The final Feast of Monsters is upon us.
[screaming]
[Jonathan] Last time,
after a life-or-death clash with Mother Nature itself,
Two Ghouls And A Butcher was sent home.
Shriek Squad and Scream Of The Crop,
captained by their All-Star champions,
are the last two teams standing.
[Kristina] Go, go, go, go, go!
[Jonathan] Now, they're about to face their most terrifying challenge yet...
[Sarah Arnold] We gotta go big.
[Kristina] It's not playtime. It's finale time.
[Jonathan] ...in one last all-or-nothing battle...
This is no joke. I can't hold it together.
[Jonathan] ...for the Halloween Wars title
and $25,000.
[Jamie] Pull out all the stops.
It is going to fall down.
-[judges groaning] -No.
[Kristina] This is turning into a nightmare.
-[drilling] -[clatters]
[judges gasping]
[Jonathan] The most heart-pounding season of Halloween Wars All-Stars
starts right now.
Shriek Squad and Scream Of The Crop,
welcome to the finale of Halloween Wars.
[all cheering]
Captains, you're one step away from legendary status
as one of the greatest in Halloween Wars history.
[all cheering]
You're all about to cross the threshold
into your most horrifying challenge yet.
-[woman] Yes! -[shudders]
We want you to envision what might happen
if you were forced to check in
to the spookiest haunted hotel in the land.
-Oh! -Okay.
The kind of creepy place where you may check in
but you might not check out.
-[all chuckling] -And because this is your last chance
to shock the judges into a sweet stupor,
you're all in the specialty spotlight tonight.
-Oh! -Oh, boy.
-Yeah. [sighs] -Okay.
Pumpkin carvers must complete a character
entirely made of pumpkin.
-[sighs] -[Kyle] Oh, wow.
Sugar artists must create an entire a decorative element of your hotel
out of sugar.
-Oh! -[Sarah Arnold] Wow.
And cake artists must build a key component of the story
out of cake.
Your tasting element will honor the ghosts
lurking in the halls of your hotels,
with spirit-inspired flavors.
-Mmm-mmm. -[chuckling]
Shriek Squad, you get bourbon.
-Yes! -Yes!
Scream Of The Crop, port.
-Sweet. -Oh!
And of course, this is the finale,
so your baking assistants are back to help you with your horrors.
-[woman laughing] -Yay!
Your final seven hours starts now!
All right. Let's go, girls. We got finale.
-Let's go! -[Jamie in singsong voice] All right!
We gotta go big. Haunted Hotel.
What are we thinking?
[in normal voice] Well, what rooms, like, really exude hotel?
I'm kind of thinking, like, the check-in desk.
-Oh, the front desk. -Straight to the lobby.
-Yeah. -Who will our hotelier be?
If we have a main character that's like a witch...
-[Jamie] Yeah. -...could she be doing--
-How about a seance? Yeah! -A seance. Exactly.
-That's what I was thinking! -Oh!
[Kristina] It's gonna be All Hallows Eve.
The hotelier will be in a seance
where she is lowering the veil between the spirit world
and spirit hands that will be coming out of the walls of our piece,
reaching towards the guests.
-Every detail-- -Right. All the details.
-Make this look like a hotel. -[Kristina] The painting.
-Hotel, super clean. -The painting has to be on par.
Detail, detail, detail.
We need something going on.
-Something that you walk into and you're witnessing. -Yeah.
What if we did, uh, elevator?
-[Sarah Arnold] Oh, that'd be great. -[Sarah] Mmm.
But it's not just an elevator, it's a portal that's alive.
We have a trick-or-treater
that wants to go to a Halloween party in a haunted hotel,
only to find out that the ghoulies, which are the bellhops,
are taking him to be a part of the hotel's entourage forever.
-I can do big sugar doors... -[Kyle] Yeah!
...with the teeth interlocking.
Are you gonna do the chandelier too?
Yeah. This is the finale.
-I'm up for it. -[chuckles] Good point.
-All right. All right. -Let's do it.
This is everything.
We're going against tough, tough competition,
and we don't know what's gonna happen.
-We are going to win. -We got this. Let's go.
-[all] One, two, three, Shriek Squad! -[Jonathan Elias] Go!
[drilling]
[Kristina] We have to create a pumpkin character
that is front and center.
We are gonna have a witch who's gonna be made entirely out of pumpkin.
Since our witch is such an important part of this challenge,
I am trying to source the best segments to build her out of,
something firm and thick,
so I can really get the depth in the character.
The witch is our main character. It's gonna have to be perfect.
I have to use every single second of these seven hours
making sure that my character is well carved and looks great.
-I think it's looking great. -Is it...
-You wanna... I don't think so. -...really too big?
[Jamie] I think there needs to be a lot there
because this is such a big piece.
-Bourbon. -[Kristina] Jamie and Jonathan
are gonna be tag-teaming this tasting element.
They're sort of bringing the best of both of their skills
and combining them to create these new and inventive pieces
that, so far, the judges have really loved.
So, our tasting element today is bourbon,
and bourbon goes well with, like, caramels and chocolates.
So, we're doing a peanut butter mousse,
salted caramel sauce with bourbon,
and this cocoa almond biscuit, which is kind of like
a softer but still yet chewy kind of brownie cake base.
It'll be really, really good.
Jamie is going to be creating her famous bourbon salted caramel filling.
[exclaims]
That's a... [chuckles]
-[Jonathan Elias] Oh, yeah. -That's a bourbon cloud.
The judges don't taste that?
I mean, it's all gonna go downhill from there.
So, right now, what I'm doing is
I'm whipping up my eggs and sugar to get a nice, fluffy peak.
The first thing that Jonathan is getting started on
is this incredible biscuit.
[Jonathan Elias] I'm currently combining my cocoa powder, almond flour, and sugar.
[in singsong voice] Into the oven we go.
[in normal voice] I need to get that in the oven so I can get that chilled,
and I follow that with my peanut butter mousse.
I'm whipping together cream cheese, heavy cream, sugar, and peanut butter.
You get the salt, you get the sweetness, you get the nuttiness.
And then you get the cake, and we're gonna do a little bitter dark chocolate
to kind of counteract that, too.
So, I'm just starting to peel this, uh, butternut squash.
I'm using these for the heads of my ghouls.
And I think I'm gonna use the large, bulbous part at the top
and leave that as their little bell... Bellhop hat.
When I was younger, it was definitely difficult being the artistic person
and thinking, "What on earth am I going to do for a job?"
Finding theater, finding film,
finding pumpkin sculpting even,
has just been this incredible outlet
that started as a passion
and became a career.
[Kyle] Awesome. He looks great.
So, we're not gonna go super big,
so he doesn't fill up our entire board.
We have a lot of elements this time.
I'm gonna be working on our victim
that's in the front and center.
What I'm doing is I'm blocking out the face for our victim
that's getting dragged into the gates of hell.
With almost all of our pieces, we've kind of defied gravity on 'em,
especially our bigger ones.
We like making things that look unnatural become natural.
[Sarah Arnold] You can tell he's like, "Oh, God, my life is gonna end!"
So, I'm getting started with our tasting right away.
I wanna waste no time.
For our spirit, we get port.
So, I'm starting with my, uh, port cherry compote here.
So, port wine is very sweet. It's very fruity and red,
so it's gonna pair really well with my cherries here.
I think it's there.
I think you need more port. [chuckles]
What she's making is a dark chocolate shell in the shape of a skull.
Inside that skull, she's doing a mascarpone
with an almond streusel,
and a pork cherry compote on top
that looks like brains.
Yeah, you got it.
-[Sarah Arnold] You got it? -You got it.
We have these two teams
that have given us so many scary things throughout the season.
What are you guys hoping to see
for this big Halloween Wars All-Star finale?
I want them to go big, go huge.
I wanna see expression. I wanna see story.
-Yeah. -I wanna see the details
-of those hotels come through. -Yeah.
[Aarti] Well, I will say these two teams,
historically, have done a very good job
of seamlessly incorporating all the different elements.
I will say it seems like Shriek Squad has struggled with that a little bit more.
-They seem to take more risks... -Mmm.
...in terms of trying out different styles.
Where I feel like, Scream Of The Crop,
they've been pretty consistent throughout, which is
go for the spooky, go for details.
-But then also go for one single color palette. -[Aarti] Yes.
-Yes. Yeah. -And I think that's, actually, their biggest problem is
finding ways to highlight their skills
without having their work get muddled.
Teams, this is your final six hours in Halloween Wars.
I'm currently covering our backboard as fast as humanly possible.
[Kristina] It's gonna be really important
for the judges to be able to look at our piece, and for it to read as hotel.
The backboard on our piece is gonna look like a damask wallpaper,
which is kind of like a fancy, frilly pattern,
really commonly seen in old-fashioned hotels.
But in between that, to add that spooky hotel edge,
we're stamping skulls in between every bit of the pattern.
And then, we'll dust it with just, like, a little bit of dark blue,
and it'll all, like... mmm, pop out. It'll be great.
I am trying to move as fast as possible.
Um, we're on finale time.
It's not playtime, and it's not vacation time.
It's finale time.
[Sarah Arnold] It looks great, so I'm happy with that.
I'm gonna get these done and out of the way,
so then I can focus on all this sugar.
I have the whipped mascarpone on the bottom.
I'm doing a little bit of our almond streusel crunch,
and then I'm gonna fill up the rest of it with that port cherry compote.
So, I'm trying to go for a bloody brains look, here.
Teams.
-Oh! -Oh, hey!
The spirits of Halloween Wars past have let us know...
they think we're going too easy on you.
So, we decided to order some spooky room service
to twist the knife.
-No, stop. -I don't like it.
We decided to order some spooky room service
-to twist the knife. -[exclaims]
[Kristina] We are already strapped for time.
We, quite frankly, don't have time for any twists.
On this cart, you will find two desserts.
Send one rep from your team up here to grab one dessert
that you must use to inspire you
to create a totally unique
second tasting element,
to be incorporated into your display.
Oh, my God!
Why? [laughing]
Better get moving.
[Kristina] Go, go, go, go, go!
[Jamie] Go, go, go, go, go!
-[Sarah exclaims] -[Jonathan Elias] Slippery floor.
Okay, what do we got?
-We got-- -Brownies!
-[Kyle] Brownies. -[Sarah] Looks like a chocolate brownie.
-Okay. What? -Apple cobbler.
A la mode? Bourbon and apple pie
-go amazing together. -Amazing. Yeah.
We could do, uh, a bourbon apple upside down cake.
-Okay. -[Kristina] For our twist,
Jonathan is going to be making
a bourbon apple upside down cake
with sour cream Chantilly.
[Jonathan Elias] Uh, I'm gonna cut my apples.
I'm gonna cook some butter, brown sugar, and bourbon,
put my apples in the brown sugar butter mixture
and we'll make our cake batter to go over it.
So, you liked my dessert from all the episodes so much you wanted me to make two.
Okay, no problem.
You would think I almost know what I'm doing.
Brownie a la mode has ice cream, which is creamy.
So, we should have some sort of element
that's, sort of, light and creamy.
You know?
This is not cool.
Like, we're... We already have so much on our plates,
and another tasting element is gonna put any of us behind,
like what we already are.
Are you okay to help me, Kyle, with it?
Yeah, I don't have a choice, so...
-Yeah. -I got you.
We don't wanna make just a standard brownie.
We have to elevate it a little bit.
So, Sarah comes up with strawberry brownies
and a Chantilly cream with a strawberry sauce.
I feel pretty confident that I could bust these out pretty quick,
and then get back to everything else I need to do,
which is everything.
By adding strawberries to the brownie,
it's gonna create different textures inside the brownie itself.
The inside is gonna be warm and squishy.
Which is a lovely thing, when you're eating a brownie.
You know, it is a bit of a lost opportunity
to not try to work the port
into the brownie.
There's a depth to port
and a brightness, that I think would work really well
with that deep, fudginess of a brownie.
[Sarah Arnold] Okay. This is gonna be great. They're gonna love it,
and we're gonna finish on time.
Right now, I'm putting some hair on our witch.
I think they've chosen a kind of harder design, actually.
There's got to be something so alluring...
-[Shinmin] Yeah. -...about this witch.
[Shinmin] So, it does come down to Kristina's pumpkin skills, right?
This entire bewitching character
will be created by Kristina out of pumpkin.
And she tends to have a very shallow way of carving.
She doesn't push a lot of values into her pumpkin.
And so, for us to really be captivated,
she's got to work really hard,
-and she's got to nail that paint job. -[Aarti] Yes.
I'm gonna get this hat up there
because that's what makes her a witch.
And then I'm gonna start on her arm
that's gonna be reaching out towards the hosts and judges.
I am pouring my arch
for my big showpiece of sugar.
This piece has a ton of sugar work.
I am pulling and casting,
and every form of everything, to get this done. It's a very big piece.
Jonathan has to create some type of decor item for our hotel,
out of sugar. So, he's going to be making
a gorgeous archway to go over our lobby
because elements like that really sell the piece as a hotel.
It's very big. It's gonna be a lot of work.
We have to assemble it. It's gonna be very heavy.
[Kristina] And then, he will be creating
all of these beautiful designs to attach to the arch.
-Yes, excellent. -Right. Gonna start covering.
[Jamie] Yep. Just start covering it. It's gonna look great.
[Jonathan Elias] Now, that's a sugar piece! Boom!
Teams, you got five hours on the clock.
I think I'm gonna use this trunk inside out, so I can really get
that feeling that he's dragging on the floor.
[Kyle] Blood Stain is going to be making two characters
that are gonna be bellhop ghoulies.
[Sarah] We're gonna make these ghouls look like they're defying gravity,
and for this technique, with pumpkin,
you really have to create a hole, like, a channel,
in a big chunk of pumpkin, slide it onto the pipe,
and then sculpt it there, before you can add the next piece.
I am so proud of this team. Like,
Blood Stain,
I have watched her be a face carver,
turn into a structure, character carver,
and her growth, just tremendous.
Kyle, you wanted me to paint this
before he goes on the board, right?
-Yes. -All right.
-[Kyle] Three more. -[Sarah Arnold] Okay.
Do you think the strawberries in those brownies are gonna, uh,
stop it from baking all the way through?
Um, no, I feel like they might add a little bit of moisture,
but, you know, the best brownies are super fudgy anyways.
[Kyle] Yeah, that's true.
Sarah has the idea of putting strawberry chunks inside the brownies.
They're still not done. I am scared.
[Kyle] Do you think that the strawberries in those brownies
are gonna stop it from baking all the way through?
I would toothpick it.
[Kyle] The problem is we put strawberry chunks inside the brownies
and they're still not done.
Standing there, we're waiting.
I'm so nervous right now.
All right.
Oh, thank God.
All right. Brownies are done.
-[Sarah Arnold] Oh, great. -[Kyle] Yeah.
Kyle's brownies came out great.
Some of them got a little excited in the oven.
-But, you know... -[Kyle and Sarah laugh]
They're crispy around the edges,
so it's easy enough to just get my spoon around it and pop it out.
So, I'm gonna get these done and out of the way,
so then I can focus on all this sugar.
I'm just doing a little drizzle of our strawberry sauce.
And then, they'll get a little kiss
of the strawberry Chantilly cream right on top.
I think we can try to fit them in
with our hands on the walls
that are gonna be holding the other hors d'oeuvres,
which is our other tasting element.
Luckily, we have a lot of hands,
so I think we can make it work.
Tasting, down.
I am on my way to sugar land.
So, the whole front of the check-in desk,
there's going to be a lot of cake stacked,
but I can't do a full 20 inches of cake,
or else it's not gonna be stable.
So, I'm gonna stack the first seven inches or so with rice cereal treats,
just to make it solid.
And I just gotta keep going, going, going, going, going.
I'm making sure to put buttercream on the back,
before I place any pieces,
to make sure that it all sticks up against the wall.
Because it would be a disaster if this all decided to fall off.
Teams, you're looking at four hours on the clock.
[Sarah Arnold] Come on!
So, how's the backboard coming?
[Kyle] I'm working on this background
so it actually looks dilapidated.
I've laid down a layer of fondant,
covering the entire thing with wafer paper.
I'm just barely lifting up the wallpaper,
so it gives that disheveled look like it's been aging forever.
Perfect accent piece to the haunted hotel.
Okay. Bood Stain, I need you to go
-work on the pumpkin. -[Sarah] Yep.
I'm using edible gel paint.
I'm just painting it all to really bring out the fabric texture
and make it look like it's not a pumpkin,
but actually a guy wearing a bellhop outfit. [sighs]
If we look at the pumpkin characters,
I think that Kristina's is...
for sure it has more presence.
-[Aarti] Mmm-hmm. -[Shinmin] It has more personality,
it's more sculpted. It's larger, front and center.
And I'm not sure
if Blood Stain Sarah is as experienced
-of a carver as Kristina. -Yeah.
This is the thing about being an All-Star, right? Kristina understands
-how quickly you have to work here. -Yes. Yeah.
And therefore, she adjusts her designs, knowing,
this is what is attainable in seven hours.
-Jamie. -[Jamie] Yeah, what do you want?
We just had to pick a really complicated dessert for the finale, right?
Pull out all the stops, Jonathan!
[Kristina] Since this is going to be a seance, and we need a lot of candles,
it really makes sense for Jonathan to create the tasting element
in the shape of a candle.
Right now, I am tempering dark chocolate.
I'm going to line acetate sheets.
I'm gonna layer my chocolate almond biscuit in my molds.
I'm gonna pipe a round of peanut butter mousse
and a center of bourbon salted caramel filling.
It's gonna be the best candle ever,
and it's gonna drip like a candle, too.
I'm feeling very pressured right now on time. Stressed on time.
However, I have a feeling we'll get it done.
In addition, Jonathan will be making other isomalt pieces
to really sell this as a seance.
He'll be creating candles and potion bottles...
If I do it too thin, it'll break.
[Kristina] ...and other items,
to show that this witch is really in the middle of something.
I gotta make the ding-ding bell.
-Ding-ding? -[chuckles] Oh! Service bell. That's what it's called.
[Jonathan] So, I'm making the shell.
It's gonna actually be hovering, like a normal bell would be.
Winning would mean the world to me.
Me and my team have put a lot of tireless hours into this,
and we've worked so hard to get to this point.
So, I'm very happy of what we've accomplished.
But my bell is coming out really cool.
[mimics bell ringing] Bing. Bing.
[Sarah Arnold] How are you feeling on time, Kyle?
-You still gotta do that suitcase, right? -[Kyle] Yeah.
-I'm gonna start that right now. -Okay.
[Kyle] I have to do the suitcase out of cake.
Seven hours seems like it might not be enough time.
[chuckling] This is a lot to do.
It has been 10 years since I've been here, and, uh,
what I've learned is that there ain't nothing stopping me.
I come in with experience. I come in with knowledge.
Making sure that everyone knows that
this old dog still has some tricks in him.
I wanna show my kids that just because you're out of the game,
if you have a passion for it, when you apply yourself, you can accomplish anything.
[Sarah Arnold] Oh, Kyle. That's looking good.
So, I'm pouring the sugar for our haunted elevator door here.
[Kyle] Sarah is going to be working on the elevator doors
that are made out of sugar,
with teeth coming in, that's ready to swallow anyone up.
I'm working on... [chuckles nervously] ...the many, many teeth
that are going on this evil haunted elevator door.
I want them to look really scary and menacing.
So, I'm trying to make them, like, sort of curved and pointed.
I'm trying to space them out, so that the other side
can have their teeth kind of interlocking with it.
[Kyle] We know how to bring scary,
and Sarah is picking that up, which is awesome.
[Sarah Arnold] I feel like this has been such a journey for me
as a sugar artist on this show.
It's crazy, but I have seen
how much my confidence has grown and shown in my work,
and I'm just so proud of myself already, no matter what happens today.
We really have to make sure that the dimensions line up just perfectly,
or else I could risk breaking all the teeth that I made.
[judges gasping]
Now I get it.
It's the teeth on the elevator door.
-[Shinmin] That is gruesome. -[Jonathan] Oh, my gosh.
-It looks so scary. -[Aarti] Sweet, sweet, Sugar Sarah...
-[Shinmin] I know. -[Aarti] ...has come a long way.
She's really finding the darkness within her.
[Shinmin] Wow. I did not see that coming out of Sarah A.
-[Kyle] Good job. -I know we still have to drill into the board,
but I had to get those on before we put anything else down on the board.
-So, I think that was our only option. -[Kyle] Yeah.
But I feel good about it.
We're looking at three hours till you check out.
Oh, my God.
The cake is settling, so I'm filling in
underneath the lip with some buttercream
in hopes that the cake, like, sticks to the buttercream
and it doesn't wanna pull down so much anymore.
That vertical supporting part of the podium,
which was entirely made out of cake, was settling.
And because it was settling, the buttercream was lifting off,
and the whole thing started buckling.
The problem is, because Jamie didn't put supporting dowels
-inside the cake... -[both] Mmm-hmm.
[Shinmin] ...so that top desk level was just too much weight.
The more she tries to stick it on, the worse it gets.
I'm just watching this thing like... [clicks tongue]
It will not stay.
-What portion of-- -It is going to fall down by the end of this day.
[Kristina] This is very quickly turning into a nightmare.
-[gasps] Oh, no. -Oh!
Oh, no!
[Jamie] It's okay. Just take it out.
It will not stay.
-What portion of-- -It is going to fall down by the end of this day.
We need to figure this out immediately.
This has to be a hard pivot,
because we do not have the time to rebuild any of this.
[Jamie] Okay, I have a plan.
-[Kristina] ...by squishing fondant against it. -What's the plan?
-I'm not gonna fill it completely with Rice Krispie. -Okay.
-That's fine. -Just taper it.
It's gonna be like...
-extra stuffing. -Gotcha.
[Kristina] We are currently taking some of the cake from the top,
we're creating a ledge.
This may not have been the way
we wanted to come to this conclusion, but here we are,
we're gonna make the most of it.
So she pivoted.
She ripped that entire cake out because it was pushing out.
She's then created these, like, bottom double steps
-to kind of make up for that bowing effect. -[Aarti] Oh, that's cool!
-[Shinmin] And I like the way that looks. -[Aarti] Yeah!
It has more of a presence.
-Yeah, it looks more finished. -It's more hefty.
[Aarti] And it looks like a hotel front desk,
-as opposed to a podium a professor might have, yeah. -Right, right.
[Kristina] Oh, it's really pretty!
[Jonathan Elias] It's amazing.
-This is the professional that Jamie is. -Yeah.
[Aarti] I'm sure she's frustrated, but she keeps calm,
and then quickly comes up with a backup plan,
-which is really great. -[Shinmin] Yeah.
And if we look at their track history, last episode, the tornado.
-[Shinmin] Yeah. -[Aarti] Right, it was the tornado,
so Jamie always is there to figure out another way.
It literally looks like you're walking into a vintage hotel.
Your final two-hour time call is coming right now.
-[Kristina] No! -Two hours!
-[chuckling] Two hours! -[Sarah Arnold] Trying to go fast
because I need to have enough time to assemble the chandelier.
I can't rush it, or else it could break,
-and then I lose all that time that went into making it. -Yeah.
So I'm trying to just keep moving.
[Kyle] Sarah's gonna make this gorgeous chandelier.
I'm getting my black sugar ready now for the chandelier.
So I'm gonna pour some of my connecting pieces,
and I'm gonna pull all the little arms.
If the chandelier is resting
on the table, it's gonna break,
so it has to be built while it's hanging,
and then I'll have to move
the entire chandelier that I'm building on this hook
over to the piece and hang it.
So it's gonna be very scary,
but today is all about taking chances
and hoping that they pay off.
I have not made anything like a hanging structure with sugar.
I am definitely nervous.
The one thing that's really standing out to me right now,
the way Sugar Sarah is stepping out of her comfort zone,
stepping out of her kind of shadowed background,
and she's really stepping forward.
She's creating this giant chandelier all out of sugar.
-Sarah has just put the shades now onto that chandelier. -Wow.
[Aarti] So she's really going for it in this challenge.
Okay, um... [exhales] I just... [deep breath]
Like, if you were to talk to me a year ago,
I never would have thought I could do something like this, so...
[sniffles] I'm just proud of myself.
[chuckles and sniffles]
And I can't hold it together.
I just really want to win. [chuckles]
[Jamie] Currently I am covering the reception desk podium,
and I'm covering it in this really deep, deep red,
and I'm gonna add some, like, tufting in it.
[Kristina] One of the best things about the way Jamie creates
is that she really gets in there and uses her hand as a tool.
She feels that the hand is one of the best tools to use
when forming and sculpting elements, and that's what she does
for the tufted portion of our lobby desk.
[Jamie] So right now I'm just using my hands
to press into my fondant and modeling chocolate.
I feel like it really gives us a sense of, like, the 1920s.
-[Aarti] Yeah. -I feel like we're literally stepping back in time.
It feels very appropriate.
Right now I have to go into high gear,
because I have to make spirit arms coming out of the walls,
or else she's not really doing a seance.
So we had a few hiccups making the reception desk,
but, you know what? Now we are doing our best to make up time
and to haul butt and get it done.
We are a little bit behind,
and we might lose some of the details on these hands
that we originally planned for.
Let's play the game of "How fast can Jamie sculpt
as many arms as humanly possible?"
It's a fun game.
[Jonathan Elias laughs triumphantly]
This is so good.
-Kristina, how are you doing? -I am carving my life away.
Do you want me to paint it on the piece?
Do you want me to stand and paint it?
-It needs to be on the piece. Like, right now. -Okay.
[Kristina] I am moving pumpkin mountains at the moment.
I'm using airbrush paints by hand...
[in sing-song voice] because it's faster.
[Jonathan Elias] It looks so cool! We've just got to finish, that's all.
-[in normal voice] Do you need to get this on now? -[Jonathan Elias] Yes.
-Okay. -[Jonathan Elias] Thank you.
[Kyle] This is the finale.
I want to make sure that the judges know that we came to win.
So I want to make sure that he has actual fear in his face.
What we wanted him to do is look like he's trying to escape,
so I bunched up a whole bunch of red fondant
to look like he's actually pulling it under his hands,
doing his best trying to get out of there.
There's so much beautiful detail here at Scream of the Crop.
-[Shinmin] Yeah. -And I'm hoping in these last few minutes
-that Kyle takes one more look at his character. -[both] Yeah.
-Because that skeleton costume... -[Shinmin] Yeah.
-It doesn't read like someone wearing a skeleton costume. -Yeah, yeah.
It kind of looks like a bad paint job at this point.
[Sarah humming] Yes, ghoulie, ghoulie, ghoulie, ghoulie, goolie...
I'm feeling the pressure, time is running out,
so I'm just gonna have to pick up the pace and keep going.
[Kyle] Blood Stain is still working on her pumpkin pieces,
and time is just ticking by, minute by minute.
Trying to piece together my... my guys.
Just have to make sure that nobody falls apart.
[Sarah Arnold] Oh, he looks so creepy.
Okay, so how much more screwing is there? That one just twists on?
-I don't need any screwing for this guy. -So, I could try to--
I would not go anywhere near that
-until the very last, like, 15 seconds... -Okay.
-...because there's still so much to do. -But if it breaks,
-I need time to try to fix it. -I know, I know, but... [groans]
She keeps telling us that it's not a good idea to move that chandelier over
while she's still working on it, because when she puts them in,
it's gonna shake the entire piece.
[Sarah Arnold] I'm getting ready to put our tasting elements on the display,
because there's not much I can do until we're ready to put the chandelier on.
[Kyle] We need Blood Stain to finish her pumpkin pieces and get them on there
so we can start putting this whole thing together.
This is it. One hour left in the Halloween Wars finale.
I'm using gold luster. It's giving that antique effect.
We did it in black so it looks aged, not just solid gold.
We want it to have an aged effect.
Please, please, please, please, let's do this.
[Aarti] As if that wasn't enough pressure,
he's gonna drill it into the back of that display.
-[Shinmin] I am so surprised. -You're going to drill sugar?
-I mean, my palms are sweat. -Palms are sweating, yeah.
I know. And if his palms are sweating,
-the sugar is literally gonna melt in his hands. -Yes!
-Let's go. -Good with that?
[Jamie] Okay, go.
[whispers] Okay.
-[Jonathan Elias] Just go in, it's okay. -[drilling]
[Jamie] Oh!
[all gasping]
[drilling]
-[Jamie] Oh! -[judges gasping]
It cracked!
With the pieces falling off of his arch, this is not good.
This is not a place where we need to be right now,
in the finale, when we're already behind.
[Shinmin] He was screwing into cold isomalt that's already firmed.
It's like trying to drill in the glass.
It's just not gonna work.
[Jonathan Elias] Being a sugar artist,
you're always making duplicates of stuff, just in case,
for instance, when all my stuff fell.
I make extra rather than making a few,
you just never know what happens.
You always make backups of sugar work because you have to.
Just like that.
[Kristina] At this point, I think we are each moving
as fast as humanly possible.
20 minutes, you have 20 minutes left.
-[Kyle] Okay. 20 minutes. -[Kristina] Okay, guys, let's finish this!
-[Kyle] Come on! -[Jonathan Elias] This is crunch time.
[Kyle] Just put him on.
Just don't break his hand.
[Sarah] Yeah. I'm just trying to see if I can... There.
[Sarah] Oh, there we go.
-I'm gonna need you to help me, okay? -[Kyle] Okay.
I'm gonna need you to hold the chandelier while I get up on the stool.
All right? So come around this side.
It's go time.
Sarah is putting all her faith in me to carry this thing over there.
Just don't drop it.
Ugh, God. Okay, okay. So careful.
[Kyle] And then hand it to her so she can place it where it needs to go,
and I'm a little nervous.
Gosh, Kyle.
-I mean, my palms are sweating, guys. -[Shinmin] Me too.
[Kyle] If this chandelier breaks, it could ruin the entire piece
because it's so big and it's so intricate.
I don't think that she could replace it in the time that we have left.
-[both gasping] -Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Slow down, slow down.
-[Jonathan] Slow, slow, slow. -No rush, no rush.
-Oh! -Oh, my God.
Okay, it's on, it's on.
[squeals]
-Wow. -Yeah.
-Okay. [chuckles] -Yeah.
[chuckling]
Ten minutes, ten minutes left.
[deep groan]
Can you wipe that before it gets bad?
-[Jamie] Okay. -[Kristina] I'm sorry, it was an accident.
At this point, we're not even sure
if we're gonna be able to get anything done,
and if we do get it done, will it be done well? We don't know.
-Kristina, I need you to stand in the middle. -Yes, okay.
[Aarti] Kristina's literally standing on the display,
-and Jamie is painting around her feet. -[Shinmin] Around her feet!
What in the world?
[Kristina] Even though I've had to paint pumpkin characters
this quickly before,
this is not exactly the place where you'd want to be during a finale.
You just don't stop, just keep moving.
[Jonathan Elias] Whenever we're ready for candles,
candles are ready to go,
bottle's ready to go, we've got to start putting stuff on.
[Jamie] Let's do it.
Three minutes left! You have three minutes.
Crunch it up, crunch it up.
-Fine details, remember, fine details. -Yeah.
[Kyle] Okay, so what we're doing right now is
we're adding texture everywhere
so that everything is uniform, that everything can be seen through.
It's all one piece, it's all cohesive.
The judges have been very, very critical
about making sure that our highlights are high and our lowlights are low.
The last couple minutes left,
Blood Stain starts putting on this white color on top of the ghouls,
just so it brings up all those shadows and everything starts popping.
-[gasps] They look so cool! -[Kyle] Yes, the eyes are perfect.
They're perfect, they're exactly the way that we wanted them.
-One minute left! -[Kristina] One minute!
-[Kyle] One minute. -[Jonathan Elias] One minute.
[Kyle] Let's go, let's go.
[Kristina] You guys are real ones.
No matter what happens, I just want you to know that.
We can't get sappy now, we're not done.
-Keep going. No sappy. -I'm getting sappy, I'm getting sappy now.
I freaking love you, guys.
[Kyle] So what I'm doing is
I'm putting glucose on the bottom of the tongue, so it looks like it's wet
and he's salivating over his new meal.
This is it!
-Ten, nine... -[women gasping]
-[Jonathan Elias] We gotta go. -Eight...
-[Jamie] Oh, my God. -Seven...
Six, five...
-[Sarah Arnold] Oh, my gosh. Okay, guys, this is it. -Four, three...
Two, one...
-Time is up! -[Shinmin squealing]
-[weakly] Yeah. -[cheering and clapping]
We did it. Come here.
[clapping continues]
-[Sarah Arnold] Guys. Oh, my God! -[chuckling]
Just don't touch me. You're so covered in stuff.
Judges, you ready to check into this haunted hotel?
-[chuckles] I think so. -I'm not sure.
Let's do it. [whistles]
Shriek Squad, let's talk about what you made.
[Kristina] Welcome, guests, to Hotel Hex-a-host.
It's All Hallows Eve,
and Ingrid, the hotelier was in the middle of casting a spell,
but you've interrupted her and she's not happy about it.
We have a hotel lobby check-in counter
made out of rice cereal treat and cake.
We have a spell book made out of cake.
We have spooky, old-fashioned ghost arms
made out of cake and modeling chocolate.
The floor is also made out of modeling chocolate.
We have a sugar archway, we have several sugar candles,
and the witch, Ingrid, is entirely made out of pumpkin.
Let me start with the witch. I love her face.
I think you've got so much beautiful texture in there,
particularly the teeny tiny lines right above her lip.
It shows so much tension and anger and annoyance.
-[all chuckling] -There's so much sugar here, Jonathan.
That archway is gorgeous.
It is sort of the thing that's sort of holding it all together.
And, Jamie, the tufted sort of podium there has so much texture.
It has this kind of old-time, almost 1920s feel about it.
Jonathan, this is the most sugar work that you've created.
Just beautiful stuff you have on here.
Jamie, I was watching you work on this desk.
I saw the buckling of the buttercream,
I saw the fact that the cake was just sinking and settling down.
You created that extra lip on the bottom,
now there are candles on there, it just really pays off.
And even though you created exaggerated, gnarly, ghost-like hands,
I do wish that you had placed in
more discernible knuckles or joints
so that it would look more scary.
I can feel that you're kind of pressed for time there.
[Jonathan] Shriek Squad.
What ingredient did you get for your tasting element and what did you make for us?
We got bourbon.
I've created a chocolate almond biscuit, a peanut butter mousse.
Jamie created an amazing bourbon salted caramel.
It looks like a candle with a filo flame.
And we threw in that evil twist.
What'd you grab from the cart and what'd you make?
[Jonathan Elias] We grabbed the apple pie a la mode,
and so I made an upside-down apple bourbon cake
with a sour cream Chantilly, and smoked Maldon salt.
That bourbon salted caramel is extraordinary. You need to put that in a bottle.
It is salty, it is caramelly,
and then at the last minute, you get this little tickle from the bourbon.
Here with the apple pie a la mode,
the sour cream Chantilly is so smart.
It adds a little tang and acidity to the apples, which is sweet.
The cake's a little dry for me.
[Shinmin] The cake is definitely a little bit on the dry side.
It's crumbling apart before I can even get it in my mouth.
There's something that's magical
about the peanut butter and the bourbon together.
I don't quite expect that to come together as a combination,
and that kind of down-homeness of peanut butter is so lovely
when paired with the sophistication of the bourbon,
so that is really well done.
-Shriek Squad, great job. Thank you. -Thank you, guys.
-Thank you. -[Kristina] Thank you so much. Thank you.
You guys, well done!
-[Jamie] Done! We're done! -We killed it. We're done.
Scream of the Crop, tell us what you made.
[Kyle] Our unlucky trick-or-treater heard about a party
at an abandoned hotel, not realizing when he checked in,
he would not be checking out.
-Dun-dun-dun! -[chuckling]
[Kyle] Our trick-or-treater is made out of rice cereal treats,
modeling chocolate fondant.
Our bellhop ghoulies are made entirely out of pumpkin and butternut squash.
Our suitcase is made out of cake.
Sugar is the chandelier, the light fixtures,
and then the elevator doors.
Wow.
[Shinmin] I just have to talk to you, Sugar Sarah.
I love all the light fixtures, the wall sconces,
and the translucency of your sugar work.
And, Kyle, the fact that this whole character
and the tongue is coming out of that elevator,
it's so gross, and it's really giving us this haunted hotel feel.
The only thing is, I feel like
this front character shouldn't have been dressed in a Halloween costume,
because it would have been a lot more gruesome for us
to see an actual human being being dragged into this haunted hotel.
If there's one piece on this display that deserves a ding-dang,
it's that ding-dang chandelier, Sarah.
Holy cow, honey.
And it's just such a great centerpiece for the whole display
because everything leads up to there.
Sarah Blood Stain, you've got so much detail
in the hands of your bellhops.
I will say, I do wish that you'd had a stronger color distinction
between the jackets and the color of their skin,
because it's all reading as one color.
What was your ingredient and what are we trying today?
So our ingredient was port,
so for you today we have our dark chocolate skulls,
with a little mascarpone cream
and an almond streusel with a cherry-port compote.
-[Aarti] Oh! -[Shinmin] Wow.
And of course, we were so mean,
-and we threw in that twist. -[Sarah chuckling]
[Jonathan] So what'd you grab off the cart and what'd you make?
[Sarah Arnold] Blood Stain raced
-for the brownies a la mode for us. -[Sarah chuckling]
[Sarah Arnold] So we made a dark chocolate brownie
with strawberry chunks folded in
with a little strawberry sauce
and a strawberry Chantilly cream.
Wow, these are very different,
but they work together as a singular bite.
Your main port-tasting element,
I feel like there was just a little too much chocolate.
I had to bite through a lot of chocolate to get to the mascarpone
because that's my favorite part.
But the port is front and center.
This brownie, you handled it so well.
The crust is so perfect
because you have that lovely chew on the inside
and then a super firm crust around the edge, nice and crispy.
I think it was so smart of you to marry cherries with port.
-They should go together. [laughs] -Mmm-hmm.
They have that same sort of bursting, jammy quality.
The brownie for me is a little less successful.
I agree, I think the texture is great.
I am getting an aftertaste that's a little unnatural,
and I don't know if it just got in contact
-with something that was a little weird... -Okay.
...but I think that you nailed brownies a la mode for sure.
-Scream of the Crop, great job. Thank you. -Thank you.
-[Sarah] Thank you so much.
We did it!
[Jonathan] Shriek Squad and Scream of the Crop.
This final battle was a harrowing Halloween War for the ages.
Each artist stepped up to deliver the biggest,
most terrifying display of the season
in two epic haunted hotels on Halloween night.
Scream of the Crop.
You delivered a dynamic, haunted hotel
made only sweeter by the amazing sugar work.
But again, we wish that you had
some more color distinction in your pieces,
which would have elevated it even more.
[Shinmin] And Shriek Squad.
You once again showed us the determination that has defined your team.
Your ability to pivot and just roll with the punches is so inspiring.
Jonathan, we saw your best sugar work of the whole season tonight.
And while, Kristina, you continued to deliver
an amazing and detailed witch entirely out of pumpkin,
you knew you were rushing against the clock,
and some of the finishing work on the hands in particular,
Jamie, are in need of housekeeping.
It has been a monster of a season,
but there can be only one winner
and only one Hall of Fame champion Captain.
Our judges were impressed with both teams,
but they have made their decision
with no reservations.
[suspenseful music]
The winner of Halloween Wars and $25,000 is...
Congratulations...
-Scream of the crop. -[Aarti laughing]
-[Sarah Arnold squealing] -Oh, my God!
[cheering and laughing]
-[laughing happily] -[Kyle] Yes!
[Kyle] This is crazy!
I'm the first two-time champion.
This is nuts!
I am so proud of this team. I'm overjoyed.
-And great job to Shriek Squad! -Yes!
-[Jonathan yelling] Yes! -[Aarti] Good job, you guys.
-[yelling] Yes! -Yay!
[Jonathan] Good job everybody!
[Aarti] Congratulations, you guys!