Frantic finalists stumble on Neil Diamond night

The mess that was ultimately Neil Diamond night left viewers wondering how Nigel Lythgoe approved such a disorganized display. The performances, although not bad, were hindered by their short durations, and the whole flow was missing. There was no excitement until Paula's blunder of epic proportions (but that will be addressed in the following post).

To kick off the night, Jason Castro performed "Forever In Blue Jeans" to a less-than-responsive audience. His second song, "September Morn," was the worst quality performance last night vocals wise, and was boring with a capital B.

The judges' rapid-fire critiques at the end of round one were a very bad idea to put it nicely, and Randy's empty description of Jason being "ok" on "Jeans" did nothing to help his cause. For "September," he basically adding a sentence worth of the same words, calling it an "ok whatever" performance. Thanks Randy! Paula...well, we'll just skip her first round comments, but she thought Jason took the same liberty on both of his performances. And Simon's merciless yet incredible slash and burn style of comments pegged Jason as "forgettable," following up with saying the judges "don't recognize [him]" and he did nothing to change the arrangements.

David Cook proceeded to sing "I'm Alive" and "All I Really Ever Need Is You," two lesser-known Diamond songs, yet he was able to rock them out and make them sound current, as Simon noted. He called his second performance "brilliant," after earlier declaring "Alive" to be "just above average." Randy liked both, saying he was "in the zone" (for the first of three times last night) on his first song, and telling David he is a "huge David Cook fan" last night because he "rocked the house." Paula said she felt like she was "looking at the next American Idol."

Some lighter fare was brought forth by Brooke White, who tired her hand at The Monkees' classic "I'm a Believer," which was very erratic and her vocals were not all there. But her second performance of "I Am...I Said" was beautiful, and the fact that she heeded Neil Diamond's advice by substituting "Arizona" for "New York" in the song to connect more with the audience was very wise. Randy thought "Believer" was better than last week, and she was vulnerable on "Said." Paula said she had fun on her fist song and was vulnerable on her second. And Simon boldly called her first performance "a nightmare," to which Brooke shook her head and the audience booed loudly. But he thought her second was "a million times better" than her first.

And then the resident teen singing sensation David Archuleta tackled "Sweet Caroline," which would have been better had he ad-libbed a few lines ("oh! oh! oh!" and "so good! so good! so good!"), but this Red Sox fan will settle for what he was able to deliver. He also did "America," which he thankfully did not morph into a ballad and cracked a tiny bit on a high note, but it was not too bad. Simon thought the first song was "amateurish" but thought "America" was a "clever" song choice, saying he ticked all the boxes (whatever that means). Randy loved both, which was a big surprise of course. And then Paula thought his voice was "on point."

Syesha Mercado closed the show, after first singing "Hello Again" to much praise, with the exception of Simon's "old-fashioned" comment. She looked beautiful last night and was able to show a lot of personality on "Thank the Lord for the Night Time," which was not as strong as "Hello" but was still a fun way to end the night. Randy said she was "in the zone" not once, but twice over the course of the night, and that he liked her doing the theatrical kinds of performances. Paula compared her to Corrine Bailey Ray, and Simon used his signature reverse psychology to trick voters into voting for her by declaring he thought she would be in trouble this week, which her fans will surely appreciate.

Simon closed out the night by saying it was "officially the strangest show we've ever done," which is the complete truth. Even neglecting the Paula episode, the night was rushed, chaotic and was only fun to watch in a train wreck sort of way. It will surely go down in American Idol history as one of the wackiest moments the show has ever seen.

As for predictions, it looks like Jason is a goner, but not only that, David A. will make his first appearance in the bottom two. Why is this? Well, there are many reasons, but a good one will be Nigel & Co. trying to get America to forget about Paula's gaffe because of the utter shock everyone will be in from seeing TCO standing there on the brink of elimination. Syesha is as safe as a Swiss bank account and David C. has nothing to worry about. Brooke, although she probably received the second-lowest amount of votes, will be spared due to her embarrassment last week. So in a way, this will work out for everyone because a) David A.'s fans will get a wakeup call, b) America's short term memory will discard Paula's antics to make room for David A.'s shocker and c) Nigel will see a ratings surge from the controversy. I will be a little disappointed if things don't go this way tonight, but as Neil Diamond week proved, nothing is certain on this show.

Predictions:
Bottom 2: David A., Jason
Eliminated: Jason