Save Card Available In Next Iron Chef: Redemption?

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The past episode of Next Iron Chef: Redemption had Spike Mendelsohn and Marcel Vigneron going against each other in the elimination round where the chefs decided to plate their dishes together on the same plate.  This made the judges and some of the competitors angry as they thought it was disrespectful.  Some fans of the show on the other hand were quite split on whether it was disrespectful, or done in good spirits, while others thought the judges were taking things a bit too seriously for a reality competition.

Now we may know the reason why Spike and Marcel decided to plate together after a recent interview that Spike did.  At the beginning of the show, they were told there could be a 'Save Card' used by the judges or Alton Brown to save both competitors if their dishes were too close to call.  Here is the quote from Spike in the Braiser Interview:

Now, why did we do the dual plating? Well, the thing that people didn’t realize is that, um, at the beginning of the show, there was a Save Card. Like, they had let us know that if the decision is too close, this year, the chairman has decided to give Alton Brown the power to save someone who happened to be on the bottom. Like if the battle happened to be too close, or if the judges couldn’t decide whose food was better. So in the back of our heads, we all knew that there was going to be a save card. But I guess it didn’t come off on television, so it’s not like anybody watching the show knew.

So we figured, “Alright, they’re making us cook against each other. Why don’t we try to make it as close as possible, and like, taste each others’ food, and tell each other what’s wrong, make the dishes really really stellar? And fuck it, let’s just plate it on the same thing?” Honestly, what’s the difference if my soup was not on his plate, or if it was on his plate? As far as, like, flavor and presentation and everything? There was no real difference. Like, he had his food on his plate, and I had my food on a plate also.

So if you think about it, there was really no difference. we just wanted to have a little fun with it. We’ve always wanted to have a show together and figured this would be a really good opportunity to showcase how we’d work together. You know, we’re a little nutty, and we’re fun, and obviously it was not about disrespecting anybody. We’re not disrespecting people; like, we love the judges, and we love everyone, and we love the opportunity.

And to be honest, the reaction after the show, after seeing all the social media and all the writeups, it’s been pretty amazing. People kind of loved it; they thought it was something kind of different, and occasionally a couple of people were like, “That was the worst move ever,” and you’re like, those people are reading too much into it. There wasn’t too much thought [put] into it. It wasn’t like, (deep voice): “This is what we’re gonna do.” It kind of happened a little naturally. We were like, why not? And we both had really, really stellar dishes. Like, there wasn’t any critique on our dishes at all. But they had to send somebody home, and it happened to be me, I guess.

We were hoping that they were going to save us both — make it like it was too close, like I told you, [using] the Save card.

Full Braiser Interview

What do you think after hearing this?  Obviously the strategy didn't work, but it may be an explanation of why they did it.

Also, that means we could be seeing a 'Save' in the future during an upcoming episode.  People are already angry and think it is unfair that Geoffrey Zakarian is judging his sous chef for some challenges, Alex Guarnaschelli.  Imagine if they use the 'Save' on her... This would make those people even more angry.

Do you think we will see a save this season?