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I think a lot of people were surprised at the candor and the criticisms that were handed out tonight. I welcome this change (although it's still not meted out equally). I want the judges calling out the dancers and pointing out their technical and performance shortcomings. Without it, you don't know who's dancing well and who's just coasting on popularity. That said, I don't know how they sit around and go on about Mark's slight technical failing but Gev can dance as sloppily as he wants as long as it's entertaining. When you don't have consistency, it just seems like your playing favorites and downgrading some dancers and elevating others without due merit (why did I bother writing "seems"?) And that's why Mia seemed so friggin' bitchy tonight while Mary was actually on the ball (well, other than liking that Krump routine).

I am always excited by the announcement of an Alex DaSilva routine ever since Ryan and Melissa's awesome Mambo from season one and because I am a trick whore, and Alex is always up for a trick filled routine. Unfortunately, most of the results have been uneven since season one because the dancers aren't up to the choreography. No so tonight - with Chelsie working in her specialty and Mark being ever so adaptable, the couple was on fire, delivering the speed. precision and the performance. A lot of good synchronized work and damn sexy to boot. Chelsie spins soo fast - she looks like she can rotate one or two more time in a measure than any of the other dancers. But I wasn't sure why they performed the drop after the music stopped other than they screwed up somewhere, got unsynched from the music and had to end with the lift. One odd note about Chelsie -- for a dancer who can really get into character in the more lyrical pieces, she tends to put on a frozen competition smile when she does ballroom. She even kept it going with feathers in her mouth last week.

So, Comfort is finally "in her own genre" with a Nappy Tabs hip hop routine? Didn't she Krump with Chris a few weeks ago? Gimme a break. Out of their three attempts at straight hip hop, this was the best choreographed of the three. Too bad that Thayne was not synchronized with Comfort for the unison parts (which could have killed), and Thayne again cannot pull off hetero. I didn't buy, for even a millisecond, that Thayne was macking on Comfort.

Tyce said Jessica and Will had to flow and look effortless. Well, I didn't see that from Jessica, who kind of danced like a sack of potatoes. I saw a lot of awkwardness from Jessica coming in and out of lifts, and she looked clunky and hesitant. In the end, she just couldn't get high enough to make the lift work. All of the hitches and hesitations left me unimpressed. If that were Will and, let's say, Katee, I might have been impressed. Jessica dances like she's the understudy rather than the lead.

Gev and Courtney? Boring. And boy, she was super-smiley tonight.

There were times when I wasn't sure if it was Twitch or Lil C addressing the camera. Talk about separated at birth. And how hard hitting was Kherington? About as hard hitting as Kung-Fu Barbie. Her chest pops (which are at the core of krumping) were really weak - in the part where Twitch uses his hand to make it look like he's controlling her chest pops, she just looks like she's kinda breathing hard. Which was apparently for reals, since she appeared too exhausted to do anything other than go through the motions for the last 16 bars, as Nigel likes to say. Either that or she gave up (I can imagine her thinking, "gosh, I'm sooo tired. Ah, f*ck it - I'm in the top ten anyway"). And how forgettable was Twitch? It's like he wasn't even there. After that kind of suckiness, the judges must have some sort of harsh critique, right? Wrong! Nigel dismisses the last 16 bars as exempt from judging (as do the other judges) and no one even mentions how terrible her chest pops were. In fact, they say she was hard hitting! They should be ashamed of themselves. And they should never, ever have krumping on the show again. It has balls out sucked every single time.

Katee was gorgeous and amazing in her Viennese Waltz. Joshua had some footwork issues and looked ungainly in spots, but the lifts were flawless, and there was a series of synchronized spins across the floor that were awesome to watch. The dance was overall great and thoroughly entertaining. The tepid reviews from the judges due to technical issue are inconsistent considering the problems Gev and Courtney had that were glossed over, and this dance was way more entertaining and memorable than their ballroom routine.

I love the way Chelsie and Mark play off of each other and bring acting into their dances. This one was good, not great - I feel about it much like I felt about last week Jazz routine - it had some moments, but there wasn't enough substance to the choreography for these two to really shine, and Chelsie didn't finish any of her kicks. The critiques about Mark's lack of technical expertise made my head spin - hello? Gev and Twitch? I am wondering if they are trying to get this couple in the bottom three and setting up a shocking boot of Mark. It's all so maddeningly manipulated.

I didn't think Comfort and Thayne's contemporary routine was all that bad - it was better than Courtney & Gev's Mandy Moore attempt. Comfort looked pretty good, and this was probably Thayne's best performance. A critique for Comfort for faking technique? Hello - Gev and Twitch! All I want is some motherf***ing consistency. Seriously, it's ridiculous.

Will and Jess do Jive. Is this a crash and burn? Yes.

Unlike Mark & Chelsie or Joshua & Katee, Gev & Courtney just don't commit fully to their characters. At one point in the Mandy Moore jazz piece, they start fighting over a map. But they aren't really going at it - they never sell that they are fighting over it - it's just a prop. Neither of them really wanted it, they just didn't want to drop it. Compare this to Chelsie kicking away Mark's briefcase - it's not just a prop - it's there for her to unload her anger and frustration. This week, Chelsie bats around Marks head like a speedbag. Gev and Courtney just don't have that passion when they dance - the only reason people think they have some sort of connection is the unrequited love showmance they keep pushing week after week. The connection itself never comes through during the performance. And that's why they're so forgettable.

I sat through Khitch's Mr. & Mrs. Smith inspired tango repeatedly yelling, "this sucks! This is awful! WTF?!" I was convinced the judges would overlook Twitch's horrendous footwork, his stiff posture and his penchant for just standing around while Kherington does stuff. That he lumbers around the stage and can't even come out of a spin without stumbling. That he has no technique and sucks at lifts. That he had a blank expression on his face the whole time instead of anything resembling passion. She appeared to be sleepwalking through the routine, only occasionally busting out her Ed Grimley face (again, "f*ck it, I'm in the top ten). Less Brad and Angelina and more Stiller and Meara. Nigel said it wasn't "honest". Nigel should be honest and explain that Twitch is the worst dancer left in the competition - even Comfort can pull off a contemporary or waltz, and she's front and center and not hiding behind Kherington. So this is how bad you have to be to actually get something from the judges that isn't full on praise and hype if you're Khitch. Oddly, this wasn't even their worst performance. I tend to think that after ignoring the worst part of a bad krump routine, the judges realized they had gone too far in the straining credulity department and decided to criticize the pair here. Sort of like when a ref blows a call for one team and then calls a bad one for the other team on purpose to even things up. Nigel, you suck as bad as those refs.

It took just as much energy if not more to pull off this Bollywood routine, and they didn't quit towards the end. For that reason alone, Katee & Josh >>>>> Twitch & Kherington. What a great routine, and what tremendous execution. Joshua didn't look out of his element here, and he hasn't on the past - it seems that with two dances a week, something's got to give (last week's casualty was a poorly executed West Coast Swing). And after all these weeks, I'm finally warming up to Katee - she's running neck and neck with Chelsie as the front running female dancer. As it is, she probably the best overall female dancer in the competition. The best part of the dance were the shapes and the synchronicity. Their unison dancing, in a style they were wholly unfamiliar with, was superb. The best routine of the night, hands down. The "best routine of the night" title has gone to Josh & Katee or Mark & Chelsie every single week so far. In many ways, it's kind of a shame they're breaking up the couples next week.