'Dancing With The Stars' Season 13, Episode 20 The Finals Recap

Week One started with 12 celebrities and 12 pros. We’ve now arrived at Week 10 with three couples still standing, including two that have dueled atop the leader board nearly non-stop, but one Mirrorball Trophy to be awarded.

For two of the three, it was the last dance. Welcome to the end of the 13^th season of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Ricki Lake, J.R. Martinez and Rob Kardashian would once more take two dances each. But the most unpredictable moment has been saved for last: the unpredictable freestyle dances. But first, each pair must dance in a style the couple hasn’t attempted throughout the previous nine weeks.

Batting lead-off? Lake. Host Tom Bergeron announced that Lake has set a new single-season scoring record, racking up more judges’ points than any competitor before her. She’s done it with one consistent mentality that’s paid off every single week: she lets the nerves melt her down week after week in rehearsals. She’s sweated keeping up with much-younger partner Derek Hough’s cardio. She’s acknowledged that Martinez has been hot on her heels every single week that she hasn’t been left nipping at his, even once or twice seeming almost psyched-out that Martinez would be dancing the same steps as she and Hough.

But week after week, the result has been the same. There’s not a jittery nerve in her body once she starts her step. And dance after high-scoring dance, she’s seemed almost humbly stunned at how friendly the scores have been.

Newsflash, Ricki: we know you’ll never say it yourself – and that’s what else has been so enjoyable about watching you – but you really are just that good.

After notching a perfect Week Nine score, judge Carrie Ann Inaba dropped by her rehearsal to help Lake add sexiness to what Inaba called Lake’s “perfect” technique for duo’s first-dance cha cha.

“I look at women like Karina (Smirnoff) and Cheryl (Burke) and these beautiful, amazing bodies, and it’s hard for me to see myself in that category,” Lake said.

“Let the old Ricki go. Make that audience yours,” Inaba said.

The old Ricki is dead. Long live Rick!

This one has hips that don’t lie. It was like Lake sprinkled her almost peerless technique liberally with eliminated contestant Kristin Cavallari’s spice. This is what it would’ve looked like had Hope Solo brought it all together maybe several weeks sooner. With this dance, Lake looked like the even more complete dancer nobody could’ve imagined was possible.

“Good timing, good rhythm, hips were working beautifully . . . It’s a dance worthy of the finals,” judge Len Goodman said, adding that it could’ve been a touch more “fluid.”

“A cha cha running at full-steam. You never looked sexier,” added judge Bruno Tonioli, who agreed that it could’ve used more fluidity.

And Inaba?

“There’s a difference between performing the dance and ‘living’ the dance, and tonight you were ‘living’ the dance,” she said. With a point off each judge for fluidity, the pair started off the night with a 27.

Following that near-perfection? Kardashian and Burke. He owned Week Nine. He earned his first 10. He won the cha cha relay. He landed second on the Leader Board. And with Solo faltering, there was no way he was going home.

"Rob is really struggling right now with the waltz. He needs to make sure he shows his graceful side," Burke said.

Enter Tonioli, who helped Kardashian bring out his machismo.

"Rob really has a chance to win this competition because he has incredible momentum and the element of surprise," Tonioli said.

It's amazing that coming into this season, Kardashian reportedly frustrated Burke with a poor work ethic and lacking conditioning. He's never leveled off since Week Two. He's gotten better with every dance, more confident and more ready, willing and able to take the lead. And with this last waltz, it was the coming out party of Rob Kardashian: leading man.

"You were flowing and you were glowing - so full of expression," gushed Tonioli. "I loved the continuity and the lines that I told you to do, and you did it. You just messed up some of the footwork on the crossovers sometimes."

"You're like the male version of Cinderella, you made it to the ball," said Inaba.

"You had good posture," Goodman said. "Occasionally it got a bit heavy and you lost your posture a few times. It was simple, but it was simply beautiful." The transition from looking like a probable early elimination to contender was complete: Kardashian matched Lake point-for-point with a 27 of his own.

That left Martinez to finish off the first round of the finals. Last week, he found himself in a position he hadn't enjoyed all season, thanks to an ankle injury: behind the eight-ball, after leading four different weeks' respective Leader Boards and notching two Week Eight perfect scores.

This week, a doctor broke the good news: the ankle is a little swollen, but not fractured, and absolutely ready to dance. That being said, Goodman stopped by to help Martinez polish what he and Smirnoff could headed into this week.

"If he works on his hips and his arms, his cha-cha-cha is going to another level," Goodman predicted. And true to form, Martinez was a quick study. "It boils down to who wants it most. Derek's won it. Cheryl's won it a couple times. (Smirnoff) has never won it."

As ever, Martinez brought the fire for a Latin number. Smirnoff was her saucy, energetic self, and Martinez dancing with confident hips and a full-body performance. But he might've picked the wrong number for an off-night with the judges. It was a rare moment when Lake actually looked far superior to her closest rival.

"Your musicality was a bit off," Inaba noted. "You were dancing ahead of the music. We're in the finals, so watch your arms."

"I think it was brave that you did a lot of that dance on your own, solo," Goodman said, with maybe the most critical remarks Martinez has been given all season. "This wasn't that good. You were off-time. You messed up the New York. There was a lot of mistakes. Your enthusiasm got the better of you."

"I really liked the mood you set," Tonioli remarked. "When you play with Karina, your intensity is right on the money." Martinez looked shocked at the 7 given to him by Goodman, but it paired with an 8 from Inaba and a 9 from Tonioli for a 24.

Then came the freestyles.

Once more, Lake led off. But once more in rehearsals, Lake purged her nerves and sometimes she and Hough appeared frustrated with one another.

"Derek has won every time he's been in the finals. I don't want to be the one who lets hiim down," said Lake, after nervously struggling with some of Hough's choreographed tricks and lifts.

"Every dance I've been hard on Ricki, she's done well. So that's my strategy: be tough to get the result," Hough said. And tough, he was. If Lake's legs in rehearsal were even a touch too bent or too straight, Hough was on it like white on rice.

"Derek is relentless, but he's made me look so good, I'm going to take it for another four or five days," Lake said.

In a truly - well, there' s just no other word - awesome moment, Lake exploded from behind a paper cut-out of her 20-pounds-heavier pre-season picture in a shower of pyrotechnics. And in an absolute show-stopper salsa-and-quick step mash-up, Lake was a confident, sexy force of nature that torched that "big girl" image she said had hampered her most of her life. I've never wanted to be Rob Kardashian less. Dance has absolutely transformed this woman.

"It was fun, it was entertaining. You lost it a little bit in the quick step section, but overall, what a great number," Goodman said.

"What an explosive coming-out!" Tonioli added. "Going from the fluidity to the strict correctness of the quick step is extremely difficult, but by God, you did it well." Once more, Lake scored near-perfection for a near-perfect number: the Herman Cain Commemorative nine-nine-nine for a 27.

Good luck, Mr. Kardashian.

Burke reminded Kardashian in rehearsals that she's twice won the Mirrorball with a freestyle - and lost once.

"All the good dances you've scored in were the slower ones - so I thought we'd start slow and end with a faster freestyle," Burke explained to her partner.

"I love Ricki and J.R. but I've gotta do whatever it takes to beat them," Kardashian said, showing no hints that he was planning on an early exit.

True to form, Kardashian was stylish and slick as bear grease for the slow portion of the "Minnie The Moocher" freestyle. But while solid, the sped-up freestyle lacked the kind of energy and execution Lake and Martinez brought the faster numbers throughout the season.

"Brilliant contact. Brilliant execution. Brilliant performance," said Tonioli. "Timing is everything. You peaked at the right time!"

"To get a 10, you have to blow us away. Consider me 'blown'!" Inaba said.

"You should be proud. Your family should be proud," Goodman said.

From certain people, you expect perfection. Lake and Martinez conditioned us all season to expect perfection, or something damn close to it. Kardashian hung tough with solid scores every single week. Welcome to the mountaintop, Mr. Kardashian: a perfect freestyle score.

So that gave Lake a 54. Amazingly, Kardashian topped that with a 57. Martinez would close the show. But in a surprising switch, it wouldn't be him that needed to be elevated to another level.

The fraying of Smirnoff's nerves began when Martinez nixed a lift she planned that involved Martinez, with a running start, hooking his leg around a crouching Smirnoff's neck - which has been surgically repaired previously.

A frustrated Smirnoff informed Martinez that eliminating that move meant changing the whole set-up.

The dangerous-looking lift was left in, but at the pair's last rehearsal that morning, it was Martinez shown comforting Smirnoff as they just couldn't nail the timing needed to execute safely.

Did they nail it?

"That's the way to come back! Those lifts were the sickest lifts I've ever seen," Inaba said. "Karina, I'm glad you're safe!"

"Two things were revealed: Karina's body and your talent. Fantastic!" Goodman said.

"You were wild, exuberant, with animal physicality!" Tonioli added. Ultimately? Once more, Martinez and Lake end up with tied scores, thanks to another perfect 30 giving Martinez an overall 54.