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Tuesday
There's plenty of fallout at the Mansion over Dilana's recent screw-ups. It couldn't happen at a better time, what with only six people left to sing and lots of room for filler. But on to the performances. Apparently, people voted online to choose what each Supernovice would sing tonight. For each performer, voters were given a choice between several songs the contestant had sung before, plus one "wild card" that had been sung by someone else. Unsurprisingly, the "wild cards" won every time. And with all the deadwood cut away, nobody's coasting any more. Lukas starts things off by trying to make us forget Dilana's performance of "Lithium," and the judges love it. Magni gets "I Alone," which he literally sings to the back row. Ryan's performance of "Clocks" explores a parallel universe in which Coldplay is fronted by Jerry Lee Lewis. Poor Storm has to shoehorn her big old alto into "Bring Me to Life," and ends up getting the show stolen from her by "backing vocalist" Toby. Who then does "Rebel Yell" and hauls a bunch of Tobyphiles up onstage for an impromptu American Randstand moment. And then Dilana straps on her Flying V for a cathartic performance of "Mother Mother." No, she doesn't smash the guitar, probably because she's afraid of wounding Magni with shrapnel again. Initial bottom three? Storm, Ryan, and Lukas. Ooh, that's going to sting the little skunkweasel.
Wednesday
After some borderline-existential blather about how half of the remaining field is going to be in the bottom three tonight, Supernova "awards" tonight's performance with them to Lukas. He belts out the heavy, mid-tempo song and does a good job on those long, high notes that Jason's been getting after him about this whole time. Not that I can remember the song at all right now. Toby gets his second encore, and bellows "Rebel Yell" from all over the damn place. When it comes time to announce the bottom vote-getters, the initial bottom three -- Ryan, Storm, and Lukas -- are joined by Toby and Dilana, leaving Magni the last man sitting. Ryan's back in the bottom three, pulling out all the stops for the Who's "Baba O'Riley" and making me wish he'd push a few back in. Storm's maiden bottom-three performance is the Beatles' "Helter Skelter," and she has a great time. Toby's safe, which means that we have another virgin in the bottom three: Dilana. Looks like the voters aren't so quick to forgive. Her rendition of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" is a mere formality, even when she gets lost and forgets the words. And then Tommy nearly triggers a riot in the auditorium when he cuts Ryan loose. Like Supernova hadn't made up their minds the minute Patrice left the building. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Tuesday
Brooke welcomes us to "Fan Selection Night." Wow, which of us will be chosen? Oh, never mind. What it means is that "you, the fans" (don't look at me, lady) chose the songs for the Supernovices to sing. She reminds us that the selection of a new lead singer for Supernova is just two weeks off. Can't wait. Clearly, neither can the remaining half-dozen in the Nut Gallery: Magni, Toby, Storm, Ryan, Dilana, and Lukas. Brooke also introduces Supernova and Dave, and gets right down to business. Which is, still, the way that Dilana shot off her stupid mouth last week. Dilana sits front and center in the Nut Gallery, looking blank and shell shocked from behind raccooned-out eye sockets. Like she survived the Holocaust instead of a bad week on a reality show.
We get a quick recap of Dilana's ill-advised comments during the press clinic before last week's shows, Dave's criticism thereof, and Dilana's rather defensive "apology" during the elimination show. And then we're in the Mansion at the post-elimination dinner. Much smaller table in there now, which only makes the dining room look more cavernous. Storm tries to break the tension by proposing a toast to "Dilana's first spanking" (she does love that word, doesn't she?), but Dilana only wants to ratchet it up higher by continuing to pout. "I feel like everything I say is taken the wrong way anyway," she whines. Toby shakes his head in annoyance, like he's thinking, So when you called me a poseur, you meant it as a compliment? Dilana interviews how bad she felt, and then we're back at dinner, where Ryan is self-righteously lecturing her about how he won't shit-talk people because he has to sleep with himself at night. I believe that last part, despite what Ryan told Dave last week. Why do you think so many of us recappers are married? Dilana sullenly attempts the excuse that she thought it was just for practice. Lukas declines to give her any slack, and then in an interview claims to wish that he could take it back for her, because of what Dilana's going through now. You'd almost believe it, too, until he glances away to conceal a smug glint in his eye. Back at dinner, Dilana says that she'll need some time while Storm comforts her. See, this is what irritates me the most about this situation: Dilana tried to screw everyone over, it blew up in her face, and now she pouts and expects everyone to go out of their way to make her feel better about it.
We then see Dilana sitting out by the pool, as Lukas sits and watches her cry. Magni comes out to join them, and as she looks up, she spots the camera shooting her from across the pool. Angrily, she flips us a double bird (although it's spelled "blurred" on network TV), spits a bleeped curse, and storms off, deliberately smashing one of those fancy red goblets on the stone pool deck as she goes. Pieces of it fly everywhere as Magni flinches. "She hit my face," Magni tells Lukas, who then plays it up in an interview that Magni could have been blinded. Yeah, but what could have been a bigger edge in this competition than an eye patch? So rock & roll. Lukas also doesn't mention that Dilana was barefoot at the time. Lukas goes back inside and announces to the three still at the table that "Magni's head is cut open." This triggers the low-grade pandemonium Lukas was shooting for, and Ryan immediately dashes up to Magni's room, knocks on the door, and asks to see the wound. The Iceman himself is trying to downplay it, even though the bright trickle of blood on his big bald head is a bit startling. He says that he's going to wash it off, and Ryan says that he's going to wait in the hallway. Thanks, dad.
Out by the pool, Toby and Lukas are discussing the moment. "All this drama, man, this is crazy," Lukas mumbles around his cigarette.
Dilana's up in one of the bedrooms, ugly-sobbing an apology to Magni (who's still telling her it's no big) while wrapped up in Storm's arms. Not that we see Magni in the room. The camera guys are probably being careful to stay out of sight so as to avoid being maimed themselves.
Out on the pool deck, Toby finishes sweeping up the broken glass as he comments, "I don't get it. She's probably had one of the sweetest rides out of anyone." "Some people can't handle being on top," Ryan speculates, because he'll never know. And then we see Dilana, perched on the sill of her second-floor window, like some cameraman is trying to find the angle that makes it seem most likely that she's going to jump. Over this footage, she voice-overs about all of her hard work and the "amazing opportunity" that she can't screw up. She expresses her need to "get out of this hole" and wonders how to fix it.
The clip ends, and we're tight on Dilana, devastated from watching this. For once, we don't come back from the clip with cheers or moans, but dead, uncomfortable silence. Now that's rock & roll, right, Sinead? Brooke basically shoves Dave into the yawning chasm, and he does his best. He calls it a "heavy week," but he wants to get past this and move on. He starts by asking how Magni is. "It's a flesh wound, it's nothing," Magni scoffs. "I've cut myself worse shaving." Nice of him. He gets plenty of applause, and some very heartfelt gratitude from Dilana. Dave asks her, "How are you feeling going into tonight's performance?" Dilana takes a long moment, stares at her feet, and mumbles, "I feel like...I'm gonna rock the shit out of this place." Oh, the people love that. Dilana gives a big speech to the effect that nobody's perfect; she screwed up, but she loves her friends (by which she means the other Supernovices, and thanks, Dilana, for making me wonder if you have any in the outside world), and promises to never hurt them again. Through the ensuing applause, Lukas looks a little bummed that it ended without Dilana getting another reaming from somebody. Maybe he'll do it himself during the commercial.
Coming back, Brooke reminds us that it this week's song selection was left up to internet and cell phone polling, and we go to a clip demonstrating just that. In the Mansion, the Supernovices enter the song selection room to find a "gigundous" (TM Storm) computer monitor notifying them that it's Fan Selection Week. That is really not a descriptive term at all for what happens this episode. Ryan is the first to find out which song the voters chose for him, and it's the one he's never sung before. Coldplay's "Clocks" apparently edged out an encore of "Losing My Religion" by one percentage point. Okay, people, that was good, but we've seen it twice. Toby reads some comment by a (deaf) user who explained that Ryan should do well with this song because of his strong high register. And Ryan interviews that he's amazed that the internet has already figured out what he's going to do with the song before he's even gotten used to the fact that he's going to sing it. Yes, Ryan, we work fast around here.
Lukas -- his hair still slicked back from a photo shoot and displaying plenty of forehead acreage -- learns that he's been tapped to do "Lithium." Which of course is the song that launched Dilana on this show. "Maybe the fans do want to see me show up Dilana," Lukas guesses in an interview, and promises to put his own spin on it. Toby is thrilled to learn that he's doing "Rebel Yell," and Magni has been assigned "I Alone" by Live. On Storm's screen, the bar on the bottom just keeps going, as she learns that she's singing "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence. As selected by 68% of the voters, who would like to hear Storm sing a song by a girl for once (not counting "I Will Survive," which has of course long been co-opted by Cake and drag queens). Storm is worried right away. And then Dilana finds out that she's singing "Mother Mother," and is excited to show everyone that she's "back." Even though she didn't actually go anywhere. Storm reads the fan message that Dilana "gives women who listen to rock someone to look up to." As long as those women are standing in a very deep hole. "Keep fighting the fight and I'm sure we will see you standing there when the smoke clears." Dilana tells us that she's filled with new energy. "I cannot let the fans down," she vows. Dilana? You're singing's not the issue.
Back in the auditorium, Dave tells the Supernovices to bring it. "No train wrecks this week," he warns, and announces that Lukas is going first. As Lukas heads over to the stage, we get another new, filler-rific development: little pre-performance interview segments. Oh, hot damn. In this one, we learn that Lukas is just like everyone else, but with more makeup.
Brooke reminds us that "Dilana killed it earlier this summer," while Lukas is in the background whipping up the crowd from the stage pre-song. When "Lithium" starts, it's just piano, while Lukas sings the opening verse softly from behind the mic stand. He stretches out the last line of the first verse, which is the signal that the House Band is going to kick it on the chorus. Which they do. Things tone down again for the second verse, during which Lukas works the whole stage and the runway. The crowd's loving it, and even Jason can't stay in his seat. Lukas finishes up, and enjoys the noisy adulation of the crowd.
Dave tries one of his little fakeouts, where he tries to act all offended that somebody rearranged a classic song, but nobody believes him. Least of all Lukas. Dave says that it was awesome, but it's not so dramatic when he has to holler it over cheering. Tommy, in a pink cowboy hat for some reason, says that he believes in letting the music do the talking. "And that was talking, baby." And yet Tommy doesn't shut up. He adds that he dug the new arrangement, and was "captivated" by Lukas's singing. Gilby blandly says that it was Lukas's best performance, and Jason tells Lukas he "opened up" like Jason's always wanting him to. Even though he really kind of didn't. I'm starting to wonder if maybe Jason isn't starting to get overruled in regards to Lukas's voice.
In Magni's interview segment, he interviews that if he ends up in the bottom three again, statistically he's probably going home. Can't argue with that; he is the only one left who's been in the bottom three more than once, you'll recall. So he decides to appeal to voters from countries other than Iceland. Over shots of a glam photo shoot, he tells Australians that he's better looking than Toby, Canadians that they can do better than Lukas, and that Americans don't have to vote for their compatriot, Ryan. "Gimme a break, I learned your language! Come on!" What about Dilana? South Africa doesn't get to vote? And he's apparently given up the Storm supporters as a lost cause. He's obviously joking throughout, of course, which is why week is not going to be all about Magni's Meltdown. And then Brooke introduces him singing "I Alone."
The cut on Magni's head is in fact healed enough to be invisible now, as he and the House Band go into the song. Because it's Magni, it sounds a lot like the original. And then he just roars into the chorus, sounding amazing. Then he heads into the audience during the bridge, wading through the crowd toward the judges' dais. Always a good move. Except he goes all the way past it, and looks like he's about to keep going, but thinks better of it and finishes the song standing right to Supernova. At the end of the song, he hops off and heads back to the stage. And he's got a long walk ahead of him, because everyone in the audience wants to congratulate him.
"That boy can sang!" Dave Idols over the din of the crowd. Magni finally regains the stage, and Dave says he wishes Magni was still there so he could say to his face, "That was killer, dude." Yes, you certainly wouldn't want to have to holler something so deeply personal and intimate across an auditorium full of people. Dave's got nothing to add in terms of advice: "It all kind of comes down to the roll of the dice now." That doesn't look like something Magni wanted to hear. Tommy also liked Magni's journey through the hall, but says he wishes Magni had proceeded "all the way to the back." Yes, apparently there are rows of seats behind the judges. That place might be bigger than it looks on TV. Magni says that he was going to, but realized there was no lighting back there. "I gotta look good," he explains. Gilby says that Magni is always solid, but tonight he gave "that extra something." Hey, he's already spilled his blood in this competition. He's clearly committed.
Back from break, Supernova is standing to Brooke on the judges' dais as she tries to sell some Supernova concert tickets. Good luck with that, especially with Jason acting like a spazz right at her elbow.
Ryan's pre-interview kicks off with the clip of Dave dubbing him Ryan "The Dark Horse" Star. Ryan admits that he wasn't doing so great early on, but has been doing better and better in recent weeks. And he thinks that if he keeps going at this rate, he could end up winning. Ah, he had me and then he lost me.
Ryan's singing "Clocks" by Coldplay, and he's back behind the baby grand, the site of his greatest early triumph. He starts off softly, in the middle of the song as always, singing the high "ooohs" along with solo piano. The crowd waves its hands obligingly. And then the House Band kicks in, which is Ryan's cue to stand up, send the piano bench flying, and climb right up on top of that Baldwin. He sings the first half of the first verse from up there, then leaps off for the second half. I swear, he's going to break an ankle one of these days. He's not a small man. He works the runway hard through the song, although this isn't his best performance vocally. He does a little Daltrey-twirl with the microphone cable (which makes me sad that it's not cordless, because, "Incoming!"), then suddenly seems to realize that he needs to be on the other end of the stage and back behind that piano right now. So he dashes over, does a hood-slide over the baby grand like Bo Fucking Duke (which cracks up the other Supernovices), and tinkles out the solo piano break. For the coda, he drags himself back up there belly-first, finishes from his knees, then leaps down to the stage again. I hope he knows a good orthopedist.
"Oh my God, it's the Dark Horse!" Dave says, more mockingly than he might intend. He says that it's going to be a tough night, and, indeed, everyone seems to be bringing their A-game this time. Dave compliments Ryan's intensity, and appreciates his willingness to climb the piano. Jason is less complimentary, saying Ryan is strong behind the piano, but when he gets up he tends to "lose the plot." Whatever that means. Dude, it's a rock song, not Berlin Alexanderplatz. Jason is roundly heckled. He interrupts himself to glare up at someone in the balcony behind him, but that's as far as it goes. I kind of hope it's Lars Ulrich up there. As for Gilby, he thought it was a great performance. He likes how Ryan does something different every week, and "There's nothing better than watching an inspired artist perform." Wait, does he mean Ryan?
After another commercial, Brooke -- sitting front and center in the Nut Gallery, while Dilana occupies Storm's vacant seat -- reminds us that another Supernovice will be singing with Supernova tomorrow. Let's hope they do a cover this time. But let's move on to Storm. Brooke reminds us that Storm is singing a song that's already been done twice, "and once again, her stomach is in knots." That brings us to Storm, and her pre-interview segment. During the song assignment meeting, Dilana reads an online comment that the band should be called "SuperStorm." Storm laughs and puts a hand over her face, mortified for every human being in the whole world. I know just how she feels, except for the laughing. Later, she interviews that her voice is very different from Jill's and very, very different from Zayra's (hear, hear). There's a replay of some of the footage where she worried about the song, and then the segment ends with her sitting at the foot of her bed, quietly and uncertainly singing the song to herself. And she's thinking, Thanks a fuckload, FANS.
Brooke tells us that Storm asked Toby to join her onstage (even though Toby's sitting right behind Brooke, so maybe he said no), and sends it over to the stage. The song starts, and it's actually kind of jarring, because where Amy Lee starts soft and high, Storm is soft and at least a full octave below the original, if not two. Then she goes high again as the band starts building to the chorus, to Supernova's apparent approval. When the chorus starts, Toby dashes out and starts singing the Paul McCoy bit, and, alas, completely steals focus. He's not trying to, staying upstage right and everything, but the fact is that Storm has all she can do to just get through this. The lighting guys also try to keep attention on her by footlighting her red dress to the point of transparency. She hits her knees at the end of the runway for the bridge, and lets out a scream before the last chorus, while executing a leap which assures us that yes, she is wearing underwear. She finishes up on a big, high, glory note, and Toby scurries back to the Nut Gallery while she accepts congratulations from the front row. One guy shakes her hand and actually has the nerve to pull her down for a kiss, and I think that guy is lucky not to pull back a stump. He'll probably wake up with one the morning anyway.
Dave tells Storm that he was worried she wouldn't be able to pull the song off with her range, but she did "all right." Storm manages to not blush at Dave's effusiveness. Dave adds that Toby did great. "In fact, I think you stole a little bit of the heat." To his credit, Toby looks embarrassed, and cringes guiltily. Gilby's less impressed; he says he still remembers Jill's performance, but doesn't think he'll remember this one. But Jason disagrees: "In my book, effort counts for everything, and there it was. You really showed a lot of effort." Can't argue with that, but I'm not sure it's so great that Storm made it look as hard as...well, as hard as it probably was for her. Are strain and flopsweat really all that rock & roll? "I wore a dress," Storm reminds them, underscoring the point by hiking the hem practically up to her hip. There's no "VOTE STORM" labeled on her thigh, I can tell you after careful inspection.
Toby's pre-interview is all about what a wacky cutup he is. We see him shoving cake in Ryan's face and streaking around the pool. "And I'm always thinking ahead to what bit of fun I can create," he tells us, which sounds kind of like the opposite of fun to me. Then there's the bit where he gets Dilana to do her own nudie dash, for a song he didn't even want. But he says he can get things done, too, which he thinks is what Supernova is looking for. And then Brooke introduces him singing "Rebel Yell."
The House Band plays the intro exactly the way they did for Lukas back in the day, although they drop out for Toby's first line. Which I think was a mistake on his part, because right off the bat he's showing that this song is too low for him. But he makes up for it in energy, especially when he reaches the chorus and gets to go high again. And it's not his fault that the synth is too loud, like Paul the Keyboard Player is welcoming us to a haunted house. Toby shows off his limited lower range and his eyeliner some more during the bridge, and then Rafael the Lead Guitarist goes into a solo. "Rafa!" we see Gilby hollering in encouragement. Those who can't do, cheer. While that's going on, Toby heads back out to the end of the runway and pulls a few girls from the audience up onstage with him. More of them follow on their own, and by the time he's into the last chorus, there's a small crowd of blondes bopping up and down out there. Tommy loves it, of course. And that's how the song ends, with Toby tipping his head back toward the small army of groupies he's amassed behind him.
While Toby's still hugging and kissing them each goodbye before they hop back down to the floor, Dave tells Toby that after the job Lukas did on this the first week, he was a little worried. "Me too, bro," Toby readily admits. But Dave says that he "bought it," and appreciated Toby's "crowd interaction." Ah, is that what the kids are calling it these days? Gilby tells Toby that he's having a great night, what with the Storm thing just now and the great performance he just gave. Tommy thinks that "Rebel Yell" correlates with Toby's history of public nudity for some reason. "God bless you," Tommy finishes. God's like, "Eh, not so much." Especially when Tommy adds, "Grab those girls and let's go back to my dressing room." Toby makes a joke about carding them, but they're too busy screaming up at him and holding up their hands -- emblazoned with the triumphant battle-cry "EVS," of course -- to notice. Brooke comes up and makes some bland comment about groupies, then gives the voting spiel for Toby and Storm before going to commercial.
Speaking of which, how is an army of animated scissors on the streets, walking around points-up, anything but scary as fuck?
When we come back, Brooke tells us that Dilana's ready to move on after the rough week she had. And her pre-interview bears this out, as she tells us, "I realized, it's okay." What a relief that she found the generosity to let herself off the hook. There's a hero montage of Dilana's many performances, and then she's in her room, practicing "Mother Mother" while strumming her new Flying V, and also on some steps outside on her acoustic. She interviews that this is her chance to let out all of her emotions from the week. Because she's been the queen of restraint the whole time.
Brooke introduces Dilana, and we see that Dilana's performing with a guitar for the first time. She sings the opening verse slow and pretty, strumming just the chord changes on her Flying V. The band comes in on the prechorus, and after she screams her way through the first chorus, she doffs the guitar and sets it down carefully to the drum riser. And as much as Tommy wants to see someone smash a guitar, you can't tell me that Magni isn't relieved that he doesn't have to duck and cover again. For the second verse, she climbs up on an amp (all but doubling her height) and drapes one leg over the shoulder of Sasha the Bassist. Then she comes out to the runway for the big finish, during which she's a thrashing mass of Medusa hair waving around so fast that it almost looks like they're playing the footage backward. She finishes, out of breath like she just finished an exhausting therapy session. Which, for her, she kind of did.
Dave tells Dilana that this may have been his favorite performance of the show's entire two seasons, which she and the audience are quite glad to hear. "I can't think of one lead singer who hasn't said some really stupid things in the press," he says, glad to be moving on. "I love you," he adds. Whoa, personal! Should we leave? Tommy tells her, "Say hello to the king of mistakes." Dilana chuckles and says, "King and queen," pointing to Tommy and herself. "Dude, I was talking about Gilby," Tommy doesn't say. Tommy gives a little speech about learning from mistakes and not repeating them. Amazingly, he is not struck by lightning. Gilby says that there wasn't a bad part of the performance. Jason puts on his interviewer hat to ask Dilana how it was to "finally be up there and blasting it out." People, it's been a week. It's always a week. She wasn't in a coma, okay? But Dilana answers anyway, saying it felt great and she "can't wait for the gig." Almost as an afterthought, Jason calls her performance "really good." Brooke comes out to give Dilana's voting numbers and open up the polls for tonight. She exhorts us to vote by telling us that the competition is "closer than ever." Translation: voting has dropped off drastically.
One last commercial, and then Brooke's back to show us who's in the initial bottom three. In the ever-popular no particular order, it's Storm (sad, but not surprising), Ryan (not sad, not surprising), and Lukas (not sad, and very surprising indeed). And before we go, more love for the House Band! Yay, House Band!
Wednesday
Brooke introduces the final six, who are once again lined up onstage to her. She even says each of their names, if you can believe that. Wearing a ridiculous high ponytail and an even more ridiculous amount of makeup, Brooke reminds us that one of them is going to be the lead singer of Supernova in two weeks. But who's counting (besides me)? Brooke dispatches them back to the Nut Gallery, and we find out that her plea for votes last night worked; she tells us that voting was at an all-time high this week; more than double that of last week, and the highest in Rock Star history overall. Not that we'll find out who all these votes were for until later. Brooke introduces Supernova, calling Tommy "the man who's simmered in right sauce." Brooke, two things: (1) Tommy used the word "sautéed;" (2) Shut up. She also introduces Dave, and asks if Supernova's going to play tonight. Tommy replies in the affirmative, I think. There's a lot of screaming going on in the hall.
Then Brooke reminds us that it's been a "dramatic" week, which sends us into clip land. After the recap of last night's show, we see what went on at the Mansion. At dinner, Magni toasts how well everyone did, which is a much more popular toast than the one Storm proposed last night. Magni interviews that everyone was at their best, and then proves that in addition to being a strong singer, he's a math whiz as well: "Fifty percent of us are going in the bottom three."
Out on the pool deck, the Supernovices speculate over their respective chances, trying to extrapolate their future from their history of standing and of being in the bottom three. Storm interviews that being in the bottom three doesn't mean you're not good. "I could go home," she says. "Toby or Ryan could go home." So Dilana, Lukas, and Magni are safe in Storm's eyes? "Two of us could go home," Storm continues. "You never know at this point." Back in the courtyard, Storm says she's certain she'll be in the bottom three this week. Ryan thinks that either he or Magni will go home, but Storm isn't convinced. Or at least pretends not to be. Ryan interviews that he still has a lot to show Supernova. Really? Is he considering integrating color into his wardrobe? He says that he's prepared to be in the bottom three, but not prepared to go home. Yes, packing is a bitch. In Lukas's interview, he claims that he wouldn't be surprised to find himself in the bottom three, promising that he would "take it like a man, go up there, and give it hell." I wonder if the editors know what's in that bottom-three envelope before they cut these elimination-night clips together. I'm not saying they're going to be a payoff to Lukas's comment; I'm just wondering.
Back at the venue, Dave starts out by congratulating the Supernovices on "probably the best performance show we've ever had." The crowd seems to agree. "Yet tonight," Dave adds, "half of you will be singing for your lives." If that's true, maybe the Hatchet Man needs to take his role a bit less literally.
Group-interview time, and Dave mentions to Storm that although she's stood before, she always seems disappointed when she doesn't have to sing. Storm says that's simply because she's hoping for any opportunity to rock out with the House Band. "Good answer," Dave tells her, and asks how she'd feel about being in tonight's bottom three. She claims that she'd feel fine "'Cause [she'd] get to kick the snot out of something." Cheers from the crowd. At least she didn't say "spank" again. She yells out, "Put me in the bottom three!" and if she wants it that bad, maybe she shouldn't be blowing out her voice before the envelope is even opened.
Dave remarks that the Supernovices are all friends now, and asks Dilana if it's hard to say goodbye to anyone there. She jokingly shakes her head no, while Ryan kind of seems to have a little trouble passing the mic to her. She finally gets it in hand and rises to her full, unimpressive height to say, "Yes." This cracks everyone up for some reason, but then Dilana has to bring everyone down by saying that "it's like losing a limb. I'm gonna cry today, I know that." Did you hear her say anything about the possibility that she might be the one to go home? Me either. Magni's turn, and Dave asks him how he liked doing the photo shoot for In Touch magazine (see the webisode for more on that). "Wonderful," Magni says. "I hated it." Dave commiserates that it's part of the gig, and Magni is in the middle of some reply about "sitting on my ass for four hours" when Dave interrupts to say something about how sometimes the shoots are on location. "Don't you cut me off, young man!" Magni mock-scolds, and it's mock-on. Dave makes some threatening comment about how he's been claiming all season that he's got no control over the voting or Supernova's choices, but "I lied, sonofabitch!" Everyone has a good laugh as Magni says, "Goodbye!" Oh, those wacky cutups.
Finally, Dave decides less talk and more rock. Or so it would seem, until he brings up the subject of the new Supernova song that's being played tonight. Jason says the song is called "It's On." Creative! Plus that's what the kids are all saying these days. He explains how all the Supernovices got to try out this week's track in the studio just like for the past couple of weeks, but instead of a montage, we simply learn that the "honor" of performing with Supernova this week is being "awarded" to Lukas.
Lukas and Supernova meet onstage, Brooke gives her usual introduction, and Lukas and the guys are off. It's a mid-tempo song, slow enough for Tommy to keep his shirt on again. I hear a guitar playing on the intro, even though Gilby's Flying V is the only one I see on stage and he clearly hasn't started playing it yet. Then the whole band kicks in. Paul is sticking around on keyboards, by the way. Lukas growls his way through the verses, but busts out his "Creep" voice for the long, high notes of the chorus. He's clearly enjoying himself on this song. I'm glad someone is. There's a nice shot where Jason and Gilby pull in close to Lukas, who's positioned right in front of the drum riser, and thus we have all four guys in one frame. Then the song ends, and I have a fresh reason not to buy their album when it comes out. Or to buy concert tickets, which Brooke plugs one more time before going to commercial.
Upon returning, Brooke once again mentions the finale coming up in two weeks, which she claims "everyone" wants to be at. Which brings us to the contest in which the creator of the best Rock Star [product-placed website] gets to come to the taping of the last show. Tommy makes some obligatory noises about the "killer" sites people created, and announces that the winner is one Rob Carlos from Seattle, who apparently got himself over the top by posting some of his original art. We even get a glimpse at it, despite some PA's attempts to scroll through the page jerkily enough to prevent us from judging it for ourselves. Way to go, Rob.
In completely unrelated news, Dilana is now wearing silver devil horns on her head.
And then it's encore time. Before naming the lucky Supernovice who's performing again tonight, Gilby announces that he's going to be hosting a songwriting clinic, helping each of the Supernovices write a new Supernova song. Let's hope it's better than the ones we've heard so far. "But now," Gilby says, "back to the encore. Toby, you're the man." Well, that was abrupt.
Wearing a black shirt, vest, and pants with a white tie and belt, Toby takes the stage and wastes no time getting back into "Rebel Yell." Vocally, it's pretty much the same as last night, but the blocking is entirely different. At the end of the first chorus, he hops over to the Nut Gallery, where he makes Magni sing a line from the bridge with him. Sort of. We can't actually hear Magni, because Magni doesn't actually know the line. Not blaming him -- almost a quarter-century after first hearing this song, I still don't understand more than a third of the lyrics. Toby abandons the Nut Gallery and heads to the back of the hall, where his silhouette demonstrates what Magni meant last night about no lighting back there. But then somebody flicks on some overhead house lights or something, and then he's out by the judges' dais. He makes the audience sing a few "more more more"s and then hops down to the floor. It's uncertain whether he's going to make it back to the stage before the end of the song. He doesn't. But he takes a quick bow on the runway before heading back to the Nut Gallery.
"What'd you guys think of that?" Brooke asks the screaming crowd, because not only can she not work a room, she can't read one either. It's like she's operated by remote control.
In any case, it's envelope time. Brooke reminds us that three Supernovices were in the bottom three early on in last night's voting. Ryan is the first to stand, to the crowd's vocal disappointment. Storm is , to equally vocal disappointment. "It's okay," she tells everyone. The third name is, of course, Lukas. Still riding high from his earlier triumph, Lukas gives a surprised smile and gets to his feet. The audience is downright pissed now. Brooke says that other Supernovices fell behind during the voting window, as always, and says Toby's name. The audience freaks the fuck out. "And Dilana," Brooke adds, looking unsurprised. The only reaction to that is some polite applause.
"What!?" yelps Magni, the only one still sitting. The other Supernovices mob him affectionately, until he stands up in a show of solidarity. But not for too long. He sits back down, laughing his bald ass off. "Did you say everyone with hair stand up?" Dave cracks. I guess he's not counting Magni's flavor-saver. And now we know why Magni is seated front and center in the Nut Gallery. Dave says that he's surprised: "After last night's performances, nobody should be standing up." That seems to be the only outcome that would please this crowd, judging by their reactions. Tommy makes some remark about the celebration going on in Iceland right now, even though it's about zero o'clock there. And after the break, we'll find out who's in the actual bottom three. Or at least one or two of them.
When we come back, Brooke has made use of her time to do a little research find out that this is the first time we've ever known who's gotten the most votes. "And that is you, Magni," she says. "You are winning the competition at this point." For about five minutes. I'm not enough of a mathematician to be sure if that actually holds up, but I'm also not enough of a mathematician to question it, so I'll leave it alone. Brooke explains how the bottom three works, and opens the envelope to read the first name. Which, to my total lack of surprise, is Ryan. And at that moment, Ryan knows he's done after this. You can tell by the resigned expression he wears heading over to Brooke, and the hug he gives her like he's never going to see her again. Jason asks Ryan what he's going to sing. "I'm gonna just blow your minds right now," Ryan murmurs, before going into a whole "ironic" speech, the upshot of which is that he's going to be singing "Baba O'Riley" by The Who. Great. Can't go wrong doing something that landed someone else in the bottom three for the last time. Or can you?
Ryan runs upstage and plants the microphone stand, which is Paul's cue to start noodling out the signature keyboard part. And because it's Ryan, who can never begin a damn song at the beginning like a normal person, he opens with the Townshend interlude from the middle. It's slow and pitchy, and before he sings the line "It's only teenage wasteland," he reaches down to take a bottle of champagne from Toby in the audience. He pops the cork while singing the line, and sprays it all over the damn place before handing it back to Toby, who scampers with it back toward the Nut Gallery. Way to make this performance seem even more valedictory, Ryan. In the meantime, the House Band has fired up that big three-chord riff and Ryan has begun singing the verse with a great deal more volume than skill. He leaves out the high notes and sort of flattens out the melody while the other Supernovices pass the champagne bottle around in the Nut Gallery, toasting Ryan's impending demise. Ryan tries to ditch his jacket at the same time he's doing another microphone twirl, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Then when the Townshend part comes around again and it's just the keyboards for a few bars, Ryan goes upstage and climbs up on top of the seven-foot amplifier stacks. Carefully and gingerly, of course, so as not to hurt himself. Gilby's expression is just priceless here. Oh, here we go again, with Ryan climbing something and jumping off of it again. Just weary, irritated boredom. He clearly doesn't even want to watch, but he bites his lip and forces himself. Ryan sings the bridge from on high, and we see that he's somehow run his microphone cable so that poor Sasha has to duck around and under it. As the song kicks in again, he jumps down -- getting as little air as possible from a seven-foot height -- and dashes back to the end of the runway while releasing his idea of a Daltrey scream. He screws up the lyrics on the last line of the last line of the last verse, then exhorts the crowd to jump before he goes into the last chorus of "teenage wasteland." Jump? But what are they going to jump off of, Ryan? He finishes up with some more uncontrolled screaming, banging on one of Nate's cymbals with his fist and taking one more leap of the drum riser. Well, I can't say he's not committed. And after that, he should be. Ryan goes back to stage left to let his sugar high wear off. And probably to be fitted for a helmet.
Who's in the bottom three? Brooke works the pause, then finally says Storm's name. "Yes!" Storm cries, already on her way. "It's you," Brooke says, and I almost wish she would have been doing a fakeout, if only to see Storm have to reverse that momentum. But no, Storm comes all the way over to hug and flirt with Brooke. "You seem so excited!" Gilby obviouses, and Storm obviouses right back, "I get to rock again, dude!" He asks what she's singing, and she says she's doing one of her "most favoritest Beatles songs of all time." Helter Skelter, I think to myself. "'Helter Skelter,'" says Storm. She calls it "one of the first punk rock songs ever written." Thanks for that little music history lesson, Storm. Considering that she's following Ryan's Who song, it's probably wise of her not to mention that Paul McCartney wrote this song in the first place because he felt threatened by The Who.
Storm thanks Ryan for the champagne and starts off the band. And on the opening, she builds just like you're supposed to, but her voice breaks a little on the first real scream. See? What did I say before? She's having a great time, though, finally getting to sing something she actually wants to sing. She works the runway for the first verse and chorus, while the House Band slashes away at their instruments while doing incongruous backup harmonies. After the first chorus, Storm descends into the crowd, asking if they know how to mosh. She reaches the back of the room and climbs the judges' dais, a spot that's getting almost as much use as the runway tonight. She does drop into Tommy's lap at one point, which no one else has done so far. After the second chorus, she warns, "Make some room," and leaps back onto the floor. She regains the stage for the last verse, clearly running low on breath. At the very end, she does a reverse stage dive, flopping on her back onto the waiting hands of the Teamsters below, who quickly deposit her back from whence she came. Amid wild applause, she heads over to stage left, where she gets a hug from Ryan. She's thinking that time, she's going to plant burly stagehands at every possible stage-diving point in the auditorium.
Back from commercial, Toby, Dilana, and Lukas are still standing. Brooke wastes little time in telling Toby he's safe. That leaves Lukas and Dilana, who even Brooke realizes have never been in the bottom three before, or have even had to stand up before. So which of them is about to give their first bottom three performance? Brooke ratchets up the tension, then tells Dilana, "Welcome to elimination night." Dilana gives a quick goodbye kiss to Lukas, who shrugs and sits his ass down.
As Dilana crosses over to the stage, the audience is clearly unhappy, booing and giving thumbs-downs. It's not entirely clear whether they're booing Dilana or her appearance in the top three. But Tommy, for one, is incredulous at seeing Dilana in the bottom three. "What the hell's going on?" he wonders. Dilana bravely says that she screwed up, but calls this her "redemption." I don't think you can call it that before the fact, though. Otherwise you just sound like a cocky asshole all over again. Tommy asks what she's going to sing, and she says she just thought of the song at the last minute, "because it was so fitting to my situation." It's "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads, and she's dedicating it to herself. Glad to see she's gotten over that cockiness thing.
Dilana starts out by singing a chorus a capella, and quite prettily. Then the band kicks in, sounding a lot like the original. Dilana sings it well, bouncing up and down a lot and doing considerable ululating. It's going fine until the bridge, when she loses the beat, forgets the verse, and gets completely lost. It's so bad that when she starts singing again, the band pretty much has to come to where she is and find her. But then she finishes up without incident. Nice redemption. And the bottom three walk out to the end of the runway for the judgments, Storm carrying Dilana in her arms. I'm not making that up. Brooke promises a decision after the break, as if one hasn't already been made.
Supernova pretends to huddle some more, as Brooke welcomes us back and turns our attention to Gilby. Gilby's little speech tonight starts with Ryan, saying that he's come so far. "The Ryan that's standing in front of us is not the Ryan that started this competition." He lies that Ryan was great tonight, and that he got one of the best audience receptions so far. "But," Gilby suspenses, "are you right for us?" A few audience members holler yes. To Storm, Gilby mentions that it's her first time in the bottom three, and calls her solid. "But we really haven't seen a lot of growth." Okay, not fair. I mean, (a) Yes we have; (b) "Lack of growth" is not a helpful criticism to someone who's been strong all along. You won't hear them say it to Dilana; and (c) She's almost six foot as it is! To Dilana, he mentions her getting lost during her song. But on the other hand, she's earned a lot of credit with Supernova. And Gilby turns it over to Tommy. Which he doesn't usually do before telling someone they're safe. Hmmm.
"My favorite part of the show," Tommy says with his usual unconvincing sarcasm, before assuring everyone that they did great. He addresses Ryan, saying he wins the "most improved" award. But he's the to go.
The audience freaks out. In the Nut Gallery, Lukas, Toby and Magni exchange shocked looks, and Storm looks stunned. Dilana just seems kind of bored. Amid all the boos in the house, Tommy actually looks nervous, like he thinks people are about to come up after him.
The ladies return to the Nut Gallery, leaving Ryan to be called one last time by Dave, "Ryan 'The Dark Horse' Star." Can you be a dark horse if you come in sixth? Dave tells Ryan that he's "become a fan" over the past several weeks, and is sorry to see Ryan go. He compliments him for getting better and taking chances every week, and says Ryan will do great out in the big, wide world. Ryan thanks him for that, and gets his chance to give the goodbye speech. Which is short and not particularly sweet. "With me as your singer, I feel like you could have made twenty years of great music, so I'm sorry for that." I am, too. Can you imagine Ryan in twenty years? After all that time jumping off of things, his legs would have completely given out and he'd spend all of their shows rolling his wheelchair from high places. He wishes the guys good luck, and says he's going back to being a solo artist. "I'll see you on the charts, because that's where I'm going to be hanging out." Between leg X-rays, of course. Big cheers from the audience. I guess they feel better now. Dave sends Ryan over to say his goodbyes.
And speaking of eliminated Supernovices, Brooke has an announcement: we're going to get to vote on our [product-placed cell phone] for which ex-Supernovice we want to see come back for an encore during the finale.
Post-eviction interviews: Storm repeats, like we're not tired of hearing it, that she's been ready to give a bottom three performance for a while, just because she loves performing so much. Oh, yeah, and she'll miss Ryan, whom she calls "one of the most driven, talented, songwriters and musicians that I've ever seen." Dilana says that she feels she let her fans down, but plans to keep delivering. She says maybe she'll climb an amplifier of her own, "or do something outrageous." I don't think a lack of outrageousness was her problem this week. Oh, and by the way, this was my hundredth recap. Thanks for not demanding my head from Sars and Wing a long time ago.