'American Idol' Season 11, Episode 23 Recap - '9 Finalists Compete'

The mood for the opening this week is still overly emotional, but with more of a "you can do it" inspirational attitude... that is, until we see some clips of our dearly departed (Jeremy, Shannon, Jermaine and Erika) set to "Landslide." Again, it's as if the eliminated contestants died. Is this show murdering them when they go home? ARE THEY SOYLENT GREEN?!

Seacrest drops a couple of "The Hunger Games" references in his intro, which elicits a few screams from the audience. Ah, it makes sense now: the eliminated contestants are sent off to an arena to fight to the death for our entertainment.

We're back with Tommy Hilfiger, who has a couple of racks of clothing for the contestants to choose from and try on, and there are a shocking number of rhinestones. We then get a dressing room montage of the contestants spinning around in their outfits while Tommy says things like "I like that," or "That's a look," or "Those are clothes and you're wearing them on your body, great job."

The guest mentor is Stevie Nicks, and she's already a fan of Colton. She tells him to never cut his hair off. Dammit, now I guess he doesn't have to. The contestants will be choosing songs from their own musical idols this week, and Colton goes with a Lifehouse song, because apparently music found him through church. The performance is a bit shaky at first, but then he settles in and the end is pretty solid, and emotional too. Colton has some tears, and so does his grandpa, which is cute.

The judges love it! Jennifer says she was moved, Steven gives nothing but praise, and Randy says something but I'm distracted by the huge Twitter tag that they put up in front of Colton's face randomly during the comments. Is this a thing now?

Skylar is up next, and she chose a Miranda Lambert song, despite Miranda's current alignment with "The Voice." Skylar also gets to sing with Stevie for a minute, which she at least appreciates a bit. The performance is Skylar's usual bouncy, sassy thing, but this time with a song that is apparently about domestic violence and a woman shooting her abusive husband with a shotgun in revenge. So, maybe a little less smiling and bouncing around on this one. Now Stevie's note about how Skylar needs to "tell this amazing story" makes more sense.

The judges love it anyway! Steven says it was like she was "singing to an old friend"... about shooting her husband. Was anybody listening to the lyrics. Aha! Randy brings up Stevie's note about telling a story, but then veers off from a negative comment and just talks about Skylar's range. Oh well. He was close to giving her something helpful there.

And now, the first trio of the evening, as Colton, Elise and Phillip take on "Landslide" themselves. Shouldn't we have avoided in the opening if we were just going to hear it again here? It's okay though, as these three nail the harmonies in this song that, if missed, can be a major disaster. Ah, turns out it's a Fleetwood Mac medley. Colton does a great job, Elise kills it as usual, and Phillip does his Phillip thing, which I'm convinced just tricks us into thinking he's good. Steven calls it "most excellent."

On to Heejun, who has been told he need to take things more seriously, because THIS IS SERIOUS. It seems to be working, as Stevie calls it "effortless" and Jimmy loves it too. They both think he was "putting up a front" before by joking around. Or, you know, he was just being funny. Whatever. He sings "A Song For You" by Leon Russell (this guy has a strange collection of idols), and he does a great job with it. Much less pitchy than previous performances, emotionally connected, and it works with his tone.

The judges love it! Steven says "you let that song sing you." Jennifer loves it of course, she's been a Heejun fan all along, and she thankfully mentions that she "loves all the other stuff" as well. Don't let the man get you down, Heejun! Remind them that their competition show is ridiculous, and not nearly deserving of all the gravitas it gives itself!

Hollie is singing "Jesus Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood, and Stevie tells her about how her mom died two months ago and how Hollie really needs to put some emotion into this performance. She does it again, and Stevie starts crying, so apparently she took the note. The performance is a bit pitchy though, for the second week in a row.

The judges kinda love it! Randy mentions the pitchiness and immediately gets booed, then tells the audience "this is constructive criticism!" Here's a tip, judges: ignore the audience. Jennifer loved it, and Steven splits the difference between the two of them. I wonder if, assuming the judges continue to give negative feedback, the audience will eventually stop booing? Or will we be forever stuck in a perpetual loop of stupid?

DeAndre time, and he's singing "Sometimes I Cry" by Eric Benet. Stevie wonders why the song isn't "doing it" for her, and she thinks it's because it's too fast. I think it's probably just because it's DeAndre, and he really isn't that great. At least he acknowledges that he doesn't connect well with songs, or with the audience.

The performance is thankfully not DeAndre's usual bouncy thing, and it certainly has the range to show off what DeAndre can do. But he's stuck up in that falsetto the entire time, so there isn't much variety to it and it takes away from the impact of the really high notes.

The judges still love it! They give him a standing ovation, and Steven says he had "100% passion" and "gave Prince a run for his money." Let's not get carried away now, Steven. Jennifer pleads for people to vote for DeAndre, something that she never did for the more deserving Erika.

Jessica Sanchez idolizes Beyoncé, and talks about how she used to try to do her moves "as a kid." Just a reminder that Jessica is really young, and we're all really old. I am, anyway. Jessica does a slowed-down version of "Beautiful Nightmare," which actually works pretty well.

The judges love it! Jennifer pulls out a Beyoncé impression, saying that she's probably at home like "I should down that at my next concert, slow that one down!" It's a pretty good impression.

The second trio of the night is Joshua, DeAndre and Heejun, who do a Michael Jackson medley that includes "Rock You" and "PYT." It's fine, but Jennifer calls it "perfect," but totally disses the guys' dancing.

Phillip's up to do Johnny Lang, and Stevie says "I think he's going to be very famous," and says that she thinks he would've been in Fleetwood Mac back in the day. But she also lands on one big reason why Phillip's here: "he's gorgeous." She also tells Jimmy that he was gorgeous to make him feel better, and talks about his "little Greek body," and now I'm very very uncomfortable.

You do get the sense, watching Phillip, that he has a career ahead of him, perhaps more so than any other contestant here (save for maybe Jessica and Colton), but it seems like he's on the wrong show. His unique style lends itself more to "The Voice," where that sort of thing is appreciated, than to "Idol," which mostly rewards those who can sing really really high and do a lot of runs.

The judges love it! They give him a standing ovation and nothing but praise all around. Jennifer makes a big deal about the music coming first and all that.

Joshua will be singing "Without You" by Mariah Carey, and Jimmy calls it "one of the most challenging five songs you could ever sing in popular music." It definitely covers a big range, but if any of these people can do it, it's probably Joshua. Sure enough, he pretty much nails each chorus, and gets so emotional that he has to pull away from the mic at the end. It's pretty impressive.

The judges love it! Steven notes how far everyone is pushing themselves tonight, and Jennifer calls Joshua a "phenom." He is pretty great, it's just too bad he'll never win this thing. Church/soul singers always go far, but almost never make it the whole way.

The final trio of the night is Jessica, Hollie and Skylar, who do a Madonna medley. I'm pretty sure Madonna isn't one of Skylar's idols, but hey, who knows? Also, I hate to say it, but I think it's time for Hollie to go.

Elise is the last performer of the night, and she'll be doing a Led Zeppelin song. Stevie and Jimmy say that she "murdered it," and Stevie says she doesn't have to change a thing. She also does a duet with Elise because she loves her so much, and says that she would "hire her in a second" if she needed a singer. See, teenage girls? Elise is really good!

Sure enough, the performance rocks pretty hard, though there could have been a better mix so we could hear the intricacies of Elise's singing a little better. Elise kills it, and it too good for this show.

The judges love it! Steven says that Elise "made Robert Plant proud tonight," and the other two commend her as well after their standing ovation.

That wraps up the performances, and the judges don't even bother trying to choose a favorite. If you ask me, Hollie is probably in trouble, as is DeAndre. It might be time for Heejun to start facing the bottom three regularly as well unfortunately, but that's assuming people remember that this is a singing competition. We could very easily see Elise go down as well... but hopefully Erika's voters are now on Elise's team.

Who do you think was the best of the night?