Who is Jenny Galt?

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Tuesday

It's a week of reversals. Apparently this week there was a lot of drama over who was singing which song, and this is the product of all of it. Patrice sings "Helter Skelter" in a not-remotely-scary fashion. Josh covers the third Nirvana song of the season, "Come as You Are," and the judges aren't impressed that he did just that. Storm tones down the theatrics for her version of the Cars' "Just What I Needed," but that microphone stand is still going to need a lot of therapy. Lukas does "Let's Spend The Night Together," and is less Jagger than Jon Cryer in Pretty in Pink. Jill returns to what I assume are her bar-band roots with Free's "All Right Now," and Ryan's lead-footed "Fortunate Son" makes us all wonder about his definition of the word "fortune." Phil's "White Rabbit" is his best performance to date, even though Jason joins him onstage and plows his bass right into him. Dana attempts to rock a Bon Jovi song, but doesn't quite pull it off. Again. Toby's rendition of "Runaway Train" fails to thrill, but come on -- it's "Runaway Train." Bono's sunglasses join Magni for a duet of STP's "Plush." And Zayra gets her Björk on for a torchy version of "Everbody Hurts," which, my ears actually don't, so much. Jenny's performance of "Drive" by Incubus is correctly described as more "Lilith Fair" than "OzzFest," and Dilana earns the closing slot with a rocking Cranberries cover. Yes, you heard me. Initial bottom three: Jenny, Dana, and Ryan. Still feeling fortunate, Mr. Star?

Wednesday

After last week's elimination show, the Supernovices have learned their lesson with regards to complaining about the judges on-camera at the Rock Star mansion; they know that they'll just have to eat their words at the taping later. So now they complain on-camera about each other. Specifically, Ryan says that Dana shouldn't even be on the show. When confronted with it in the Nut Gallery, Ryan not only doesn't back down, but says Dana's so not rock that she embarrasses him. One assumes that he's also embarrassed to find himself in the initial bottom three with her just minutes later. Jenny was also in the initial bottom three, and they're joined in the bottom five by Zayra and Josh. Yes, Josh. Jenny stays in the bottom three and tries to show that she can rock a Stone Temple Pilots cover, but it's a lot like watching your first-grade teacher trying drugs for the first time. Dana's also in the bottom three, and having taken Dilana's advice to heart, she gets way into a Sass Jordan tune and pulls it off quite well indeed. Ryan and Zayra are safe, which means the third member of the bottom three is Josh. Yes, Josh. He does another Nirvana song ("Heart-Shaped Box"), but sounds a lot less like Lyle Lovett than he did last night. And so Jenny goes home, with a new outlook on life and a promise to be less "safe" from now on. It's a coming-of-age story, really. Want more? The full recap starts right below!

So our host Dave and his wife are splitsville. I blame his aggressive flirting with Brooke.

Tuesday

Brooke comes out dressed like a chandelier and introduces the remaining lucky thirteen Supernovices, as well as the band they're "sucking up to" (her words, not mine -- this time), including "the man who brings some serious ho to his hum, Tommy Lee." It still doesn't make any sense, no matter how much the audience screams. She also introduces Dave, who tells her that she looks spectacular. Brooke responds a little more nervously than usual, now that Dave's single again. Once that's out of the way, Brooke wastes no time telling us that the song selection process this week "got ugly."

Flashback to the Rock Star mansion, where the Supernovices are crowded around the bulletin board with this week’s thirteen songs hung up. Toby's in the back trying to play scoutmaster, saying that he's going to write them all down so they can be organized about this. But Josh isn't having that and immediately lays claim to this week's Nirvana song, "Come as You Are." That makes Nirvana the only band to be featured every week so far, by the way. While he's pulling it down, Dana calls "Helter Skelter," which Josh also takes down and hands off to Dana. Dana's not the only one who wants it, though, as we see when Patrice grabs it out of her hand. Voices rise, and not in song. Toby tries to regain control, telling them all to put the songs back up. Ryan warns Josh that he's setting a horrible precedent, but Josh doesn't care. He's "sick of being a nice guy," and he's out of there with the song that he'd better fucking nail after being such a jerk about it. "Helter Skelter" somehow got back on the board, so that Patrice and Dana can continue arguing about it. Meanwhile, Lukas is trying to decide what he wants from what's left. Toby hums him the opening of the Stones "Let's Spend The Night Together," but Lukas is so not down with going out in front of people and singing "Badadada bop bop badaaada," because he's so much cooler than Mick Jagger. And then for some reason, Patrice and Jill are getting into it over "All Right Now," each defending her own maturity while racing the other to the sandbox. I'm really not sure what's going on there. Perhaps I shouldn't have skipped the webisode this week.

A bit later, Patrice is outside telling Josh, "I might have 'Helter Skelter.'" Josh asks if that's what she's holding, and when she says it is, he tells her, "Then you have 'Helter Skelter.'" Someone needs to tell Josh that he’s got no future in reality TV unless he learns how to get mad at people for doing things he just did. Inside, Jill is complaining to Storm and Zayra about Patrice's attitude, and they almost care. "Are there gonna be punches for frigging songs week?" Zayra wonders, hoping to get into a promo.

Back from the clip, Brooke is all, "Ladies, ladies!" She asks for Tommy's opinion, like we don't already know, and Tommy waxes gross about catfights. Like seriously, shut up, you caveman. Unfortunately, Jill and Patrice play into it, making cat-faces at the camera while snuggling up to each other in the Nut Gallery. Tommy says he's glad to see the Supernovices taking song selection seriously: "You guys are finally starting to act like rock stars over there." Everyone cheers like that's a compliment.

Brooke makes a little announcement: apparently one of the members of Supernova will be joining one of the contestants on stage tonight, although we don't know which member or which contestant. If we also didn't know which member was playing which instrument, then that would make things even more exciting.

Patrice is singing -- wait for it -- "Helter Skelter." I know, can you believe it? She sounds good, and her voice is as strong as always, but she's smiling too much. "Helter Skelter" is not a smiley song. It's not the House Band's best performance either; you can barely hear the bass at all, and this song needs a bottom (sit down, Toby). Jill rocks along in the Nut Gallery, dutifully showing us all what a good sport she is. When Patrice is finished, Tommy tells her that it's a song worth fighting for and he would have done the same thing. Tommy Lee, role model. His overall judgment: "Horns up." Uh, okay. Dave thinks her performance was "on the cute side," but "vocally, you brought it. It was dope." Jason also compliments her, wordily. Surprisingly, none of those words is "dope."

Finally, some love for the House Band! Brooke tells us to give them a round of applause. Round of applause! Okay, that’s enough! No more love for the House Band!

Time for this week's other Bossy McBossypants, Josh. Let's see what he had in mind for that Nirvana cover, shall we? Alas, his brilliant idea was to reenact Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance. He's accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, with the House Band also in acoustic mode behind him. He sings louder than usual, and even drops in a little rasp now and then. But again? Smiling too much. There's no smiling in Nirvana songs. Also, his voice sounds like Lyle Lovett's tonight. Once he's done, Dave tells him that it was "terrific," and he commends Josh for fighting for his songs, but time he wants Josh to "bring something heavy and ugly...these guys are going to be playing at Wembley, not at a coffeehouse." Well, that's optimistic. Nevertheless, Josh readily agrees to do something heavy and ugly. I bet even his car isn't heavy and ugly. Gilby tells Josh that he's done a good job of representing himself, but hasn't represented Supernova. In other words, "Be more of a poseur." Dave tells Josh to bring the intensity he had in holding onto his song to his performance week. And so week, we'll see Josh announce his song and immediately leave the stage.

Storm's going with "Just What I Needed," by the Cars. Which doesn't have a key change. But then none of this week's other songs do, either. I don't think we’ll see a truly ugly song selection meeting until someone else tries to snake a key change out from under Storm. But back to this song. Like the one she picked last week, this is not a good match for her voice. She starts out singing from behind the microphone stand, staring straight into her close-up. Then there's a little sodomizing of the microphone stand, and she's done. A lot less mugging this time. Tommy tells her that he needs to think about it for a minute. Storm brightly agrees, not nervous at all. Dave tells her this was "night and day" from last week, which is kind of an exaggeration. It was night and twilight. Jason compliments Storm's professionalism, while the microphone stand silently begs to differ. Tommy's figured it out in the meantime: "I'd really just like to see more of you." Whatever does he mean by that? Well, it's not so much a double entendre, to put it mildly. Instead of suing Tommy on the spot for sexual harassment, Storm puts on her "Tommy, you bad boy" voice and gives him six letters: "Google." And she tips him a wink. Tommy got served, yo. Server-style. Moments later, during the commercials, the homepage for the National Weather Service crashes spectacularly.

Brooke comes back and reminds us that Lukas was "concerned" about his "pop hook." We're about to see how he deals with that. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't. He just leaves the boppy part out entirely, strutting around on the stage in his purple shirt, black suit and white tie, looking like an overdressed Muppet. He's doing the usual thing with his voice, and then when he gets to the softer part at the bridge, we see why he clings to that method; his non-gravelly voice isn't really all that strong or even controlled. Also, he needs to be careful with his wardrobe choices, because the outfit and the height and the moves just combined to evoke for me not Mick Jagger, but Duckie lip-syncing "Try a Little Tenderness" in Pretty in Pink. Not that that wasn't awesome in its own way, but I don't think it's what Supernova is looking for. I could be wrong, of course. When Lukas is done, Dave brings it honest-style: "I gotta tell you, watching you perform, you really come off kinda arrogant." Both Lukas and Storm and the audience are like, "Oooh...." But it's another one of Dave's fake-outs: "And that's absolutely awesome. You gotta be!" Oh, man, don't encourage him. Tommy tells him, "You're raising the bar, and I'm pulling up a barstool." Did he hire a writer or something? Gilby says that if they ever covered a Stones tune, that's how they'd do it. Well, not if they pick Dana, I bet.

Jill ended up with "All Right Now" by Free, which is such a generic bar band song, and which could not seem more in her comfort zone. Not really much to say about it, except that she's really careful about placing her microphone stand downstage, and even more careful about kicking it over so it doesn't fall off the runway and hit anyone. Jason applauds and nods approvingly, because liability lawsuits are so not rock & roll. Anyway, she sounds great. Dave says it's much better than last week. Tommy sings Jill's name, and she sings his right back. "I am definitely all right now," Tommy says in a way that suggests he needs to have a cigarette and change his pants. Gilby says that this is the first time he could imagine Supernova behind her. Jill says that's great, without asking about the other three times she's been up.

Brooke introduces Ryan, who's in the wings in a short-sleeved black shirt and black tie, which means he's probably doing something punkish or new wave. But since it's Ryan, it means he's doing CCR. Still not quite getting it, are we, Ryan? He comes out and starts singing "Fortunate Son," and his voice is the best I've heard it -- big, loud and powerful. Unfortunately, he hangs out behind the microphone stand for the first verse, first chorus, and second verse, and doesn't even let go of it for the second chorus. It's not until the end that he makes it out onto the runway. Tommy remarks, "It's obvious you can sing, but I was wondering if you had duct tape stuck to your shoes." Gilby adds that Ryan looks uncomfortable when he performs and asks, "Are you having any fun?" Fortunately, Ryan's programmer patched in a "smile" subroutine for this very moment. He admits that he's heard he doesn't smile enough, so he gives the camera his best attempt at a sunny grin. Even so, there's not exactly a sparkly-toothed "ding," if you know what I mean. Pity laugh from the audience. Ryan tries to hold up the smile as he stands to Brooke, but his cheeks just get so tired and her voting spiel is so long. Brooke reminds us that a member of Supernova is still going to play at some point.

Coming back, Brooke reminds us that while Tommy dug Phil's performance, Jason had to close his eyes. Cutaway of Jason covering his eyes again. She's in the middle of announcing that Phil's going to cover "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane when Jason stands up, acts like he just had this crazy idea, and says that he's going to play bass on this one. It's a good thing he can play, because his acting is about as convincing as Ty Pennington's. Phil looks thrilled at getting to share the stage with one of his idols because he doesn't realize that this is Jason's way of avoiding having to watch him. Jason runs up to the stage stripped to his Voivod t-shirt, and isn't there some unwritten rule about wearing your own band's shirt? I mean, okay, yes, I've done that, but not onstage. Sasha the House Band bassist hands over his five-string, and Nate the Drummer and Jason start right in, a bit faster than the original. My friend Bitter sings this song to win karaoke contests, and my band had the chance to back her on it at her birthday party one year, as a surprise for her. We had of course rehearsed it without her, and after she sang it with us for the first time our drummer told me, "She sounds way better singing that than you do." Truer words, my friend.

Also better than me? Phil. And it's kind of too bad that Jason's got his eyes on his fretboard instead of on Phil, because our guy has grown some bones since last week. He's stopped moving like he's on the pitching deck of a yacht in a storm, and now looks more like he's standing on solid ground in a storm. Better yet, his singing is strong and powerful, and his singing faces tonight are quite scary. Lots of glaring at the audience through his eyebrows. Pretty much his only misstep is when he tries so sing up close to Jason, and Jason just runs into him and keeps on coming. I'm not sure how Phil avoided being plowed over there. He goes back out to the runway, but then sings from behind Jason again after watching for a moment to make sure it's safe now. The crowd loves it, the Supernovices are on their feet, and Phil knows he did good. Jason makes his way back to the judges' dais, and for some reason is all, "Gilby, how'd I do? How'd I do? How'd I do?" and he's hopping up and down so that Gilby couldn't answer even if he wanted to. Dave dutifully gives Jason his props, but it's Phil time. Jason sits down, still amped. That's probably more validation he ever got from a bandmate than the entire time he was in Metallica. Dave compliments Phil on his intensity, which Phil claims he's been storing up. Dave tells him to use it now. Tommy also likes that Phil "cranked it up a notch," and wants him to "keep turning the knob." Careful, Tommy -- I’m not yet convinced that Phil can go above the eight we just saw. Phil promises to do so anyway. Jason holds out an allegedly shaky hand and tells Phil it was fun. Which reminds Dave that Jason "shadowed" Phil, and it didn't slow Phil down at all. If by "shadowed" you mean "bulldozed."

Dana's singing "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi, because apparently the Steppenwolf from last week was a little too much for her. And I’m sorry, but anyone who tries to claim "Helter Skelter" and settles for Bon Jovi didn’t deserve "Helter Skelter" to begin with. Especially in light of this performance, in which she keeps making all these video-chick faces into the camera and strutting around like Sheena Easton or some damn thing. It's actually a welcome distraction when she goes around behind Rafael the Lead Guitarist, who is fellating a Vocoder as he plays. Tommy looks borderline annoyed. When Dana's done, Tommy tells her that she's hot, and can sing, but that her performance was like "a Celine Dion extravaganza." He's actually frustrated with her as he all but begs her to "Bring it. Just, harder." Gilby is, as always, more blunt: "I just don't see it, man." Dana responds, "I'll show you, Gilby Clarke," in a little-girl growl. Gilby, to his credit, says that's exactly what he wants to hear. Brooke does the voting thing again for Phil and Dana. It won't help Dana.

Toby time. He's dialing it back again this week, with "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum. Very clever, the way he keeps trying to win me over by choosing songs by Minnesota acts every time they come up. Unfortunately, many of us here in Soul Asylum’s hometown see the bright, shining line when our scrappy, rockin’ underdogs became...something else, and that line is "Runaway Train." In other words, there's really not much you can do with this song, and Toby definitely does it. He's singing from behind the microphone stand, staring into the camera all intense-like. It's clearly not working on Dave, who even pretends to be asleep. The song’s also weirdly edited in a way that I'm not going to bore you by getting into. This is when I first notice Toby’s vocal resemblance to Ed Kowalczyk, the lead singer of Live. Which means that if a Live song ever comes up, he should avoid it at all costs. Toby does an almost interesting "Run, run, run" thing for a coda, and he's done. Dave says that Toby's still "dialed" vocally, but needs to work on his performances a little more. In fact, Dave says that he told Toby that last week, even though we didn't see that on last week's show. Oops. Toby makes the excuse that he wanted to show some emotion (well, if "pretty" is an emotion), but that week he's going to "rock the crap ayt of it." Tommy says he wants Toby to "scare me." Toby promises to do just that. Well, not if he warns him, he won't. "Do you least expect it? How about now? How about now? Boo! Okay, let me try that again. Mate."

Brooke introduces Magni, who at some point has earned the nickname "Ice-Man." Imaginative. I just hope they don't also start calling Josh "Man-chester" or Storm "Whoret-land" or something. Anyway, Magni's wayback machine is busted, so the song he's doing tonight is "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots. And he sounds good, as always, but I'm distracted by his giant, bulbous, Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses and the fact that the House Band sounds disappointingly tame. Magni sells it, though getting in plenty of growling and nailing the song's three high notes. After he's done, Tommy perches up on the back of his chair and says he has one word: "Magni...ficent." Oh, God, he did hire a writer, didn't he?

Brooke tells us that Zayra "took a lot of heat for her performance last week." Don't look at me, dude. I gave her heat for both performances. Tonight I barely recognize her, because she's not wearing black. Instead, she's in a glittery, silvery gown. She takes up position behind the microphone stand to sing "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. And oddly enough, tonight she doesn't make me want to deafen myself with a hand grenade. She's still pitchy as hell, and her accent still bugs, but for some reason that's totally beyond me it's working tonight. It's not the way she sings the line "take comfort in your friends" to the Nut Gallery. And it's not just the fact that she's refraining from dancing. After the bridge, where there's supposed to be one more extra-quiet verse that builds, Zayra blasts straight into the "hold on" coda that always gives me chills on the R.E.M. version, and damn if I don't get them here, too. As much as I hate to say it, good for her. Dammit. Jason's on his feet applauding at the end. Dave's remark is that he thought that Supernova sent home the wrong person last week. Clearly, like the song says, he's not alone. "I stand corrected," he says. He stays seated, though. Gilby also thought that they made a mistake last week, and admits that he voted "no" on Zayra. "Love you, too," Zayra snarks. But Gilby calls tonight's performance both "risky" and "awesome." Zayra stands to Brooke in a straight-girl hug as Brooke does her thing before the commercial.

Brooke tells us that "Jenny got a scare last week when she almost ended up in the bottom three." And this time, judging by her performance, she's determined not to miss it again. With her hair and makeup a bit over the top, she's singing "Drive." Not the one by the Cars; they already had a song tonight. Not the one by R.E.M. either; so did they. It's the one by Incubus, one of any number of hard rock bands that you never hear anything by except for the one softer song they do that's all over the damn radio for a few months. See also: Staind, Xtreme, White Lion, Mr. Big, and, if all goes well, Supernova. And now I have to reassess whether Jenny's as tall as I originally thought, or if it's an illusion caused by her thinness. I'm thinking it's the latter, or else that acoustic guitar she's playing is the size of a cello. At least she's wearing it low the way Tommy likes. Speaking of whom, he and Jason are talking through the performance and clearly not seeing what they want to see from Jenny tonight. What, they didn't want an earthy, granola-chick vibe in their lead singer? Hard to believe. When she's done, Dave tells her that her song choices are getting "safer and safer," which is, as we've learned, very dangerous in this competition. Except that in the literal sense, I don’t think there was any such thing as "safe" song selection this week; Josh or Patrice or Jill seemed ready to take somebody’s hand off. Gilby says that Jenny's performance was a little too Lilith Fair, whereas they're looking for something more OzzFest. "OzzFest!" Tommy cries in response, devil horns held high. Thank you , Pavlov’s dog. Jenny says she plans to bring that. Like, totally.

Yes, they saved Dilana for last. And she's singing a Cranberries song. If it were "Linger" or "Dreams," we would have reason to worry, but she's doing "Zombie." Which I never liked, but now I see that that's because it's a scary song and Dolores O'Riordan is not particularly scary. Dilana does not have that problem, with her Medusa hair and her black skirt/corset combo and her creepy-ass glares into the camera. She also leaves out the octave flips that were so grating in the original, at least at first, but then throws them back in the end, just so we know that's not because she can't pull them off. She's also banging a tambourine very loudly (and distractingly, if you ask me) through the last chorus, and when she tosses it up in the air on the last beat, I swear to God that for a second it looks like she's going to catch it in her teeth, swallow the damn thing whole, and burp out the jingly bits. Yes, it’s another impressive Dilana performance. Everyone's cheering and clapping, with Jason and the Supernovices on their feet. When things settle down a bit, Dave says that every week he waits for the one performance that gives him chills, and says that was it. Tommy tells her, "Dilana? I wanna." Oh, dammit, not only did he hire a writer, he hired Lorenzo Lamas's writer. Jason shakes his head, embarrassed for everyone in the room, everyone watching at home, and everyone ever born. Gilby has no feedback whatsoever. "Enjoy your moment, man," he says. Dilana smiles like she doesn't know that her "moment" is "Summer 2006." Brooke gives the numbers for Jenny and Dilana, and opens the voting.

This week's initial bottom three? Jenny, Dana, and Ryan. In no particular order, mind you.

Wednesday

Are you ready for a new sensation?

Brooke tells us it's elimination night, and tells us that voting is up again last week, and double what it was this time last year. I think that's because we're recapping. You're welcome, show. Tommy Lee is introduced as "the guy who used to be known as Dr. Feelgood, but now we call him the Hatchet Man." Dave totally forgets to hit on Brooke and tells the rockers it's a "potentially very sad day." Only potentially? You mean there's someone they'd be happy to see go (Zayra)? However, Dave says that he's glad to see them "some of you are bringing the rock." Brooke explains how the elimination shows work, and then goes into a long recap of last night. Which I just finished doing, in greater detail, so I hope you won't mind if I just kind of skip this part.

So we're back at the mansion, after the taping of the performances. They're all wearing their performance clothes and it's still light outside, so they tape those shows either in the middle of the day or very late at night. While Lukas preserves his instrument by having a smoke, Toby is beating himself up over his song choice as he sits at an outdoor table with Lukas and Josh. Lukas asks Toby what he's going to do different time, like you can know that before the batch of songs goes up. In an interview, Toby laments his poor choice.

Meanwhile, inside, all the women except Patrice and Jill (who are no doubt off "catfighting" somewhere) are listening to Dana complain. Dana tells Zayra, "You did a ballad and you nailed it," but she's frustrated at being compared to Celine Dion. "Give me Alanis Morrisette, give me Pat Benatar," Dana says, while Dilana, Jenny, Storm, and Zayra secretly think, That would be hilarious; Yeah, right, little girl; Bored now; and Good luck getting it away from Jill and Patrice, respectively. Dana runs down the list of all the things she's done that you do if you're doing a cheap imitation of a rock star, and Dilana finally has enough and offers her advice. "Live the lyric," she tells Dana, adding that she needs to drop the sexy walk, forget about being beautiful, and open her legs. Dana so doesn't get it, but she hugs Dilana anyway. To Dilana's disappointment, she keeps her legs closed as she does so.

Later, the scales fall from Dana's eyes as she watches her own product-placed performance on a product-placed cell phone, flanked by Storm and Dilana. The latter walks Dana through her performance like an NFL coach, wearing a pair of glasses that, in combination with her crazy hair and facial piercings, make her look like a librarian from hell. In an interview, Dana calls the older women her "mamas...they mean well and they're just trying to make me a better performer." We don't hear the "but" that usually accompanies constructions like that. We also never heard Storm say anything, not even, "Try making a shitload of goofy faces."

Later still, Toby, Lukas and Ryan are watching the same performance, probably on the same show. One line into the song, Lukas scoffs dismissively. Ryan says, "She should not be on the show." Yes, it's Ryan who said that. Ryan qualifies his comment, saying that she's good, but should be on...some other show that he clearly isn't allowed to name on camera. Toby notes Tommy's unimpressed reaction in the footage, and Lukas has already wandered off, bored. Why isn't anyone talking about me? he silently wonders.

Back in the studio, Dave remarks that that was the most "direct" we've seen Ryan behave the whole show, and asks him to elaborate. I think Ryan was pretty clear, so Dave's question is clearly disingenuous. Ryan -- sitting right to Dana in the Nut Gallery, naturally -- says that he's being more honest lately, and doesn't question anyone's talent, but "some people aren't as rock & roll as you might want them to be." Dave pushes a little further, and Ryan says that Dana's performance looked like a pop show. "I want to be on a rock show," Ryan says, "and I'm kind of embarrassed when I see that." The audience "Oooooooohs." Which, yeah, that was pretty rude coming from the guy who's struggling to claw his way to the middle of the pack. Dana says that's Ryan's opinion, and she wishes that he had enough "backbone" to tell her to her face. As Dave loudly yelps "Whoa!" a couple of times, Ryan takes the microphone back from Dana, who really needs to learn how to hold onto things better if she's going to hang with this crowd. He says that he warned Dana against the Bon Jovi song, "And when she didn't want my help, I stopped helping. I wouldn't call that spineless at all." No, it's more juvenile and petty, really. Dave asks how Dana's feeling right now, and she swears that she sees where everybody is coming from after watching her video. "Best thing I could have done," she claims, which doesn't explain why she waited three weeks to watch herself. But now she plans to "knock your teeth in." Dave and the guys appreciate that, and they show them to her one last time.

Now Dave turns to Dilana and asks her why she would help somebody she's competing against. Dilana says that's an easy one. Unless you want to avoid looking like a self-serving ass, of course. She could answer, "Because girlfriend wouldn't be a threat to me in this competition if I gave her my DNA," or "Because I'm just that awesome." She goes with the second one. "I'm a loving, giving person," she explains, and goes on to rack up some points on Ryan as well by saying that when Dana asks for her help she's going to give it, and be honest. Pretty much the only other way to go there would be to say, "I forgot it was a competition." Or perhaps, "I'm deliberately sabotaging her with bad advice." That last probably wouldn't work with Dana sitting right behind her, though. Dave asks what Dilana told Dana, as if we hadn't already heard. "She needs to show us her dirty side," Dilana explains. Dana obligingly makes a Betty Boop face. Jeez, Dana, don't go shocking on us all at once.

Gilby wants Toby to describe his feeling about last night's performance. Toby self-flagellates, sucks up, and promises to do better time. Gilby says something about emotions or what not, and Toby says something else about wanting to be seen as the guy who can lead Supernova. I bet he's great in job interviews.

Jason asks Josh why he was so "adamant" about his song choice. Josh puts it down to his emotions, exhaustion, stress, and the day. He forgot "dehydration." Whatever. Tommy's had enough of this drama (meaning the kind of drama he's not the center of), and gets ready to hand out the encore. He teases Jill and Dilana a bit, but the honor abruptly goes to Magni. The Iceman smiles modestly, and everyone cheers at how far he's come since being in the bottom six the first week. He takes the stage, and as surprised as he acts, he clearly came prepared, because the D&G shades go right back on as he does "Plush" again. It's much the same as last night, except the House Band really needs to turn down the organ for this song.

Brooke returns to the stage, and while she's explaining that the Supernovices don't know who were in the initial bottom three, I'm totally distracted by the creepy-looking guy in the second row behind her who's staring at the camera all, I wasn't looking up her kilt! Honest! Brooke gets ready to read the names, in no particular order. The first is Jenny. No surprise there. The second is Dana. Again, no surprise. To her credit, even she doesn't look a bit thrown as she stands up. We even see her shaking her head and saying, "I'm not," which suggests to me that Dilana just told her she's sorry. And good for Dana, actually. She looks ready to kick some teeth in. Ryan just sits there looking blandly vindicated. Until Brooke says his name. His jaw drops, but he recovers quickly to stand to Dana with an embarrassed smile (like he has any other ones). We'll find out if the bottom three changed after the commercials.

When we come back, Brooke explains again how Dana, Ryan, and Jenny were in the bottom three to start out, but that the bottom three changed over the course of voting. She doesn't say how many others trailed this week. The first name is, of course, Zayra. Zayra gets up, and goes around to join the others behind the Nut Gallery grumbling something about "how many times?" Until you're gone, probably. No, you weren't as bad last night, but the road to redemption is a long one around here. Just ask Chris. The second name? Josh. He stands up in the front row, but doesn't join the others, because this is new for him. The rest of them are safe. I'm starting to feel bad now for Storm, Patrice, and Lukas, who have yet to sing on more than one show in a week. Except I don't feel bad for Lukas. Brooke asks Dave whether any of the people standing surprise him. Dave says that he's surprised to see Josh and Jenny standing. But it's not that they were so great, but because they "haven't done anything different to step it up." I don't think Dave really understood the question. Of course, it's entirely possible that Brooke didn't either. She prepares to read the name of the first member of the bottom three. And after the appropriately dramatic pause, which Brooke infuses with as much drama as a wait at the bus stop, we find out that it's Jenny.

Jenny bops over to Brooke, who rolls a clip from last night. Which is good, because Jenny needs a minute to get rid of whatever she's sucking on. Seriously, she's working a cough drop or a jawbreaker or something, and having it fly out and stick to an audience member's forehead is something you do during an encore, not a bottom-three performance. Back from the clip, Tommy tells Jenny, "I hate when it goes soft...are we gonna get hard?" Oh, tee hee, Tommy, you naughty scamp. Jenny snickers that she plans to do just that. And to prove it, she's doing "Vasoline" by Stone Temple Pilots. Eh, I'm not sure about this. Tommy and Gilby nod at each other all Wayne and Garth, and the House Band kicks it.

Okay, they actually nudge it firmly with their toe. I don't know why STP songs are the House Band's Kryptonite this week. In any case, Jenny's pretty much on her own out there. And it's not good. She tries her damnedest, jumping off the drum riser and swinging her pointy-finger all House of Pain at the audience, but she's completely out of her element. I don't know whether to give her credit for trying or to mock her for this desperate display. Judging from Jason's expression, he's struggling with a similar dilemma. When she's done, the Nut Gallery claps politely. Josh in particular looks like he's sitting in a box at the opera. Emphasis on sitting. Off your ass, Bottom-Five-Boy. It turns out that Jenny's the same height as Brooke, even in the clunky boots the former is working. So that's one minor mystery solved, minutes before it becomes moot. Oops, did I say too much there? Brooke sends us to commercial, but first we get a quick shot of Josh remembering that he's in the bottom five and standing up again awkwardly. Yes, we get it. This is new to you. It was new to Chris once, too.

When we come back, the remaining bottom four are still standing. Dana in particular is clearly psyching herself up, like she's going to be pissed if she doesn't get to sing tonight. She's kicking in teeth one way or another, dude. She'd better be in the bottom three. After the requisite suspenseful pause, Brooke reassures her on that score. Dana nods and joins Brooke. Clip of Dana from last night, for the second time tonight. After the clip, Gilby asks Dana what she's going to "show" them. Dana says that she's going to do something kind of "underground." That must be a little true, because nobody cheers when she says she's covering "High Road Easy" by Sass Jordan. Even so, I have to wonder how underground somebody can be when even I've heard of them. She says, "It's a crowd-movin' song, it's got a classic rock element, and the b -- the chick can sing." Gilby tells her the stage is hers, which is generous of him, considering how careful she's being to avoid a fat FCC fine for the show.

I haven't heard this song before, but it's got a southern blues-rock feel that's supported by the SRV-inflected solo that Rafael the Lead Guitarist opens with. On the first verse and chorus, it's clear that Dana's loosened up a bit. She even bends her knees a few times. She goes over to bond with Rafael during his second solo, which makes it kind of sad that she ends up in front of Sasha the Bassist instead. Anyway, for the bridge she goes cordless and works the runway a bit. Rafael takes a third solo, and then Dana goes quiet on one last verse and comes back big on the last chorus, ending up on her knees at the end of the runway. It's a good thing she didn't take Dilana's advice about opening her legs too literally, or we'd be seeing from London to France right now. She mouths something to Gilby, who nods and mouths something back. Looks like Dana's safe this week.

This is where we'd normally go to commercial, but Brooke's trying a little departure here. Ryan, Josh, and Zayra are still standing, and Brooke tells us that there's one more person in the bottom three. "That person is...going to find out after the break." The Supernovices, still in limbo, react in mock disgust that doesn't have a lot of mock in it. Ryan's maybe realizing that Dana isn't the only one on the wrong show.

Coming back, Brooke tells us that Zayra, Josh, and Ryan "have been stressing long enough." And then she waits about a minute after opening the envelope before she says anything. In the meantime, Zayra looks bored, Ryan is barely staying awake, and between them Josh is just about fidgeting a hole right through the stage. Like the last member of the bottom three is going to be him. Guess what? It's him. Zayra and Ryan are safe. Well, you can't have everything.

Josh comes across the stage and Brooke runs his clip. After that's over, Jason tells Josh that he's surprised to even see him in this position, and calls him a "talented cat." Jason asks Josh why he thinks he's in the bottom three, and it's clearly one of those questions where everyone knows the answer. Even so, Josh declines to give one, preferring to say that he's going to do something "nasty." Namely, "Heart-Shaped Box." Because the covering Nirvana worked out so well for him last night.

This cover is much better, though. Josh has ditched the guitar and the MTV Unplugged vibe, which is an improvement right there. His delivery is better too, as he sings the verse through his teeth rather than crooning in his usual style. But it's the chorus that's a revelation, as a ragged howl rips through the studio. Did you know Josh could or would do that? Doesn't matter, because he isn't. The revelation is that Paul the Keyboard Player is doing that behind Josh, and quite possibly saving Josh's ass for another week in the process. Or maybe Josh is saving himself, once he really gets going. Josh drops to a crouch for the second verse and sells it from then on, working the whole stage and actually bringing some intensity. He closes with a full-on screech that he's been saving until the end. The crowd, the Supernovices, and the judges seem to dig it in a big way. Brooke tells us that after one last commercial, Jenny gets sent home. Although she doesn't actually say Jenny's name.

Josh, Dana, and Jenny are waiting at the end of the runway when Brooke brings us back and ands things over to the "Hatchet Man." There's some tedious business with Tommy's imaginary hatchet that I'm not even going into, and then Gilby does his rundown of the final three. Gilby starts out by telling Jenny's whole arc this far. As for tonight, he liked her performance, but they aren't sure the vocals are right for them. Duh. Dana is told that she has a great attitude, and that "You really brought the house down." Cheers all around, but Gilby says that they still aren't sure Dana has what it takes. As for Josh -- more cheers -- Gilby says that Josh is a talented singer, but he still doesn't understand why it took so long to "bring the rock." To his credit, Josh doesn't try to claim that his Creed song last week was rock, although you can totally tell he wants to. And Gilby turns it over to the Hatchet Man.

Tommy does his Hatchet Man bit again, then tells the bottom three, "This sucks." He says that it gets harder every week, but someone has to go and he has to look out for the band. He says that there were "three okay performances," and after a dramatic pause, tells Dana, "You rocked it." He says he's looking forward to seeing more of her, but not in the way he said it to Storm. Dana returns to the Nut Gallery, leaving Josh and Jenny alone. Tommy hums the Jaws theme, then claims, "I hate this." You know what else gets harder every week? Believing that. Josh says he hates it, too. Tommy says Jenny's name, then lets her twist before finally saying, "You gotta go." What happened to "didn't cut it?" Did someone decide that's an inappropriate catchphrase for a hatchet man? We see the survivor guilt hit Dana, and Jason gets to his feet to applaud Jenny. He doesn't stay there for long, though, and Gilby isn't clapping at all.

As Dave congratulates Jenny on stepping out of her box tonight, Jenny acknowledges, and says that she's changing as a result of this experience and the comments from the guys. She says that she's learned more in the past three weeks than the whole rest of her life: "I describe it as the best slap in the face I ever got." Then she goes into overshare mode, saying that she's always led a safe life. "Safe people, safe job, safe this, and safe that." I feel like I'm talking out of turn just telling you about it. She says that she'll carry the experience through her life, as most of the other Supernovices give her a standing ovation. The judges wonder when their bad-ass rock & roll show turned into a chick movie. Tommy repeats his "no losers" mantra to Jenny. And she's off to say farewell to the remaining twelve. I'm pretty sure Storm tells her "Find me, okay?" That shouldn't be hard. Six letters, Jenny.

Post-eviction interviews: Josh says that being in the bottom three was a necessary experience for him: "I'm going to build my voice back up, feel better, and just kick some ass." Wow, so that scream really took it out of him, huh? Dana feels that tonight was her best performance yet, and she can only get better. She's half right. She calls herself a "rock & roll virgin," and calls the competition "rock & roll boot camp." That's a mixed metaphor right there, but she probably doesn't want her parents to hear her say "rock & roll gangbang" on national television.