
now!
Let's go. You guys have ideas?
Possession, when you change the look of the devil.
-How do we make... -A devil in plain sight?
Yeah. I mean, a dog is always in plain sight.
My team is Snax Sabbath.
I'm Luke Schroder, and I carve pumpkins.
My sugar artist is Fred "Froggie" Isla.
Our cake artist is Jean Schapowal.
What about, uh, like a cell phone filter
or something like that?
Oh, that's really cool.
-Oh, yeah. You mean with all the filters? -Up-to-date, you know? Yeah.
So the devil taking a selfie?
-Yeah. All right, that sounds cool. -A devil girl?
-All right, yeah. -Can we do the selfie in the bathtub?
-Oh, that's pretty cool. -Risque.
For our display,
we want to tell the story about this demon girl
hiding her true image
with a heavily filtered selfie.
I mean, who hasn't been scrolling through your feed
and seen somebody like,
"Come on with that filter"?
Demon hiding in plain sight.
What about like a sweet, innocent little girl?
-Oh... -You wouldn't expect that.
That's cute, but I think that...
-Too obvious? -Too obvious.
-Okay, too much on the nose? -On the nose.
[Oba] We are the Pumpkin Posse.
I'm the pumpkin carver, Oba Rhodes.
Emerlie Miller is our sugar artist.
And Tisha Frank, is our cake artist.
What about a pop star?
-Yeah, I like it. I like it. -Yeah, hiding in plain sight.
-[Emerlie] Modern. -I like it.
-It should be like, expression like she's singing. -Yeah.
[Oba] And not block her face.
We have Lady Diamond, the pop singer,
who is actually a siren
singing to an audience
where she's demonically possessing them
with her hypnotic song.
What about doing like a plague doctor?
Like, with the steampunk mask? The plague doctor.
-Oh, with like the beak. -Yeah.
Our team name is Deadly Intentions.
I'm Janette Dulaney and I'm a cake sculptor.
My pumpkin sculptor is Roger Pope.
My sugar artist is Sylvain Marrari.
[Janette] Black for the mask, and then the coat.
-Reflection here? -Yeah. Oh, okay.
Yeah, like a puddle.
The story of our piece is
a doctor of good versus evil.
So, the demon is pushing out
the steampunk mask look,
but, looking in the reflection of this puddle,
the demon actually sees this good doctor.
So, he's hiding in plain sight.
So, I'm gonna start getting pumpkins.
[Sylvain speaking]
Okay, okay, cool.
[chuckles]
[Oba] I grew up to The Exorcist,
and the thing that spooks me out the most,
I would have to say, is demonic possession.
That's just... There's something about it.
It just freaks me out.
Time for a mess.
[Jean] Let me see how it's going, Luke.
-Pretty good. I think I've got it... -[Jean] Oh, awesome,
I can already see like a hand in there.
-That's so cool. -[Luke] Now I'm gonna tear it out of here.
[Luke] For our demon girl, I'm gonna sculpt her body and bust
out of pumpkin,
and then give her, her hands emerging from those suds.
Yeah, I'm talking about one of these. You know like [bleep].
For the devil taking a bath, we're gonna make some bubbles,
[Luke] Froggie, he's gonna make bubbles out of sugar,
and make this look like a
nice, cozy bubble bath, you know?
He's also gotta make a sugar cell phone
for me to put that selfie on.
Gonna make her an interesting color here.
Kinda like marbleize the colors.
[Luke] Jean's gotta make a scary demon girl head
out of modeling chocolate.
[Jean] I like working with the modeling chocolate 'cause
you can get her kinda covered pretty quick.
It'll all come together.
[Oba] I'm gonna make a microphone.
See, when I do my pumpkins,
I do 'em in pieces and sections.
So, even with the pumpkin being round,
I break it down in shapes.
All right, onto the head, baby.
-This is the head, I'm just gonna cover it in ganache... -Ooh.
...so it can have a good layer for the fondant and modeling chocolate.
We're gonna drop that neck onto here.
This is gonna support the weight of the neck
and the cake head.
[Emerlie] I want some pink sunglasses.
Gonna mix this into my isomalt.
Pouring this on a vinyl piece.
That way, no air bubbles get trapped between
the isomalt and the bottom.
Can't have this too thick.
[machine whirring]
How did you do on the pumpkin?
Did you find a good one for the top hat?
I think this is gonna work good.
[Janette] I'm gonna start the, uh, head.
Just gonna blend the chocolate with the rice cereal treat
to make it a little stronger.
[Roger] Pumpkin be flyin'.
Tryin' to get that shape, for the brim of the hat.
I just don't wanna make this, like, too big.
We're gonna make it work.
Okay.
[Sylvain speaking]
[Janette] Sylvain's gonna be doing the goggles,
and the puddle out of isomalt.
[Roger] Sylvain,
how do you say pumpkin in French?
[speaking other language]
It's what?
[Sylvain speaking]
Yeah, I'm gonna say pumpkin.
[Sylvain] Yeah. You should.
What a fun concept to work with,
- The Exorcist. -Oh, my gosh.
[Shinmin] Do you guys know that's the very first
horror movie I've ever seen?
-Oh, wow. -Yeah.
-That freaked me out for years. -[Aarti] Yeah.
[Jonathan] So, what do you want to translate
from the movie to the creations?
I want to be surprised
if there's a demon underneath there, right?
Like, that's the whole point of this.
Is that there's a believability that you
would be lured in by this creature
because you would never suspect anything lies beneath.
[Shinmin] I think, the demon in the reflection, that's sort of expected.
What I do like, though, is coming up with a modern twist.
Teams, you have 20 minutes.
[Sylvain] Twenty minutes. Okay, guys.
[Luke] Yeah, it's crunch time.
Twenty minutes left. How we lookin'?
He's gonna attach one thing here.
I'm gonna put the head on.
-You got me that phone? -[Jean] Oh, the phone.
Oh.
Yeah, I have to pour it out.
[Jean] I'm gonna put the head on now.
-[Luke] Go for it. -[Jean] Okay.
All right. How's that?
-Cool. -I'll start working on the hair.
-[Luke] That gives me a better idea of the body. -[Jean] All right. Cool.
-[Luke] Is that my phone, Froggie? -[Froggie] Yes.
-Here you go, Luke. -[Luke] Thank you.
-[Aarti] Really love this story behind... -[Shinmin] It is so clever.
...this little design.
-Demon using a filter in order to disguise itself. - [Shinmin laughing]
True evil,
you can see here.
-It's funny, it's true, it fits the challenge well. -It's relatable.
I don't know what you're talking about.
-I would never... -Oh.
I would never do that. [camera shutter clicking]
Looking good.
Teams, you have 15 minutes left.
[Oba] He say 15 minutes?
[Tisha] He sure did.
-Are we good? -I think so.
[Sylvain speaking]
-Uh, what reflection? Oh, the good doctor? -Yeah.
Oh, oh, oh, my gosh, I got to do that.
They still have to do the reflection.
[Roger] One doctor comin' up.
[Aarti] That's a huge part of their story.
It's a hand-drawn, hand-painted reflection. Ugh.
-[Janette] So, do you wanna put the goggles on? -[Sylvain] Yeah.
And I'll do some stitching. Okay.
[Sylvain] Oh, nice.
He's good. Put rosy cheeks on him.
And... voila!
Let's look at Pumpkin Posse.
[Oba] That's looking great.
This is an unusual design.
I think I like this idea of a siren
that is actually a demon.
-One stand-out to me are those sunglasses. -[Shinmin] Yes.
-Yes. -That Emerlie is doing right now. They look real.
Come on, come on.
[Shinmin] I like that Oba is creating the microphone stand
out of the pumpkin.
[Emerlie] Am I good to put the glasses on?
Um... let me, let me get some more blush on.
But we have, like, no time.
Can you work, uh... This is gonna be
sitting high.
-[cracks] -[gasps]
This is good. It'll be sitting high.
Okay.
-[cracks] -[gasps]
[Emerlie] Oh, no.
[gasps]
Did it break?
[Oba] What happened?
[Emerlie] I was trying to stick the glasses on and they broke.
[Tisha] Are you okay to make it again?
[Emerlie] I don't know. [sighs]
We've got an eleventh-hour possible disaster here
for Pumpkin Posse. Those sunglasses, which I think
-really kind of made this design... - [Shinmin] I know.
...have just broken.
[Emerlie] I'm tryin' to fix it.
I'll have to torch it back together,
and let it cool as fast as possible.
This is bad.
[exhales heavily]
You have five minutes left!
Let's go.
-[Froggie] Can I pour the blue? -[Jean] Yeah.
[Froggie] The blue sugar, that'll be like her bath water,
and then bubbles all over her.
[Jean] Yeah, I'm just gonna need more over here on glue.
[Froggie] Less bubbles there.
[Luke] Giving her some green.
[Roger] Are you ready for the top hat?
-[Janette] Yeah, we can put the top hat on. -Okay. Okay.
Go ahead.
The armature looks really shaky.
-This is such a quick challenge... -[Shinmin] Yeah.
...you can't afford structural problems.
-[Shinmin] I really like the aesthetic of it. -[Aarti] Mmm-hmm.
I hope that they can get this to secure in.
-All right. Careful, careful. -Yeah.
-Got it? -Yeah.
-Is it sitting? -Oh, oh, oh.
Is it sitting?
Yeah, wait, careful.
-No, it stays balanced. -Yeah, all good.
-Okay. -Yeah, it lines up.
You have one minute,
teams! One minute!
-Final touches. -Final touches.
[Luke] Tick-tock, guys.
Anything we can tighten up?
[Oba] No time at all.
Okay. This has to go on. Nothing can happen.
Okay. I'll be super careful.
She does not look like a demon.
So, what can we do?
-Lips... -Blood coming out here?
Careful, careful.
[Sylvain speaking]
-[Janette] Should we move the whole puddle up? -[Roger] Yeah.
-[Sylvain] We need a bit more? -[Roger] Yeah, yeah.
-Of, like that... It's his reflection. -[Janette] Yeah.
Gimme this.
[Tisha] Okay, last touches.
-You go that side, I go this side? -Sure, buddy.
[Luke] Man, this is a scramble.
I'm trying to push detail
and dimension where it needs it,
pump it up, and we're getting the bubbles,
stuck all over the place.
Our girl's having a bubble bath and a selfie, come on.
-[Jonathan] Ten, nine... -Oh, my gosh.
-[Jonathan] ...eight, seven... -Let's clean up the edges.
-[Jonathan] ...six... -Oh, my gosh.
-...five, four... -[groans]
-Almost, almost, almost. -...three, two...
-I'm not touching it. -...one!
[Jonathan] Hands off your display.
-Oh, my gosh. -[all exclaiming]
[all cheering]
-High five. -High five.
Oh, my gosh, guys, we did it. We did it.
-Yeah, the glasses got fixed. -I love the glasses. Yes.
That was a close one.
-[thunder rumbling] -Snax Sabbath, tell us about your demon in disguise.
[thunder crashes]
[Luke] A heavily-filtered selfie.
-What could be more deviously deceptive? -[laughing]
[Luke] Our demoness is in a bubble bath,
and enjoying a selfie there.
What better way to mask her true beauty?
[Jonathan] Aarti, thoughts.
Great idea. Love it.
I love your demon's face.
The jewelry and the extra horns on the side of her nose,
-that's the alluring aspect of evil. -Mmm-hmm.
So, good job there.
Um... I think the bottom of your
design here is just a lot,
and it's coming across a little messy.
In those last final minutes, just to step back and go,
"You know what, let's broom all that, leave the bubbles,
-and we're good." -Okay.
-[Jonathan] Shinmin. -[Shinmin] Let's talk about
what I do really appreciate here.
The hair gives a lot of energy and life and draping,
so I love that.
The sculpting of the hands, also really beautiful in pumpkin.
There's a little bit of off-balance here, though.
The head is either too small for the hands
or the hands are too big for the head.
Also, I've never seen a transparent phone.
I think you could've done that in a black
and it would look more phone-like.
Snax Sabbath, thank you very much.
-[all] Thank you. -Thank you, guys.
[thunder rumbling]
[Roger] Janette kinda came up with this idea,
this plague doctor,
and then we thought like,
what if the good side was like a modern doctor?
And so, we wanted him
like, reflecting out of this, like, puddle.
It's so clear what this character is.
I just love the overall aesthetic, as well.
It's just really pleasing to look at.
-Now, the mask and the body, it's exactly the same color. -Mmm-hmm.
So, it kinda looks like the mask is just
melting into the body.
If you just added a collar, it would just break that up.
-[Jonathan] Aarti. -You picked such an iconic figure
that there's a whole story that we already know
before you've even said anything,
so, that was really smart.
The hat, while I love the shape,
I think is too big for him,
and it's sitting sort of awkwardly on his head.
It's neither floating above it, in sort of
-an Exorcist moment... -Mmm-hmm.
-...nor is it sitting comfortably on his head. -Comfortably. Right.
-So, I think that's an armature issue. -Yeah, yeah.
We envisioned a pop star,
who has a lot of influence.
So, we thought, a perfect way to show
a demon hiding in disguise would be
through her siren song.
[Jonathan] Shinmin, what do you think?
There are so many great things about the small details
of your piece here.
Starting with the sugar work, the hardware,
I think the biggest problem here is really the finish
of your modeling chocolate.
-Um, it was too dry. -[Tisha] Yeah.
[Shinmin] You have to heat that up.
-[Jonathan] Aarti. -[Aarti] Oba, your name means the king.
-You are the king of hands, man. -[all laughing]
[Aarti] So good.
Um, even when we were standing over there,
we could see how much detail was in that hand.
I wish that some of the color
had then also moved down into the pumpkin.
So, it felt like one cohesive work,
because it does look unfinished at this point.
Pumpkin Posse, thank you very much.
-Thank you. -Very welcome.
Teams, you all delivered, scary stories
and devilish designs,
but the team who impressed us the most is...
The team who impressed us the most is...
Deadly Intentions.
[all cheering]
[all applauding]
[Jonathan] You were able to deliver an amazing cake
and a whole mood with your plague doctor.
You'll earn first pick of the pumpkins in round two.
Is everybody ready to face,
[in demonic voice] The Spine Chiller challenge?
[all cheering and applauding]
[Jonathan] A major theme in The Exorcist
was the ultimate fight between good and evil.
So, using the power of cake, pumpkin, and sugar,
you'll need to imagine the same.
It's good
[in demonic voice] versus evil.
And in honor of the feisty nature of evil,
each team will have to incorporate
an extra spicy ingredient
into their tasting element.
You can choose
cayenne,
jalapeno,
or ghost pepper.
You have got just five hours.
And your time starts...
now.
-Guys, awesome job. -Oh, my gosh, you guys.
All right.
Get the ball rolling.
Ultimate battle of good versus evil, like...
We can make something like a dragon being...
-[Roger] Is it the bad guy? -The good guy.
-Like, let's do the good guy. -[Roger] Oh, yeah.
-And then let's do like... -[Roger] Do the dragon
-as a good guy. -Yeah.
Some fire-burning evil.
Make the dragon like an ice dragon.
-[Janette] Oh, that's awesome. -Yeah, yeah.
[Janette] For our Spine Chiller, we are making,
Fire and Ice, which is a battle between
a dragon and a sorceress.
[Roger] Oh, my gosh. So, like, you're eating fire?
[Sylvain speaking]
[Roger laughing]
[Janette] For our tasting element, we are making
a chocolate mousse cake with raspberry coulis,
infused with ghost pepper,
surrounded by isomalt flames.
There are good and evil throughout the ages,
so, what timeframe should we pick?
Let's do a medieval theme.
-We'll go medieval. -Okay.
[Luke] For the Spine Chiller, we're gonna make
a demon prince possessing a girl
and a knight trying to stop her.
It's called, "She's mine."
[Froggie] I'm going with jalapeno.
How do you want to put that in the piece?
I'm actually gonna make a bonbon.
[Luke] Froggie's plan is to make this tasting element
a cool little bonbon that will ultimately be
the claws of my demon prince,
so when they need to take a bite of this tasting element,
they got to pluck the fingers right off this demon.
If it's a battle, the ultimate battle
-between good and evil... -Yeah.
...why don't we think about mythology?
And what's the ultimate battle in Greek mythology?
-[Emerlie and Oba] Zeus... -Okay.
...and Typhon.
[Oba] Typhon is busting out from beneath Mount Olympus.
Zeus is on top of that cloud,
the lightning is coming off Zeus's arm,
shooting Typhon in the chest.
Tasting element is extremely important.
If we don't have that, we don't have a piece.
So, that's gonna be my priority.
I think cayenne pepper would be a really good one
to incorporate, but I can make like a nice delicious bonbon,
and mix that with dark chocolate, maybe a blood orange.
[Oba] For our tasting element, we're gonna incorporate that
into our design by making it the
molten lava that busted out the ground,
when Typhon busted through the floor of Olympus.
[in sing-song voice] I gotta go pick my pumpkin.
-Yeah. -[all laughing]
Hey, Roger, sure you know what you're doing over there?
-I hope he don't, I hope he don't get-- -We need it.
Oh, I got it.
[laughs]
-Gotta make it work. -Gotta make it work.
Gotta make it work.
This is a big baby. [laughs]
I'm gonna start cutting out, like, the chest
and the back of the sorceress.
[tool whirring]
Oh, my gosh, that's a big pumpkin.
[Janette] Roger is going to create our sorceress
out of pumpkin and butternut squash.
Roger is awesome. He's a graphic designer,
so he has this artistry about him.
It's really cool seeing how many details Roger can get
out of a pumpkin.
[Roger] So, you get one half done, then you got to match the other half.
Starting to get there.
[Janette] I'm gonna be making the dragon body out of cake.
The dragon neck and head are out of rice cereal treats.
I'm on top of the world.
Sylvain, he's going to do the fire,
the ice crystals, and dragon wings,
as well as the tasting element.
The ghost pepper are gonna shock a bit.
It's gonna be challenging.
This is a very strong spice.
[Janette] Sylvain is amazing.
He is actually a Michelin chef.
He can do all these amazing things with isomalt and sugar.
We are going to make individual chocolate mousse cakes
with raspberry coulis, infused with ghost pepper.
I am nervous, as ghost pepper
is pretty dang spicy. [chuckles]
[Roger] Do not send the judges to the hospital.
You know what they say, huh?
-What does not kill you makes you stronger. -[all laughing]
[Luke] I have to make some stackable body parts
for my demon prince.
He's gonna be made out of pumpkin.
There'll be the neck here, up here,
and then, once I put the marbling chocolate on there,
it'll fill out the cheeks and the chin and everything.
[Luke] Jean's gonna make our possessed little girl
out of cake and rice treats.
Also, it's mostly up to Jean to create our hero knight.
He's made out of cake, fondant,
and I'll throw in some pumpkin boots for him.
Froggie's got a lot on his plate with this one.
Not only does he have to do the tasting element,
he's gotta give us a really cool stained glass window
and make the whole set piece look like it's a haunted abbey.
[Froggie] Gotta set the scene.
[Luke] Froggie is very accomplished.
He's very talented.
I love seeing him in action
because he knows what he's doing,
he looks like he's having fun...
It's infectious.
[Jean] Really good, Froggie.
I'm stacking rice cereal treat on his body
to kind of create his shoulders.
One character's gonna be mostly cake
with a little pumpkin, little sugar.
The other character's gonna be mostly pumpkin
with a little sugar, a little cake,
so we can create that balance.
This is gonna be Typhon's head
and body, actually.
To build the head out, I gotta use two pieces,
so it'll be a front and back. Stick a nose on it.
Like, create the face by building the face.
We know the design is a little ambitious
but, after doing the Small Scare,
I know we have to go big.
[Emerlie] I have isomalt cooking over here.
[Oba] Emerlie instantly jumps right on Zeus's thunderbolt.
I've just cooked some isomalt. I'm gonna add blue to it,
mix it together and make lightning out of this.
So when the isomalt hits the ice,
it instantly cools down
and it does this really cool interesting shape.
So The Exorcist is a major part of this challenge.
What are you guys looking for, exactly?
I'm looking for a story that feels like it could stand the test of time.
I wanna see the battle.
[Shinmin] And we've seen time and time again
positioning is everything.
The way they interact with each other.
They should be facing each other, they should look scared.
They should be reaching out for each other.
[Sylvain] Okay, you need some help now?
Um, if you wanna start rolling out white fondant
-that'd be great. -[Sylvain] Ah, yes. Yeah, okay.
So, the idea is to have a skin of the dragon.
[Janette] The scales on the dragon,
Sylvain started using the fondant on the texture for that.
[Sylvain straining] Oh, yeah. This is my, uh, workout.
We want to go more up and down
to make the long lines
-like... -[Sylvain] Yeah.
Try to... Sorry, that's good.
[Sylvain] Wait.
[Janette] Sweet. Thank you.
[Shinmin] With Deadly Intentions
what I'm really liking right now
they're learning from the first challenge.
-Yeah. -Um, they struggled with structure
It was really not sound.
-The giant pumpkin hat on the very top. -Yeah.
If you look at their dragon right now,
it is heavy, heavy cake base on the bottom
and then, as you go lighter...
-[Aarti] Yeah. -...it's just rice cereal as you move to the top.
-[Aarti] Right. -So that's going to be very sturdy.
Only four hours left!
-No. -Where'd the time go away?
[Froggie] Oh, that looks so good, Jean.
[Jean] Thank you. Wafer paper and gelatin
and cornstarch.
[Luke] Mean Jean, she is well-tempered
and confident in the myriad of skills that
I, as a pumpkin carver, don't know too much about
but it's really fun to watch and learn from.
[Jean] How is this pumpkin working out?
[Luke] I'm trying to cut a few details into this thing
before I pop the head out of here and mount it.
Pretty happy with it so far.
I'm not done yet with him, but...
All right. How's she look?
[Luke] Possessed.
All right, so she's done.
I'm gonna put the head on this demon prince of mine.
[Luke] As a team, we wanna listen to what the judges have criticized us for.
And that means keeping things in scale.
Keeping things cohesive and not too busy.
[Froggie] So, I'm thinking...
So I'm just waiting for chocolate to melt right now then...
-[dramatic music plays] -[bleep].
[Luke] I'm putting this demon prince together,
I'm getting this gorgeous scary head on him
and the neck snaps off.
[both exclaim]
[Froggie] He got decapitated.
I've gotta remedy that.
My brain's on fire.
-[Froggie] Luke... -Yes?
Let's put up the body first,
-then secure everything when you're up there. -Okay.
[Froggie] I'll hold it on top while you tie it.
-[Luke] Okay. -[Froggie] Okay.
[Luke] It just wants to spring back.
[Froggie] Tie it, Luke. You're good.
[Jean] You can see it a little.
Can we put another piece of pumpkin in there
to fill up that neck part?
I've got exposed skewers
so I've gotta scramble and hide those crimes.
Only three hours left!
[Janette] So much to do, so little time.
[Shinmin] Emerlie.
-Hi. Welcome. -Hey.
Tell me why you chose to do this
pouring sugar over ice technique
to convey, is it lightning?
-Lightning, yes. -Okay.
-Tell me why you're doing this. -[Emerlie] Lightning...
Lightning tends to shoot everywhere.
-Okay. -So I wanted it
to have all of these different lines going everywhere
and be a little bit more chaotic.
Look, I buy it
and I... I like that you're being a little bit interpretive with this,
but I think that we tend to think of lightning
as, like, this little zigzag shard...
-Yeah. -...right, it's like a lightning bolt.
-Yeah. -It's kind of like sharp action.
[Emerlie] Yeah, I understand what you mean by the bolt,
but I just was worried that it would be too cartoony looking.
-The storyline should always be easy to understand. -Okay.
-Thank you. -Thanks.
Hey, Luke, you're gonna be my taste tester.
-I'm starting with the jalapenos right now. -I'm already crying, buddy.
[Froggie] I chose jalapeno.
It's not as overpowering.
I could do so much more with it.
[Luke] For our tasting element,
Froggie's gonna make spicy bonbons.
Little chocolate bonbon with a vanilla mascarpone cream
and a hit of, uh, spicy jalapeno bacon jam.
Ah, bacon.
Ah, roasted jalapenos. The smell together is, like...
Oh!
Look at that. Oh, that jalapeno looks so good.
And we start our jam.
Little bit of sugar.
Old mama style.
You know what? Let's kick it up a notch.
Let's throw some bourbon in with that bacon.
-[Luke] All right, buddy. -[Froggie chuckles]
[Luke] Talked me into it.
[Froggie] Mmm.
Only two hours left!
[Sylvain] Two hours? So we need to push.
[Shinmin] My biggest concern right now,
the piece de resistance, if you will,
of this dragon will be these
giant sugar wings.
That looks like, maybe,
five to ten pounds of sugar right there per wing,
and he's gonna have to put that onto the dragon.
Let's get the dragon on.
[Sylvain] Okay.
One, two... three.
Oy. He's heavy.
-Easy, easy. -[Janette] I got it.
[both grunting]
I think one of the reasons that Deadly Intentions is so attached
to this idea of these sugar wings is because
the dragon is the ice...
-[Jonathan] Mmm. -...and the sorcerer is the fire,
and so they really want that cold
that comes off of icy wings.
I just hope they have a backup plan
because they might be really attached to the wings,
but the wings may not be really attached to the dragon.
Had to cut this big guy in half
because I need to make two wings out of it.
[Shinmin] You know, with Pumpkin Posse
we've seen in the Small Scare,
the most impressive sculpting was from Oba,
which is their pumpkin carver.
And we saw with the cake and the rice cereal head,
it was really not shaped and not finished that great.
What do you think of the sculpting so far?
-It looks incredible to me. -[Aarti] Incredible.
I mean, that arm...
Here's the thing, that arm is so great,
it gives me high hope for the rest of the body.
I am zesting the oranges into long strips
and then I'll actually make it into a soft gummy.
[Oba] For our tasting element, we're gonna make
dark chocolate truffle bonbon
with the cayenne and the blood orange.
[Emerlie] I'm going to have a dark chocolate,
and the cayenne will help to give it a nice kick.
I'm also gonna add some texture to it with diced almonds.
Right now I'm painting pumpkins.
You can't see some of the cool sculpting I've done,
so I'm just trying to beef up contrast and
some of the details I want.
Do I paint the face?
There's no going back.
Hi, buddy.
All right.
[Emerlie] I need to start adding this.
So, I guess, uh,
I'll just reach over.
Oba is still carving the pumpkin on the platform.
-He's shaking the platform... -[Aarti] Yeah.
...and they're going to put delicate sugar pieces there
to look like lightning.
[Aarti] Yeah, not sure about that.
[Emerlie] I am taking these interesting pieces of isomalt
and I am just gluing them to this metal piece
and I'm trying to do, like, a zigzag motion here,
so that it kind of replicates
more of what Shinmin Li expected.
This might make your head spin!
Only 30 minutes left! Oh, no.
[Janette] Oh, my God. Thirty minutes left.
[Sylvain] Hey, we're almost there, okay.
Let's do this, huh?
-[Janette] Put that on. -[Roger] Yeah.
-[Sylvain] Be careful, guys. -[Janette] All right, careful.
-Careful. -[Roger] Yep.
[Janette] I'd say turn it just a little bit.
-[Roger] Oh, that way? Okay. -Just so it looks like he was in battle with...
[Roger] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-I think we're good. -[Janette] Is that good?
-[Roger] Yeah, I think that's good. -[Janette] Okay.
[Oba] I'm trying to get him to face the camera
-or at least get a... -[Tisha] I don't think that's gonna happen.
-...side profile. -Don't crack it. It's not worth trying.
-Just put it where it's at... -How about right here?
...'cause we have to make the floor.
-[Oba] He lookin'. -It's time to move on.
[Jean] Can we put him down now?
Bring this bad boy over.
[Jean] I can do some more stuff while he's there.
[Luke] Let's get him down.
[Jean] Yeah, we're gonna have to do silver on him.
All three characters are on the board.
-Hurray, everybody do a dance. -I know.
-It's happening. It's happening.
Um, so that's great.
Uh, but I think they are definitely feeling the time.
Um, it's the last minute touches there on the knight
to finish him off.
And the stained glass window
that's, to them, at least, a huge part of it.
I don't see it yet.
[Luke] Fifteen minutes left.
There's still plenty that hasn't shown up
on our board yet.
Froggie's gotta get that stained glass figured out.
[Froggie] Now I'm working on the stained glass window
So earlier, I extruded gum paste so it would dry out
and now I'm gonna melt some sugar and slowly pour it in.
Sugar usually takes a while to cool down.
That's why I'm doing it straight on the marble
which, the marble's cool. As you can see,
sugar's already set,
so I don't have to worry about it
when I need to transport it,
but it is still fragile.
Just enough.
You have 10 minutes to get it done!
Oh, my gosh.
[Luke] Ten minutes.
Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue.
[Janette] All right, we got it, we got it, we got it.
Okay, guys, we gotta go. We gotta go.
[Sylvain] Okay, put the torch on.
I mean, everything in body is telling me that this is not gonna work.
So he added all these "dowels", if you will,
-made out of sugar... -[Aarti] Mmm-hmm.
...that went into the dragon.
But he did those dowels of sugar
so they would glue on to the wings
and then actually use the backboard
to support the weight.
That's, actually, probably
-the one and only way to do this at this point. -Yeah.
I did not think this was gonna work.
I'm still not super sure.
[Sylvain] Let's do this.
[Roger] Same thing, Sylvain, lay it across them.
-This one, and it's touching the-- -[Janette] It's leaning.
-Yeah, it... What? -[Janette] The cake is falling apart.
-Don't touch. Don't touch. -[Roger] No, no, no. It looks fine.
-Don't touch. -[Janette] I know, but it is literally coming off.
[Sylvain] I'll fix it.
Just stay over there and make sure it's not moving.
And what if we... we burn this, this melts down.
[gasps]
-[Janette] Oh, my gosh. -What? Wow. Wow.
-[Janette] Oh, my gosh. -Wow. Wow.
-Damn it. -[Sylvain] So you two stay over there.
[Janette] We can try to patch it.
-[Sylvain] No, let me do it, please. -[Janette] Okay.
Okay, guys, give me some space.
[Shinmin] When he tried to insert the wings
it actually kinda broke apart some of that cake,
so they're mad scrambling trying to fix this
and I'm not sure how he can add it at this point.
We cannot have a one-winged dragon.
We gotta this other wing up there.
Five minutes! You have five minutes left!
[Luke] I'm pouring sugar.
This is gonna be our broken mirror that the demon has
been summoned through.
Okay, I got the shield where it is not gonna move.
Okay, I'm gonna try and add the tasting element
on the base.
[Tisha] We just gotta get this board covered
with anything we can.
-[Emerlie] Okay. -[Oba] We got a tail, look. I love it.
I'm about to make this guy pop.
-It's not enough time. -Oh, my gosh, guys.
Just wanted to give it a little shading,
but I don't know if that's gonna happen in three minutes.
[Jean] We got a lot of stuff we gotta get on there.
Sprinkle the straw on it.
Spread it all over.
[Luke] Froggie, ready for me to put these tasting elements on?
[Froggie] Yes, please.
Put on the fingertips.
[Luke] We need to figure out a way
to get our tasting element to act as the fingertips
and we're not having any luck.
Freddie, it's you.
They dropping out every time.
[Luke] These two different materials do not wanna stick together.
-Okay, I gotta stick it on with buttercream. -[Jean] All right.
-[Froggie] This thing is on. -[Jean] Okay.
[Roger] Do you need another?
-I think it's good. -[Sylvain] Yeah.
-It's good. It's good. Okay. -I don't want to touch it.
[Luke] We gotta attach the stained glass window.
[Jean] All right, I broke the chocolate pieces.
They're by the sheeter. So, those are there.
Scramble city.
[Froggie] You want irises or--
No, 'cause she's possessed. We're leaving her eyes white.
[Froggie] Okay.
[Roger] Oh, there's the tasting element.
[Sylvain speaking]
[Jonathan] Ten, nine,
-eight, seven, six... -Not enough time.
[Sylvain speaking]
-...five, four... -[Jean] Come on, Froggie.
-Uh-oh, uh-oh. -...three...
-No, no, no. What happened? -...two, one.
-Hands off your displays. -[Luke roars]
-[Emerlie] You guys... -[Tisha] I can't believe we're done.
You finished your piece.
Be happy and proud.
[Luke] Wow.
-[Janette] All right. -[Roger] Oh, my gosh.
-[Janette] It's finished. -[Roger] We did it.
For this Spine Chiller,
we asked you to create a battle
between good and evil.
[Roger] In the ultimate battle of good and evil
we thought it would just be so cool to do a dragon
and make the dragon a good guy
and then be like dark sorcerer bad guy.
I don't think I've ever said this on Halloween Wars.
I think you went a little too big with your characters.
And because of that
you couldn't create wings
that are actually appropriately sized.
Now, the texture of this dragon
-it is so beautiful. -[Janette] Thank you.
And you also went in there and highlighted and lowlighted with shading
so that it just really stands out.
Even though these two characters are a little bit static,
you conveyed that tension and that clash with color.
So, I feel this real battle that's happening.
There's a real regalness to her.
She's royal and she knows it.
When it comes to the sorceress,
there really is, this sort of opposites
kind of thing going on.
It's not your quintessential sorceress...
-Right. -...but because you did such a great job,
there's so much texture, there's so much detail,
I agree, I think you feel the tension.
The battle's about to begin.
So, what are we eating today?
Is it hot?
Ah! Okay, let's try it, judges.
Ooh, my gosh.
[Sylvain speaking]
The moment of truth. Aarti.
It's delicious.
There's a beautiful texture play
between the biscuit, the raspberry
and that really airy mousse.
The only thing that's missing for me is that ghost pepper.
I'm grateful.
-[Sylvain] Yeah. -But when it comes to the challenge--
I didn't want to be too strong.
-Yes, and you're a gentleman and I appreciate it so much. -It's the French way.
But I do wish I could get some heat out of it.
It is missing.
The mousse is really aerated.
It's super silky, it's so soft.
But I do agree with Aarti.
I got ghosted by the ghost pepper.
-Oh! -Yeah.
Our piece is an epic battle
between Typhon, who's already defeated four gods,
and he's on his way up to Mount Olympus
to defeat Zeus and take over the cosmos.
I really love Zeus's arm.
And, in fact, the most iconic part of Zeus, to me, is his arm.
However,
especially if it's a fight between ultimate good and ultimate evil,
I'm not getting that great dramatic scene.
First of all, Zeus and his facial expression,
he looks like, "Pff, I got this."
Like, "This is not even a battle."
The outreaching of the arm
as he's going to strike down on this Typhon
and then the fact that he's reeling back
and he has his arms suspended, right,
so there is definitely
tension between the two characters.
Bravo to that.
But there is a really
big gaping negative space right in the middle of your board
so it makes it look incomplete.
I know that you were like, "I have a technique,
I have a method. I'm gonna go with this poured sugar over ice."
It wasn't unsuccessful.
I still think if you did the poured thunderbolt,
-it would look a lot more Zeus-like. -Okay.
So, tell us about your tasting element.
[Emerlie] The spicy element that we chose
was cayenne pepper.
So, I made a spicy blood orange bonbon,
that is a dark chocolate truffle
with blood orange, chopped-up almonds.
Obviously, there's cayenne pepper mixed in,
so there will be a kick in there.
And then I made a blood orange sour gummy worm topping.
[Jonathan] Shinmin, what do you think of the tasting element?
This was delicious.
I love that you didn't do too thick of a chocolate shell.
It's easy to bite into.
It adds a really nice crackle effect.
The orange pectin that you used
to cook down with the zest, right?
And it was super smart for you to roll that into the cayenne.
It created that kinda jelly-like finish.
-[Jonathan] Aarti. -I love that you put so much work
into your tasting element.
It's beautiful
-visually and on the palate. -Thank you.
Pumpkin Posse, great job. Thank you.
Snax Sabbath,
I noticed Froggie's not here.
He had to step away.
So, why don't you explain the display.
All right. The demon prince, Zargothrax,
has been accidentally summoned
by this poor peasant girl,
and now he's in control of her soul.
Will our brave and valiant knight
save her soul and end the curse?
Hey!
Look at this display.
[all laughing]
And he's got jokes. Okay.
This pumpkin work...
It really looks like draped fabric on the clothing.
You have this kind of gold chest plate
that actually looks metallic, like armor.
And then the ribbing and the details,
it's absolutely gorgeous.
Now, the sugar work, also impeccable.
The segmented stained glass...
We gave you the same note in your Small Scare
which is, just edit your environment.
All this kind of shredding that's down here
you could've just created a smooth marble finish
and it would've just been a lot more pleasant to look at.
Aarti, how do you think they did?
I have a very emotional reaction to your design.
Maybe it's 'cause I'm a mother of daughters,
but I'm like, "Get your hands off of her."
[all chuckling]
I think your characters are so well done.
And you've managed to make it feel like one artist rendered all three.
The only thing for me,
is it almost feels like the battle is over.
The knight is on the floor.
He doesn't seem like he's got some get-up-and-go left.
It looks like it's done.
So, what are we tasting today?
Our spicy ingredient was jalapeno.
[Jean] So, we've created a chocolate bonbon
filled with mascarpone cheese,
jalapeno, bourbon
and crispy bacon.
[Jonathan] Aarti?
Well, you know, I really love that it's almost like a play on a jalapeno popper.
-Mmm-hmm. -Right? Like, cream cheese,
jalapeno, bacon and then a shot of bourbon
to wash it down.
So, I really get, I think, where Froggie was going.
I do think that the jalapeno
is, for some reason, not delivering the heat.
[Shinmin] I like the addition of the mascarpone
but the overwhelming taste that I taste here
is this kind of lingering grassiness
of the jalapeno.
I think it's because he did a roasted jalapeno...
-Yes. Mmm-hmm. -...but then, he also incorporated a fresh jalapeno.
Snax Sabbath,
thank you.
[all] Thank you.
Teams, we witnessed some epic battles,
but one team
isn't going to win the war.
The team not moving forward tonight is...
-Pumpkin Posse... -[Oba groans]
...I'm sorry. You're done in this Halloween Wars.
Although your artistry came through,
the judges agreed there was a lack of cohesiveness
and your design appeared unfinished.
[mimics a countdown timer]
-[Emerlie] Bye, guys. -[Jean] Sorry, guys.
-[Oba] Bye, everybody. -Proud of y'all.
[Oba] The experience that I had with Halloween Wars,
priceless.
Someone has to lose.
So, just know you did your best.
The rest of you, we'll see you in the main competition.
[all cheering]
[Jonathan] Next time on Halloween Wars...
[woman] Go, go, go.
[Jonathan] Mashed-up monster mayhem.
Playing with the big boys now.
It's like you guys mind-melded.
[laughs]
Stabbing this cake.
[man] Wow, that's amazing.
I don't like this.
Don't touch it. Don't touch it.
[gasping]