Analysis: Goodbye and caw! caw!

Megan Joy Corkrey was never going to win this season of Idol. Yes, she had the support of Kara and yes, she was unique. But when it came down to the bottom line, Megan had a few things working against here. For once, she is not a male, which the judges have been telling us from the very beginning would be a characteristic of this season's winner. Megan also couldn't dance, maybe not on a Danny Gokey level, but her movements on stage were just awkward to watch. And then there's the whole voice thing, something that was far from Megan's strong suit.

But when it came time to say goodbye last night, Megan was nothing but smiles and was accepting in her fate, making sure to tell her daughter that "momma's coming home" before she shed some tears during her goodbye video montage. The highlight of the episode was without a doubt her poking fun at herself by "caw! caw!"-ing about the stage, a reference to her ad-libbed phrase immediately following her performance of "Rockin' Robin" Top 13 week. She even flapped her wings a few times and got some chorus calls from the newly-decided top eight on the couches.

As for her little stand-off with Simon, she got what she deserved when he bluntly told her not to bother singing for her life because they were not going to use it on her regardless. Had she held her tongue earlier in the night and had not told Simon she "didn't care" what he had to say, they probably would not have been as up front about not saving her, but the reality is she was never going to be saved regardless so all it did was shave off a few seconds at the end of the show.

The other two members of the Bottom 3 were not surprising, but the way Ryan went about reading the results was just dumb. It's not even like he did one big "April Fools" joke by declaring one of the three groups of three was in fact the B3, he just kind of had them stand in those groups and then read the individual results. Maybe it could be conceived that his revealing of Matt's results were the closest thing to a joke, but that was more Matt assuming than it was Ryan pulling a good "gotcha!" out of his pocket.

As for the guest performers, one was boring while the other was lively. David Cook's first return to the Idol stage since winning back in May 2008 was nice, but his performance was really, really boring and blah. It's not his fault, because his next single is a weak song in general, but if he had sung something a little more lively it would have made a difference. He also officially received a plaque courtesy of 19E and RCA Records for his album going platinum, so all in all it was great to see Cook back again (even though the whole thing was pre-taped).

Then there was Lady Gaga. Many Idol viewers had no idea what she looked like before last night, only knowing her voice from hearing her #1 hits "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" on the radio. But after last night, few will forget her name or her face, which looked like that of a freaked-out mannequin at Macy's at the end of her performance. She could probably stand at Madame Tussuad's wax museum among the other figurines and no one would know it's really her.

But her performance was something else, as it went progressively downhill. It began with a haunting unplugged session with her right at a glass piano sounding very solid vocals-wise, then went into a crazy Britney Spears-esque, choreographed-to-the-brim spectacle complete with shadow dancers and bad vocals. She seems to be two entirely different people, or someone with a very bad case of bipolar disorder. Either way, the performance was no doubt miles more entertaining than Cook's.

As for the group performance, it appears enough brouhaha over the revelation that they are in fact lip-synched has died down to allow the finalists to return to their usual "live" performances, only the song selection mixed with less hectic choreography made the whole thing more watchable than usual. Scott still hasn't left the piano's side, but something tells me that's not going to change.

And then there was the whole reality portion of the show that has been a major letdown compared to what the producers were hyping the segments up to be. So we got to see Scott eating quadruple chocolate cake and Kris' commentary on what he thinks of the photographers asking him to make a "sexy face" during the shoots. So what? They were making it sound like we'd be watching Big Brother: Idol Style before the season started. I'm not complaining, because that would add a whole 'nother unnecessary component to the show, but still it's a bit annoying.

What was funny, though, was when they all were doing impersonations of each other. Allison's take on Danny singing "PYT" and "Jesus, Take the Wheel" were probably the most spot on, but Danny also did a good job going after Matt and Anoop had fun pretending to be Kris. Sure, they were probably rehearsed, but they were still great to see.

As for IDOL LIVE's predictions, I am now 0-5 with my original predictions because I had Kris going home originally. I was once again correct with my pre-results show predix, though, as I got it right that Megan would be flying home, but as for the B3 I had Scott in there over Allison. That makes me 2-5 in that predicting category.

The theme for next Tuesday will be songs from the Top 8's birth years, which means we'll probably be hearing a lot of British Rock and Journey. Caw! Caw!