The Nice British Baking Present “Social gathering Week” was technically solely the Quarter-Finals of the season, however that didn’t cease Paul Hollywood, Noel Fielding, and Alison Hammond from dropping repeated hints that they may already know who this 12 months’s winner is. This week’s installment of the Netflix hit was chock stuffed with Easter eggs and unusual feedback about how Tasha Stones was on her method to nabbing that championship cake stand. Tasha, to her credit score, repeatedly laughed this all off, however I couldn’t assist however discover how typically the Netflix actuality competitors present’s producers seemingly went out of their method to embrace these feedback. Positive, Noel and Alison wanted to tease all of the bakers about their possibilities of successful, however the indicators pointing straight at Tasha had been too quite a few to disregard.
So is The Nice British Baking Present tipping us off that Tasha goes to be this 12 months’s final Star Baker? Or is all of it a ruse to distract us from Dan Hunter’s eventual victory lap, Matty Edgell’s darkish horse win, or Josh Smalley’s extraordinarily doubtless triumph?
The very first thing it’s important to bear in mind about The Nice British Baking Present is it’s a tv present. It’s manufactured from high to backside to ship leisure. That’s why the casting course of doesn’t simply embrace baking quizzes, however psychological assessments. It’s why bakers are routinely eradicated to ratchet up the strain and drama. It’s even why it’s change into increasingly more apparent which bakers will make it to the top of the season as early as Week 1. There are narratives that the producers of The Nice British Baking Present like to tease out and this 12 months they could be leaning a bit too onerous into lionizing candy, beautiful, proficient Tasha Stones.
Tasha first popped within the tent because of back-to-back wins in “Biscuit Week” and “Bread Week.” Even earlier than that, nonetheless, she had already made Nice British Baking Present historical past as the primary deaf contestant to compete. Whereas she’s been persistently nice, there have been rumblings — even from yours really — that Paul Hollywood could be favoring her over the opposite bakers. However, there’s little doubt that she’s nice with bread, fab with flavors, and one in all this season’s most charming opponents. Given all that, she’s clearly a frontrunner. So why did it really feel a bit a lot for her odds of successful the entire thing to be introduced up repeatedly throughout “Social gathering Week”?
The primary individual to deliver up Tasha’s possibilities of making it to the ultimate? Not Noel Fielding nor Alison Hammond, however Paul Hollywood himself. After Tasha shared her plans to make “Cider within the Park” themed Sausage Rolls for the Signature Problem, Paul straight up requested Tasha, “So how do you’re feeling concerning the ultimate now? Do you suppose you’re in attain?”
Not taking the bait, Tasha politely stated and signed, “No matter occurs now, I’m actually proud.”
“Yeah, however you positively wish to win,” Noel stated along with his traditional cheeky aplomb.
“You’re proficient sufficient to get your self via to the ultimate, nevertheless it’s all about concentrating on every dish and getting it completely right. So good luck,” Paul stated.
Whereas we watched Noel and Alison do that similar music and dance with the remainder of the bakers within the Quarter-Finals, Paul’s repeated insistence that Tasha was ok to make it into the finals felt a bit like he was, as soon as once more, enjoying favorites. And I in all probability might need ignored this complete change if The Nice British Baking Present‘s producers didn’t hold a really telling blooper within the episode’s ultimate reduce.
Throughout the Technical Problem — which Tasha later received — Alison checks in on how she’s doing.
“Are you able to imagine that you simply’ve gotten to the semi-finals?” Alison asks earlier than she realizes her fake pas. “Sorry, it’s not the semi-finals. Sorry. That’s a bit awkward, isn’t it?”
Tasha’s eyes bulge in confusion as Alison continues. “I’m speeding this present on. That was actually awkward… Are you able to imagine you’ve received? How does it really feel?”
Tasha performs alongside like a very good improv scholar, nevertheless it felt like such a wierd mistake to maintain within the ultimate edit except the producers needed to tip audiences off to the truth that Tasha was their favourite to win.
Between Paul’s feedback and the producers’ modifying decisions, The Nice British Baking Present is setting Tasha Stones as much as win all of it. This feels odd as a result of I’d in any other case put my cash on Josh Smalley taking all of it. (In spite of everything, he’s the Showstopper Svengali and what are the finals however continuous Showstoppers?) Is The Nice British Baking Present tipping followers off to a Tasha win? Or setting her up for a heartbreaking fall when the finale does air?
There are solely two extra episodes of The Nice British Baking Present due on Netflix this 12 months, so we’ll discover out in the end if Tasha is the Bake Off Queen…