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The Top Chef producers and editors apparently wanted to minimize the altercation with Marcel--as has been pointed out on a few websites discussing the show, if you look carefully at the footage of Marcel after he breaks free from Cliff, you see Elia on the ground laughing--with all her hair. So they went after Marcel FIRST, then crowded into a bathroom together giggling and shaving their own heads. (They also apparently omitted footage of Cliff further going into Marcel's bedroom and throwing chocolate bars at him until Marcel locked himself in the other bathroom.)
In any case, I think Havrilesky is truly downplaying the wrestling with Marcel here. Maybe she had her face ground into the carpet by older siblings--if so that's unfortunate, because I know my parents would never have let my siblings and I get to that level of physicality. But even so, juvenile horseplay with someone you know and love and is part of your family is very different than a gang of near-strangers who you've only met through the course of a competition, and who you already know despise you as a group. I wish all the other contestants had been kicked off, but I'll settle for Cliff's more than justified dismissal.
