It will be hard on the earlier couples that the ones at the end were so strong. Really, I hate to see anyone go yet!

I have to say that, IMO, the three weakest were the "Forget You" hip hop, the jive, and the Ryan/Ricky hip hop (mostly because of Ryan's weird smiling). The Forget You number suffered from the same inability to maintain character--they were enjoying themselves too much for a couple caught cheating on each other. The jive was cute, but just not that good (and Robert's Urkel vibe is really wearing on me).

The biggest surprise of the night was how well Nick kept up with Iveta, who I agree will unfortunately be an early exit from the season just because she's older and more reserved. But he really impressed me with his ability to pick up the dreaded quickstep as well as he did (although his legs were a bit splayed at times, which messed with his line). It was really close to the Jakob/Ellenore quickstep in quality--the dancing was better than the earlier number, but the chemistry was better between Jakob and Ellenore.

Man, I miss Ellenore. I hope she turns up as an all-star!

I didn't see Jordan and Tadd or Sasha and Alex. But I'm voting online mostly for Iveta/Nick but also Melanie/Marko.

I didn't really like Robert so I didn't really like that dance.

Sasha and Melanie were favorites from their auditions.

Cat looks smoking! Great tv is about to ensue. Also, I want those chandelier earrings dangling from my earlobes right now.

Dance ins: Pretty black girl is boring. Flippy jeans boy is great. Chris missed his trick. Clarice needs clothes on. Jess is annoying. Iveta thought she was dressing for Solid Gold. Marko is doing too much, Jordan not enough. Nick looks like he forgot what he wanted to do. Melanie and Ricky, eh. Robert and Miranda, eh. Missy, please change clothes. Ryan stepped out of the Let’s Get Physical video. Why the technical difficulties just before Sasha? These kids all failed to impress. Better dance ins next week. Work on it, kids.

Megan Mullaly. Huh. Why? Tell us about it, Cat. She studied with School of American Ballet? Well, shut my mouth. I didn’t think I could love Karen Walker more. Dancer down already? Mitchell? Well, he seemed like the lesser of the contempo boys, anyway. I can’t say I’m broken up about it.

Jordan – Wants to be a PCD. Why am I not surprised?

Tadd – Perhaps we’ll learn the mystery behind the two “d’s”. When he was a kid, he thought he was caucasian? Ok, that’s hilarious.

Jordan/Tadd/African Jazz/Sean Cheesman/Riding the Waves – Don’t worry, Jordan. Nobody else knows what african jazz is either because it is not a thing. Love the make up/costuming. Very good start. Powerful. They are selling the african elements better than most couples. The little turn with her lflipping around his body was hot. And when she rolled over his chest on the ground. OK, these kids are kind of turning it out. I’m especially impressed that there is a lot of African dance in this African jazz. Which they are turning out. Good job on Tadd. He has had some other kind of training beyond b-boying. Let’s just get that out of the way. That was very well done. Mary is right. Tadd was very, very good.

Sasha looks insane. I think Pat Benatar wore that same dress when she was a penny dancer in the Love Is a Battlefield video.

Alex/Sasha/Contemporary/Travis/Stupid – Love this whole thing already. But Travis had Sasha try to do the Lacey jump from Kam and Lacey’s first dance. Stupid. Beautiful from the first pose. Thank you for keeping flippy jeans boy shirtless. Loved the little walks backward where she is pushing him. Great intensity from the both of them. And she’s just amazing. She’s so strong. That little lift where he’s holding her up and she kicks out was unreal. And the extension on Alexander and the toe point? Forget about it. That was wonderful. Pretty and witty? Oh, Alexander. You are delicious. Mary’s critiques are really on point. Wow. The time off did her well. I did watch her more than him. That’s true. But I thought he was better than he was given credit for. Boo.

Why is Clarice wearing a bra and panties? Oh, Tasty Broadway. Of course. That explains it all. Wardrobe hos? Back on the crack.

Clarice – She’s boring.

Jess – Oh, so annoying

Clarice/Jess/Broadway/Tasty/Me and My Baby – I will not be able to take Tasty and Jess together. I’m sad she got stuck with him because he grates. Did hJess spend the first two eight counts basically rolling around on the floor? Oh, Tasty. And then did she just beat his ass like a bongo? Wow. This choreography is crap. The kids have great lines and they are really trying to sell it. Stretching into everything. Doing the fun punches and flicks and jazz hands. And they both have a lot of facility. Lovely leaps and spins. Too bad they were so ill served by a supremely boring routine. Jess is a young Jimmy Cagney, Megan Mulally? Ooookay. Agreed with Nigel that the turn sequences on Jess were insane. Still, I don’t think I will remember that routine or them by the end of the night.

I am in love with Cat’s dress. I am in love with Cat’s shoes. I want the whole outfit.

Ryan – She likes Law and Order: SVU. One point for the Chris Meloni love

Ricky – Loves cheer music. Oh, he’s a cutie pie.

Ryan/Ricky/Lyrical Hip Hop/Chris Scott/Ain’t No Sunshine – Yay, no NappyTab! Boo, their crap non-genre genre of lyrical hip hop lives on. I have faith in LXD, though. Ricky said cray-cray. Love. Why is she smiling like a maniac through a routine about being away from your lover? But umm, seriously, Ricky Jamie is shutting it down. He’s a contemporary dancer? Wow. He’s tearing it up. I’m not watching Ryan at all, which is good because while she’s not embarassing herself, she is doing the white girl trying too hard at hip hop thing and trying to cover it up with a vapid smile. Which again is just wrong. All over wrong. Thank goodness Nigel called Ryan on the manaical smiling. Ricky deserved more credit. He killed it. She was just there and didn’t distract overmuch. And Ryan, don’t try to justify the ridiculous smiling, girlie. That won’t fly. Just take the critique and grow from it. Eww. Did not like that. Am starting to really not like her.

Caitlynn – I don’t care at all

Mitchell – I thought he said he was allergic to ants. That’s one hell of a southern accent.

Caitlynn/Mitchell/Jazz/Sonya/In for the Kill – He is throwing shade on ugly people already. I love him! 10 across the board. I will be using that soon. Awww. Poor baby. And to top it all off, we get Robert as a replacement. Which means he’s probably going to be an all star this season. Just. No. The roll onto the back and into splits was awesome. She fell out of that triple turn a little bit, but that’s tough. This choreo is like a re-working of all the typical Sonya moves. It feels like she kind of phoned this one in. And those runs across the stage needed more dynamism from both of them. It wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t a wow moment there. They were competent. Stop kissing the choreographers asses, judges. We know you think they are good or else you would not invite them to choreograph on this show. Good grief.

TCM: YAY!!!!!!

Miranda – Why is she straight up wearing a bra? That can’t even be passed off as dancewear.

Robert – The” Woo” is so old already. This will be a long season

Miranda/Robert/Jive/Jason Gilikson – Robert is just way too much. Way too much. Jason is adorable. And red as a beet. Love the costuming here. Is Robert going to wear bad fake glasses every week? Because that’s going to get old really fast. They are doing a good job. The posture could be better. More pulled up would be nice. It’s a little hunched over. And her flicks and feet are nice and tight but his are kind of lazy. Overall, they had the character just right. They looked the part. That was a fun dance. The Steve Urkel thing is going to get really old. Thank you, Nigel, for calling this fool out on the “Woo.” Make it stop. And yes, the toe point was absent. He had the dead fish feet.

Missy – Please don’t talk in a Jamaican accent

Wadi – As a Jamaican, please stop her from talking in a faux Jamaican accent

Missy/Wadi/Jazz/Sean Cheesman/Judas – I’m enjoying the dance even in rehearsals. Box! They are killing it in the box. Missy is captivating. That walk forward in plie in second, she blew him away. This girl is real. Wow. He was so tentaive in that move turning her around in that fully extended arabesque. It was noticable because the rest of his partnering was super solid. It seemed that there was a ton of partner and floor work in this. And once they got to the side by side dancing I saw why. Because she was blowing him away. She put in work. I am so impressed with this Missy. Strength and power and push and attitude. He did acquit himself well here. Good toe point. Opened up a can of whoop ass dancing. Somebody take away Mary’s drink. Insahn? Really. Somebody take away Megan’s mic.

Melanie – Sounds like she said married in Georgia

Marko – From Guam. He’s so cute

Melanie/Marko/Contemporary/Travis/Turn to Stone – I love these two together. Oh, kids. Don’t do the heart hands. So gorgeous. I just don’t even have any words. Gorgeous choreography. Gorgeous dancers. I want to watch that on a continuous loop. I think this is what plays on a continuous loop in heaven. Well done, Peanut, Marko, Melanie, all. Queen of the Beasts? Best girl dancer ever on the show? Ummm, a little early for that. But she’s very, very, very, very good.

Ashley – Stop saying you have swag. If you have to say it, you have none

Chris – Such a cutie. It doesn’t matter what you say.

Ashley/Chris/Hip Hop/Chris Scott/Forget You - Too much acting, start dancing. Ashley is kind of tearing it up. But again, why the smile? You just caught your man cheating. Love the little old school locking moment. And did they just do the Cat Daddy? I think they did. Aww, sookie, sookie now. It was cute. It was fun. It was forgettable. Right after Travis’ piece, it was a letdown. Oh, Megan. Stay off the wardrobe hos jocks. You don’t know where they’ve been.

Iveta looks like Nick’s mom. That’s unfortunate.

Iveta – She loves monkeys? Golden in my book

Nick – Appropriate response to this task

Iveta/Nick/Quickstep/Jason Gilikson/Ballroom Blitz – They were cute in rehearsals. Great music. Wow. He is doing an amazing job. For week one? He’s crushing it. Wonderful posture. Wow. This is wonderful. One of the best quicksteps ever on the show. I love the use of the table and chairs. And this Nick is a superstar. That carriage was insane. He has trained in other styles. Probably not ballroom, but this kid knows more than just tap. Impressive. I think I may have to take back the “one of the”. Maybe the best Quickstep ever on this show. Interesting that they gave this the pimp slot. They must really want to keep Iveta around.

Everybody was really good tonight. Nobody bombed. This will be tough.

Bottom Three Girls:

Clarice, Ryan, Ashley (thought I don’t think that’s how it will shake out). Clarice was not well served by the choreo, but apart from that, she really failed to make an (continued...)

( continues...) impression. Ryan for the weird smiley mess that she was and she was just OK at the least hip hop of hip hop routines and Ashley because it was unmemorable on a night when many people were memorable.

Bottom Three Guys:

Mitchell, Robert, Alex. Mitchell didn’t dance and by all rights he should go home because this is not So You Think You can Sit in the Audience. It should be dance or go home, damn it. Dance or go home. Robert because he’s cheesy and his Jive technique was not there and he tried to paper over it with performance quality. And Alex just because the judges talked him down, though I think that’s not fair.

Going Home: Clarice and Alex

I think provided he can go and has a good DoD, the judges will keep Mitchell around. They seem to have it in for Alexander, so if they get the chance to boot him early, I believe that they will. I don’t know if Clarice is the weakest girl (I think Ashley might be actually) but she went very early in the evening in a forgettable routine and the judges singled her out as the lowest amongst the beasts.

Yay, there was no one I hated, for once. Except Tyce. Sigh. I'm loving Nick, Melanie, and Sasha the most, so far. Nick and Iveta doing their footwork through lunch were too cute, if she can kick ass outside of ballroom she might join my favorites.

Are they staying with the same partners now or switching it up every week? I forget how it works.