Entertainment News - TV

THIS ISSUE: MasterChef, Wayward Pines, Kingdom, The Real Housewives of New York City, Another Period TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Welcome, Wolfgang Fox BECAUSE: In season 7 of MasterChef, a rotating guest judge will fill the third spot each week. As Wednesday was the 20 new home cooks' first time in the show's kitchen with their new white aprons, it was time to pull out the big guns: Wolfgang Puck! (Ever heard of him?) Naturally, Puck challenges them to do something extraordinary with the ordinary potato in the Mystery Box Challenge. This sends Cassie packing early for a boring fried potato salad, but earns Andrea her first win for sticking to her (cue the potato pun here) rootswith her tortilla española.

Wayward Pines Fox WHAT HAPPENED: Oh, so that's where Xander went! In the opening moments of Wednesday's Wayward Pines, we see Xander alive at the bottom of what looks like a well (heads up: it isn't). He overpowers an Abbie to escape, and immediately runs into Ethan's old Secret Service boss and Pilcher conspirator, Adam Hassler. Pilcher sent Adam outside the fence to find more humans, but he's only found Abbies -- and he's begun to learn their ways. Once the two survivors are welcomed back inside Wayward Pines, Adam explains that the Abbies have their own organized methods, like sending out a scout to look for potential enemies: "They're not our enemies. They're replacements." That kind of talk, coupled with the scars scattered across his abdomen, has something all the way up with Adam. By the episode's end, he is back on the other side of the fence with the team sent to identify land for more crops. There, Adam finds Ben's body for Theresa -- so yes, he's really dead. On top of that, an Abbie has breached the fence and popped up near the carousel. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Was he one of those patented Abbie scouts? And what exactly comes after an Abbie scouts its enemies? Wednesday's episode of Wayward Pines deals more than ever with questions of the future. The A.V. Club says, "If there's an idea that everyone in Wayward Pines thinks of differently, it's hope. " Group A fell apart from its lack of it, and Group B drew on hope to survive, slowly moving out of wishful thinking and into the reality of their situation. But now, by going outside the walls, "CJ and the others demonstrate to everyone in town that there's a potential for something more," the A.V. Club says. "It suggests they won't always have to live under armed guard, unable to make their own choices and live their own lives. Put plainly, it offers the possibility of life away from Jason and his authoritarian nightmare." Yeah, someone other than Jason having hope in Wayward Pines would definitely be a good thing.

Kingdom DirecTV WHAT HAPPENED: In Wednesday's episode of Kingdom, it's brother against brother as Ryan and Jay finally face off in the cage. Alvey has to find a way to support both of his boys, but before the fight, Alicia asks him the question on everyone's mind: Who does he really want to win? He dodges: "I'm more worried about who's going to lose." And who misses out on becoming the new lightweight champion of the world? That would be Ryan. It's a close fight, but when Ryan really starts going for Jay, Nate tells his brother, "F--- your conscience." He has to go after Ryan's bad knee -- and that's exactly what he does when the bell rings again, getting him on the ground in a triangle chokehold. Jay begs his brother to tap out so he doesn't have to break his arm, but that's not something Ryan is ever going to do, so Jay finds another way: he puts Ryan to sleep. With that comes new championship titles and all the conflicting emotions: Alvey calls Jay to say he's proud of him, but immediately starts rematch talk. Meanwhile, Jay gets the win but has to deal with the fact that much of it had to do with Ryan's leg. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: As showrunner Byron Balasco told EW, "In some ways, Jay winning is the worst thing that could happen to him." Wednesday's Jay-Ryan fight had been a long time coming, and when it came to picking a winner, Balasco had no question who he wanted to win, but choosing what kind of impact it would have on each character was trickier stuff: "I think the expectation would be that for Jay, if he were to lose, that that would send him down some dark spiral only proving what everybody said about him. And Ryan winning would simply continue his ascent. But it just was more interesting to me this idea of Jay winning because, as we see as the season goes on, these wins don't quite ever change a fighter's life as much as it may feel like it's going to. ... You can almost see it from the moment he wins the fight that there's this sort of air let out of him." Win, win, win -- and keep on winning.

The Real Housewives of New York City Bravo WHAT HAPPENED: Have you heard? The Countess is in love! If you lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan during the month of December, it would have been nearly impossible for you to miss the news. Luann spent Wednesday's hour of RHONY patiently telling them about how she met her boyfriend, "Tom," somewhere between four and six weeks ago. Now they're in love, moving in together, and planning to get married. Luann is simply giddy, but over a party, Ramona bursts her bubble a bit by telling Luann she has to be a "girl's girl" and let her know that Tom calls his ex-wife every day to tell her he loves her and gave her a gold bracelet for Christmas. Luann says there's no way that's true. She doesn't know that at this very moment, Bethenny has invited all the housewives she can tolerate (namely, not Luann and Sonja) to put it to a vote if the other two should be able to come on the tequila-tasting trip to Mexico she's planning. The general consensus is "big fat nay," but Bethenny seems to be keeping an open mind on Lu. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: She agrees to have drinks with her to discuss why she's not inviting Luann, but somehow Luann manages to spend the entire time telling Bethenny how in L-U-V she is with Tom. She then manages to accept an invitation that was never extended to her by screaming out, "YES -- I'd love to go!" Better yet, we'll let Vulture summarize exactly how that one-way conversation went down: "Oh, I'm so excited to go. This is going to be amazing. Thanks for inviting me. By the way, I have to leave now, I'm going to see Tommy Tune at the Carlyle with my new fiancé. Could you possibly pick up the check? I left my wallet at home. Sorry you are bleeding profusely out of your lady parts, one day you'll remember how good that used to feel. Ha ha. Love you, mean it. TTFN. Air kiss. Ciao!" Yep, that sounded about right. Luann in love is scary.

One More Thing...

Another Period Takes on Its Second Season Comedy Central SHE'S TUBMAN!: Following Another Period's season 2 premiere on Wednesday night, creators and stars Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome filled EW in on how they made Harriet Tubman just like Oprah, what it's like to film in a barrel, and Michael Ian Black's Taken impression. This is necessary reading.