Paul Hollywood Physically Glitched After Eating a Sour Showstopper on ‘The Great British Baking Show’ “Pastry Week”

I’ve seen every episode of The Great British Baking Show (except for the one season that seemingly has never hit PBS or Netflix), so believe me when I say Paul Hollywood has never reacted to a bake like he did on this weekend’s “Pastry Week” episode. As soon as Mr. Hollywood took a bite of sweet Dana Conway‘s mulled wine apple pie, he began to convulse like he was Regan MacNeil and Satan was still inside of him. He puckered his lips, wildly gesticulated his hands, and seemed to clutch at the air for help from an angel above. “Too sour?” Dana asked. Pointing at both sides of his throat, Paul replied, “It hits you right there.” Prue Leith, on the other hand, simply said, “I think it is, perhaps, too powerful.”

Now, it’s not like I’m the only person to notice how wildly out of character Paul Hollywood’s reaction to Dana’s pie was. The official British social media account for the series posted a video of Paul’s little freak out with the caption, “That middle of the week feeling…” (Um, what kind of Wednesdays are they having over in the U.K.? My hump days are far more defined by despair than they are by a visceral physical reaction to food.)

That middle of the week feeling… #GBBO pic.twitter.com/ZKgHFeOUYp

— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) October 25, 2023

All of which is to say that something extraordinary happened on The Great British Baking Show on Netflix this week. Paul was physically broken by a dessert. And we got to see it happen in real time…

The Great British Baking Show “Pastry Week” started out normally enough. The remaining bakers entered the tent with smiles, giggles, and nerves. For the Signature Challenge, Paul and Prue asked the nine remaining bakers to each bake twelve individual savory picnic pies. While Cristy came out on top with a Hollywood Handshake, it was the aforementioned Dana who managed to amuse Paul. When he asked her if she was basing her picnic pies on a pithivier, she adorably asked, “What’s that?” By the end of day, however, Dana and everyone else would know what a Dauphinoise Potato Pithivier was.

Paul then asked the bakers to make a Dauphinoise Potato Pithivier for the Technical Challenge. While Nicky Laceby, Josh Smalley, Matty Edgell, and Saku Chandrasekara struggled, Dana — who had been unwittingly practicing Dauphinoise all week — came in second place after Dan Cazador.

If it looked like things were going well for bubbly baker from Essex, that narrative fell apart when it came time for the Showstopper Challenge. Paul and Prue asked the bakers to make at least three decorative sweet pies. While Josh pulled himself out of the bottom with a perfect sunflower pie display inspired by his love for his deceased grandmother, Dana’s “The Apple of my Pie” Decorative Pies disappointed the judges. At first Paul and Prue harped on the fact that she had used too much frangipane in her main baklava-inspired pie, rendering it underbaked. However, they — well, specifically, Paul — had no idea what was about to hit them.

Paul sliced into one of Dana’s smaller apple pies, made with mulled wine and black currants, and could not physically contain his disgust. His hands popped off. He leaned back. He almost made like a man staring into the abyss, seeing his own ghoulish reflection in the darkness. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that extreme, but there is no doubt that Paul Hollywood has never reacted quite so strongly to a baker’s creation.

When it came time to send two bakers packing (because Tasha’s illness last week spared the judges’ hand), Paul made a point of calling out Dana’s terrible Showstopper. In the end, however, Nicky Laceby and Rowan Claughton were eliminated. Dana’s strong first day saved her.

While I’m sure Dana would have preferred higher marks on her Great British Baking Show “Pastry Week” Showstopper, she can live the rest of her life with the knowledge that she broke Paul Hollywood. No one else has done before and I daresay no one will do it again.