'American Idol' Season 11, Episode 10 Recap - 'Hollywood Week, Part 3'

Seacrest, bless him, does his best to make this intro as dramatic as possible. "The judges will make their FINAL selections... in Hollywood." In actuality, we're watching people we know go through and people we don't know go home. Like, who's this person talking to us right now? Or this one? Who's this guy who slept in, and who are these people in his group yelling at him?

By the way, this whole thing is totally taking place in Pasadena, not Hollywood. Just thought everyone would like to know.

Somebody we do know, but only as a group, is up first: The Betties, who were up til 3am last night arguing with each other and not practicing. The performance is really shoddy, the harmonies are all off, but two of the girls (whose names are apparently Jennifer and Carrie, though we haven't really met them yet) make it through.

The next group has much more recognizable contestants, including Reed and Creighton. Aaron Marcellus shines just as much as they do, and the whole group works well together: the harmonies are dead-on, everyone commits even when they're in the background, and there's even some very simple choreography. They practically bring the house down. One of the best Hollywood Week performances ever? Maybe. They're all through to the next round, and it's no surprise.

Next up is 679, a group containing Kyle Crews, who was great in auditions, and Brielle, who made it here last year and whose mom is unbearable. She bad-mouths Kyle for being weak at the beginning, which isn't nice, but to be honest he isn't great when they start. But neither is Brielle really. Shannon Magrane does nicely with very little screen time, and Joshua Ledet also shines.

Shannon, Brielle, Amber and Joshua are all sent through, but Kyle is sent home. He says the song was in the wrong key for him, and that he won't stop singing.

The Make You Believers are next, and they win the prize for worst group name. Amy Brumfield, the girl who lives in a tent, was really ill last night, but it's her groupmate Jackie who faints before the performance. But that isn't the worst of it, as Dustin starts them off and completely forgets the words to "More Than A Feeling," and when they start over and Amy tries to take it, she forgets them too. Mathenee is the only one to make it through, and Amy has to go back to her tent. That's a shame, considering she probably would have done better if she didn't have a horrible flu. Then again, she may be Patient Zero here, so if that's true it probably serves her right for getting everyone sick.

The forgetting of lyrics is another bug running through the ranks of the contestants, as we see some of our auditioners completely blanking. That includes Brittany Zika, Romeo Diahn (the Liberian refugee) and Jermaine Jones, the guy who's roughly 7 feet tall. So I guess they're going home.

Those Girls and That Guy is the group that has Alisha in it, the loudmouth who ran around saying "WHO WANTS TO SING JOY TO THE WORLD?!" and then was all confused when nobody wanted to be a group with her. They sing "Stuck Like Glue" and it jumps around around in key. None of them make it through, and of course Alisha sticks around on stage to put in one last word. Hey guys, did you know Alisha is a cop? Oh, you did? Is that because every other sentence out of her mouth is "I'm a cop?" Good riddance, Alisha.

A group of young'uns now, including Ariel, who starts out strong, and is followed by an equally strong Eban. David Leathers Jr. and Jeremy Rosado are also good, and Gabi Curabba sounds fine but doesn't get much screen time. But they work well as a group and the backup is strong, so they all go through.

Area 451 is dealing with yet another fainting, as Imani can't even stand but still wants to go on stage and perform. She strides out strong, but still looks a little dazed. Johnny Keyser seems to be the only one who knows what he's doing, as the other contestants forget their lyrics and break on the high notes. Then (shocker) Imani faints again. She clearly should not be up there doing this. Johnny continues to sing even after she collapses, which is hilarious. I guess what the guy lacks in empathy, he makes up for in dedication.

Bryce and Kristi are sent home, Johnny is sent through (of course). The judges tell Imani that "health is first and foremost," and that it only gets tougher from here, so they send her home. That's probably the best thing to do, even though she sang fairly well considering her state.

Reis, W.T. and Symone are also sent home, but at least W.T. gets to be there for the birth of his child.

The next morning, the group MIT is still having issues. Heejun is still hilarious. The Cowboy, Richie, is still annoying. He even stays behind in the confession booth to talk trash about his team. I don't think I'm alone in hoping that he's the only one sent home from the group.

Thankfully, Heejun starts off strong, and Jairon is also terrific. Phillip Phillips does a nice job. Richie is terrible, and has to break into falsetto, which is clearly not where he lives. Luckily for them, the judges are feeling generous and send all of them through based on past performance. Outside, Heejun opens up: "I talked a lot of craps about Richie," he says. "You will see on TV." HEEJUN 4 LIFE!!

The next day, everyone jams on stage with Randy and Steven, and for a moment everybody looks to actually be having fun! Yay, fun!

But now it's time to bring it back down, as Joshua Ledet comes out and tells us how he had a crippling anxiety attack when getting on the plane and almost didn't make it here. He does a moving rendition of "Jar of Hearts," which is a song that you'll hear all over these vocal competition shows, but pretty much nowhere else.

Colton Dixon comes out and sings while playing piano, and it's a pretty good performance but a little muddy. Plus the whole time I'm wondering what happened to his sister, who came out to audition and also made it through. Colton wasn't even going to try out this year. If he made it and she didn't, that's a bummer.

Phillip Phillips also kills it, and Jen Hirsch does a slow, crawling, and emotional performance of "Georgia" that earns some nods from the judges. It's actually a very impressive performance because of the character behind it. She does a lot more than just a bunch of wailing and runs, like most "Idol" fare.

Creighton Fraker continues the action with "What a Wonderful World," which he does with his particular brand of electricity. That almost completes the run of contestants from yesterday's supergroup... it just leaves Reed Grimm, who has just learned that he's not allowed to sing a capella like he planned. So he meets with the vocal coach, and we're treated to a hilarious montage as Reed tries to mug for the camera and talk about his personal life like this were a personality segment while the vocal coach all but tells him to shut the f**k up and focus. Delicious.

Meanwhile, Shannon also kills "What a Wonderful World," and I start wondering exactly how many songs these contestants have to choose from if out of 98 of them, we see the same song more than once. The judges are aghast at Shannon's performance.

Back to Reed, and he decides he needs to call his mom again and cry while holding his bare foot. Not sure what he's freaking out about so much. So then Reed comes to the stage and decides he's going to play the drums. The music director is freaking out. He does "Georgia" (good lord buy some more rights), so he only has to do a little bit of drumming, but he's good at it. "That's another Casey, there," says Randy to JLo.

Skylar Laine is the first country girl we see today, and she gives a rousing performance of "The Way You Lie" by The Band Perry. JLo says Skylar reminds her of Reba McEntire, so that has to be a good thing. She's followed by another country girl, Rachelle, who you may remember as the woman who auditioned with her daughter. She messes up the first time, but recovers and seems to get through just fine.

Adam Brock is the last one of the day, and he says he wants to bring some "white chocolate" to the show. I'm uncomfortable. Turns out that just means he's ALSO going to sing "Georgia." He also does a great job with it. He shares the secret of his lucky kerchief with the judges, which Steven used to dab his forehead that morning. Gross.

The judges do their deliberations, and it's decision time. The contestants are split into four rooms. Whoever's with Reed and Johnny can probably rest easy. Rooms three and four can probably count on going home already. The only people in there who were featured in the early auditions are not memorable ones.

Room one gets their news first, and that includes Johnny, David, Colton, Adam, Hallie, Jen, Joshua, Lauren Gray (who has been quiet) and surprisingly Jermaine.

Everyone in room three is freaking out, especially after they hear room one. Some of the contestants are crying, but others are laughing, which pisses off one of the contestants who are crying, which in turn pisses off the ones who were laughing. I'm laughing.

Room two has Reed, Shannon, Skylar, Phillip Phillips and Jessica Phillips, the latter of whom hasn't gotten any screen time since the auditions. So of course they're all going through.

The bickering room three gets their news, and of course they're going home. That means Rochelle Lamb is gone, as is the NBA dancer who got surprisingly little screen time considering her blinding attractiveness.

That leaves room four, which also has some very talented performers, such as Heejun. I'm telling you right now, if Heejun goes home, I quit. I quit!

But JLo screams something like "YOU'REGOINGTHROUGHTOTHROIEHNXOURDN!" and I'm simultaneously happy about Heejun but pissed that Richie the Cowboy made it. Seriously, screw that guy.

I'm officially starting my Heejun For President campaign. Who's in?