Danny's first - Pauler picks "Dance Little Sister", which tells me she actually hates him.  It's a totally dated song and it has the word DANCE in it.  Now, we've seen Danny dance before, and I think we can all agree that we'd rather watch a documentary on the mating habits of nursing home residents.  And, yeah.  It's like he's trying to do the Running Man, but the motor isn't really starting.  He's pulling the crank, but it takes a few yanks to start.  And then the whole thing just sort of sputters out.  Thankfully, there was no thrusting or chicken-necking.  What's hilarious about the whole thing is that Pauler cannot admit that he has no rhythmic abilities.  Really, Paula?  For shame.  Anyway, since this isn't actually So You Think You Can Dance, I should probably address the singing.  And it was alright.  I didn't totally hate it.  There was his typically weird phrasing and enunciation and the overly loud scatting, but that's to be expected by now.  Which is to say, I didn't like it all that much, either.  I don't know whose idea it was to have the Saxophone Player with the Tiniest Vest in the World tootin' along with him, but that was just awkward.  Almost as awkward as a family portrait in which the subjects wear fuzzy birthday suits.  Overall, I say meh.  Mainly, I blame Pauler.

Kris' first - Randy/Kara pick for him "Apologize" by OneRepublic.  A song that Kara herself has some publishing connection to.  She goes on and on about how great the original is, but then expresses disappointment in Kris' version.  Tsk.  At least Randy appreciates that he sang their choice well.  Hey, and I liked it, too.  Bum note?  What bum note?  Maybe Pauler was still hearing the reverberations from last week's "Dream On".  I think we all are in a way.  The thing with me and this song is that I hate it.  The guy uses too much falsetto, and it's just a straightforward, kind of cold pop song.  But Kris sang with a lot of feeling, and used the falsetto to punctuate the loveliness of his tone, rather than use it to death (Ryan Tedder).  I actually liked it more than the original.  So there, Kara.

Adam's first - Simon picks "One" by U2.  The first part delivers the chills that I usually get when he slows it down a bit, and we get to hear exactly how much control he has over his voice.  *sigh*  But then it speeds up, and he loses me somewhat.  Not that it was bad at all, but with that particular song, I wish he'd just kept it pure and gorgeous throughout the whole thing.  Especially since he has a second song to let loose!  I get the sense that all three guys weren't too into the songs the judges had picked for them, and were reserving some energy for their own choices.

Danny's second - he decides to sing "You Are So Beautiful", which I kind of like, actually.  I was only afraid that he might bring a harpist onstage again.  But no, just a string quartet and an acoustic guitarist.  Which turned out to be a good choice, because I honestly thought this was his best performance of the whole season.  I'll just ignore the fact that he yelled, "you turned this boy into a man yes you did oh yeaaaaahhhhh" because I do think this was a really good vocal.  The things I grew to hate about him, his over-indulgence and tendency to just bounce the song all over the place and skate by on the tone of his voice instead of actually trying to sing good (all things that are the opposite of what Kris does every single week, but whatever) were completely gone for a minute.  So, I enjoyed it.

Kris' second (AKA Best Thing Ever) - completely flawless.  I just watched it again, and I am now a puddle of goo.  While watching it the first time, I had a brief fantasy that Kara was saying to herself, "Oh, I am so stupid.  Of course that's why he didn't do 'Apologize' all stripped down.  Doing two songs the same way in one night would be useless."  And then she would prostrate herself in front of Kris and beg for forgiveness.  Alas, no.  Instead, she screeched out, "Why didn't you do that with 'Aplogize'???!!!"  Most clueless bitch who has ever lived.  Anyway, back to Kris.  This is exactly the kind of music I listen to outside of watching this show.  I'll be waiting for your CD, Kris.

Adam's second - he does "Cryin'" from Aerosmith's early years.  Ooh, BURN!  Like this: "That's right, America.  This is how you sing Aerosmith."  I got the message loud and clear.  Too bad the backup singer was getting her ears pierced by a 13-year-old-girl at the same time.  That is what happened, isn't it?  Sure sounded like it.  I'm just glad someone realized how bad it was and was able to drag her off the stage before it went on too much longer.  I imagine one of those giant hooks coming from offstage to reel her in, and then a bunch of stage hands wrestling her away from the microphone still clutched in her hand.  Well, after that ordeal, it was schooltime.  We all learned how screaming is to be done.  On key is, um, key.  I hope we have all learned our lesson.  Danny.

Since this is so late, I won't pretend to do predictions.  I had absolutely no idea who'd be sent home.  I didn't necessarily think it was going to be Kris, though.  In my mind, he won the night.  He didn't seem beat down at all.  He was still fighting, and I think that's what got him to the top 2.  And Adam wasn't necessarily safe.  People might have wanted to save Kris, and figured he was an automatic shoe-in.  Luckily, Simon helped to stop that from happening.  I was hoping and hoping and hoping for Danny to go.  And I didn't think he was safe either, despite never being in the bottom 3 and having a devoted fan-base.  This is what happens on this show:  someone fucks up hard one week, and their fans will vote even more to save him.  The pity vote.  But the next week, they should just pack their bags unless they do something miraculous.  The backlash.  And this is why Adam is a genius.  He (I'm only projecting my own evil thoughts here) purposely did an Aerosmith song to prove a point.  He all but made sure it would be him and Kris in the finale, and I thank him for it.