'The Voice' Season 2, Episode 18 Recap - 'Semifinalists Perform'

A quick fashion breakdown before we begin: Adam is wearing a button-down shirt that isn't buttoned all the way up for once, Cee Lo is sporting a villain goatee and a shirt with his cat's face on it, Christina is wearing a flippin' TIARA and waving a sparkly fan, and Blake is going for the Johnny Cash look. No vest.

We're finally down to a number where all four teams can perform in one night, as each team is down to just two contestants. Everybody's pretty excited, except for Lindsay and Chris, who are as dead as ever. Juliet is crying again.

Looks like Tony Lucca will be up first, and will be singing "How You Like Me Now." His wife and kid are there to do some testimonials and beef up his chances of winning with some waterworks. The performance is easily the most sultry we've seen from Tony, and maybe the most energetic, too: he does a lot of strutting and shuffling on stage, to a mostly positive effect.

Blake doesn't know the song, but is glad he does because "that's the version I would like." Christina rambles for a while. Cee Lo does some kind of Godfather thing.

Erin Willet is next, and Blake is already praising the originality of her choice to do "Without You" by David Guetta (featuring Usher, she is sure to mention). Erin's mother and brother are there to give some interviews, and they can't be helping her case. Her brother looks like a bored David Cross. He does not say a word.

The beginning of the performance is rough, as it seems like they had her start way too low. Then when she gets to the high, soaring notes, she can't quite hit them and keeps falling flat. I know Adam always says that pitchiness isn't an issue since they all do it sometimes, but it's important on those big notes.

Both Christina and Cee Lo praise the arrangement of the song, which I didn't enjoy too much... she was off the melody too often, and it's a good melody. But she did give an emotional performance, as the judges note.

Chris Mann and his new hairdo are next, and he's going back to the opera roots and singing "Ave Maria." We get a little bit of Chris singing in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." You'll all be happy to know that he had the lead. And finally, we see some real emotion from Chris, as he tears up saying that he's appreciative of Christina not trying to take what he does and "make it cool." "I don't care if it's cool," he says. That's kind of a nice sentiment, and now all of a sudden I'm on Chris' side.

The performance is... well, it's "Ave Maria." It's nice, and it's operatic, and Chris does a fine job with it. It's a song that has been performed so many times, though, so I wonder if something else might have been a better idea. Then again, maybe since the general public isn't so up on their opera, singing possibly the most famous song out there is the best choice.

The judges are big fans, and Cee Lo even gets a little emotional talking about Chris and how he embodies the spirit of the show. Christina is "humbled" by the performance. The word "humble" should not be spoken by people wearing tiaras and giant sparkling knuckles that say "Xtina."

Jamar Rogers time, and while I love Jamar, I'm not so sure about his mom yet. They're going a different direction this week, by doing "If You Don't Know Me By Now." Jamar seems confident that he'll win. I'm with him on that.

The arrangement that Jamar came up with is actually pretty interesting, and it even impresses Cee Lo, who is pretty good at this sort of thing himself. The vocal performance is great too, but that's no surprise from him at this point.

The judges are fans of the performance, and Blake especially loved the low note at the end. Christina was motivated to get up there and sing with him. Jamar is literally jumping up and down pretty much this whole time. Everybody is going to vote for this guy. How can they not?

Team Cee Lo and Team Adam follow up to sing "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers, which is really the song that Pip should have sung instead. Juliet kinda kills it, and Tony somehow ends up with a guitar, out of thin air. The song is truncated as usual, so the build is kinda lost, but these four do a pretty solid job anyway, despite the inherent problems with having four people sing one song. Inevitably, you end up like the Spice Girls, taking turns on each line.

Jermaine Paul is up next, and it seems like we haven't heard him in a long time. He's taking on a Journey song, "Open Arms." His performance is similar to Chris' in that it's a center stage ballad, but of course it has a lot more pop style runs to it. If this show isn't careful, they're going to end up with a bunch of unmarketable finalists.

Christina is a fan, regrets not pushing her button. Cee Lo like the power vocals with the sweet sentiment. Adam notes that Jermaine is "no longer a background singer."

Katrina Parker will be the next one up, and she has chosen "Killing Me Softly," Fugees style. An interesting choice, and by the look of things, it's a good one: Adam is beside himself in rehearsals. The performance itself is strong in that Katrina Parker way, in that you can't really find anything wrong with it, but it doesn't really have much of a build, or a big "wow" moment. The last note makes up for that a little, though.

Blake praises Katrina's "seasoned" voice. Christina really heaps on the compliments, even appealing to Adam to give a good amount of his percentage vote to Katrina tonight. Cee Lo is the first person to mention Roberta Flack in all this, bless him.

Blake Shelton comes up after to perform his new single. It's very Blakeish.

Lindsey Pavao will finish things up for Team Christina. Big surprise: her parents tell us that she was really shy when she was younger. She's doing "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver. Thanks to the Grammys and "Saturday Night Live," it would seem that Bon Iver is fair game for vocal competition reality shows now.

The song suits her voice really nicely, and she actually seems to be enjoying singing it. The performance is subdued, but nice, and the ending is really wonderfully done by Lindsey. I could have very easily done without the people sitting on the floor around her and clapping, though.

Cee Lo starts things off with a "big love" joke, and praises Lindsey's confidence. Adam loves how different everyone is. Adam notices differences! Blake praises Christina for getting her singers back to their roots tonight. Come to think of it, she did make a concerted effort with that.

Before the last contestant, Team Christina and Team Blake come out to do "Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga. The harmonies are surprisingly coherent for four people running around the stage. Chris singing Gaga is funny to me.

Juliet Simms will finish things up, with a performance of "It's a Man's World" by James Brown. Her weird-looking boyfriend is very sweet and supportive. Juliet can't get through her interview without some waterworks.

The performance is what you would expect from Juliet: a blend of power and lots of grit, with just enough vulnerability thrown in there to give it some levels. She absolutely kills the last note.

Adam says that Juliet is "the one to beat." Christina praises her for singing for herself. Cee Lo tells her that she "murdered that record." She pretty much did.

Really tough to predict the finalists at this point, but considering how the voting as gone in the past, it will be difficult for Juliet to overtake Jamar without help from Cee Lo, and I see him voting 50/50 with these two, if not in Jamar's favor. Katrina also has an uphill battle against Tony, and will likely need help from Adam... she might actually get that, though. Blake is tough to call only because I think he stuck himself with the two weakest contestants currently in the competition, but the audience will probably go with Jermaine.

Christina's team is the most interesting: Chris and Lindsey are just about polar opposites, so it's very difficult to say who will make it. Chris got the audience vote last time, though, so if he gets a bump from his return to opera, he should end up in the final.

So, I'd put my money on seeing Chris Mann, Jamar Rogers, Tony Lucca and Jermaine Paul in the final next week. Then again, that would mean four men in the final, so that would be pretty weird.