Whaddya mean I have no idea what I’m doing? Photo from Bravo.

Well, we’ve now made it through double-digit episodes in this season of Top Chef. And we’ve done it without resorting to a drinking game…yet. Whatever else one can say about this season, we’ll admit that it’s served up to a lot of classic Top Chef archetypes.

Angelo is our villain: cocky, entitled, talented, and with a knack for making everyone hope for him to lose (previous examples include Hung, Stefan and Marcel). Kenny was our talented and promising cheftestant who went out early thanks to an executive chef stint on Restaurant Wars (see: Tre and Dale). And then we have Alex. Alex is the contestant that everyone hates. These contestants are never the most talented. Sure, they’ll manage to cook a decent dish at some point, but mostly they survive and advance by being bad, but not the worst. Often, this strategy lands them on the bottom week after week but keeps them in the competition for a while, much to the chagrin of the other chefs (Robin and Lisa are your best previous examples of this phenomenon).

This week’s episode began with pretty much everyone indicating they are ready for Alex to go, most feeling he should have gone last week. Alex himself says that he thinks this is all just people lashing out because Kenny’s gone and they liked Kenny. Oh, Alex. We’re sure you’re right in that people liked Kenny and are sad he’s gone, but we also think they just genuinely don’t like you. One bright spot is Amanda, who says she likes Alex and respects and admires his cooking. Which is fitting since, more often than not, she joins him on the bottom at judges’ table.