'The Voice' Season 2, Episode 16 Recap - Quarterfinals, Team Adam & Team Cee Lo

As the episode starts, everybody has the giggles because apparently Cee Lo brought a little fart machine with him. Apparently Cee Lo's sense of humor stopped evolving back in middle school, but hey, more power to him. Carson tries desperately to keep everyone focus, as if he were a middle school teacher.

If you're wondering, the answer is yes, Blake is wearing a vest.

Jamar Rogers is up first, and we immediately dive into his backstory as he tells Cee Lo that one of his songs helped him stay positive as he was recovering from addiction and dealing with his HIV. Jamar is singing "It's My Life," but in a much less peppy manner than the original. Since it's Cee Lo, the staging is pretty intense, with burning pallettes of wood on stage, plus dancing sewage workers or something.

Jamar puts a lot of feeling into the song, though the arrangement sort of leaves the song without a melody. There are pitch problems, but that won't matter here.

Adam and Blake are both happy that Jamar got paired up with Cee Lo, as the pairing seems made to be. Christina says she's rooting for him. Cee Lo apparently calls Jamar "J-Bird," which is cute. He calls for some more love from the audience, which puts Jamar in tears again.

Katrina is next, singing "Jar of Heart" by Christina Perri. It's a song that's pretty much designed for this kind of venue: a sweet melody that can be sung by just about anyone, but it will still sound good. The trick here will be Katrina making it different here, and making it memorable.

It's a technically sound performance, but she misses out on the opportunity to really nail the big note and give the audience something to remember. Considering she was up for elimination last week, I'm not sure that will cut it.

Blake loves it, and thinks it was a breakout performance. Christina gives some words of encouragement, telling Katrina that she will undoubtedly be compared to Adele, but she should just be herself and whatnot and blah blah.

The Team Cee Lo performance is all manner of weird: Carson introduces the team in the style of 1960's TV show, in black and white, and Cee Lo, Cheesa and Julia start out in a TV on the stage, also in black and white (to us at home, anyway). You gotta give the guy points for spectacle. And for wigs. Also, I still don't like James.

I do like Mathai, though, who will be singing "I'm Like a Bird." Uh oh. Seems like the wrong song for her, and one that is so well known that it will be hard to break from the original. She at least has a trapeze artist on stage, so that's helpful. And actually, we get to hear a lot more in terms of runs and big notes from her on this, so it turns out okay.

Blake of course doesn't like the flying guy, whom he calls "Captain America." Adam didn't like it very much either, which seems weird. Christina gives him flack for that, saying that he should be involved in every aspect. She also thinks the song was a little "force-fed." I could see that.

James Massone is next, and Cee Lo claims he has a "natural connection" with people. Not with me, man. Cee Lo gives him Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," continuing the whole "lady killer" thing. The performance is the same as his others: not terribly exciting, not so much on pitch, but his tone is nice.

Blake and Christina agree that he sang okay, but the performance "fell flat." Adam and Cee Lo take the other side, as they both loved it. Still, James might be in trouble tonight, having to go up against the untouchable Jamar as well as Juliet. However, he can hope that Cheesa botches things.

Cee Lo performs next with Goodie Mob, who have apparently reunited to form a group of futuristic Greek gods. They all wear shiny gold armor, and are actually singing with glowing mouthpieces in. Adam totally digs it, you can tell because he's doing his "I totally dig this" nod. The track may be pre-recorded, but it's still a pretty awesome crazy performance.

Time for Tony Lucca, who is having a bit of an identity crisis, considering the fact that he's had a long career but is only now getting attention. He and Adam respond to Christina's "one dimensional" criticism by having Tony perform a cover of "Hit Me Baby One More Time," only darker and more rock-oriented. It works pretty well, but it does feel like a gimmick. Still, the crowd goes nuts. "That was Bieber loud" says Carson.

Christina enjoyed it, Blake says it pissed him off because it was "really smart." Adam heaps on the praise. Chances are pretty good that will win Tony some votes.

Cheesa is up next, after making an impression last week with her save song. She wants to go diva, so naturally she's doing "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston. That will either prove to be a great idea, or a terrible one. She can hit most of the notes, though she thins out a bit after the key change. Here's the difference between Whitney and Cheesa: Whitney always made it look easy, while you can see Cheesa pushing to belt those notes out.

Christina loved it, noting that they were "big shoes to fill" but that she filled them. Cee Lo does his thing, and calls Whitney his "fairy godmother in many ways." Not sure what that means, but he's a fan of Cheesa's "grown woman, child bearing" voice.

Pip has a lot to prove, as his "When You Were Young" performance was a little lacking. He'll be doing "Somewhere Only We Know," the half-life of which has hopefully deteriorated it enough to make it not the worst thing to listen. Unfortunately, once he starts moving about the stage, his runs get a little rough. The one at the end is a weird falsetto thing that doesn't work how Pip probably planned.

Blake thought it was okay, but it got a little rough at the end. However, he is considerably upset about the fact that Pip is not wearing a bow tie. Pip is in trouble, man.

Team Adam performs their own 60's song (well, 70's technically) in "Instant Karma!" Adam doesn't sing at all through the whole thing, just playing drums in the background. There are no black-and-white special effects.

Rounding out the evening is Juliet Simms, who will do "Cryin" by Aerosmith. Without hearing any of it, that seems like a good choice for her. Sure enough, it fits her voice nicely, but the Cee Lo touch adds a huge pair of black angel wings and a cascade of white feathers, which may make her sound even better somehow

Blake loved the performance, and loved how the feathers took him back to duck season. Christina praises Juliet's fearlessness on stage, and Cee Lo calls her "my little red Corvette." It fits.

The first instant elimination is for Team Cee Lo, and Cee Lo reads a little speech that he wrote down on his phone, basically saying "sorry guys." Cee Lo sends James home, which isn't much of a surprise considering the performances both tonight and previous.

The elimination for Team Adam seems pretty clear as well, and though Adam stumbles through his own speech, choosing to co-opt Cee Lo's words for his own. He goes with Pip, which is again not much of a surprise.

So, that leaves Cheesa, Juliet and Jamar for Team Cee Lo tomorrow, and Katrina, Tony and Mathai for Team Adam. If I had to guess, I'd say Cheesa and Katrina will be the ones to go, but the save from the mentors might change things.

Eliminated: Pip, James Massone