'Dancing With The Stars' Season 13, Episode 6 Recap

Welcome, ladies, gentlemen and others, to Week Three of "Recapping With The Stars." Two celebrity hoofers are sitting at home right now, dreaming of the Mirrorball Trophy that could've been, while another 10 just keep chasing it.

Well, that's probably not entirely true.

Ron "Metta World Peace" Artest is probably chilling out, thinking about how he can't wait for the lockout to end, so the Los Angeles Lakers can dream up another way to fail in the playoffs (that's right, folks - Celtics fan, and not apologizing for it.)

Elisabetta Canalis, meanwhile? Well, it's a cold and lonely world for one with the personality of a wolverine with a toothache. Still, hard to feel sorry for one who has habanero hotness to keep her warm.

This week, things get personal. No, "Dancing with the Stars" is not going "Bachelorette" and pitting celebrity against celebrity in martial arts combat. Each celebrity will dance to a song representing the most memorable year and moments of their lives, for better or worse. There's love, loss, pain, joy, triumph and failure to convey on the CBS Television City ballroom floor. Tonight, every emotion comes through loud, clear and crystallized in a single moment for each dancer.

A brand new Rob Kardashian stepped up last week with the help and faith of pro partner Cheryl Burke, and got at least one thing he wanted out of this experience: Carrie Ann officially declared "Rob Kardashian is a better dancer than Kim Kardashian!" He found a soul and confidence that the first week might've left the judges unsure he had. Week Two was but the test drive. This week, he takes it onto the highway with a tribute to the 2003 death of his father and namesake, renowned attorney Robert Kardashian.

"I was 15 years old and I couldn't believe it. My world has been flipped upside-down," Rob said. "I really want to make this song a celebration of his life."

Burke once more demonstrated not just drive, but sensitivity, telling us she wanted to make this Foxtrot to Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon" - one of Rob's father's favorites,Rob told us - the best of Rob's life.

"I miss you and I love you every day, Dad. This one's for you," Rob said.

Somewhere among the best seats in the house, Robert was pleased. Rob trotted out not just a gleeful energy, but also a mature style and subtle flair that would've made Ol' Blue Eyes grin a little, too.

"You just put the 'dash' in 'Kardashian,' I'm telling you!" said Len kicking off the critiques."I hope your dad's looking down and saying 'Rob, you did good,' because you did." Bruno expressed admiration for not just the little bit of "Frank" but the little bit of "Brando" emerging as Kardashian took a more commanding role on the floor. With Carrie Ann noting that he's getting a little bit better every week, Kardashian and Burke led off the show with a solid 24, eights across all three judges.

Chynna Phillips and Tony Dovolani celebrated a "major turning-point" in Phillips' life next, following up on a Week Two performance that was a crowd-pleaser but that all three judges felt played it too safe for such a naturally graceful dancer as Phillips and as lively and exciting a dance as the jive. "The judges want more, we'll give 'em more," Dovolani said backstage.

This week, the two worked a rumba that paid tribute to Phillips 1990 hit single with Wilson Phillips, "Hold On."

"I looked at myself in the mirror and I didn't recognize myself," Phillips said. "I stopped drinking, I started going to therapy, I really dug down deep within myself and I met my future husband, Billy Baldwin."

Phillips was a perfectionist again in practice, to the point of driving herself to tears. When the time came for her surreal and touching rumba to her own '90s hit, Phillips brought a step that might've lacked flash, but definitely conveyed something heartfelt.

"I knew you could do it," Bruno said approvingly. "You are a smoldering siren. Seductive, intriguing, stylish . . . always so expressive. You belong in a museum to admire." Likewise, Carrie Ann remarked "You are just stunning to watch." Len told her "Dancing like that, you are going to be here for weeks and weeks." Bruno and Len doled out the season's first 9's, Carrie Ann gave her an 8 and the pair had a very impressive 26.

The week got no less emotional as Chaz Bono and Lacey Schwimmer stepped onto the floor to dance to a tune by Bono's late father, Sonny Bono. The son of Bono and Cher limped through week two with debilitating pain and stiffness coursing through his right knee and ankle, with Schwimmer toning down the week's step to "Love Is All Around" and the judges waffling between praising Bono's heart and pluckiness and judging a lackluster step fairly, but ultimately doling out a week-low 17.

Like Phillips, Bono and Schwimmer chose a rumba to celebrate Bono's most memorable year: this one, in which Bono says he's "happier than he's ever been" and will get it across with his dad's solo song for Chaz's mom, "Laugh With Me."

"It's about being a different kind of man," Bono said.

Bono said he focused on making the rumba's characteristic slow movements look "as pretty and precise as possible," and the rehearsal clips showed that he tried. But there were times Schwimmer couldn't' resist mounting frustrations. Sometimes, she explained, things became hit-and-miss.

"My frustration comes from seeing it really good and being so proud of him, and then five minutes later, it's completely bad again," Schwimmer said. When their time came on the floor, it was once more Schwimmer's grace often off-setting how stiff-legged the hobbled Bono could look at times. However, Bono's upper-body movements showed an improved flair and assuredness, and the two displayed fine chemistry. Something looked missing on Bono's expression, though.

Carrie Ann was once more touched by Bono's heart in competing at all, but pointed out "You looked distracted. Normally, when I watch you, I see this look of love and happiness and you look so excited to be out there." She added that she didn't feel he danced enough himself with that number.

Len begged to differ.

"That was your best dance I've seen you do," he said. "Dancing doesn't come that easy to you. And you come back each week . . . That says a lot about your character."

Where would Bruno stand?

"There was a moment you looked a little bit lost, but it's a very difficult dance. It comes from the center of the back and you never, ever stop. You've done very, very well," he said.

The pair improved a lone point over the previous week, notching sixes across the board for an 18. "It is what it is," Bono said afterward.

Kristin Cavallari found her inner Marilyn Monroe in Week Two, and it propelled her to second place on the "DWTS" Leader Board alongside partner Mark Ballas, and switched gears to Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" either keep her spot or maybe even take one more step upwards.

"In 2005, it was a huge song, and that's when I moved to L.A.," Cavallari explained to Ballas. "I graduated high school, I moved to L.A., and I had to make the big decision that year whether I was going to go to school or go to L.A."

Admitting it's the hardest dance she could've picked, Cavallari chose the samba with Ballas' total confidence. "Everything I'm giving to Kristin, I know she has the potential and capability to do it," Ballas said.

Cavallari on the floor transformed herself from "Marilyn" bubbly cuteness, to a sexy fire and energy that's clearly more within the former MTV star's wheelhouse. She looked lithe and fluid as anyone with a body like Cavallari's would be expected to look, with seduction to spare.

Len was less than completely impressed, as he doesn't seem to be with half the dances that become genuine crowd-pleasers.

"The 'Beyonce' stuff isn't really my cup of tea," he said, referring to their step's more modern gyrations. "That was only about 20 percent of the dance. The other 80 percent was fabulous."

Carrie Ann said "Beyonce is some pretty darn big shoes to fill, but you did pretty darn good!" Maybe a little better than just that: the pair notched straight eights, for the night's second 24.

Carson Kressley and Anna Trebunskaya stepped up next, after a Week Two outing in which the judges adored Kressley's energy but criticized the lack of control it brought to his movements. To build himself back up, Kressley and Trebunskaya cooked up a tango to No Doubt's 2003 hit "It's My Life," celebrating the year "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" unleashed Kressley upon an unsuspecting, hetero-male world.

"The coolest thing about it, was it was just me being me" Kressley said. "I was the dorkiest kid in high school . . . and the weird thing about growing up gay is that you feel like there's something wrong with you."

Trebunskaya knew off the bat how to play off Kressley's strengths.

"I choreographed this tango to play off Carson's sense of style," the pro explained.

Coming through with flying colors, Kressley displayed all his joie de vivre, but with more controlled and perfected timing with his pro. "That was insanely brilliant!" screamed Bruno to kick off the critiques. Bruno's critique was hard to follow, but Carrie Ann simply exclaimed "Carson, I love you!"

Then it was the straight man's turn.

"You put the 'boy' in flamboyant," Len said. "I've gotta say, I enjoyed it very much." All in all, that praise was good enough to notch a 23.

J.R. Martinez and Karina Smirnoff tried to step it up a notch to keep their Week One lead in Week Two, but their jive was a little too Lindy-hop for the judges despite its over-the-top energy. This week, Martinez paid tribute to his fellow fighting Armed Forces men and women who never made the trip home from war. The song also reminded Martinez of the fact he himself, at 19 years old, almost never came back.

"I was driving a Humvee in Iraq when my front-left tire went over a land mine," Martinez said in his rehearsal package. "The last thing I remember was being in Iraq and feeling and thinking that my life was going to end." Martinez admittedly developed depression and regrets for why his life had been so changed. He said he even believed he'd have been better off if he hadn't made it.

"I stayed awake in my hospital bed when the lights were off and everybody was gone and just cried," Martinez recalled of being particularly concerned about the massive facial scarring he endured. "I remember my mother telling me that whoever was going to be in my life for whatever reason, they were going to be there because of who I was as a person." To salute those who didn't make it, Smirnoff and Martinez danced the rumba to Tim McGraw's "If You're Reading This."

Martinez had already displayed athleticism, energy and flair. With the slow, smooth rumba, he displayed soul and sensitivity in his movements that honored the spirits of his fallen fellow soldiers. And the standing ovation that followed paid tribute to an emotionally overcome Martinez.

Carrie Ann similarly was moved to tears. "Heroes are made of extraordinary things. Tonight, you did something extraordinary," she said.

"Every season, somebody comes along and dances to a standard that's totally unexpected. This season, that's you," Len said.

"You dance from your heart. I could feel every emotion, it was tangible," said Bruno. Unsurprisingly, the moving number was enough to garner the night's second 26.

Nancy Grace and Tristan MacManus stepped up next to top a previous week when the former prosecutor found her confidence doing the quick step, and landed herself Len's highest score of the night, an eight.This week, Grace paid tribute to the moment when her daughter almost died shortly after birth with both the song she walked down the aisle to at her wedding and the first lullaby she sang her daughter, "Moon River."

"The morning they were born, I was trying to get for church and I couldn't breathe. It turned out my lungs and heart cavity had filled up with fluid," Grace recalled. "The doctors told me that Lucy and I were dying, and they had to cut the children out immediately."

Having her husband and children present for rehearsals, brought a side of her that MacManus said was not only fun but "a bit dorky." Grace said that she just wanted her children to see Mommy do something "beautiful" and to know it was all for them. And for another week running, Grace displayed even more ease and confidence on the floor than before, moving softly and gently across the dance floor.

"I was transported," Carrie Ann said. "It felt to me like a live-action lullaby. I was lost in this little fantasy." Overall, the number was good enough to score a 21, but the score was clearly the icing on the cake for an emotional Grace.

Batting third-to-last, former talk-show queen Ricki Lake and partner Derek Hough - the current leading couple - paid tribute to a trying 2010 in which a fire claimed Lake's home except the clothes on her back and a divorce claimed a little bit of her soul.

"I think I'd resigned myself to the fact that I'm never going to get married again," Lake recalled. She met her new man, Christian, while rebuilding her life with a new sense of what's most important. "Never say never," she added. The pair decided to remember that year with a rumba to "Gravity" by Sarah Bareilles. Lake and Hough once again displayed immaculate timing, with Lake looking like she was born on a ballroom dance floor.

"Every step was as expressive as a word in a poem," Bruno said. "That was the actress-dancer at her best." Carrie Ann told Lake "You are looking fierce!" Len congratulated Hough on a great routine and Lake on dancing it well. That was enough to score a 27, and have Lake and Hough look surprisingly like the pair to beat.

World Cup soccer goalie Hope Solo and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy danced a cha-cha to "Tonight..." by Enrique Iglesias to commemorate the U.S. Women's Soccer squad advancing all the way to the 2011 World Cup final against Japan.

"When you want something so bad and you've worked your entire life since you were a kid to reach that goal and things don't go your way, it hurts deeply," Solo said. "For the first time in my career, I realized it truly was about the journey."

Though Maks chided and kidded Solo during rehearsals about needing to let her inner "sexy bitch" out in this dance - and really, considering that the uncensored chorus of the song is "Tonight, I'm f***ing you," he's got a point - Solo looked like she at least started to embrace her femininity on the floor during the sexy number, even if she did still sometimes look a little stiff. At the very least, she looked like she'd drilled the footwork the judges knocked off points for in the previous week.

"I want to see you work on your walk a little," Carrie Ann encouraged her.

"I would've liked a little sharper action," Len said, calling it their best dance so far. Apparently there was some agreement, because the pair notched an overall 24.

David Arquette and Kym Johnson closed out the show, with Arquette wanting to avoid a second week in the bottom two with a solid rumba. Arquette and Johnson put together a rumba looking back on a dark stretch that began with the collapse of Arquette's marriage to "Cougar Town" star Courtney Cox.

"My marriage fell apart, and I escaped into drugs and alcohol to try to numb the feelings I was feeling," Arquette said. "It was hard to deal with, but I'm really grateful for it because it made me take a hard look at myself.

"Life's about love and not giving in to fear."

Johnson set a routine to The Five Stairsteps' "Ooh, Child" and Arquette channeled all his frantic energy that cost him points dancing the jive into a more restrained but sensitive routine. "It was a mix of motion and emotion . . . Well-done," said Len. Carrie Ann praised Arquette for a "very nice comeback" from the previous week. The pair scored an overall 24, and that leaves Chaz Bono and Lacey Schwimmer once more at the bottom.