[Jonathan] This season on Halloween Wars,
we take scary to a whole other level...
-...as we celebrate the beast, the baddies... -[howling]
-[hissing] -...the monsters.
-[screaming] -[Jonathan] And for the first time ever,
each team will be captained by one of our very own All Stars.
Eight former champions looking to stake their claim
in the Halloween War's Hall of Fame.
I'm an All Star, you know?
You have to bring it every single challenge.
[Jonathan] The displays get bigger...
[man] No, no, no.
[Jonathan] ...and the monsters become even more terrifying.
-She's creepy AF. -[woman laughing]
-[Jonathan] Brace yourselves for a monstrously good time. -[all scream]
[Jonathan] The most heart-pounding season of Halloween Wars ever
starts right now.
Welcome to Halloween Wars.
[all cheering]
We did something we've never done before on Halloween Wars.
We brought back eight former champions.
They will serve as captains for all new teams.
But even a former champion is gonna tremble before our judges.
Award winning cake artist and decor guru Shinmin Li,
and master chef and author Aarti Sequeira.
-[all cheering and applauding] -Hi, everybody.
[Jonathan] This year, we're gonna push you to your limits
until a single team stands alone
to claim the Halloween War's title and $25,000.
-Yeah. -[all cheering]
Teams, Creeping It Real, Death By Deco,
Shriek Squad, and Killer Instincts.
You're up first.
The rest of you, we'll see you next time.
Bye, guys.
-[Jonathan] Later. -See you next week.
This first challenge is a timeless terror for the ages.
We want you to take an iconic Halloween monster
and make them feel right at home
as they roam the streets of a particular historical period.
-Death By Deco, you get ancient Egypt. -Ooh.
[Jonathan] Shrink Squad, the Medieval Age.
-Oh. -Oh, that's a good one.
-Creepin It Real, the Victorian Era. -Oh.
[Jonathan] And Killer Instincts,
-the Old West. -Oh, yeah.
Each display must have two distinct,
fully-realized characters.
For your tasting element,
you'll be reimagining a classic dessert
from your assigned time period.
Egyptian honey cakes, medieval gingerbread,
Victorian trifles, or Western cobbler.
I know you must be shaking in your boots with all you've got to do.
But we're not monsters here.
-So we want to give you a hand. -Oh, my.
[Jonathan] Each team will be given
-one baking assistant... -Yes.
...to help you as you head into the unknown.
You've got seven hours.
So, go.
-Okay, guys. -Uh-oh.
-We need two characters. -Two full characters.
There's pharaohs. There's mummies.
All right, so we gotta think, like, you know, ancient Egypt.
-There's a Sphinx, pyramid. -Okay, yeah, yeah.
[Al] The name of our team is Death By Deco.
I'm your cake artist,
Al DiBartolo, and I won Season 6,
and I'm back, baby!
-Like an archaeologist that's maybe, like, exploring. -Yes.
-And he disrupts something... -[Becky] Okay.
-...and the mummy wakes up. -Oh, my gosh, I love that.
[Al] An archaeologist makes this big discovery.
He decides to steal from the ancient scarabs,
and awakens his Tomb of Doom.
-What about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? -[Calia gasps]
[Monique] Our team is Creeping It Real.
I am Monique Hawk, and I am a professional pumpkin carver.
And I won Season 12.
Have to make sure that we can really show them
that this is Victorian England.
[Romel] I think we can put together, like, a nice Victorian fit.
-Laced ruffles around the neck. -Mmm-hmm.
[Monique] Dr. Jekyll had completely transformed into Mr. Hyde.
Then we're gonna have a policeman seeing Mr. Hyde reacting in terror.
-What's scary in mediaeval times? -Well, we could do siren.
Like, a siren. Can we make it like extra scary?
[Kristina] Our team is the Shriek Squad.
I am Kristina. I am the pumpkin carver.
It sort of feels like I was just here.
My team won last season.
Isn't there literally a siren of the lake story?
-Yeah, like King Arthur. -[Kristina] Okay.
Sir Edward was sent to slay this dreaded siren
that resides on this magical lake.
-A mummy. -What about like an ogre.
Ogre's been done, but big for sure.
[Teresa] Our team is the Killer Instincts,
I am Teresa Shurilla,
and the sugar artist slash pastry chef slash MacGyver.
I won Season 13 with my old teammate Kristina.
-The guy with the bull head, Minotaur. Minotaur. -A Minotaur.
They have big old horns, right?
Why is he in the Old West?
You've got a miner, like a gold miner.
The miner in his quest for gold
accidentally awakens the Minotaur
from his slumber in the labyrinth.
-Let's do it. Whoo! -Whoo!
I am gonna need a big pumpkin.
Hmm, I gotta get the pumpkins before these guys.
Oh, no. Kristina's going to the pumpkins. No, Kristina!
-My pumpkins. -[man] Get the good ones.
It's got to be big. It's got to be--
Oh, these are beautiful. Look at that.
Ooh, that's a good one.
I'm getting the, uh, back of the coffin built
-so we can get it standing up hopefully soon. -Okay.
[Al] I'm building the bottom and base of the tomb.
The way I... I achieve this amazing-looking marble
was I took some different colors of white fondant,
black fondant, and some chocolate modeling chocolate.
And then you mix it together and roll it out.
It means a lot to me to be back here.
I want to defend my title.
And I would just love to share that feeling
with my new teammates.
There it is. That's it.
All right, we're good.
[Becky] All right, you guys, I'm gonna start working on the tasting element, okay?
-[Al] All right, that sounds good. -[Matt] Yeah.
[Al] So right out of the gate,
our sugar artist Becky's right onto this dessert.
Getting my honey cake batter put together.
And I thought maybe for a twist I can add a little chocolate on top, maybe.
Maybe a little spice to it.
I am so stoked we got Becky.
She has some crazy buttercream skills.
Becky's gonna be recreating a traditional Egyptian honey cake
with a chocolate habanero ganache.
-[Becky] Hey, you guys, I'm going to the oven, okay? -Okay.
[Becky] All right.
So I'm just gonna see how many pumpkins I need to stack
to make it a good pillar size.
[Al] Matt is our pumpkin carver,
and he's packing pumpkin up to get that pillar going.
[Matt] And we'll shave them down and shape them to look like stone.
[Al] What I'm most excited about Matt is
how different our styles are.
His cartoony style versus my graphic-art style.
Scrape of the inside just to get...
get a little less weight.
Weight's gonna be our enemy with anything that you stack,
-[Al] It looks pretty good. -[Matt] Yeah, I think we're gonna be good.
Since Mr. Hyde is a monster and he's popping out of everything,
-he's gonna have the biggest head here. -[Romel] Okay.
[Monique] Right now, I'm just getting the general shape
of Mr. Hyde's face.
In order to really get inside the grooves and make those finite details,
I have clay ribbon tools with a little bit of teeth on them,
so I can gradually take away the pumpkin without taking away too much.
Coming back as an All Star is really exciting,
but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity
where you can see what you're made of
against the best in the entire world.
[Romel] I'm working on a police officer's face.
Our cake artist is Rome.
He really wanted to showcase some of his sculpture work,
so he grabs a block of modeling chocolate
to get that police officer's head going.
So I have some gum paste eyeballs.
I think I chose to make them out of gum paste so they can get hard.
And that way I can continue to maneuver the modeling chocolate around it.
Rome is gonna be such a valuable asset to this team.
He really specializes in bringing this whole
sort of realistic dimension to food.
He already looks like he's super scared. [chuckles]
-He's scared to be carved. -[Romel] Eyes popping out.
So right now I'm working on the lady fingers.
It's for the tasting element.
I don't even know what a trifle is.
So our sugar artist Calia wants to nail this tasting element.
Calia came up with a reimagined trifle,
which is gonna be a monochromatic red velvet lady finger
with an Earl Gray pastry cream,
a raspberry gelee, a toasted pistachios,
encased in a raspberry gelatin.
And they're going to look like beakers.
So right now I'm finishing up the lady fingers.
[Monique] Calia is a pastry chef.
She specializes in sugar, blowing sugar chocolate.
And she is so good with those details and tasting elements.
[Kristina] Ten inches.
I really want to carve the mermaid's tail and her fin
in one continuous piece.
It's gonna be kind of cascading down this rock a little bit.
I feel like the shape is just perfect for what we have in mind.
I think there's people who would see these other All Stars
and they might get, you know, nervous or intimidated.
I get excited because I'm back again this year to defend the title.
[Al] Oh.
[Kristina] It's coming. I just gotta do the scales and paint it.
Jamie, our cake artist,
will be making the face and the torso of the siren.
[Jamie] The siren in medieval stories
is something that basically lures its victims
by its beauty and its voice, and it draws them in,
so they can basically eat them.
Do I relate to a siren? I don't think so.
I think my husband would tell me that I do.
[Jonathan] Trying to get my tuck crust going so I can chill it.
Our team received the medieval era
with the tasting element of gingerbread.
So our sugar artist Jonathan, who is also a very talented pastry chef,
is going to be making us a gingerbread pecan crust tart
with a pecan frangipane, a plum compote
and topped with a pan-roasted plum.
Right now I am grinding down almonds with sugar for a frangipane.
This is gonna be for the filling for the tart.
[Kristina] So we feel like if we took the best things about gingerbread cookies
and incorporate it into something such as a tart,
which were very common to that time,
it's gonna bring together our whole story
into one delicious little bite.
Okay, There he is. He's right in there.
So this Minotaur is going to be the head,
and the shoulders are all gonna be one part coming out of the darkness.
Mike is going to carve the pumpkins for the Minotaur.
Mike's, uh, secret superpower
is he is very much in the realism realm.
But he also has a cartoony side,
so he's gonna marry those two. So I'm excited about that.
-Okay, we gotta step it up. I just saw Mike's pumpkin. -I know. [chuckles]
We gotta bring it, girl.
For my sugar work, I'm gonna make the battle axe for the Minotaur
and the pickaxe for the miner by casting.
There's a lot of things I've learned from last time that I'm bringing back,
and I think for me it's just doing crazier stuff with sugar
than I thought was possible,
and not to be afraid.
-[Gina] That is so pretty. -[Teresa] Oh.
That is stunning. I love it.
How are we doing over there, Gina?
Uh, making the donkey.
[Teresa] Gina Montesino is our cake artist.
She's going to cut out the donkey.
That's gonna be fondant.
And then from there, she's gonna go ahead
and just hand paint the donkey.
Oh, Mike, did you look at that?
Shut the front door, dude.
-[Mike] You can hear him. Can you hear him? -[Teresa] Hee-haw.
Teams, hurry up. You've only got six hours left.
Six hours.
So we're coming out of the gate
-with just a classic Halloween Wars challenge. -[chuckles]
What are you expecting to see from that?
What I really love about seeing period designs
is that you really get a sense of place,
And I'm looking for the little emblems.
There's little telltale things that really tell you
this is the Egyptian era, right?
This is the Wild West. Like, what are you picking?
And how well are you accomplishing that?
Jamie, is that the knight?
-It is the knight. -[Jonathan] It looks so good. I can already tell it's a leg.
[Jamie] Does it look leathery?
-[Jonathan] It looks, like, leathery, yeah. -Okay.
On this piece, Jamie will be sculpting
the bottom half of the knight.
[Jamie] The aluminum foil is giving it a little bit of texture
to give it a bit of a leather look,
especially when we drybrush it with a nice dark color.
It'll make all these textures come out.
[Kristina] She'll also be making a rock
sort of throne for the siren out of cake.
Jamie's skills are remarkable.
She can sculpt anything.
Not only has Jamie worked at prestigious restaurants,
but she's been artistic her whole life.
She really loves blending all of her different skills in competitions like this.
[Jonathan] We are just trying to get a cool effect of water.
And we're trying to make sure that we don't damage the cake in the process
because the sugar is so high.
-It is cake after all. -[Jamie] Mmm-hmm.
[Jonathan] Water is poured and casted.
The question is, do I want this guy to look like he...
No, he doesn't go to the gym.
So the way I build the mummy is I start squashing
some rice cereal treats around his body.
And then I just start filling them up with modeling chocolate.
[Jonathan] Over at Death By Deco,
we have one of the OG season winners.
We've got Al.
One thing I really love about Al is that he's a very speedy worker.
He's also really good about creating emotions in his character.
[Al] My artistic approach for just getting expressions,
I just kind of feel it.
I feel, like, what it would be looking like,
and I just kind of see the story in my head,
and I just go with it.
-[growls] -[Becky] I love it.
[grunts]
Look at that. Badass.
All right, teams, two hours down, five to go. Let's move.
Hot pan. Hot pan.
What are you making right now?
I'm making the pastry cream, and then I'm also gonna hop up some pistachios.
We were assigned the dessert trifle.
So our version of a reimagined Victorian England dessert
will have Earl Gray tea.
And they're going to look like beakers.
She starts making and steeping the tea into the pastry cream,
and the simple syrup that is going to be brushed over the lady fingers.
It's a multi-dimensional dessert.
[Calia] So right now I am assembling the trifle.
So we have layers of our lady fingers.
Layers of our Earl Grey pastry cream,
our raspberry gelee.
And then we're also soaking the lady fingers with Earl Grey simple syrup.
And then also stacking some salted pistachios inside.
So I'm encasing it in the gelatin,
and I've kept it a little bit clear like a glass would be.
Making an edible glass.
This is the pickaxe right here.
-And that's... Yeah. -And that's gonna be the battle axe.
For my sugar work, I'm gonna make the battle axe for the Minotaur
and the gold miner's pan.
-Likee, likee. Likee, likee. -[Gina] Yeah.
What I'm going to do here, actually, is I'm going to bend this.
This is going to be the battle axe.
So it's basically gonna be like this.
I'm gonna bend it where the break is
so it can fit over the handle nicely,
so it's got a good center of gravity.
So I'll let it sit just a wee bit more.
[Mike] I'm trying to make an arm
that's gonna be able to support a lot of weight
because I have to hold up Teresa's beautiful axe
and it also has to be big enough to hold this axe.
So I'm gonna have to put a bunch of pieces of pumpkin together and hope they work.
[Teresa] Yeah, Mike has the head of the Minotaur to finish.
[Mike] I'm gonna have these nice big horns just sticking straight up.
Okay, we're getting close here.
-Hope it holds up. -Really great.
Wow.
-Yeah, Let's hope, Mikey. -Here we go.
So it looks like Mike at Killer instincts
is about to put that Minotaur head
-on his display. -[gasps] Wow. Oh, my gosh.
-[Teresa] Oh, you need help? -It's very heavy.
-Oh! -Oh, my gosh.
[Jonathan] Come on, Mike. you got this, buddy.
Wow. [exclaims]
-Trying to. -[Shinmin] I think it's on.
-Moment of truth. -[Shinmin] It's going on fondant too. Ooh.
-Are we good? -[all cheering]
Okay.
[Mike] Nobody breathes.
We've only got four hours left on the clock.
I'm gonna start carving a scale feature on her fins.
So to make these scales,
obviously we want to make them as quickly as possible,
but I would like them to be somewhat uniform.
So I'm gonna be using these brass pipes,
which have these really nice, sharp edges.
What I really love about Kristina
is really the way she carves her pumpkins.
I don't think I've ever seen her style before.
-It's very surface level. -[Aarti] Mmm-hmm.
[Shinmin] Kristina tends to create, like, almost like this
-blurred out effect with her textures. -[Aarti] Yes.
And I I don't know how she does that.
I'm gonna start with greens.
I want the tail to look shimmery.
And to achieve this effect, I'm going to be using luster dust on the pumpkin
instead of paint.
That will allow me to really ombre the colors.
Hopefully, this will give it a realistic shimmer
and really make the piece pop.
-Okay, put her down. -[Jamie] It looks awesome.
The size works, right, for the head, the miner?
-Oh, yeah, for sure. No, that's perfect. -Perfect, yeah.
[Teresa] Gina's making the miner.
I have never met a cake artist quite like Gina.
She went to art college.
She blurs the line between realism
and a little bit of the fun fantasy side.
[Gina] Yeah. What do you think?
-Awesome. Poor fella. -That's his head.
We got Western and cobbler,
so I am making a mixed-berry cobbler
that's made with a sablee crust, which is a sweet crust.
I thought that'd be a nice trick to have, like,
a little bit sweeter crust on the cobbler,
so it really holds all the juices in.
Okay, I'm gonna sugar these now
and then they're going in the oven.
I'm sculpting Mr. Hyde,
and then I'm gonna put on his skin
before I put on clothing in certain parts
so it can look like he's busting out of his clothes
because he's so big.
I feel like I need to move a little bit faster.
So instead of making pumpkin teeth,
I'm actually gonna use white potato.
As it starts to oxidize, It gives a really cool kind of grayish look,
which really makes him feel more creepy.
So we got Monique Hawk as the leader of Creeping It Real.
She won Season 12.
-Oh, I remember Monique well. -[chuckles]
[Aarti] I love how Monique always uses
-unusual vegetables. -[Shinmin] Mmm-hmm.
She'll do the pumpkin,
but she'll grab a sweet potato
-and a watermelon radish... -[Shinmin] Yeah.
...and she'll use its natural coloring
to really sell whatever creature it is that she's carved.
So I'm expecting really cool stuff out of her.
How's that look for the undercarriage
-for the sarcophagus? -[Becky] Okay.
[Al] We're gonna make the top of the sarcophagus, pumpkin as a base,
completely slathered in buttercream.
So Matt appears to have carved
-the shape of the sarcophagus... -Okay.
...which Becky has covered in buttercream.
-So now it doesn't even look like pumpkin. -[Shinmin] Right.
And when we're looking team to team,
there's some really impressive pumpkin work.
And all Matt is really going to be able to show is his pillar.
As of right now, I'm sculpting the sarcophagus head
to kind of look like a pharaoh.
The reason why I'm doing a buttercream over the pumpkin,
the buttercream sticks right to the pumpkin if you don't peel it.
It's different. No one else is doing it. I know that.
I need to put it directly in the freezer after this so it sets.
So right now, what I'm doing is I'm using some really thin pieces of fondant,
misting it with some water,
and I'm just kind of making some natural tears
and letting it just tear and rip right off the mummy,
and it's looking really, really cool.
So I'm really happy with this look right now.
And then I'm going to go over it with a little more airbrush
just to dusty it up a little bit.
Sorry to be a witch, but,
you've only got three hours left on the clock.
-[Romel] I feel like I need help -What?
I can see Rome's kind of feeling a little bit of the pressure.
[Romel] Yeah, I'm just getting a little nervous.
-Yeah? -[Romel] Yes.
Talk to me. What are you nervous about?
He's definitely stressed on being able to finish everything
in the allotted amount of time.
-Calia, do you have a second... -[Calia] Yes.
...so we can, like, team game plan?
Put that down. Put it down.
Hold on. Pause.
We're gonna focus real quick. So we just need to recollect.
Like, this is the point where we need it. Put it down.
-[chuckles] -Rome, I promise you.
I promise you. Breathe with me real quick. Okay, breathe.
I know that as an All Star, as a team captain,
I have to come through for my team.
So I start sculpting the details on the police officer
so he can focus on Mr. Hyde's body.
Do you get your hands wet to, like, smooth it out?
[Romel] Uh, no, I... I do like using gloves.
I've never sculpted modelling chocolate before in my life.
I don't know what to expect. I don't know what tools to use.
But I'm gonna do whatever it takes to bring my team through.
So I added butternut squash seeds
to give them the fingernails. Makes it a little creepy.
I really hope that as a fellow sculptor,
I'm able to use that skillset into a different medium
to really bring out those details that we need.
You know, everything's on the line right now.
This is All Stars, like, we're bringing out all the stops.
But we're not giving up.
Here we go.
It's not gonna be beautiful like that.
I'm gonna have to figure out a better way to get this out of there.
I'll manage.
These are not coming out.
If I can... It's not coming out of there.
Hey, guys, my cobbler's not coming out of here.
[Jonathan] It looks like we have some trouble in paradise
-over with Teresa and the Killer Instincts. -[Shinmin] Oh, no.
Oh, no. Every single tart that she's releasing from those ring molds
is breaking and breaking bad.
Yeah, I'm having a failure of epic proportions.
[Teresa] These are not coming out.
Maybe Teresa will have a save here.
Maybe there's something she can cover it with.
[Teresa] I have a feeling I know what I can do.
Okay, I got it. I got this.
When I baked my cobbler, I made it thick
because it was very juicy.
So what I wanted to do is torch this
to get it out of here.
I'm actually cutting it out of here.
And then I'm putting it on a wooden form.
Crisis averted.
Not really. Kind of.
I got to do the tasting earlier next time, for sure.
Only two hours left!
You better move.
Honey cake is done.
[Al] We really think making the tasting element
part of the story is integral.
So Becky was planning on taking this habanero honey cake,
making them look like little scarabs on the backboard.
[Becky] I just got done putting the spicy chocolate
on the honey cakes,
and now I am using a really pretty luster dust on top
because scarabs have that iridescent look to them.
Right now, I am building the archaeologist
who is the victim of our story.
All right, guys, I'm getting the...
I'm getting our guy down.
[Matt] I'm gonna start working on the archaeologist's face.
I'm just gonna warm up this modeling chocolate.
So even though I made a decision on Matt
not to carve too many pumpkins,
I did give him some carving work to do.
Yeah. The reason I'm using modeling chocolate
is pumpkin is like a very a heavy wet ball.
And with this dynamic figure, this needed to be a lot lighter.
[Al] To my pleasant surprise,
Matt is a fantastic sculptor.
-Matt, it's looking good, man. -Cool.
-Thanks, man. Yep. -Yeah. Just take-- Just do your thing.
The other teams have a lot of pumpkin work showing,
and it just got me thinking,
-maybe we need to start adding that-- -Well, don't forget
we have the entire sarcophagus...
-[Matt] Uh-huh. -...is completely pumpkin with just buttercream on it.
-[Matt] Oh, that's right. -Plus the pillar.
-Half the piece is pumpkin. -Okay.
-We have pumpkin out there. -Yeah. Okay.
-We're good. -Don't worry.
You keep making that face look amazing.
-[Calia] Oh, it looks awesome. -Okay, cool.
I like it. Um...
Let me just-- I'm gonna put some paint on it right now.
Before I put Mr. Hyde's head on the body,
I want to nail a couple of those details.
So I take a black food coloring
and I just really get in those deep grooves
to make it look just monstrous and creepy.
I'm gonna start down here, and the ones on top are gonna be more lacy.
-[Monique] Yeah. -I'm feeling great.
I love that we have Mr. Hyde's head on
and the body and he's dressed.
And, uh, now it's just some fine details.
But I feel like we're gonna knock it out.
[Monique] Rome is going to have some pretty elaborate lace fondant ruffles
that are going to be underneath Mr. Hyde's head.
So I'm adding buttercream to the top of his head,
so he's gonna have a layer of hair
that's just crazy popping out.
And then I'm gonna add some rice noodles
and make it look like it's really wiry nasty hair.
It's gonna be awesome.
[Elias] Okay. I am ready to cast the sword.
[Jamie] One of the feature pieces of our design
will be a sword for our knight
that Jonathan is going to create out of isomalt.
He's going to be molding it
and hand sculpting it.
And I need to actually physically make a hand
to go around the sword and to hold it.
I am really nervous that I'm going to break this thing.
Whoo!
Jonathan, I made a hand.
-[Elias] Oh, wow! -Right? Right?
I'm just blocking out his face.
I will be making the knight's head.
I did win last season.
But, I mean, we have a fantastic group of folks here today.
So much skill and talent in this room right now.
I know both of my teammates are very hungry for a win,
and I would love to help facilitate that for them this season.
[Elias] I like his five o'clock shadow.
He kind of looks like me.
I'm gonna mount it, see how it looks.
I think... I think it worked out.
-Hey! -It's freaking great.
-[Jamie] What! -He looks like me, I swear.
[Mike] Nice color.
[Gina laughing] So... I'm just gonna squish it.
I don't know.
[both laughing]
[Teresa] Okay, I'm gonna do that handle
for the battle ax for the minotaur.
I love this sugar!
It's so good.
-[Gina] It looks really good. -Doesn't it?
[Mike] Beautiful.
Just don't move it, baby.
All right. I gotta put that blade on.
Can I put that blade on, you guys?
[Mike] Um, actually, let me...
let me do a little more painting over there first.
I haven't airbrushed too much in general,
but, um, pumpkins, when you hit them with food coloring,
which is what this is, it really drinks in the color.
And it even kind of bleeds and kind of soaks in a little bit.
So it'll look a tiny bit different than it looks right now in four minutes.
[Teresa] I've got two artists on my team
and they both are great at shading and painting
and I just think that makes such a difference on realism.
-Okay, I'm just gonna hit this so it's not-- -[Gina] How does that look?
-It's good? -Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, right now, we're getting ready
to be painting this solid buttercream pumpkin piece
in some gold airbrush.
I'd have a concern with buttercream that's frozen
and now coming down to temperature,
the condensation.
So we're just trying to keep it as cool as possible with a fan,
and we're just hoping for the best.
Oh, Becky, this is coming out great.
-Yeah? -Yeah.
This is really looking awesome.
Only one hour left on the clock.
One hour?
Oh, my God.
[Teresa] Okay, Mike, where do you want that blade, dude?
We have to put the battle ax for the minotaur in his hand.
-Like, right there? -Yeah.
So can you hold that there?
-Sure. -You got to just hold it 'cause it's just heavy.
-Uh-huh. Okay. -Okay.
[Teresa] I don't think it's going anywhere.
I got to put the taste down right now.
You're killing me.
-You are killing me, man-- -[Mike gasps] Oh!
What? Oh!
Did it break in pieces?
-[Mike gasps] Oh! -What?
[Gina] Teresa, it fell over.
[Teresa] Where-- did it break in pieces?
Oh. [sighs]
[Mike] Can we turn this into a knife or something?
I think that looks great.
This is the tip of the axe, right?
-Yes. -And that still would cause some serious damage.
Guys, I think we just got to stick something on there.
Bring me what fell.
-Please. -If we could make this happen, that would be awesome.
This would be like a sickle.
-All right. Okay. -Okay?
-All right. -It's still very scary.
Bring me the sickle.
[Teresa] All right, guys, we got to get this done.
Let's go. Let's go.
We're on go time.
[Mike] Teresa, how are you feeling about the new weapon?
-The new weapon is coming. -All righty.
[Teresa] Hot sugar coming up.
Okay. You're gonna have to hold that, too,
as you airbrush.
You're okay.
[Gina] It's better than nothing.
[Teresa] Okay. What am I doing?
-[Gina] The horns. -What am I doing?
You take over that, and I'll do the other side of it.
That looks pretty cool, the sickle.
All right. Good pivot.
Only 30 minutes left.
[speaks in foreign language]
Hoo!
I am gonna attempt my meringue.
[Kristina] Something we wanted to do
is really make our tasting element a part of our scene.
And Jonathan bakes these adorable little white mushrooms
to go on top of our tasting element.
The mushrooms turned out amazing.
I'm so happy.
The Halloween gods are looking out for me today.
[Monique] Hey, guys. So I really want to get these cobblestones done.
I noticed that some of the other teams
don't have a whole lot of pumpkin on their display.
So I'm gonna start getting these done pretty quick.
-Got ya. -Guys, for the cobblestone, what do you think about
actually taking some pieces of potato, too,
-and cutting it for cobblestone? -Oh, yeah.
-Okay, that's what's up. -Awesome.
[Monique] Oh, I love the white. It looks just like stone.
I start doing pumpkin cobblestone
all along the bottom.
This is so cool.
Yes!
I'm gonna do-- put on this ear.
Um, and then--
Just, don't worry about cleaning it up.
-Yeah, that one's gonna be the off-camera ear-- -Just stick it on.
Just stick it on, and I'll fix it.
-Yeah. Yep. -I want you to get on your tiles.
The floor is part of the story also.
So Matt starts carving out pieces of pumpkin
to look like stones.
And then in between each line, we fill them up with sand
that's made out of broken-down cookie.
[Matt] Oh, man, that glitter in there.
[Al] The glitter in there is what makes it.
Five minutes left. You have five minutes.
So this is pumpkin, cornstarch and dye.
And what it does is it helps you mold the pumpkin.
[Elias] I love the seaweed moss.
It's freaking amazing.
[Monique] Why don't you start grabbing the tasting element
and bringing it-- like all the glass?
[Calia] Everywhere?
Okay.
[Monique] At the very last minute,
Calia is making the passion fruit foam
just to make sure that it still
gives that frothy appearance on the beakers.
This is it. One minute left.
[Kristina] Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Just start putting them everywhere.
-[Elias] Okay. -That looks great.
Ten, nine, eight...
[Kristina] Go, go!
-...seven... -Is it gonna fall?
-...six, five, four... -I'm afraid to touch things today.
-...three... -[Monique] Get in there. Get in there.
...two, one!
Time's up.
Okay, all right.
-Whoo! -Whoo!
Bam! Yeah!
Killer Instincts,
you got the Old West.
Tell us what you made.
[Teresa] Our miner in his quest for gold
awoke the minotaur in his labyrinth.
The miner here is all cake and fondant with hand painting.
The gold miner's pan is sugar.
The pickaxe is sugar.
The minotaur, it's all pumpkin.
This ding dang minotaur is gonna haunt me forever.
So much dimension, so creepy and so powerful.
I also love the miner.
It's almost like he's sliding.
He's diving across the sand. Great little details there.
I will say, I feel like the donkey needs to be a little bit smaller
just to really force that perspective
and make it seem like it's in the distance.
[brays] I don't agree.
I actually love the painting that you did on the donkey.
Such an expression.
You brought just a bit of humor in that.
Teresa, you are an all-star
and you are back here as a team leader,
and I love that you're able to pivot and think on your toes.
The fact that you lost your sugar ax
and you just used that handle and created a sickle,
if you didn't tell me there was an axe,
I would think that this is what you went for,
-this was the goal. -I actually liked it.
I love it, Teresa.
[Jonathan] Killer Instincts,
what are we eating today?
[Teresa] We have a berry cobbler.
We have a sweet sable crust, mixed berries,
a little bit of nutmeg sugar on top.
[Shinmin] Mmm.
I would fight off a minotaur for this.
This is a cobbler and a half.
It is so good. It's just perfectly sweet.
I can taste all the berries.
This is just the perfect bite.
We were concerned when you were trying to take the tarts out
that they were crumbling,
and we wondered if it was overbaked.
It is absolutely 100% not those things.
The pastry is still buttery and flaky.
That just takes it to the next level.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
-Thank you.
Shriek Squad,
tell us about your medieval monster.
[Kristina] Our medieval knight was sent by the kingdom
to slay the dreaded siren,
who resides deep in the Enchanted Forest.
Unfortunately, like many others before him,
he felt victim to her seduction.
She is currently unhinging her jaw
to consume him for her next feast.
We have sugar mushrooms.
The sword is made out of sugar.
Jamie, she made the upper body of the siren,
the main body of the knight, as well as the cake stone.
The head of the night is pumpkin,
and the tale of the siren is pumpkin.
There's so much to see.
One of the most impressive things to me about your design
is that I don't know what's what.
You guys have managed to sort of mind meld
and media meld simultaneously.
One of my favorite parts here
is the expression on the knight's face.
He's so scared that he's pushing his chin all the way back.
There's so much emotion in just that tiny, little choice that you made.
I really love the texture in the trousers,
if that's what they called them back then.
And the mushrooms are darling.
You are so controlled in your color palette.
We have dark colors exactly where we need shadowing.
We have light colors exactly where we need the pop.
I'm completely lost in it.
And it's because there are so many layers upon layers
of rich details to look at,
I'm completely mesmerized
and it's difficult to look away.
The melding of your mediums.
Kristina, your pumpkin work
is out of this world.
If you paid me,
I don't think I would be able to make out
where the pumpkin is.
-Mmm-hmm. -So, great job there.
I think the only thing I have to pick on
because this is so perfect,
my eyes I do go to like the one area
where it's not as defined as the rest,
and that's his hand in the very front and center.
Everything else is so defined.
But that hand, I don't make out any fingers.
What are we eating today?
Our flavor was gingerbread.
So I took it and made a gingerbread pecan tart.
It's a plum compo in the bottom,
a gingerbread frangipane,
and then a pan roasted plum on top.
It doesn't even look like something we're supposed to eat.
[Elias] And then we finished it with a meringue mushroom.
-Oh, my God. -Mmm!
There's something sort of intoxicating and alluring about frangipane.
And I love that you paired it
with that little slice of plum.
The pastry is delightful.
It's just a really great bite.
I love the textures in this bite.
I love the nuttiness in the frangipane,
but also that grittiness of your tarts.
It's reading just a little sweet,
especially paired with the meringue.
So I think that little slice of plum
is absolutely necessary,
because it just brightens it up
and it adds that tart
while we're experiencing all the sweetness.
Thank you so much.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Put 'er there. Yeah!
I love you, guys.
[Al] We got Ancient Egypt,
and the story is called "The Tomb of Doom."
Art, the archaeologist, is wanting to impress his peers
by being the first to make a great discovery.
Well, unfortunately, greed set in,
so now Art's first discovery is his last.
He's awakened the mummy.
We have a rice cereal treat and cake mummy
covered in modeling chocolate and fondant,
along with our pumpkin smothered in buttercream.
Becky, this is when you're really shining.
I cannot tell that that's buttercream.
It just has such a polished finish.
I also love the composition.
Your two characters are totally interacting.
The dynamic movements in their body structure
is just so super-believable.
Matt, I know there's a lot of pumpkin work here,
the only problem is I don't really see it.
You actually have the top of the coffin in pumpkin,
but it's completely smothered in buttercream.
So is it even worth it
or necessary to create that out of pumpkin?
[Al] It was very humbling for me.
You know, I feel like I'm responsible for these two people
that are really looking up to me,
and I just don't want to disappoint them.
[Shinmin] I know that you also sculpted the head of this character,
and that's modeling chocolate.
So I know you can sculpt,
because that is an amazing expressive face.
I would love to see you do something like that in pumpkin.
Yeah. This is a moment frozen in time.
I love the expressions on both of these characters' faces.
I love that this guy is like, "Aah!"
and his teeth are kind of falling out.
It's really impactful.
It doesn't feel like it's missing anything,
except for more pumpkin.
More pumpkin.
Now we want to try your take on a honey cake.
So what we made for you today
is a traditional Egyptian honey cake
with a chocolate and light habanero to complement it.
And it's actually some of the ruins
that are on the piece.
There is such a beautiful warm honey flavor
running all the way through this cake.
It's very, very tender.
And the little bit of chocolate there
is like a really nice counterpart
to the warmth of the cake itself.
Thank you.
I love that it's super-moist in the center,
and the honey is loud and clear.
I'm just missing that habanero.
I could definitely take a little bit more of a kick to that.
Death by Deco, thank you so much.
-Thank you. -Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
-Great job. -Yeah, man.
What'd you guys think?
[Monique] To honor our iconic Halloween character in Victorian England,
our scene is called "Mr. Hyde and Seek."
Our Dr. Jekyll had a couple too many potions
and transformed into the murderous Mr. Hyde.
Our bobby here came across this monster
after he found the horrific scene in the cellar.
We have a pumpkin Mr. Hyde head
with a sugar and cake body.
We have a cake and a sugar bobby policeman.
We have a cobblestone with pumpkin and potato,
and our special potion beaker tasting element.
It's super-creepy.
The bobby, the constable,
his face has so much detail.
One of my favorite parts of that pumpkin head, Monique,
is how deep you carved into his mouth.
And there's something about that
that really gives it such dimension.
I love that you used noodles for the hair.
A very fast way to convey hair without having to spend
a lot of time on each individual strand.
And the fact that the clothing is so tattered,
this monster looks like it's transforming
and morphing in front of our eyes.
Everything is so atmospheric about this piece
that then you have the sort of cobblestone pumpkin and potato
looking very kind of raw and unfinished.
So that's the only thing to me that's kind of contrasting
to this really soothing color palette.
Okay, let's taste that trifle.
So for our reimagined trifle,
we have a monochromatic red velvet lady finger
brushed with a little bit of Earl Grey simple syrup,
an Earl Grey pastry cream,
a raspberry gelee, some toasted pistachios
topped with a little bit of passion fruit foam.
Whoa, mine's alive.
There are lots of strong flavors here.
Individually, I can taste the pistachio,
I can taste the passion fruit foam,
taste the Earl Grey.
I taste the raspberry as well.
When you put them all together like this,
it's like a giant family,
and they all want to go in different directions
and they can't agree.
And because of that,
it leaves a slight bitter taste in my mouth, literally,
and I'm not sure where that's coming from.
Together, they just don't really blend that well.
I took one bite.
There was a clash.
-Okay. -One of them needs to take a backseat.
Thank you, Creepin' It Real.
-Thank you. -Thank you, guys.
Nice.
[Calia] Oh.
We knew that bringing back former champions
to lead their own teams would produce scary good results.
Each of you created your own unique grotesque vision
of a timeless Halloween terror.
But one team combined the techniques,
flavors and overall presentation
to take their monsters to another level.
The winner tonight is...
Shriek Squad.
Congratulations.
Now the bottom two,
Death by Deco
and Creepin' It Real.
Death by Deco, we loved the characters you created,
and we're so impressed by the buttercream sarcophagus.
But, Matt, where was the pumpkin?
Creepin' It Real,
your Mr. Hyde terrorized us with its expressive face.
Unfortunately, the flavors of your trifle clashed
like your monster's two personalities.
With competition this tight, every detail counts.
The team going home tonight is...
Creepin' It Real.
You are so talented.
We are sorry to see you go.
Thank you.
I feel as a captain that I have let my team down.
-[Teresa] Kisses. -[Mike] Bye, guys.
[Gina] Bye.
Shriek Squad,
Killer Instincts,
and Death by Deco,
you all live to scare another day.
Next time on Halloween Wars...
-Aah! -I am not messing with him.
...they tackle the transformation
from mere mortal to monster.
They are sick.
[woman] You're insane for coming back.
I can't believe you want to do this again.
I guess I like to torture myself.
[woman 2] Oh, my God, this flew by, you guys.
I understand. I need to be left alone.
[gasps]