Are you ready for the main event?
[Jonathan Bennett] With a $25,000 grand prize on the line...
[Kristina] Oh, this is a big boy.
[Bennett] ...there's never been more at stake
for our three remaining semi-finalists.
I'm going as fast as I can.
Not fast enough. Go faster.
[Bennett] Tonight, the Small Scare has returned.
-Ooh, I just got the heebie-jeebies. -[Shinmin Li] Wow.
[Bennett] And these three teams
face their toughest flavor challenge yet.
I think it needs more garlic.
Whoa. What's happening?
[Bennett] Which two will make it out alive...
[Teresa] That looks disgusting. I love it.
[Bennett] ...and into the finale?
Halloween Wars starts now.
[spooky instrumental music]
You are the final three teams left in this spooky setting of ours.
[all cheering]
To get into the finale, you'll face two separate challenges today.
So, in round one, we want you to imagine a new weapon
that can vanquish vampires and, then, show it in action
against the terrifying bloodsuckers.
The winner of this challenge
will get their first pick of the pumpkins for the next round.
With the finale on the line, you need every advantage you can get.
You only have 45 minutes to let your ideas take flight.
Your time starts now!
-Right, Small Scare. -Semi-finals, here we are.
We can't do anything garlic or stake, that's normal stuff.
-And we're back to the Small Scares. -Oh, my gosh.
-Okay, just shake it off. -Oh, my gosh.
-Okay. -Shake it off. 'Cause we got this. Go.
In our qualifying round, time really got the best of us,
and we don't want that happening again.
So, maybe, this time, let's simplify it to a face.
-[Kristina] Okay. -You're great at faces.
-[Teresa] You're great. -Maybe let's do
-a quick pumpkin face. -A pumpkin face? Okay.
[Kristina] If he's eating something, we could have, like, his face
imploding pop candies. Like, Drac Pop. [laughs]
[Teresa] Yeah. Drac Pop, it is.
[Kristina] We're gonna have modern vampire hunters
take advantage of Dracula's sweet tooth,
and they're gonna slip him a packet of garlic-flavored popping candy
that's gonna blow not just his socks, but his head off, as well.
Okay, what are we gonna do?
Oh, a robot vampire hunter.
So, if you were to attack a vampire by yourself, you could be bitten.
But if you send a robot in to do it...
-Yeah, that sounds good. -Okay.
[Dean] So we'll have an arm going up and, maybe, an axe head on it?
For our Small Scare, we are doing a robot that's hunting down
and destroying our little vampire there.
What about cleaning product?
-What kind of cleaning product? -Like a can?
-Can of what? -Yeah.
-I don't know. Like a can of vampire killer. -Okay, so let's do a can.
-What about Vampire Expire? -Oh!
Vampire Expire.
We wanna nail this Small Scare.
So we are going to be making Vampire Expire. It's a can of vampire-killing liquid
that you just, sort of, pour on them
and it takes care of the pests.
-Let's do it. Let's do it. -Let's do it.
I'm gonna go get the pumpkin.
Bup, bup, bup. [grunts]
It's gonna be the fastest face you've ever made?
-[Kristina] Yep. -Oh, my gosh.
Our piece today, the main head of the Dracula
is gonna be made out of pumpkin.
Because we're so short on time for this project,
it's really important the widow's peak, and the peaked eyebrows,
and the sunken eyes has to look like Dracula.
45 minutes is literally zero time to do anything.
[Kristina] Elan, she's making a big, gnarly tongue
with blisters and sores all over it,
showing that Dracula's started having that reaction.
Texturizing on this guy. It's going.
[Teresa] I am pouring a pool of red blood.
The vampire's head has just exploded, so he's got a little blood.
-Do you like that color? -Yeah.
-Okay. -[Elan] I think that's great.
[Teresa] So, guys, I'm gonna pour that sugar in these cups
and, then, twirl it about and turn it upside down.
-[Elan] Okay. -[Teresa] So I can get that crunch
that I'm looking for for the popping candy.
[Kristina] Teresa's gonna be making yellow
popping candy out of isomalt.
[Elan] Lustered?
[Teresa] Yeah, yellow lustered. You know me and my luster dust.
-[Elan] I know. That's your thing. -[Teresa] I have to have it.
How do guys feel about getting back to the Small Scare?
-I prefer the seven-hour challenge. -[laughing]
[Lisa] Me too.
Dean will be carving out the robot with the pumpkin.
[Dean] So I'm getting the body of the warrior bot done.
There's a slot here for the blade.
This is where the axe head's gonna come down from.
[Laurie] I'm putting silver color into the isomalt.
[Lisa] Laurie's gonna make sugar pieces of the axe and a saw blade.
[Laurie] I'm just unmolding now, so I can finish cooling it.
But I gotta do it, literally, tooth by tooth,
so they don't, hopefully, snap as I'm doing it.
I'm making the vampire that is laying on the floor after being cut up.
My main focus is to make sure it looks perfect.
The thing about making him in multiple pieces,
I want one leg to be squished, and one side is just, like, gone.
Small Scares are not my favorite,
I'm gonna be really, really honest with you.
The finals are so close, it's right there. I can feel it in my hands.
Last time I carved a face, it was in a seven-hour timeline.
Now I gotta do it in 45 minutes, so this is gonna be quicker.
[Nils] Dennis rolls right into carving the pumpkin's face.
That is his main goal.
Corinda rolls right into making the can,
and getting the capes and everything ready.
You guys, how funny would it be if we presented it like an infomercial?
-[Nils laughs] -[Dennis] Yeah.
-That would be awesome. -You know?
[Dennis] We can do that.
[Nils] We really wanna do something different,
and we think most people are gonna generally make weapons
or something of that sort.
So we're gonna go a little bit more fun.
We're gonna come at it from the angle of an infomercial a little bit.
Give him, like, that little widow's peak hairdo,
-that quick, little steep hairdo. -[Nils] Oh, yeah.
You need an example of that?
[Corinda] Dude, you do not have a widow's peak.
[both laugh]
[Nils] I roll right into boiling sugar.
So I think I'm gonna blow some little sugar bubbles,
so it looks like it's bubbling on its face.
The sugar work on this is just making sure
that we get the vertical feel of it,
and the can's gonna be, sort of, suspended.
Just making sure the sugar looks like it's boiling all over the vampire face.
Just making some little bubbly sugar, melty things.
When you pour acid on stuff, it bubbles, right?
Perfect.
You have 20 minutes!
[Dean] Twenty minutes. Let's get it done.
[Teresa] Pop candy is looking like pop candy.
This is the first time since the qualifying round
where there are actually two rounds of competition.
Double the fun for us and, also, twice as much work for them.
I think it's psychologically really difficult to do this
-two times over. -[Bennett] Yeah.
[Sequeira] There's a real adrenaline rush when you are competing,
and coming down from that rush is a real thing.
But they are in a semi-final, so it does have to get harder.
I am pulling the sugar and, then, I will shave the axe head.
So Sweet Lunatics.
Now, I know Laurie is going to do a lot of,
sort of, weaponry out of sugar.
It's gonna go on top of the pumpkin that Dean is working on.
So I'm a little bit worried about that.
[Dean] How's it going, Laurie? You got that blade done yet? Cool.
Trick or Sweet is doing a spray.
This is the kind of thing I've seen bakers do in other competitions
-as their final round piece. -Yeah, yeah.
[Sequeira] So the fact that these guys are taking this on in 45 minutes
says a lot to me about their confidence,
about their energy, and how much they want this.
[Corinda] Which way are we gonna display this?
Where's the front, this side or that side?
'Cause whatever side it is, I'll angle it like that.
-[Nils] Maybe it's just like that. -[Corinda] All right, cool.
[Nils] Dennis, how's the pumpkin face coming?
[sighs in exasperation] Good question.
We're halfway through, I've got the sugar on pause.
I'm making some of the splashes and the bubbles.
But I can't really start doing the main wrap on the piece until the pumpkin's on.
All right, the sugar's ready to go whenever you guys are.
-[Bennett] Ten minutes remain! -[Corinda groans]
Run! I can't wrap until Dennis is ready.
I'm excited to see your face.
It sure is flaking away.
It's too wet. It's starting to fall apart.
[dramatic music]
What happens if you blowtorch the pumpkin? Will it burn?
I'm gonna try and do it right now.
No, let's just do it.
Trying to get him to dry up a little bit.
So Dennis at Trick or Sweet over here,
he cut into the pumpkin and the flesh of the pumpkin was way too soft.
And that's the problem with pumpkins,
you really can't tell until you cut into it.
So he even tried torching it
-which, I would imagine, would make it even softer. -[Sequeira] Yeah.
It's not working.
[Bennett] Five minutes on the clock!
So what we gotta do is paint it in there now.
That pumpkin face has to hit the board.
[Dennis] Since this is flaking away,
I'm gonna try and paint the detail in it as much as I can.
They're just pivoting and painting it, just kinda hoping for the best
and, maybe, the paint will keep that water in.
[Dennis] Give it a greyish, ghouly look.
So we just gotta figure out exactly where this is.
-Here, can you... Watch out. -[Dennis] Yeah.
-Be careful. There you go. -Okay.
You have three minutes to get it done!
[Nils] Go! Let's wrap!
[Teresa] When you're done, I need to put my stuff on, yeah?
You can put your stuff on now, I'll work around you.
[Teresa] You know, don't drip, though, yeah?
[Elan] We need to put the tongue in.
-[Kristina] Oh, you got the tongue. Okay, I got you. -Working on it right now.
Okay, I'm almost ready for the tongue.
I'm a little worried about the weight of this, if the...
on top of the piece, if it's gonna hold it.
It's really nerve-wracking attaching that axe, 'cause we only have one.
I'm not touching it. I'm not gonna be the one to break your sugar.
[Laurie] Yeah.
Perfect.
All right, I'm gonna start wrapping that thing real fast. Here we go.
And it's hot. It's hot.
Hold that on there. Get the freeze spray and start spraying the top.
Start putting your stuff on, then I'm gonna hit it with the liquid sugar.
[Corinda] Yeah, I mean, it's gonna lay a little bit. That's okay.
I mean, it is what it is, at this point.
Ooh, it's bubbling. Do you hear it? It's, like, foaming up in here.
One minute! You have one minute left!
[Dean] Girls, we gotta get this done.
Okay, let's try that blade in here.
-Is it holding? -No.
[Dean] What can we do to make it hold?
[Laurie] We need to wedge something up under it.
[Teresa] Okay, where's the tongue? Isn't she just going in?
Can I go? Okay, don't move it too much.
That's the Drac Pop.
That should hold it.
-[Bennett] Ten. Nine. -[Dean] Get it done, girls.
-Hold it, hold it, hold it. -[Bennett] Eight. Seven.
Six. Five.
-Four. -[Laurie] I really hope it stays.
-[Bennett] Three. Two. -[Laurie] Get him to that last blade.
-One. Hands off your displays. -Oh, my gosh, you guys.
Good job, good job.
Trick or Sweet, tell us tell us about your vampire vanquishing.
[Corinda] I don't know about you, but after a long hard day,
how frustrating is it to come home, open your door,
-and find a pesky vampire in your way. -[all laughing]
Not anymore, with Vampire Expire.
Just a couple of drops and your vampire worries are gone.
[Li] Oh, my God!
And scene.
You completely nailed the modern weapon for me.
I think making it an infomercial, making it a spray,
I mean, I have so many under my sink for any number of issues.
I do love that you put the cape and the collar right underneath it
-to give this illusion of him just flattening. -Just melting.
Yeah. The sugar work is just so vibrant and just really stands out.
I love that you added the little splashing.
I know, Dennis, you were working with a pumpkin that was rather soft
and so, therefore, his face does look like it's completely melted.
If you just added, maybe, like, a sweet potato or a butternut squash nose,
and just put that on top, we would get a little bit more shape out of his face.
Trick or Sweet, great job.
[all] Thank you.
So modern vampires have had to find a new way to slay.
They're taking advantage of Dracula's sweet tooth and love for Halloween candy
by slipping him a packet of garlic-flavored Drac Pop,
which is gonna blow not only his socks, but the side of his head off.
-[laughs] -Wow.
Kristina, I can't believe you carved this face in 45 minutes.
-Yeah. -[Li] If you were given three hours,
this is what I would expect from you. So, amazing job there.
I think the exaggerated tongue is super successful, the oozing of the blood.
I completely understand your story.
And I even love that you created this,
like, miniature candy here that's in the shape of a garlic clove.
Without that, I would completely not understand the story.
But, with that, you sold it.
-Thank you. -Oh, thank you.
You three are doing such a great job of melding your mediums.
We cannot tell what's pumpkin, what's sugar, what's gum paste.
It's all, kind of, coming together.
Chiefly, that tongue.
I had to look really close, closer than I wanted to get to that vampire's tongue,
to figure out what it was made of.
While it does tell the story of this vampire, clearly in a state of disarray,
I think if you had propped up that packet, or turned it into a box,
then it would have been super clear from here, this is garlic popping candy.
-Spice Ghouls, thank you very much. -[all] Thank you.
Nowadays, robots have taken over in doing everybody's job
including hunting vampires.
So our vampire hunter bat sliced and diced this vampire.
-Oh. -Hmm.
I'm a little torn on your design.
On the one hand, it's so clean.
There is not one thing out of place.
But is it a little too simple for this stage of the competition?
We're in the semi-finals.
I wanna make sure that you guys continue to push yourselves.
[Li] Laurie, this is a lot of sugar work.
It's just perfectly level. There's no warping.
It's a 45-minute challenge and you definitely nailed the story of the challenge.
Great work.
-Thank you. -Thank you, guys.
Teams, you were asked to create a new kind of vampire weapon.
And the winning team is...
[dramatic music]
The team that vampires should fear most is...
[dramatic music]
-Spice Ghouls. -Yes!
Congratulations! You've earned first pick of the pumpkins.
Yay!
Finally, we have redeemed our Small Scare. Like, this is incredible.
You're all one step closer to getting into the finale.
-[bell rings] -[gasps]
Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready for the main event?
[all laughing]
In this Spine Chiller Challenge,
[grunts] we want you to imagine what happens
when a vampire faces off against another Halloween heavyweight.
And, everyone knows, vampires hate garlic.
So, for your tasting portion, we want you to incorporate garlic
into a dessert the judges will love.
I don't want it!
Spice Ghouls, since you won the Small Scare,
you're gonna get first pick of the pumpkin.
A spot in the finale is at stake.
[Kristina] Oh, gosh.
You've got just five hours to fight this one out.
-[bell rings] -[laughs]
Your time starts...
-now! -[bell rings]
All right, girls, there's only three teams left,
-and one's going home tonight. -Yeah.
-I don't want it to be us. -I do not want it to be us.
It is a vampire versus a creature.
What genuinely scares you guys the most?
-Spiders. Bugs. -Thank you. You just gave me the creepy crawlies.
[Teresa] Oh, I hate that.
-Like, a big monster bug? -Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -[Elan] Okay.
Our vampire's going on a mission to find a new shadowy lair.
But, of course, he stumbles upon
the mother nest of the Transylvanian cavern bugs
who are looking to make him their next meal.
Kristina, on this character that you have,
-could I embed the taste on there somewhere? -[Kristina] Yes.
So, what if I do the roasted garlic,
-pop it in the pastry cream, make a little donut. -Okay.
For our tasting element, we're gonna be doing a creme brulee bomboloni
with a roasted garlic pastry cream,
and a blood orange marmalade.
So vampires have been here on Earth for a long time.
-So, maybe, our monster's not from Earth. -I like that.
-Maybe we bring in an alien to battle the vampire.
We've decided to do a space alien attacking the vampire,
because the vampire took the alien's babies.
[Laurie] For the tasting, it's garlic, guys.
I'm Italian, I use a ton of garlic. But never in a dessert.
I was thinking of doing chocolate ganache with honey, fold in some garlic.
For our tasting element, we're making a vanilla poached pear, creme fraiche,
a garlic almond crumble, with black garlic dark chocolate ganache
that will look like a cracked alien egg.
I want you to make the monster out of pumpkin.
-How about a Bigfoot going at... -[Nils mimics buzzer]
-[Dennis] No? -Too obvious.
-What's something big? -How about the cyclops?
-I'll do a cyclops. -I like that. I like it.
So the story is that the vampiress has to go through
some places she hasn't been before.
She's coming across this river, the cyclops lives there.
And they start a full-fledged battle.
Okay, so garlic in the tasting element.
I'm thinking, maybe, like, pineapple upside-down sort of cake?
-Will you be able to pull it off with garlic? -I think so.
If we have the river, we could do some sugar leaves and put it in and if I--
-But not too bright. -[Nils] Not too bright.
So, for the tasting element, we're gonna make
a caramelized pineapple black garlic upside-down cake
brushed with a raspberry cardamom black garlic sauce.
Quick, Dennis. I know that, like, it takes time for the pumpkin stuff.
Is five hours enough?
-I'll make it happen. I'll make it happen. -You got it.
-I'm gonna grab the pumpkin, you wanna come with me? -[Elan] Okay.
Hurry up, Kristina, 'cause I need one too.
[Kristina] I get to go out there and pick any pumpkin I want.
This pumpkin is gonna be so important
because the shape and the angle of it will play a huge role
in the structure and the way that this Transylvanian cavern bug is built.
Oh, this is a big boy.
This big pumpkin has a great body shape for a bug.
I might have lots of spindlies and legs coming off of it to make it look extra scary.
I'm gonna do a couple of these, couple of big ones, couple of small ones.
[Kristina] Teresa is gonna be busting out sugar biome acid sacs.
[Teresa] I like to use soldering wire, 'cause I wanna get the folds at the bottom.
Look at that. That looks disgusting. I love it.
[Kristina] Elan's going to use her amazing buttercream skills
to make our cavern look like it's glowing.
The palette knife really helps to kinda meld these colors together.
We want it to be illuminated in bioluminescence,
so that it shows depth to where the brightest part of the cave would be,
where all of those acid sacs are held.
Elan, I think I'm gonna give this guy some mandibles or, you know,
pincer type things in the front of his face to make him look scary.
Damn! That's gonna be so sick. Literally.
Dennis is gonna be making the whole gigantic cyclops out of pumpkin.
Working on the cyclops' head first.
Get a good facial on him and put him on another pumpkin.
Kind of stick him right on there,
and the armature will go right up through it.
[Nils] Dennis has never made a full-fledged pumpkin figure.
[groans]
This terrifies me.
This thing's gonna be, like, three or four feet tall,
holding a weapon above its head.
So there is that little bit of doubt.
-It's exciting to see Dennis come to play today. -[Li] Yeah.
[Sequeira] I have been waiting for this.
Dennis, there's not a lot of carving here.
I'd love to see more of you, your work and your personality come through.
Okay.
So I'm really excited to see this.
Oh, that's cool.
[Dennis] Starting to come along.
[intense instrumental music]
My goal for this is this very cool, spooky, Victorian-style vampire.
I'm laying some strips of modeling chocolate
down on these rice cereal treats
so that, whenever I put the fondant over the top of it,
it gives the impression of movement in the dress, so it looks like ruffles.
I have never done garlic in a dessert, but, hey,
hadn't done soy sauce before, but we got that stuff together.
For the tasting element, I come up with the idea to make a gar-apple,
which is garlic and pineapple upside-down cake
brushed with a raspberry cardamom black garlic sauce.
Choosing the pineapple because it should have a little bit of acid.
You wanna always balance all your flavors.
Get this caramelizing up.
First thing, I gotta get the pineapples sauteing, put the brown sugar,
so I can brown it up a little bit so the bake time's less.
And, then, there's black garlic. It's not overpowered.
That really sharp edge has already been taken off of it
due to the aging process.
My biggest fear is that they bite it and it's hot.
It's hot with garlic.
All right, I'm going to the oven.
-[Corinda] Bye! -[Dennis] Bye.
My main element is the alien that is battling the vampire, and I need to get it right.
I found a pumpkin that's got a pretty good shape to that classic alien head,
where you'll see the big eyes and the small mouth.
This one is a pretty hard pumpkin,
so I know it's gonna hold its shape pretty well.
Oh, that looks awesome, Lisa.
-You like it? -[Laurie] Yeah.
I am pulling a lot of sugar for bats.
We're gonna have several bats in our cave,
and I've got the bodies and the wings.
-Bat. -[Lisa] Cool.
It's the semi-finals, so Dean's idea was go big or go home.
And it's like this gigantic spaceship that we have to cover.
It's heavy. [laughs]
-I'm just a little nervous. -You're nervous about what?
Is it gonna hold? Is it gonna fall?
Listen, you heard the judges during the Small Scare,
and they told us we were playing it safe.
That's basically what they said.
-We're not playing it safe today. -[Lisa] All right.
-I'm not going home playing it safe. -[Lisa] We're not going home.
You know, I really applaud these teams.
They all seem to be really going for it.
They desperately wanna stay here for the finale.
I would keep them all if I could, but I can't, so...
-[Bennett] So we're gonna send one home. -Yup.
So I wanted to start my tasting element right now
because the dough needs to proof,
and if I start it too late, I will have no donut.
For our tasting element, we're gonna be doing a creme brulee bomboloni
with a roasted garlic pastry cream,
and a blood orange marmalade.
Garlic will be a very overpowering flavor,
so I'm gonna try to roast it low and slow.
[whispering] Okay.
That's final.
That should probably be enough.
-Teresa's taking another big risk today. -[Li] Oh, my gosh.
She tends to take very ambitious desserts
and shrink them down to competition size and time.
-Will it pay off? We're just gonna have to see. -[Bennett] We don't know.
The dough for the bomboloni is regular donut dough,
but when you fill it and then dip it, that's what's different.
So I'm just gonna put the orange in the compote and lemon in the dough.
The dough needs to proof, otherwise it just kinda sits there.
It's really dense and nobody likes a dense donut.
[Kristina] To fill her bomboloni,
Teresa's gonna be making a pastry cream,
and she's gonna be squeezing the garlic into the cream
to incorporate it into her tasting element.
[Teresa] Make sure that that starch is cooked.
Then I'm gonna put some butter and garlic.
Oh.
-Do you guys smell the garlic in this kitchen right now? -[Bennett] Yes, I do.
It smells like a vampire's worst nightmare.
I'm gonna do my gelatin for my cream.
At the same time, I'm gonna poach my pears.
For our tasting element, we'll be making a vanilla poached pear
with a creme fraiche, garlic almond crumble,
with a black garlic dark chocolate ganache.
The flavor challenge is garlic,
and I'm really excited 'cause I love doing savory with sweet.
To me, creme fraiche is between a sour cream and a cream cheese.
It's, like, lighter, but not too heavy.
So I'm gonna peel these pears.
[Dean] Sounds awful complicated. You sure you need to go that far?
Yes. It's gonna be so delicious.
Teams, you have three hours left!
There's just such a huge difference
between a seven-hour challenge and a five-hour challenge.
Wanna do her face first.
And, then, I'm gonna dress her on the board.
I didn't want her to be delicate.
I wanted her to be sinewy and maybe a little muscly,
'cause I feel like that's a lot more stark to look at.
-Everything working out like you wanted? -[Dennis] Yes.
Cyclops is gonna need a little finessing.
I'm trying to get him standing up.
-Look how cute it is. -[Nils laughs] All right, I gotta take a look.
-Love it. Keep it rolling, Dennis. -Yup.
-I gotta keep going. -[Nils] Keep it rolling.
Let's make this a little creative.
I think just putting a pineapple upside-down cake on there
isn't really gonna hit it.
We need to make this a little bit more sophisticated.
So I'm also gonna do a raspberry cardamom sauce.
Cardamom smells so good.
I'm gonna get this cardamom into the raspberry.
Hopefully, we can extract some of the lemony lightness, herbiness out of it,
'cause that's important here.
I'm gonna hit that with a little bit of black garlic.
That's got enough cardamom action in it.
I'm gonna strain all those seeds out 'cause, if we keep the seeds in there,
it'll be really powerful.
Mmm-hmm.
You pull this out, this wire. Hopefully.
Looks good. Okay.
[Kristina] Looking good, Elan.
[Elan] I got inspired by a very old vampire. His name is Nosferatu.
He looks more like a bat. Doesn't have hair, has really fangy teeth.
And I just thought that this direction
might be a little bit different than what the other teams might be going for.
[Kristina] You really can do this. You can.
It's beautiful and they're gonna love it.
We just gotta keep trying to move fast.
This is an avocado mold.
It's going to be alien egg shells.
[Dean] The alien's head is the harder part. That's why I did it first.
Now I'm working on the body so that I can get the whole scene together.
Lisa, what do you think of the shape?
Oh, it looks great. [chuckles]
His arm's in here now.
If he doesn't have arms, he can't hold the sonic gun
that's he gonna shoot the vampire with.
So I've probably got five minutes left of painting him
and, then, he's just gonna sit around until we get enough other stuff done.
Just trying to get the elbow, some patchwork done.
And I'm using the pumpkin guts to fill in the cracks
where the arms come together and the wrists come together.
Dennis chose a pumpkin that was a little bit wet and, perhaps, not the right size.
He had a lot of spacing issues between the arm socket and where it meets the body.
And I've not really seen this before in pumpkin-carving work,
but he's kinda stuffing it with more pumpkin.
It's kinda like the way we work with cake.
It's starting to work I just gotta put a lot of more touch-ups on this.
[Nils] I am working on making the coveted gar-apple lily dessert
that floats down the river.
It'll have some leaves coming up.
Okay, let's get these suckers glazed with a little bit of raspberry action.
Taste test.
I think it needs more garlic.
-[Corinda] I agree. -Never thought I'd say that for desserts, but here we are.
-Working on dressing our scary man right now. -Oh, yeah.
[Elan] I figured I would do, like, some draping on him
since he's gonna be, like, kind of like sucked in like that.
Need to work on the sleeves, the back, and the collar so we can get this thing done.
[Teresa] Incoming. Corner.
-Oh, my gosh. -Oh, those are the egg sacs!
-Oh, my God. -Wow.
[winces] I just got the heebie-jeebies.
Yeah, you have to be careful with these pieces 'cause,
you know, they're beautifully delicate.
Of course, when you're moving or working with blown sugar in any capacity,
it's very stressful. I mean, anything can happen at any time.
[Teresa] I'll put the big ones on first 'cause they scare me.
Then I'll put the little guys down at the bottom, right?
-[Kristina] Yeah. -Sound good?
[Kristina] Luckily, they are so strong,
we're able to put them all on the backboard without any breaking.
[Teresa] All right?
Only two hours left!
-Yeah, I'm gonna do her teeth now. -[Nils] Nice.
The face is looking good.
[Corinda] She looks wicked, for sure.
[Nils] Like she's gonna bite somebody.
I wanna give that really cool, definitive, like, part.
Trick or Sweet's vampiress is breathtaking.
And, then, Nosferatu over there with Spice Ghouls...
-[Bennett] They're so good. -They're so different.
We've got two polar opposite, male, female,
really exquisite faces being molded by these two teams.
It's really kind of, like, Corinda versus Elan right now.
-I'm sure Lisa's gonna come with her game, too. -Yeah.
[Sequeira] I just haven't seen it yet.
There's only one hour left!
[groans] I'm working on his pants now.
I have to make sure the vampire's, like, really spot on.
[Dean] We gotta hurry. I need that guy done.
I'm going as fast as I can.
-It's not fast enough. Go faster. -Yeah, okay.
There is a lot of drama here,
-and it's not just on the boards. -[Bennett] Thank you.
Faster, faster.
I'm working on the ray gun.
Lisa.
-[laughs] So good. -The beginning of it.
[Lisa] I love it.
[Dean] You covered the whole rod?
[Laurie] I put it where you told me to put it.
-I mean, the rod is in here. -The rod is supposed to be in this, not in that.
This is in his hand.
It's gonna look like he's holding on to nothing.
-It's gonna be too tall. -[Laurie groans]
The rod is supposed to be in this, not in that.
-It's gonna be too tall. -[Laurie groans]
Do you want any of the handle?
-You can have-- -[Laurie] You have to have it.
You can have just a little hint of it.
[Laurie] Then I just gotta break the handle.
Kind of, you know, shape this up and...
-So, wait. I gotta cut it. -I know. I know.
But I, at least, have to see if I can get it into the red.
There we go. Okay.
[Dean] So you need to cut it while you have the sugar on it?
[Laurie] That's not gonna hurt it, I mean, at this point.
-Perfect. -[Bennett] 45 minutes!
[Kristina] Gently.
Okay, where's the hole?
Okay.
[Elan] Just need to start covering the bottom.
I'm getting my guy painted 'cause I don't wanna run out of time, okay?
[Teresa] I'm gonna make a blood orange compote,
and that's gonna be underneath my fried donut.
For this marmalade, Teresa's using a similar process to making jam.
Everything goes in the pot and I put it over there to slowly cook.
-[Nils] Do you want me to wrap it? -[Corinda] Yeah.
-[Nils] Okay. -[Corinda] Just gentle.
-Just lay it on there and I'll adjust it. -[Nils] Yeah.
You got it.
She looks mean, yo.
[Corinda] It's flowing.
So I'm gonna try and put just some small touches on here now.
This greyish color. Yeah, there we go.
-Nils, should we throw this over here? -[Nils] All right.
-Do you want me to grab him? -Yeah, you're gonna have to...
All right, let's go down and then we can slide him.
Go down.
-Okay. -[Nils] I'm gonna pour the sugar here.
-This is gonna be hot, okay? -[Dennis] Okay.
[Nils] Watch out.
[Nils] My river runneth...
Okay, Corinda's resting all the movement of her vampiress in that whip.
[Nils] All right, so I'm starting to get the whip going.
[Sequeira] And, in fact, only once that whip is on,
-is she going to mold the hand around it. -Oh, my gosh.
[Sequeira] Which is, look at it, in a very precarious spot.
[Corinda] All right. Watch out, Dennis.
He's gonna come through with that sugar whip. Careful.
-Careful. -[Nils] You got freeze spray?
[Corinda] I got it.
[Nils] Yes.
[Bennett] 30 minutes left!
Almost ready. Let me do the donuts,
then we're gonna go to the board.
[dramatic music]
The tasting element is gonna go in these spaces that I made on the back
as part of the creature.
[Teresa] Good, good.
So I just wanna toss it in a little bit of cinnamon sugar.
Then I'm gonna fill 'em with my fabulous garlic cream.
I'm gonna dip 'em in caramel just 'cause I want that round crust.
I wanna put that orange marmalade in the holes.
And I got my bombolonis.
Bombolonis are in.
[Lisa] I'm gonna work on his face.
I'm sorry, guys. I'm going as fast as I can.
I still have to finish the tasting element,
but I haven't even finished his head.
[Dean] So the cape, the medallions, what are we gonna do?
[Lisa] Because we're very behind,
I asked Laurie to work on the cape.
-I'm sorry. [laughing] -It's okay.
Dean. I'll do them. Can you put the cape on?
I'm just adding textures to it.
Just go that way a little.
[Laurie sighing] Okay.
[Dean] So your medallion goes right on top of this.
[Sequeira] Things are definitely going sour for Sweet Lunatics.
-These other two teams are in finesse mode. -[Bennett] Yes.
Putting the tasting elements on.
And that's the mode that they're gonna miss out on.
-[Kristina] It's gonna be dyed marshmallow. -[Elan] Awesome.
We are about to spray him with acid.
I'm getting started on the taster.
Just dicing up the pears that we poached earlier.
I finally get to the tasting.
It's a vanilla poached pear cracked alien egg.
It's gonna pipe the ganache that has the black garlic.
I'm putting poached pear, and this is the creme fraiche.
I'm gonna top it off with a black garlic salt. Just a touch.
Ten minutes to get it done, let's go!
Here we go.
If I wanna make it to the final, I can't crack this.
[Sequeira] I'm the most worried about Sweet Lunatics.
She's literally punching lights right now into the spaceship.
That is so cool.
-[Dean] Coming behind you, Laurie. -[Lisa] Be careful, Laurie.
Okay. Gotta fix this buttercream around him.
[Lisa] Okay, I'm going. Hold on.
[Kristina] Don't I get a "thank you very much" for those weird balls?
[Elan] Looking gross.
One minute! You have one minute left!
[Laurie] One minute. Oh, gosh!
[Kristina] If you pull it and let it drape...
[Dean] Bring the gun.
They still have to put the stun gun in the alien's hands.
-I can't reach. -[Lisa] Okay, let Dean do it.
[Nils] Careful with the sugar and the steam.
-I just wanna steam over here. -[Nils] I know, I know.
I promise, I promise.
-Oh, my gosh, the gun is there. -[Li] It looks great.
-[Bennett] Ten. Nine. -[Kristina] Okay, here we go. Here we go.
-[Bennett] Eight. Seven. -[Nils] All right, Dennis.
-[Bennett] Six. Five. -[Nils] Good deal.
[Bennett] Four. Three. Two. One...
-Hands off your display! -Wow.
-[Lisa] Oh, my God. -[Laurie] Good job.
[groans]
[Laurie] Upon returning to Earth to find some eggs that he had previously hidden,
our alien found a vampire raiding the nest
for the newest protein treat for vampires.
This piece is all about the G-force.
It's all about the vampire and the way that he's falling backwards.
Coupled with the expression on his face, I am falling backwards with him.
The height, the fact that you suspended this very heavy spaceship
on just those two pipes, that's pretty masterful, guys.
Incredible job there. Well done.
That ray gun looks like a toy that I wanna take home. It's incredible.
I do wish that it was aimed right at the vampire,
because then, I think, it would really tell that story.
Wow, time really flew away from you guys today.
And I was really feeling your pain.
But this backdrop, I love the dimensions that you were able to get.
I feel like it goes on forever,
and that's just a result of your amazing painting skills here, Lisa.
-Laurie, these sugar bats are so beautiful. -Thank you.
Now, there is a little bit of empty space here.
If you were to nudge that bowl forward by about a foot,
it would just fill in that space a little more
and it would feel more intentional.
What are we eating today?
Today, you'll be eating a vanilla poached pear
with a black garlic dark chocolate ganache,
topped with a creme fraiche and a dark chocolate shell.
-Whoa. -[Bennett] It's out of this world.
[Lisa] That's why it needed all those components.
-[laughing] It was just... -[Li] Whoa!
-[Bennett] Right? -Wait. What's happening?
Okay, let's... Ooh.
-And, then, you get the garlic afterwards. -Oh, you get the garlic.
-Yeah, we do. Oh, we do, Lisa. -[laughing] That is the after-effect.
-It's very bossy... -[Bennett] Yeah.
...in a great way. This dessert would not work
if you had omitted one of these elements.
This is absolutely delicious and I feel like I'm almost breathless from it.
-Amazing, Lisa. -Oh, thank you so much.,
Sweet Lunatics, well done.
-Thank you. -[Li] Good job, guys.
So our vampiress has foolishly tried to cross the river,
which has been claimed by our cyclops here.
And, now, they're in a battle over this river.
These two characters are finished with extremely different finishes,
yet they really look like they're in the same time, same space, and same fight.
The one note that I will give you
is the fact that these two characters
are, sort of, standing in a very static position in their own corners.
And it actually begins with the armature that you built.
If you don't put movement in the armature, and the legs are standing straight,
you're just gonna get a static character.
That vampiress' face has this fierce strength and beauty to her
-that is excellent. -[Corinda] Thank you. Thank you.
-Dennis, you showed up today. -[laughs]
First character, head to toe.
It's so nice to see you, like, take on a full front and center piece.
I wish that he looked a little fiercer,
so that it would feel like an even match.
What are we gonna taste today?
So what we have here is the rare gar-apple lily
that is floating down the river.
It's a black garlic pineapple upside-down cake
glazed with a raspberry cardamom black garlic sauce.
Hopefully, it's not too garlic-y.
I literally don't know where to start.
Um...
I literally don't know where to start.
Um...
You freaking did it again, man.
[all laughing]
It's so good.
The smartest thing you did was marry that, sort of,
almost caramel flavor of the black garlic
with the caramelized brown sugar.
What I love is you actually have this nice crust all around the edges,
so that adds really nice texture.
And this is very, very sophisticated and very successful.
-Good job. -Good job.
Trick or Sweet, you nailed it. Good job.
[Teresa] Our vampire was searching for a new shadowy lair.
He came upon the monstrous Transylvanian cavern bug
and got himself into a sticky situation.
Spice Ghouls, you guys get better and better with every challenge.
Elan, you have a great understanding of sculpture.
The tension in the jawline, the amazing hollowed-out eyes.
-Thank you. -[Li] And this pumpkin character,
it's one of those characters that you see from afar and you're, like,
"Oh, I wanna go pet it." And it turns around and you're like... [screams]
-[all laughing] -It's so gross, you guys.
My absolute favorite part is the marshmallow goo.
It has this kinetic movement that really bonds the two characters together.
What are we eating today?
This is a bomboloni that is filled with roasted garlic cream.
It also has a little bit of the orange marmalade.
We put it directly in the pumpkin,
so you will have to just carve a little bit of that out of there.
We need to dig into the monster
-to get the marmalade? -[Teresa] You do. Just a wee bit.
-Thank you, guys, so much. -[Teresa] You're welcome.
[Li] Okay.
[Sequeira] Oh, that worked out perfectly.
You have a nice, pillowy, soft bomboloni going on over here.
Good job. Way to go!
[Li] And I can definitely taste the garlic.
Maybe you could have roasted it a little longer
-to bring out more of the sweetness. -[Teresa] Hmm.
The smartest thing you did was give us
such an assertively sweet and bitter marmalade to go with it,
because it's a palate cleanser.
Spice Ghouls, great job again.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
Teams, you are all so talented.
But there's only room for two teams in the finale.
The team going home tonight is...
[dramatic music]
-Sweet Lunatics. I'm sorry. -Thank you.
[Bennett] While your tasting element was fantastic, time got away from you.
Your composition lacked the finishing touches we look for
-at this level in the competition. -[all] Thank you.
-Good luck, guys. -Good luck.
I'm heartbroken. We came so far.
I've grown attached to Laurie and Dean.
We're from different cultures, different backgrounds and everything,
and we became family.
So, we have our finale.
-[all applauding] -Get some rest.
Next time onHalloween Wars...
-Kristina, go. Now. Go. -[Elan] We really don't have time.
[Bennett] ...Spice Ghouls versus Trick or Sweet...
[Corinda] Cut the leg.
What is he doing?
[Bennett] ...for the title ofHalloween Wars champion...
We want this. Get out of my way. I got something.
-We're not finished with our journey yet. -Her head!
[Bennett] ...and $25,000!
The winning team is...