After an unsettling premiere that saw Gordon Ramsay smile at us all night long, MasterChef Australia truly returns with this panic-inducing cookout.

We’re told tonight’s episode is a service challenge, and for those of us who don’t remember what it’s like to go to a restaurant, it’s all about cooking food and giving it to people.

The usual parameters apply: teams must cook a three-course meal for 120 people with not enough time to do it.

Contestants are split into two teams. Blue Team gets the unfair advantage that is Reynold, as well as Laura, Emelia and a bunch of others. Green Team gets Callum, Hayden, Poh and co.

Gordon is back, and by that we mean, the screamy, sweary version. He lets loose at a quivering Callum for his grey lamb, and look, fair enough. That lamb looked like it was cooked in a foot spa. Callum agrees to cook it again properly this time and everyone moves on.

While the Green Team is busy sweating and stressing, we head over to the Blue Team where whiz kid Reynold is cooly operating at least seven pieces of cooking equipment in a swirl of liquid nitrogen. He’s also possibly levitating.

Then, an actual problem arises.  There’s not enough pork belly to go around. Now, someone tell me, how does this happen every. single. service. challenge? Why is there always one person that can’t count and that person is responsible for plating up the dishes? Turns out the Green Team is short around 60 slices, which is about half the restaurant. How is that even possible, Chris? No one has any idea what to do so they bring out Reynold because he’s magic, and somehow he manages to conjure the extra pork portions. No ones knows how.

After a few stressfully-timed ad breaks, it’s time to taste. New judges, Jock, Melissa and Andy, take their place in the dining room where they go through the dishes one by one. They either all feel the same way or don’t yet know each other well enough to disagree. Callum’s lamb, which is now pink, red, brown and all the right colours, is cooked perfectly and they love it, nice save Callum. The pork is good but there’s not enough of it. Both teams stuff up the potatoes. It all comes down to a dessert showdown: Poh’s tarts versus Reynold’s cremeux, which is basically just cruel because we love them both equally. For god’s sake, give them both a ribbon.

But this is MasterChef and there can be only one winner. It’s Poh and her tarts, and by extension, the Green Team.  However, the celebrations are short-lived when Jock reveals that they won’t actually escape elimination, as implied. Instead, they’ll battle it out again tomorrow night for a single safe spot, because that’s the kind of cruel and uncertain world we live in now.