'The X Factor' Season 1, Episode 16 Recap - The Top 10's Shocking Elimination

First of all, a few pluses/minuses from the show:

+LeRoy totally forgetting to sing during the opening number. Again. But this time he wasn't lip syncing!

-Chris' rap. I think he repeated "cameras flashing" 10 times in a row.

+Nicole leaning up to the mic when Steve clearly gestured to Paula. She just can't go one second without being an attention hog.

-Steve's "Idol" moment, putting off the rest of the results. Seacrested TWICE!

-Lengthy BS about the photoshoot, which is actually just a commercial for the new Sony camera! Look at all those features!

-Rihanna's performance. What was with the sound? Seemed like we were listening to a prerecorded track, but occasionally you could hear Rihanna singing quietly.

+Nice that the judges are up there with their contestants for the results.

As for the results themselves... holy cow.

Lakoda Rayne? They made it? I thought for sure they would be at least singing for survival. How did they not get enough votes last week, but this week they did? That's nuts.

And while I can understand Stacey Francis being in the bottom two, the fact that the audience didn't vote Astro through is also nuts. He was easily the best performance Wednesday night, and the vote proves only that the home audience doesn't understand rap.

Cruel of them to read Rachel's name last, but the honest, tearful reaction we got from her was good television. Straight up sobbing. That wasn't Rachel performing for cameras, that was a girl who actually went from a feeling of despair to absolute joy. No fake!

With Stacey's performance of "Amazing Grace," we got a very clear look at her issues as a singer: the more she went along in the competition, the more she tried to do during these songs. She forces it. She gets too fancy. She goes "over the top," as Simon told her back in Boot Camp. The culmination of that was this horrible number, which had Stacey adding so many ridiculous runs and embellishments that not only was it unlistenable, it was off-key.

As for Astro, his lackluster performance was a perfect indicator of two things: his age, and the fact that it was a total load of crap that he was in the bottom two in the first place. His "Do y'all want me to perform?" moment seemed a bit staged, as there was almost no surprise from LA, but I'm actually glad he said something. The attitude is part of his thing.

Simon's speech was a load of crap, for the most part. The fact he was saying that Astro was disrespecting his mother was a little insulting. Don't act like your show is some kind of sacred thing, and that disrespecting the show (which, admittedly, Astro was doing) is somehow also disrespectful to his mother.

Maybe it was Astro's tears (or the fact that he's awesome), but thankfully Simon made the right choice and sent Stacey home.

What do you think? Right choice? Or should we have seen Lakoda Rayne or another act go home instead?