[wolf howling in distance]
I'm Zak Bagans,
and I've taken control of Halloween Wars.
What started with nine teams, is now down to only three.
And after tonight's challenge, one more team will be sent home...
This is a complete disaster.
[man 1] We didn't do all this hard work just to go home.
[Zak] ...leaving a final two to go head to head
for the Halloween Wars championship!
[all] Whoa!
[Monique] Nobody even look at it.
It's looking a little... bare.
I'm scared.
[eerie music]
[distortion crackling]
[thunder rumbling]
[Eddie] We got three teams left.
Y'all do realize, after today's challenge,
only two of you will be moving on to the finals?
[exhales] It's gonna be--
-[thunder rumbling] -Uh-oh.
[Shinmin] Here we go again!
[static crackling]
Six of your fellow teams have had
their high hopes of Halloween glory
dashed against the rocks of fate.
Reminds me of a place I visited,
that's haunted by the spirits of thousands of lost sailors
who perished searching for safe harbor.
"Cape Disappointment."
Cape of Disappointment?
Pretty clear what happens there.
[ship horn blaring]
[seagulls screeching]
[wood creaking]
[Zak] On the border, between the coasts of Oregon and Washington,
these treacherous waters literally roar with anger,
and have claimed so many lives,
the area has become known
as "The Graveyard of the Pacific."
I believe that I became possessed by an angry spirit
that I could not control.
Tell me we got that on tape!
[objects clattering]
[Zak] And of all the places I've ever been,
I've never had such an intense physical reaction,
as I did on the Cape.
Now, let that sink in
as you consider today's challenge.
[suspenseful music]
[Eddie] All right, so you heard Zak.
I need you to get your sea legs
because today, we're going into some very rough waters.
So, I want you to envision
what terrifying beast may rise up and attack
when a possessed sea turns on unsuspecting travelers.
Now, to pay tribute to the ocean's depths,
we want you to incorporate some flavors of the sea into your cake.
You have to use one of the following seaweeds.
Nori, wakame or dulse.
Some interesting flavors, huh?
You have seven hours. Bon voyage!
[all laughing]
All right, ladies, sea legs.
Okay.
-Under the ocean, right? -Yes.
I like this concept.
-Lots of cool things. -But, seaweed in a dessert?
-Not so much. -[Willy] Hmmm.
Not so great.
-Have you guys ever put seaweed in a cake? -[both] No, never.
Seaweed?
[Janet and Regi] Seaweed!
There's a reason I've never done this before!
Under the sea, what kind of things can we make?
It could have an exoskeleton. Like, creepy.
[gasps] Ooh.
-Dark and something light on the inside. -Yeah.
-You know what has and exoskeleton? -What?
A seahorse.
-A kaiju seahorse? -Kinda make that creepy.
-Kaiju seahorse! -Yes, right.
We decide to go with a cute little seahorse,
and turn it into a giant kaiju!
A kaiju is just like a big giant monster.
And we wanna have this nest of eggs
glowing below it. And to top it all off,
there's gonna be a tiny little scuba diver
stuck at the top of the magma, meeting his demise.
I've decided to make a Nori and black sesame cake
because, I think the nori
will add that seaweed flavor they're looking for.
But the black sesame is gonna add
some really nice nuttiness to it.
All right.
My cake is going to be a black sesame Nori cake
with layers of white chocolate mousse,
white chocolate and furikake crunch,
and also a layer of mango compote,
with white chocolate buttercream.
[in sing-song voice] I'm going to an oven!
[clattering]
All right! Bye-bye, cakes! Bye-bye, guys.
[eerie laughter echoes]
Named some creatures.
So we have jellyfish, we have kraken, we have--
A shark.
It's gotta be something nasty looking.
Something gross, scary.
-What is that... -Yeah, what's that fish
-that has that light called? -[Suzanna] I have no idea.
Anglerfish. Anglerfish.
-Anglerfish. -Those things are ugly.
[Suzanna] Our story has a sailor stuck at sea.
He sees a glimmer of light,
and as he gets closer, it's too late.
The anglerfish had come up to attack him,
and that was it for him.
As much as it was fun working with Caesar...
I'm so glad that we have our Ghosty Gal back.
-[Suzanna] Aww, thank you! -Yes absolutely.
I'm making my vanilla cake,
and I will be infusing a miso paste into the batter.
That'll give it that fishy taste
I guess we're going for.
My cake is vanilla miso cake soaked in a nori simple syrup,
layered with milk chocolate ganache,
strawberry cream cheese mousse,
and a Nori seaweed toffee crunch.
-[whirring] -[Suzanna] I'm making the cream cheese mousse.
Cream cheese, powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream.
I'm gonna add a few strawberries, diced.
So, it will cut that fishy flavor.
[woman] All right, so, my cake is ready.
-I'm going to the oven. -Perfect.
I'm thinking a monstrous octopus.
-Those scare me. -Yeah.
[Regi] Maybe we can add some ships that he's broken.
[Janet] Skulls?
Ooh.
We come up with an octopus that has been laying
and terrorizing unsuspecting passengers
for thousands of years.
Okay, well, chocolate goes well with everything.
-So... -Yeah?
I've been wanting to do my gluten-free chocolate cake.
So I guess now's my chance.
-[Janet] Mmm. -I've been waiting.
-[Hannah laughing] It sounds exciting! -[Regi] All right.
Hannah comes up with this gluten-free chocolate cake
with a ginger sea salt caramel, chocolate-covered fried dulse,
roasted peanuts in a peanut butter buttercream.
I'm gluten-free and I've been for almost six years now.
Which makes baking really difficult,
because gluten's what holds everything together.
But I really wanted to show this recipe
because it's very me.
It includes white rice flour, brown rice flour,
arrowroot and potato starch.
Xanthan gum acts as the gluten agent.
It has a lot of my favorite flavors. Chocolate, peanut butter, caramel.
Oh! I always use coffee in chocolate cake
because it brings out the rich, chocolaty flavor.
Just a little bit.
I know this design is good enough to get us into the finals.
We've continued to get better and better every week.
And now, we have to bring it all together.
We just gotta make sure we execute the design.
I want the octopus to look like it's moving towards the judges
by creating that motion in each one of the tentacles.
No time for mistakes, no screw-ups, nothing.
[Hannah] Okay, it's time to go to the oven!
Be done in about 15 minutes.
-'Cause we're a little bit wacky on this show. -[giggling]
They're gonna be incorporating some seaweed--
I'm so excited about that, actually.
But when you think about it, a lot of times
when we taste these cakes, it's like, oh wish I had
a little bit of salt to kinda balance it out.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, this is the perfect opportunity to add that
saltiness without adding salt.
I'm hoping that these teams really embrace the seaweed
because this is your chance to go into the final.
[Eddie] Yeah.
It could come down to how adventurous were you
with your cake.
[thunder rumbling]
I'm pretty sure that dulse is a red seaweed.
Oh, wow. That's... That's salty.
I think that frying it will help take some of the salt out.
Think I'm gonna paint it
with tempered chocolate to keep the texture
once it's crispy, I hope.
A lot of people use this as a vegan alternative for bacon.
I like the sound of chocolate, peanut butter and bacon.
This creature's been eating for a long time,
so, we're gonna have different skulls
at different stages of death.
[Janet] Regi, the size okay?
-Yeah, I trust you. Do your thing. -[Janet] Yeah.
I need you to be you. Be the great sculptor that you are!
Look at this brother.
[Regi] Nice!
I'm gonna start with the volcano.
And I'm thinking this pumpkin that I found,
it has a really good shape.
I'm hoping once I cut it, it has enough meat inside.
All right, let's try this first.
My plan is to do layers and cover this first.
So, the first step is to cover all the areas that
I want all the light to come through the most,
dripping lava coming through it.
[whirring]
All right!
It's gonna look really awesome.
Here I'm working on the toffee.
Equal quantities of butter and sugar,
and just crunchy and buttery and delicious.
And now, I'm going to put the nori on top.
-They want seaweed, we're gonna give them seaweed. -[Suzanna] Exactly.
It smells fishy, like...
Oh, my goodness. So weird!
But we cannot say we don't like it until we try it, right?
-Ahoy, me maties! -[Ghosty Gals] Hi!
-Welcome back, Suzanna -Thank you so much!
All right, what is that?
-It's not a spaceship, I promise. -[all laughing]
[Aarti] Is it an anglerfish?
-[Suzanna] Yes. -[Aarti] Ah, I love that!
I think that's one of the creepiest creations ever.
It is.
Suzanna is making some awesome sugar teeth.
She's carving the shipwreck.
Oh, so, the anglerfish is even bigger than the ship?
-Oh, yeah. -[Aarti] It's gigantic. Okay.
Which seaweed did you use?
-Uh, nori. -The nori?
Suzanna made an amazing toffee nori crunch.
-Oh, is that it? -[Suzanna] It's very buttery, and it's really good.
-And it'll give it a crunch... -Would you like to...
Yeah. Do you see me immediately looking for a spoon?
-[Suzanna laughing] -Don't show me food and not let me have any!
It's an English toffee, and then I put nori leaves.
It's an excellent toffee.
-Oh, thank you. -It is so crunchy,
-and it has such an assertive flavor. -[Suzanna] Mm-hmm.
-I'll tell you honestly? -Yes.
I'm not getting nori from it at all.
[thunder rumbling]
[eerie music]
It's an excellent toffee. I'm not getting nori from it at all.
This is the challenge where you almost wanna make us go,
-"Oh! That was a lot." -[Suzanna] Okay.
So if it feels like too much for you, it's just right for us.
Yeah. Listen, it's tight between these three teams.
A lot of times it has come down to the cake.
-[Suzanna] Oh. -[Aarti] All right, guys!
-Good luck! -[Ghosty Gals] Thank you!
[thunder rumbling]
[all groaning] Oh, Lord.
-Oh, no. -Oh, my God.
Oh, no!
[Zak] Six hours.
-An hour's gone by already? -[woman] Oh, my God! Okay.
[humming fanfare]
Nice and bouncy. Perfect.
Look, the cake is done!
-[Janet] Oh, that's beautiful. -[Regi] Perfect!
I'm about to make a hand with some modelling chocolate.
Even though the hand is torn apart from the sailor,
it still has the stress of pain on it.
We have to create that.
Though this is not the first hand I've made.
I made a hand at home.
Scare the daylights out of my wife.
-[Hannah laughing] -[Regi] Yeah.
Still feeling the repercussions from that.
Squad Ghouls wants to finish early.
That is their goal today,
-because they wanna be able to stand back... -[Shinmin] Hmm.
...look at the entire thing and edit.
I already see an amazing sculpted face out of pumpkin
-from Janet over there. -[Aarti] Yeah.
That looks creepy as all get out.
Yeah. There's another one
on the other side of that pumpkin.
-[Shinmin exclaiming] No! -[Aarti] So she's got two done.
[Shinmin] I feel like last week something happened with this team.
-Something clicked. -[Aarti] Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think their "ghoul" is to make it to the finale.
[Shinmin] Of course.
[thunder rumbling]
-[Zak] Hannah, Hannah! -[Hannah, irritated] What?
[Zak] Can you come over here to the TV?
Keep coming. I'm serious. Yes.
Get real close.
I want you to take your hand,
and I want you to go very slowly
-and touch the screen of the TV. -[Hannah] No!
-Just, please, do it. -[Hannah screams]
-[Zak] I'm sorry, 'cause... -[Hannah] No!
-[Janet laughing] -[Zak] I found out that you are easily scared.
-[Hannah] I hate you! -I'm sorry.
-[Janet giggling] -[Hannah growls]
Boop, boop, boop! Yup.
[in sing-song voice] How many cakes can I carry?
Boop!
Okay, hot cakes from the top rack.
Now I'm making a white chocolate furikake crunch.
I'm gonna be using rice cereal
to make it extra crunchy.
Furikake seasoning is salt, sugar,
black and white sesame seeds, and nori,
and drench it in white chocolate.
And it becomes this like
super, mega delicious sweet and salty snack.
Ooh, perfect!
Nice and fluffy. And it smells good.
Mmm!
We have our cake layer,
a layer of milk chocolate ganache all over.
Beautiful strawberry cream and a little layer
of our toffee seaweed crunch.
I'm carving the ship.
And then I will break it apart in two,
and have it crashed on both sides of the fish.
I want the ship to look like an older wooden ship.
So, I'm doing that wood grain.
Right now, I'm making the little windows
where the cannons are gonna go.
All right, guys, I'm about to break the ship.
-[Suzanna chuckles] -Nice.
[Suzanna] Nice.
Looks like the wood splintered,
and just using the natural form of the pumpkin
to make it look like it is completely fractured.
[Hannah] Italian meringue is my absolute favorite buttercream.
It is egg whites in a sugar and water syrup.
Now it's butter time!
And you can flavor it in any way.
You can add chocolate, you can add coffee,
you can do peanut butter.
And that's what I'm doing today.
I eat peanut butter by the spoonful
pretty much every single morning.
Yeah, I go through a lot of peanut butter.
I love how smooth and creamy this is.
Oh, my word!
-Word? [chuckles] -[Hannah] Word!
[thunderclap]
Four hours left, you guys.
Oh, no. Here we go.
For the last few challenges, we've been getting
that we don't paint our pumpkins.
-Yup. -[Willy] So, this time--
Oh, we're gonna paint--
We're gonna paint those pumpkins.
I'm working on molten lava
coming down through the channels of the volcano.
This is piping gel.
I'm going to paint the other channels black,
like a volcano.
There we go.
I'm screwing on our seahorse head.
The plan for a seahorse is to actually have
an exoskeleton made out of pumpkin
around his belly.
I will need to make the cake
slightly smaller than the actual cage of pumpkin,
so that it doesn't push too tightly
up against our cake and start dissolving things.
-[Willy] Is that too tight? What do you feel? -Yeah, it's too tight.
-[Willy] Okay, I'll take it. -Yeah.
I can make it skinnier on that side.
[Willy] Okay, then. Let's do it.
It's gonna look very cool,
but I also have to be very careful.
Because, if I make it too skinny,
there's a chance it can collapse.
[thunderclap]
-Oh, no. -Oh, here it comes.
[Suzanna laughs]
It's happening, Willy.
[Zak] One more thing about "Cape Disappointment",
on a bluff high above those raging waters,
sits the North Head Lighthouse.
Built in the 19th century,
to aid sailors attempting to find safe port,
the lighthouse was more often a beacon of doom
for the multitudes lost at sea.
Monsters hide everywhere in these dark waters.
But what else is revealed when the lighthouse shines on the sea?
Leave it up to Zak, a lighthouse that ain't even safe anymore.
[Eddie] All right, everybody. Just like those sailors,
danger lurks in the deepest, darkest depth of the ocean.
So for your twist, want you to add
a secret hidden sea monster
that's waiting to scavenge what's left of our traveler.
I ain't got time for this.
For your twist, want you to add a secret hidden sea monster
that's waiting to scavenge what's left of our traveler.
Let's just add another element, this is fine.
What's a bottom feeder? Shrimp?
What if an eel hangs out in his belly just waiting to come out
and eat everything that falls from his mouth?
-An eel? -Yeah.
Yeah.
What if we make an octopus--
They're doing an octopus.
Um...
So, we gotta think of something, guys.
The first thing I think of, is a flounder,
'cause they're bottom feeders.
A shrimp! Don't shrimp eat... stuff?
You know what? I got something in my head, that's evil.
It's just this ugly fish.
I'm gonna knock it out right now.
Like an eel slash--
-[Janet] Electric eel? -[Regi] Monster.
I gotta let it set that way.
I can add teeth to it, and some fangs.
What type of creature would scavenge in the ocean?
First thing that came to mind was an eel, and like a crab.
My team, Lollipop Lunatics,
-thinking like I'm thinking. -[Aarti] Mm-hmm.
[Eddie] They're gonna create an eel out of modelling chocolate.
-Cool! -So they're able to get that movement.
[Aarti] Squad Ghouls' twist creature
coming from the depths of Regi's imagination.
[Shinmin] Okay!
-[Aarti] It is a Regi original. -Yes, I like that!
With Ghosty Gals, they've not decided yet.
Ghosty Gals likes to get their designs perfect.
-Yes -[Eddie] Mm-hmm.
And so, they need to decide now
'cause it's probably going to take them a little bit longer
-just because they'd love to get that perfect finish. -[Shinmin] Yeah.
[Aarti] These guys are really close.
They're at neck-and-neck.
They might come down to the twist.
[thunder rumbling]
While we think about the twist,
I'm making the sailor
that got shipwrecked and mauled
by the anglerfish.
I'm gonna have like red...
Blood is oozing out.
We want him to look like he just got attacked
and he's like,
"Argh!"
-[Shinmin] Suzanna, hi. -Hi!
How are you?
-Do you guys have your twist figured out yet? -Oh, we're thinking
about squid or a--
What about like a zombie seagull?
-[Suzanna chuckles] -'Cause they're always the ones that pick up
all the remnants.
We want this character to really blend in seamlessly,
and have some kind of interaction.
Not just a bird sitting on the ledge of the boat.
[Suzanna] Yeah.
We'll always love your work!
Keep that momentum going,
because we're so close. The finale is next week.
[Suzanna] Thank you.
I feel a little bit worried about them right now.
They don't have a real plan for this twist,
and it's an extra character.
I know this is a tough one.
So I'm pretty concerned about them.
[thunderclap]
Three hours.
Thanks, Zak!
Oh, my gosh. Okay.
Time is ticking.
What about like a jellyfish?
-It can be swimming alongside, underneath the ship. -[Suzanna] Okay.
You can just blow like a half dome.
With some squigglies?
[Suzanna] Out of isomalt. That sounds perfect.
-You guys like it? -[Suzanna] Yeah, I love it!
[Eddie] Ghosty Gals, they finally came up
with something to do for the twist.
They're gonna do a jellyfish.
But I really don't associate
a jellyfish with being kinda like that scavenger.
-[Shinmin] Yeah... -[Eddie] But if they found a way
to get some type of light in there,
'cause jellyfish under water, they have that glow.
[Aarti and Shinmin] Yes!
That would be cool.
[thunder rumbling]
Uh, babe, do you have the eyeballs made for the seahorse?
Yeah, you want them?
-Yes, please. -Okay.
There's a lot riding on the seahorse
being enough to get us through to the finals.
I'm working on my seahorse head
made out of rice cereal treats
covered with modelling chocolate.
And to add some really cool seahorse texture,
I'm pinching bumps
down the back of its head.
It's definitely starting to come to life.
Our seahorse is going to be protecting
his nest down below.
And so, we're gonna be making eggs
out of gelatin. And Willy is going to carve out
tiny little purple sweet potato seahorses
to go inside of each one of the eggs.
[Willy] This is a sweet potato.
We picked it because of the color.
Light will shine through these eggs,
and it will really showcase these little creatures.
Look how tiny it is!
Aw, tiny baby! Totes adorbs. We're gonna take all these babies,
and we're gonna set them on our partially-set gelatin.
And then, we'll finish filling them,
and get them to set.
[thunderclap]
[Regi] We're using ganache to cover the rice cereal.
We're using a flexible scraper
to smooth out the chocolate. It actually eliminates
the bumps you get rom rice cereal.
I am just trimming up
my cake layers right now.
Our octopus head is going to be this cake.
It's kind of fun
to after all this hard work,
cut into the head of your creature.
So I put a layer of peanut butter Italian meringue,
and my ginger sea salt caramel.
Some of this chocolate covered fried dulse.
I don't want the judges to have really massive pieces.
So I'm gonna try to break it up a little bit.
And then some peanuts.
-[Regi] Let's get that on top of the cake. -You ready?
[Regi] All right.
We're also seeing slightly different strategies here
in terms of cake design.
Lollipop Lunatics has gone for tall, big.
Ghosty gals, it's much lower to the ground
-but it's deep. -[Shinmin] Yeah.
[Aarti] Which is very cool.
That depth to me and that darkness, it's really smart.
It's like the bottom of the ocean floor.
And then we have Squad Ghouls and they've gone for like a even lower more spread-out
-kind of surface right? -[Aarti] Mmm.
[Shinmin] So we're going from super vertical and tall and skinny to
flat on the platform and spread out into these
-interesting tentacles of the octopus. -[Aarti] Yeah.
Right now because everything is really kind of flat and low to the base,
I think that this is all about
just coming up with a texture and color and dimension for them.
Because otherwise these two
are just so much more striking.
So that is definitely what I'm worried about with Squad Ghouls.
Hey, Suzanna. Let me color there before we pour any of these--
-It's just we wanna do the waves in the back. -Yeah okay, don't worry.
Ghosty gals!
-Hi, how are doing? -How are you doing?
[Eddie] I'm doing good. We got about two hours left so, how are you doing?
If you had another seven hours to give us we could use it.
-Nah! -[laughs]
-This is a very brown fish. -I know.
All right, normally I don't worry about you all but,
two hours left and it seems like you have a lot left to do.
-Mmm you're making me nervous. -[woman1] We're gonna make it happen.
You're not feeling the pressure, are you?
I'm always feeling the pressure.
I'm starting to get a sense that we feeling the pressure over here.
You have to trust us.
All right. Let's do something with this fish. It's looking a little... bare.
[Monique] Okay, so he says the fish is kind of bare.
I'm gonna put piping gel over his body
to make it look like it's nice and shiny,
and it just emerged out of the depths of the ocean.
Really disgusting.
[thunder rumbling]
Two hours.
Hey guys, crunch time.
Man, that went fast.
[Hannah] I'm gonna make some ice coral.
I have two big buckets of ice, my isomalt is warmed up.
Since we decided to do a reef, that means they have a lot of
coral to do. 'cause I'm gonna have a lot of space to cover.
You have hot sugar hitting cold ice.
So it will end up setting in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I'm gonna place them together on a reef.
And then... I wanna do a purplish.
I'm just continuing to make different colors of coral.
[Regi] Our plan for the paint right now is to give it
a underwater look.
We gotta be careful not to make the colors too bright.
I'm trying to go for flesh color right now.
Wanna make sure
we choose the right color. 'Cause if we don't,
it could mean disaster of us.
[Hannah] This is a natural color. So they do blend in.
That's their tendency.
Going to release my ice coral. Oh my!
[laughs]
Whoa!
Regi, can I get some help?
[Regi] Yeah, what do you need?
I just need you to help
break it.
Do that.
-Yeah! -[Regi laughs heartily]
[Regi] Nice.
I'm putting together the scuba driver,
with a very, very sad fate.
The seahorse is going to be shooting magma sugar out of its mouth.
And to top it all off
there is gonna be a tiny little scuba diver
stuck at the top of the magma meeting his demise.
He needs a tank and something to breathe oxygen with.
You know, for the time I've got, it's not so bad.
[Willy] Put the fire on top. Yeah.
I'm doing it right now.
I'm not tall enough.
[Willy] Hold on, hold on, hold on. Jamie.
-You're not tall enough? Okay. -It's heavy.
-Okay guys, I mean... -Oh, my gosh, what if... that is gigantic.
For my next party trick... [laughs]
[Willy] Just be careful.
It's sagging. Turn it or take it out.
This one truly is making me nervous.
It just does not look stable to me at all.
Tilt it up. Very heavy.
Okay, don't wiggle this anymore.
[Suzanna] I'm going to blow some isomalt.
I'm starting to make the light
that goes in front of the fish.
We want the color to be yellow,
so the light would be like, bright and colorful.
And then I'm going to close it,
and put the lights into it.
So, I think it's gonna look super cool.
I'm going to pour the isomalt,
and then after that I'll put the whales.
Waves.
[all laugh]
[woman] We're doing whales now?
[Suzanna] And I'm sticking them with the same isomalt.
-Do you need help putting them. -Yes.
[Monique] Okay, I'll place 'em and then you glue 'em
and then it'll go by a little bit faster.
Whoa. Look at Ghosty Gals.
Oh, hello.
-Oh wow, that's changed. -That's shaping up.
[thunder rumbling]
One hour left.
Hey, we've got a lot to get done.
About an hour left, and then we'll decide who gets to stay for the final.
-[Willy] All right, Jamie. -Yeah.
-[Jamie] You're ready? -[Wily] This is very delicate, so let's...
-[Jamie] Let's do it. -Grab the other side?
[Jamie] This exoskeleton is one of the coolest parts of our cake.
We do not want this thing to break.
-I'm like right here, where's your edge? -Do you feel that?
Do you see that little cage
on the tummy portion of the seahorse?
-Yeah, I was gonna ask you what that is? -that's pumpkin
-Ohh... -That's pumpkin?
[Aarti] That's pumpkin.
Getting a piece of organic material like pumpkin,
to be the exact shape
and size of that seahorse,
-It's really hard. -[all laugh]
And they did it. Interesting.
[Jamie] It looks so adorable and happy.
I'm ready to eat things that fall to--
[Zak] 45 minutes.
We need to stop whatever we are doing
and start putting this thing together.
[Hannah] I have a bunch of coral.
Since I have so many different colors I'm just gonna
make sure that I evenly distribute them.
[Janet] I'm using brown sugar as sand.
It looks nice.
I'm starting to panic.
Let's do this.
[Monique] Can we do something like the lights inside?
'Cause you know how the jellyfish,
some of 'em like light up? It can even be swimming like alongside underneath the ship.
[Suzanna] Okay? So that's the plan. Yeah, okay.
[Monique] Seeing that our main sailor's been ripped apart,
this jellyfish's gonna scavenge a leg.
Okay, nobody even look at it.
-Yeah. -That looks so cool.
[Jamie] Willy's taking out the eggs.
-Yes! -[Willy] Perfect!
That's just exactly what we wanted to make.
Now we're hoping with the light that we have inside
will go through this egg.
Wanna do the bulb right now?
-Yeah. -Yeah, let's do it.
Okay.
[Aarti] Look at Ghosty Gals trying to attach that sugar light
on the end of the anglerfish's...
Thingamajig.
[laughs]
[Shinmin] Wow! That face looks insane. [gasps]
[Aarti] It's amazing.
-Please just hold it. -I know.
[thunder rumbling]
Ten minutes teams. Come on let's go, let's go.
For the love of God.
Finishing up the details, making sure that these eyes work.
-Oh the, sparklers. -Grab the sparklers, please.
-They're right there. -Okay.
-Where do you want to put this? -I'll put it in.
Where'd that character go?
[Hannah] Where's the what?
Where did my monster go?
-Are you serious? -[Janet] What?
Where did my monster go?
[Janet] What is it?
He's looking for this little fondant monster.
Oh.
[Regi] Did it fall?
-What do you mean? How can it get lost? -How did he lose it?
[Shinmin] No.
[Regi] My God.
[Hannah] Did you accidentally grab it and use it for something else?
I didn't.
I had it made. I set it down.
If we can't find it we got to make another one.
Irony of ironies. They made that twist element first.
Yeah.
And in the last few minutes he has discovered that it's gone bye-bye.
-[Regi] I got to create an eel. -[Janet] Okay.
The hand needs to be painted. I don't care what color you paint it.
-You want me to do-- -You can air brush it.
-Here. Can you make me some eyeballs? Little. -Oh, okay.
Oh my! My air-brush dripped.
It actually worked because it's blood coming from the hand.
[Aarti] Ok he got it on the board. Okay, phew.
So he was able to create a second one it just...
[Eddie] One minute remaining.
[thunder rumbling]
Give me that air brush real quick.
-Hannah, dripping-- -That's it. We're good.
[Regi] All right, y'all, we're going for broke.
Don't move this.
I'm trying not to.
[woman] Ow. Stuck my finger.
[Zak] Time to reveal your demonic deep-sea monsters.
[Eddie] That's it time is up.
-Wow, guys. -Oh my gosh.
Stand away from it.
That's awesome.
-Oh my... -What?
[Regi] Not having that twist piece cost me
doing some of the details that I really wanted to complete.
[thunder rumbling]
[Jamie] Seismic activity was sensed in the Pacific Ocean,
so a researcher goes down to try and figure out what's happening.
And he finds a lava seahorse kaiju
has built a nest on top of a volcano under the water.
Unfortunately, his curiosity leads him a little bit too close,
and our lava seahorse kaiju
shoots magma at him and he gets cooked.
And what do you have for your twist?
We have a little moray eel
hanging out in the exoskeleton of our lava seahorse.
So, I really love the combination between the black of the volcano
and the orange-red that you have going on with
the light inside the pumpkin itself.
Because it gives the illusion of movement.
The thing that's kind of throwing me off is
what you choose for the eel. I wish you would've done
like sugar to give that look of wetness, sliminess,
'cause that's what I think of when I envision an eel.
-Okay. -[Shinmin] Your gelatin
exacts with little baby embryos inside
it's actually really disgusting but also beautiful
and really really well executed.
The sugar work that's coming out from the top
that's supposed to look like a plume of smoke, because it's so large
the human character on top is almost lost.
You guys set yourself up for a very hard challenge,
A, with your choice of color,
and B, by adding that armor.
I thought you were crazy.
I didn't think it was worth it but now I understand why.
It makes a lot of sense.
For me, I think the black took over
your ocean floor. It kind of pulls the whole design down
instead of setting it off.
[Jamie] Not easy.
Our special ingredient we picked is Nori.
So, you have a black sesame nori cake
with layers of white chocolate mousse
and mango gelee with fresh mango pieces
and a white chocolate furikake crisp
with a white chocolate buttercream.
The black sesame was such a good call.
-Awesome. -It's earthy, it's slightly bitter.
But I think the smartest part here is the mango.
That little flash of acidity,
it's kind of like the magma erupting from your seahorse.
When you smell this cake, I smell Nori right away.
It's got that bold, deep umami flavor.
But what I love, you added just a little tiny layer of that cereal
and it gave us that crunch that we expect from nori.
Thank you.
I'm getting all the characteristics of the ocean.
So, there's this grittiness in this cake that I really appreciate.
Almost it's as if you was eating like a picnic on the beach you know,
every now and again, you get a little sand.
-Little sand on your food? -Yeah.
But it's in a good way.
The thing that I'm missing though, I want some saltiness to come through.
It would have complemented everything else you have in the cake.
Okay.
Lollipop Lunatics, thank you.
You're welcome.
We wanted him to be camouflaged.
He was too camouflaged.
-Good job on your sugar. -Good job.
-Good job guys. -Good job.
Good job.
[Monique] Our sailor here, was lost at sea
when he finally saw the glow of the light house leading him home.
As he approached,
he suddenly realized it was a ginormous
anglerfish luring him in.
He attempted to blow the anglerfish away
with his cannons, but it was too late.
-Oh! -[Aarti] Ohh...
[Eddie] Oh wow! [growls]
[Aarti] I'm so sorry, little man.
[all laughing]
Our twist, we have this little jellyfish,
who has scoured a leg and is fleeing back into the ocean.
Great job choosing your monster
because anglerfish do live in the dark murky depths.
It totally fits the challenge that Zak set down for you.
Monique, your carving is so great.
But I think once you painted it with that dark color
we lost a lot of the texture
that you so painstakingly put into your ship.
We are staring straight inside the
the deep dark mouth of the anglerfish.
We're really forced to step in and feel that tension.
And then of course the action of the water
really supports a scary scene here.
I love that you put the light into the jellyfish.
But if we just wove a little bit more color in there
it would really be believable.
I agree, I feel it needs some color,
it needs a little bit of texture
or even that the position that you have it in.
I almost want to kind of see it
in his mouth.
Almost like a jellyfish, dinner floss.
-[all laughing] -Like, I'm trying to get some of these little
nooks and crannies from in between its teeth.
[woman] This is a vanilla miso cake, soaked in a Nori simple syrup.
Layered with a milk chocolate ganache,
a strawberry cream cheese mousse
and a nori toffee crunch.
This cake is phenomenal.
[laughs loftily]
It is light. It has texture.
And I love this little bits of toffee that's on top of the cream cheese.
But I'm not getting that miso.
This tastes more like a delicious, like strawberry cheese cakey type of a cake.
So I feel like the miso really gets lost in here.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
This cake is so good.
It's like a dish. Like this is a dish.
And it's complete and I love it.
Honestly, yo! Love it.
Dang, did you get hooked? It's like,
"Honestly, yo!"
[all laughing]
-I'm getting down with this. Like, "Gosh, okay!" -[Aarti] That's crazy.
Know what I'm sayin', son?
[all laughing]
I will differ... and say that for me the strawberry
while welcome, takes over.
For me the strawberry, while welcome, takes over.
I think the textures of the cake are brilliant.
I love the miso, I love the seaweed,
-strawberry is a little strong for me. -Cool.
All right, Ghosty Gals, thank you so much.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
-Good job you guys. -Yes, we did it.
[chuckles]
[Hannah] Na Kika, the octopus God has occupied
the seas for thousands of years feasting on passengers.
He sneaks up on unsuspecting travelers,
by blending into the surroundings.
And what is your twist?
We have octopus' little friend, the eel.
Mr. Octopus decided to share a little bit of his feast with him
and gave him a pinky finger.
-A pinky? -A pinky. Look, he's missing his finger.
I don't think they friends, if all he givin' him is a pinky.
You done ate this whole body, and all you gonna give me is a pinky?
[all laugh]
Regi, you did a really good job with this. We've never
seen you do an actual creature.
It's always been an amazing face.
And I think you did an outstanding job creating this octopus.
The problem that I'm having is with the color choice.
Everything is kind of blending in from the orange of pumpkin,
to the ocean floor.
What I love most about your octopus,
is the way that you dappled his skin,
so it almost feels like he's about to change his color.
I think you guys needed to cheat it
and make that ocean floor darker and then he would like set off more.
I also wanna almost like pick him up by the head and
pull him up by about like a foot.
It would create a little more dimension in your piece.
And of course your twist,
Regi, I know you spent the last four minutes creating it.
You could have done two thing, a different color,
and instead of hiding him behind,
this gorgeous sugar work here,
place him in the front. It would make a lot more sense.
-Yeah. -And also he would look like he's a scavenger
-collecting the pinky that dropped. -Okay.
[Regi] Good cut.
[Hannah] So it's a gluten-free chocolate cake,
with a fried and chocolate covered dulse,
with a ginger sea salt caramel, little bit of crushed peanuts
and a peanut butter Italian meringue buttercream.
-This don't make any sense. -[Shinmin] Mmm-hmm I know.
How is this a gluten-free cake?
That's what I'm trying to figure out.
I worked on it for maybe three or four years now.
Yeah now you got me smooshin' it in my face right now.
That chocolate covered dulse is so addictive.
It sneaks up on you much like this octopus would.
The other cool thing is that you've paired
such an assertive flavor, with two other assertive flavors
chocolate and peanut butter.
And they're all playing really nicely together.
What I really like is it has that
bottom of the ocean briny taste to it.
Which pairs really well because you have such a strong chocolate cake.
And then peanut butter, I would never in a million years
think of adding peanut butter and dulse together.
But you did it and you're showing us, hey, you know what, it works.
Because you're a cake technician.
Hannah, I'm gonna be honest with you, this is probably
the best cake I've had all season.
Are you serious?
You got some things going on in here
inside this cake that I think are absolutely amazing.
This is a gluten-free cake and
you can't tell me this is gluten-free.
The texture of the cake itself is so fudgy.
Really good job. I wouldn't change a thing about it.
Wow!
All right, Squad Ghouls, thank you.
Thank you.
[Shinmin] Thank you guys.
I know we were just talking bout hittin' it with purple.
-We had gone back and forth. -[Regi] I know.
But you had four minutes to make that dang eel, okay?
-And it's on there. -I know.
I'm not mad at it, okay?
-I'm not mad at it either. -It's on the board.
-Good job. -Good Job.
You too.
You were challenged to explore all the evil that lurks beneath the surface
of a possessed sea.
I gotta tell you, it's sink or swim, because only two of you
will be moving on to the finale.
Now you all embraced the challenge
but I gotta tell you, one of you
floated to the top with your insane possessed monster.
Congratulation goes to...
[intense music playing]
Ghosty Gals.
You ladies are on a roll.
[woman] This is like the motivation that we need
to like, you know, push it to the finals.
That means, Squad Ghouls and Lollipop Lunatics,
you guys are in hot water and one of you will be going home.
Squad Ghouls, your cake convinced us all to go gluten-free.
And your octopus was beautiful and it really showcased your sculpting skills, Regi.
However, the color choice didn't stand out or scare us enough.
Lollipop Lunatics, your volcano was on fire.
And we loved the integration of all your mediums on the cake.
Especially the fish eggs.
Your cake was more than seaworthy.
But your balance of the scuba diver to magma was off.
And your sugar ocean floor wasn't successful.
So, the team that's going home...
Squad Ghouls.
I'm sorry,
but you're done on Halloween Wars.
I've taken a lot of away from this experience.
I think I'm a way better cake sculptor.
I've worked with two of the most amazing people
that I've ever met in my life.
We became a family.
We left it all on the table, so I have no regrets.
Congratulations! Ghosty Gals and Lollipop Lunatics,
y'all are going to the finale.
[cheering]
[Eddie] Next time on Halloween Wars...
[woman] Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
[Eddie] ...Lollipop Lunatics and Ghosty Gals face off in the Halloween Wars finale
inspired by Zak's most haunted location yet.
The city of light has a darkness lurking beneath it.
The catacombs.
Pretty sure this one is gonna be scary.