Ricki Lake
Carrie Ann worked with Ricki this week, and she mentioned something that clarified Ricki's performance for me: Ricki is still acting like she's the fat girl in the back of the class, despite nice technique and rapidly slimming figure. It is Take Charge and Be Sexy Time - double underline, bold and italics. Her cha-cha was very technical, with the occasional focus on increased sexiness. Her legs look great, like I said last week. 9-9-9
Ricki's freestyle was super sexy. Mostly Derek's choreography, as usual. He drove her like a madman in the video, and she just accepted his crazy lifts and gutted it out. Her outfit kind of makes her look like an ostrich, and it must have been too tight because she couldn't shimmy with vigor. Her ending pose was wobbly because Derek gave her several deadly spins. Derek's plan seems to be to blow away the competition with extreme technique, because this dance was jam packed with everything from salsa to quickstep, all at a death-defying pace. 9-9-9
Rob Kardashian
Is it time for this dark horse to steal the trophy? Bruno worked with Rob, and also gave him some pointers on coming out of his shell and dominating the dancefloor. Rob's waltz was really nice, but at times he still has a touch of non-smoothness in it. And can someone tell me WHY Kim is wearing a sparkly tuxedo in the audience? Bruno said Rob missed some crossover footwork. 9-9-9
Cheryl's plan is to play up chemistry and youth, and do some amazing lifts. She used all the moves that Rob looks best doing, and none of the moves he doesn't look good doing. She's a master, honestly. I may have said that before. I didn't think their routine was more technically difficult than Ricki and Derek's (except for lifts, I suppose) but they netted a 10-10-10. It's all about showmanship, I guess, with the judges as well as with the tv audience!
JR Martinez
Len came in to give JR some tips, and it's a good thing Len was reserved for JR - he can't give as much visual demonstration, but can nitpick on subtle techniques. The other two need the visual demonstration in order to see the difference between meek and LOUD. Something odd happened in their cha-cha, like one of them got off beat, but at least his ankle seems to be doing better. 8-7-9
Karina had a weird moment during the last rehearsal that they showed on the video where she could not get her act together, and JR had to be the one to calm her down. Obviously it was that she was wearing too many clothes - during the real performance, she was wearing a bra and a small skirt, that they decided was JUST TOO MUCH! so they ripped it away. Oh Karina. What would the world do without you and Edyta. You're like a super dancing action figure, with JR flipping you around. It was very party / tribal and those lifts were amazing, but if I had to make one complaint, it was that this dance was all Karina, and not so much JR. Gotta give her appropriate props, though. She wants to win this. 10-10-10
Results Show
They gave them some more points during the results show for doing a repeat dance (kind of superfluous), putting Ricki in first by a few points.
Drumroll.....
Third place goes to Ricki. Guess she didn't garner the fan vote - lack of a feel-good storyline, like the other two. Sorry, Ricki! You did good, of course! Not everyone can have a soft-spot-stabbing story like Cinderella Rob and Veteran Hero JR.
While the final two prepare an instant dance each, all the stars who have been kicked off came back - and this time, not just to repeat old dances! I shall envision the conversations that were held:
DWTS: Carson Kressley, please come back and dance on the finale!
Carson: Can I dance to "Vogue" by Madonna? It's been my dreeeeeeeam for yeeeeears.
DWTS: Why of course, Carson. Yaaaaaay it's going to be so fun clap-clap wheeeee
Carson: Can I dance with a Chmerkovskiy? That has been my other dream.
DWTS: Um... sure, Carson! Why not!
Carson: This is going to be amazing. Stay tuned, America, this is going to be watercooler talk tomorrow!
He actually said that last bit. And then Tom said, "I get the feeling this next dance is going to go viral in about three minutes..." Afterwards, during the standing ovation, Brooke just looked around and said "what... is happening... right now..." over the noise. It was pretty amazing. In that special way only Carson has.
Chaz danced to "I Like 'em Chunky" from Madagascar 2, with Lacey and her dad Buzz. Awesome.
David Arquette re-imagined his dance to "We Go Together" with 6 extra people, also. And then he stole the mirror ball trophy and made a break for it. So as you can see, we are all having a good time.
Ok. There was an instant samba, but that's not important now - real drumroll, again...
Winner: JR and Karina!
