Paul Hollywood attacked this pastry sausage dog!

After some misfires in challenges and bakes, The Great British Baking Show season 17 was back to fine form for episode 6, Pastry Week. Well, until Paul Hollywood plunged his knife into this cute sausage dog’s head.

“Pastry contains a secret,” Nigella said during judging, and I think that secret was: Paul Hollywood is getting a little irritable.

“We’re pushing the bakers now,” Paul Hollywood said, but it’s he who seems like he’s finally being pushed out of his comfort zone of just being right all the time.

“Great color,” Alison said when Paul was cutting into Moyin’s pies, and when Paul gave her dramatic side-eye, she said, “I just want to be a judge.” I’d watch that version, Nigella and Alison judging, Noel hosting, win-win-win.

Signature challenge ► The remaining bakers had to make eight identical hand-held savory pies made, of course, of pastry—versus pies made from cake.

There were some nice education moments. Clara couldn’t pronounce Worcestershire sauce, which is ironic because it’s a place in Britain that’s just 200 km from where she’s from. I thought it was just us Yanks that can’t pronounce it. Then again, I can’t pronounce Worcester, Mass.

Paul Hollywood, meanwhile, learned what a bánh mì is, and surprise surprise, he’s never had one, choosing instead to become a connoisseur of tackos. However, I don’t think he’s had them still, since Tom’s hand pie was simply “inspired by” bánh mì.

“That’s a bit embarrassing,” Tom said. Also embarrassing: Mo saying “I feel like I like not knowing what I’m doing” and telling Noel, “personally I don’t believe in receipt books.” First, we have to stop doing this thing where people don’t “believe in” something that actually exists, like cookbooks and God of Bread Paul Hollywood.

Connie’s jerk chicken pies were “completely perfect,” Nigella said, mouth full, and later dinged Clara for design over substance.

“I haven’t got a great deal of filling in mine. Have you taken all my filling?” Nigella asked Paul, who sounded so aggrieved: “Nooooo.”

Technical ► At long last, a technical where everyone makes the same thing from the same ingredients and same limited instructions! Hooray!

This challenge was a take on Nigella’s Carpathian Mountains—I mean, karpatka, which looks like the snowy peaks of the Carpathians.

“This looks like an amazing pastry,” Paul said, and I agree. Two chunks of choux pastry with custard between? Cut me a slice.

The judges found Mo’s to be “lifeless,” and Nigella said it needed “a teeny bit extra salt,” and Paul rolled his eyes and she shut him down “no, no, you know what I mean” when Paul rolled his eyes at her.

Tom came in second and Moyin first, while Clara was in last place. Clara outlined a plan that’d lead her to a better day: “Tomorrow I’m going to slay.” But she did not.

Showstopper ► Just a freeform pie—no tin. “I think it’s an easy challenge,” Paul said, and then added, “not.” OH YOU DEVIL YOU!

While Moyin created a design inspired by Nigerian art, and Clara a sun/moon design, most of the bakers created animal shapes, like Gabe’s sausage dog pictured above. They were all delightful, even if the bakes weren’t perfect.

Connie had a clever snake design, with a curried sweet potato cake; Gary’s fish pie was in the shape of a fish, complete with scales, though those were too thick. Mo burned his butterfly—poor butterfly!

Tom created Rocky from Chicken Run, but the show called it a “stop-motion chicken,” which is giving Food Network’s “rice cereal treats.” Anyway, Tom got a handshake for the pastry and flavor combinations, and Paul Hollywood got his masculinity back between that and cutting into Gabe’s dog’s head.

“It feels like a sin to cut into that,” Nigella said about the dog, after both she and Paul admired the design. And then Paul took his big knife and split the dog’s head right down the middle. I guess this was the Halloween episode. Or Halloween.

Star baker/leaving the tent ► Tom, for the third time, was Star Baker.

On the bottom were Clara and Mo, and Clara’s failure to redeem her bad episode in the final challenge meant she was gone. I’d have preferred Mo leave, because he just seems so disengaged. Whether that’s his personality, persona, age, or something else, he’s a soggy bottom in a tent of crumbly crusts.

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