'The X Factor' Season 1, Episode 25 Recap - 'Season Finale Part 1'

"This is five million dollars. And a Pepsi commercial," says finalist Chris Rene in the intro, and I applaud him for saying it with a straight face. For that matter, give each of these contestants an Oscar for saying things like "I'm just a humble musician from Ohio," and "I was already eliminated."

The mentors and contestants come out to even more Carmina Burana than before. It's as if they're playing the track over itself to make everything twice as dramatic.

You know what else is dramatic? Melanie's cleavage. Somebody's trying to steal some votes tonight. But when they cut to the contestants' hometowns, it looks like Melanie got away with having the biggest crowd: they've packed her church with fans with signs.

Tonight's hashtag is #NoPointsForSecond. Is it a good social media strategy to try to get a different hashtag trending every week? Seems counterproductive. Oh, Josh is performing. He stands on the set of Red Riding Hood and delivers "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette, singing the opening verse before bringing Alanis herself out on stage for our first duet of the night. Well, that explains why they went with this song instead of one of her many other, better ones.

It's a little rough, but more likely than not they had very little time to prepare. Josh is legitimately giddy to be performing with her, which is cute. The judges love it, and LA notes that "Jagged Little Pill" is his "favorite album of all time." Really?

We also cut to Wooster, Ohio, where Josh's grandma looks like she's going to be trampled by the fans filling up his high school. Somebody get her out of there! Josh does his trademark signing, and we're off to see whom Chris Rene is going to duet with.

Each week, LA's introductions get more and more awkward. Do you think he can talk without pointing?

Oh no. Poor Chris got paired up with Avril Lavigne and has to sing "Complicated." Again, props to him for keeping a straight face. It's just awful... it's too high for Chris, and Avril clearly can't actually sing. Nicole is honest enough to call it "a little shaky," and Paula and Simon agree, but all of them are still very nice to him. "That could be a record," says Simon. And yes, he said it with a straight face.

Simon Cowell introduces Melanie in a way that seems to say "get ready everybody, you're about to see R Kelly." Oh, that's because Melanie is going to duet with R Kelly! The two of them go through "I Believe I Can Fly," from that seminal hit "Space Jam." They totally kill it. Compared to the mess we just saw, it's like listening to the London Philharmonic.

LA calls that song "one of the most important songs in the last 50 years." He also notes that Melanie got overshadowed a bit by R Kelly, which may be true. Nicole notes that it wasn't in her key, and she did the best she could, darn it.

We head over to Sunrise, Florida, to hear from Bishop Hernandez and Melanie's friend, who likes yelling into microphones a lot. "They're awesome," says Steve Jones. I love this guy. Please don't leave, Steve.

The contestants have to go through some costume changes before their next performances, so the cast of Cirque de Soleil's new Michael Jackson tour is here to perform. They're robots! I didn't know Cirque was harboring this kind of technology!

It's pretty cool, and the contestants come out to sing along with "They Don't Care About Us." Although they really only sing that one line over and over. Good effort though, kids. Not like it matters. These robot dancers are sure to take everyone's job soon! Oh no!

Josh returns to the stage after a look back at his previous performances. Listen, Josh is the most interesting, and probably the best, vocalist out here, but the "I'm just a regular guy from Ohio" thing isn't going to cut it against Chris' "I'm out of rehab" thing.

But Josh's song choice is "At Last," taking it back to his original audition. Just him and an acoustic guitar, belting it out. It's understated, but it's what Josh does best. And Simon won't be able to complain about Josh having "ridiculous dancing" all around him.

Sure enough, Simon loves it along with the rest of the judges. It's vintage Josh, and it was a really solid choice. This begs the question: Will Chris Rene do another original? Maybe a mash-up of "Young Homie" and that other one that I forget the name of?

We have to wait through the lengthy clip package first ("Where Do We Go From Here!" That's what it was called!) before we find out that, yes, Chris will be singing "Young Homie," sans any mash-ups. I think it would have been great to throw in a little bit of his other song, maybe lead into "Young Homie" to give it a little more of an impact. But this was probably his best performance, and he really put his all into it.

The judges all loved it, and so did the people in Santa Cruz. The mayor makes an awkward appearance.

So will Melanie do "Listen" and make it a 3-for-3? First we sit through Melanie's clip package, which tries once again to convince us that Simon's early boot for the girl wasn't totally staged. Melanie's accent is totally gone in her interviews, she's back to American. Interesting. Which one is "really Melanie," Melanie?

Sure enough, Melanie does go with "Listen," this time all made up and on a stage with smoke machines and very large pieces of fabric. Oh, and there's more cleavage this time around. She kills it, predictably. Tough to say if it's better than her original audition in terms of emotion, but it seems technically improved.

The judges are crazy about the performance, and Simon tells her she'll "never get teased again." Clearly Simon doesn't spend a lot of time on the Internet. The people in Sunrise love it too, and the guy who I have to assume is the mayor screams for minutes straight. It's a microphone, people. It makes it so that you don't have to yell.

So it's all up to the voting, and we'll see who ends up with the big prize tomorrow. At this point, it seems like it's anyone's game. Josh is the most interesting, but Melanie is much flashier and may have benefited from going last. Chris, however, has the charisma and the backstory to potentially beat them both.

Who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments!