American Idol Season 9, Episode 29: Results

Last night's episode left me in pain.

From the very beginning when they opened with that trainwreck of a Lennon/McCartney medley group sing, I was literally cringing through the entire episode. Ugh. Terrible, obvious lip -syncing. What's worse is that the vocals they were lip-syncing to weren't very good to begin with. Everyone looked unrehearsed and terribly uncomfortable.

Then the manipulation began. Ryan pulled the girls--Siobhan, Crystal, and Katie--to the center of the stage. No way this was the Bottom Three, I said to myself. In a completely 'duh' moment, Ryan sent Crystal to the couch, and everyone across the viewing audience said, "Well, yeah, Ryan. Obviously she's safe." Then he sent Siobhan and Katie back to safety, telling us that all the girls were safe and would be back next week.

I could already tell by this point that I was going to need medication of some sort. I wish I had gone rifling through my medicine cabinet for my Percoset or at least had a glass of wine if Ryan was going to treat us this way all night.

And of course, that's exactly what Ryan did. He waited after a couple of performances, but then he split everyone into two groups: Lee, Casey, and Tim to his right and Michael, Aaron, and Andrew to his left.

Because Ellen, to Ryan, is the extension of the viewing audience, he makes her squirm a bit, asking her which group is the Bottom Three. He finally puts her (and us) out of our misery and sends Lee, Casey, and Tim back to safety, leaving Michael, Aaron, and Andrew on stage in the Bottom Three. Ryan immediately sends Aaron back to the couch and I am shocked beyond all reason. Certainly is wasn't Michael who received the second-lowest number of votes. Certainly it will be Andrew who will be going home. Right? RIGHT????

At first, I thought Ryan was just messing with my head, and it wasn't really Michael who got the lowest number of votes and was up for elimination. But then, Michael had a mic in his hand, and was singing Maxwell's "Women's Work" and I began to rock back and forth, praying that the judges would use their one save of the season. Mike is one of the big personalities AND he's a great singer--certainly they wouldn't let him go!

FINALLY, after what seemed like an eternity of Simon's hemming and hawing, he announced that they would be using their save, and that Michael would be back to perform next week. Yes! Ryan was so excited that I thought that he was going to do a toe-touch right on the stage.

Next week, two contestants will be sent home.

Toodles!