'The Voice' Season 2, Episode 14 Recap - 'Live Quarterfinal Performances'

Fashion check: all four coaches seem to be wearing relatively normal clothing, Blake isn't wearing a vest, and I think Christina is getting more and more tan every episode.

So, a quick recap: Christina has Chris Mann, Ashley De La Rosa, Jesse Campbell and Lindsay Pavao, while Blake has Jermaine Paul, Erin Willet, Jordis Unga and RaeLynn. Those two teams will go head to head tonight, and Blake and Christina will eliminate one of their contestants immediately.

RaeLynn will start off with "She's Country," because why wouldn't she? Blake asks her if she has a boyfriend, to which she responds "No, I'm a heartbreaker." Her music breaks my ears. She's still overpronouncing every word with a forced twang that really bothers me. But, the chances of Blake eliminating her are pretty slim.

Christina says that RaeLynn makes her want to sing country, Cee Lo loved it, Adam brings up the fact that he wanted RaeLynn (again). Blake likes that RaeLynn "proves that country can kick ass." I like that she proves that it can be forced.

Jesse is up next, and Christina gives him Beyonce's "Halo," which is turning out to be a bit of a challenge for him in rehearsal. In the actual performance, he does some interesting vocal stuff but I'm not sure I like it. As if he hasn't exploited his daughter enough for votes already, his set is all baby pictures and videos of his daughter, and the producers keep cutting to her in the crowd. He hits a pretty impressive note, but then it's followed by an out of breath riff that is kind of a mess.

Cee Lo loved it, Adam loved it and thinks Jesse has the vocal stuff in the bag, he just thinks he needs to make the right song choices. Agreed, between this and "What a Wonderful World," it's kind of hard to see which direction to take Jesse.

Jordis will be doing "A Little Bit Stronger" by Sara Evans, which I think is a big mistake. People love Jordis because she's a rocker, they don't want to hear her sing a country ballad. There's a time to change gears and genres, but this might not be it. The performance is lacking anything to make it really captivating throughout, and there's no moment where it really flares up and wows us.

The judges have nothing but nice things to say, so apparently nobody else had a problem with the song choice. We'll see how the voters respond.

Christina has a very forced meeting with her contestants at a Starbucks in Crenshaw as part of a charity thing. They watch the Crenshaw High gospel choir perform, and Chris looks very out of place.

The choir will be joining Christina and her team as they perform "Fighter," complete with "male strippers" who make a point of dancing on Blake. The rest of the performance is about what you would expect from five power vocalists singing a Christina Aguilera song with a gospel choir. It's loud, and there are a lot of runs.

Ashley will continue things, and because clearly the show is running out of songs that they have the rights to, she's singing "Foolish Games" by Jewel, but a rock version, because she's a rock singer. Bless her, she does all she can with it, and takes it very seriously despite it being pretty ridiculous.

The coaches all liked it, though it seemed like Cee Lo was a little underwhelmed. Blake is thankful that Christina gave Ashley the save.

Ashley will be bookended by coach performances apparently, as Adam takes the stage with Maroon 5 and Wiz Khalifa to perform their new single. Yay?

Erin Willett, who apparently didn't learn from the Kim misstep, is doing "Set Fire to the Rain" by Adele. Don't do Adele, people. Only Adele can do Adele. Erin does as good a job as she can with the song, but it's still Adele.

Christina makes that point, that Adele's shoes are big shoes to fill. Cee Lo, who seems to have checked out before the show even began, says something vaguely supportive. Adam gives some notes about phrasing (wha? Constructive criticism?).

Lindsay time, and apparently she's selling better on iTunes than all of the other contestants (the Gotye cover might have helped). This week, was going to do "S&M" and "We Found Love" by Rihanna, but changes later to "Part of Me" by Katy Perry, which is great because she looks like Katy Perry. That's why she chose it, right? That must have been it, because the performance is a train wreck: she's flat as all hell.

Cee Lo is vaguely nice again. Adam doesn't want to talk about pitch because he thinks it's stupid, but when it's that bad, it's a problem.

Time for Team Blake to perform, and they're quite the opposite of Team Christina, foregoing all the pyrotechnics and choreography for sitting on some equipment trunks and singing "Heartache Tonight." RaeLynn, I kid you not, sings the words "going on" as "gaowaying aawyn," and must be stopped.

Jermaine will be the last one to perform for Team Blake, and will be singing "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins. Interesting... and it could work and give him some room to show off. The performance does afford him some emotional honesty, and some vocal fireworks.

Christina says that Jermaine is her favorite on Blake's team. Cee Lo likes the song choice, and says that "Phil Collins has a lot of soul for a white guy." Blake thinks that people will now realize that Jermaine is a superstar... so it sounds like Blake won't be sending Jermaine home tonight.

Chris Mann will wrap things up for Team Christina with "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. He says he feels naked while doing it, which I don't really understand until I see him perform and try to work the stage. Chris is a talented singer, but he's not a rock star. The song doesn't servce him well either: it doesn't give him enough wiggle room for a voice that size.

Adam wants Chris to sing more opera, and has the same problem I think everyone else is having... there was something wrong with that performance, but it's hard to say what it was exactly.

Time for the first instant elimination, and we're starting with Team Christina. If it were me, based on everything we've seen, I'd probably be sending Chris home. But Christina, following a lot of babbling about believing in them and blah blah and some rushing from Carson, chooses Jesse. This is totally brutally awkward, and it's par for the course with this show. The crowd lets out a small gasp, and then is silent before eventually applauding.

Now it's Blake's turn to choose, and he makes things simple: he goes with the audience's vote from a couple of weeks ago and decides to send Jordis home. Considering the performances tonight, that's probably fair, but I can only hope that the audience vote sends RaeLynn home tomorrow.

Eliminated: Jordis Unga, Jesse Campbell