American Idol: The Right Person Went Home, For Once

Finally, American Idol has arrived at the meat of its season—the head-to-head competition in which the singers get picked off, one by one, based on the whims of those Americans who are moved enough to vote. Democracy! Singing! Harry Connick Jr. complaining about the in-ear monitors! Randy Jackson talking over yelling! A medley of two terrible songs on the pop charts right now! The theme was "This Is Me," and each song was supposed to sum up each contestant's ethos. Results were… mixed. But in the end, the right person went home for once, despite a bottom three that I would term as "distressing."

This week's contestants, in order of personal preference:

1. Majesty Rose. One of the great things about the way this Idol season is falling out is the infusion of new music into the mix—artists who aren't necessarily superstars, but who are carving out interesting places in the music world. To that end, Majesty sang Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope" in tribute to her needing to find "balance" in her life, and once she got through the tricky first verse she really came into her own, even throwing down some slick dance moves. The judges were over the moon for her song choice, which is a good portent for the coming episodes. (Please, please don't mandate a ballad week, producers. Please.)

2. Ben Briley. "Whatever happened to Polaroid cameras?" he asked before posing for a selfie with Ryan Seacrest. Dude, I have two on my mantel if you want to come over and hang out. And I have film! Musically, I really liked his sped-up version of "Folsom Prison Blues," although it seemed a little strange given the song's subject matter. Not to mention that a Johnny Cash murder ballad sure is a weird way to introduce yourself to the Idol world. (The "wooo"-ing after the "shot a man in Reno" line was something.) Keith Urban warned him about the performance seeming like "kitsch"—a solid piece of advice, although I wonder what he would have made of Kristy Lee Cook's "Eight Days A Week" from all those years ago.

3. MK Nobilette. MK (who made a joke about loving "Single Ladies"… the song, ha ha) sang "Satisfaction" by Allen Stone. The performance wasn't perfect, but she's got a great voice, with a really rich tone on the lower notes and a falsetto that, when it hit, was all cotton candy sweetness. I kind of wish the backing-vocal arrangement or mic-ing had been a little different, because when they landed they sounded airlifted in from a Velveeta factory.

4. Alex Preston. The coupling of a Jason Mraz song and his super-high spiked hair could have resulted in disaster, but his take on "A Beautiful Mess" was more "beautiful" than "mess," with he and his guitar taking center stage. His voice is pinched in that sensitive-guy way that would be showcased by a famous person on the results show 24 hours later, which should bode well for his chances as the season goes on. I don't know, I like him, even though his last note was way off and the sensitive-dude-with-acoustic aesthetic gives me hives after being exposed to it for too long. Also, well done on the downright-minimalist-for-Idol arrangement, Rickey Minor and the band.

5. CJ Harris. He's a black country singer, which I guess means he has to throw down Darius Rucker as his opening gambit. He's got charm to spare, though, and even though his version of "Radio" could have maybe been tweaked key-wise to better show off his vocal range, it was fun. I hope he goes far.

6. Jessica Meuse. I can't stop wondering when she's going to abandon her pink streak. She decided to sing Shinedown's "Crow And The Butterfly," because she sees herself as a crow chasing her dream—a portent to dying her hair? Okay, maybe not, but it at least caused Keith to call her "brave." Her performance was a testament to how nu-metal would suck a lot less if the dudes singing it would maybe sing, instead of just yarling and whining. (Think of the ways it would open up the vocal melodies' compositions, too.)

7. Caleb Watson. The resident rocker of this season performed "Pressure & Time" by Rival Sons, although if you asked me who he was covering I would have guessed Whitesnake, because this song is pretty much "Still Of The Night Part II: It's Still The Night." He's got the screamy Coverdale thing down (Keith dinged him for being a bit "retro"), and someone allowed him to use extra echo at certain points, which helped a little bit. I vastly preferred his Faces cover from last week; at least it had a little more nuance. But he should do well—at the very least, his admittance that his favorite band is Rush (I think; he was interviewed mid-dental toilette) will probably get him some love from those people who find the Canadian power-prog trio chronically appreciated.

8. Sam Woolf. The de facto teen idol of this year's Idol crop is afraid of spiders. Thanks to his decision to sing Matchbox 20's "Unwell," he's also capable of making me ponder the grit of Rob Thomas. Rob Thomas, people. But as Harry also noted, the song is about being imperfect and messy, and Sam's performance was a bit too on-the-nose and "nice." Although once he settled into its back half things improved a bit, with his voice even taking on a little bit of dust and dirt at the end. When he was done, there were so many screams, and there is no way he doesn't finish top three at the very least.

9. Jena Irene. After confessing to Ryan Seacrest that her real hair color was "shit brown" (at least that's what I think she said; Ryan was all "oops a word we can't say!") she brought out a super-emotive take on Coldplay's "The Scientist," which was the first song she learned on piano. But she didn't play the piano? Weird. "The Scientist" is one of those Coldplay songs that works because of Chris Martin's reserved, almost sulky delivery, and giving it the Hayley Williams treatment wasn't exactly the best idea, although it did allow for classic Idol big-voice moments. I hope she picks songs that don't get overwhelmed by what Jennifer Lopez called her "powerhouse" voice in the coming weeks, though.

10. Malaya Watson. Her admission that she wears glasses because she has poor vision was accompanied by a chryon calling them "Coke bottle" glasses, which is some excellent product placement for the show's chief sponsor right there. She decided to sing Bruno Mars's "Runaway Baby" because of the way it summed up her "Slyoncé" persona, but it wasn't a great choice for performing live—you know those karaoke songs that seem like they'd be fun to sing but then when you get up there and are presented with the lyrics, the backing vocals and arrangement wind up doing a lot of the heavy listening? Her performance was sorta like that, and her sounding winded at points didn't help much. Cute dancing, though.

11. Emily Piriz. Her breathy, smiley version of Pink's "Glitter In The Air" was probably the most conventionally Idol performance of the night. The word "pageant" floated into my head more than once. She's competent but kind of boring—maybe she should have strapped herself to a harness and flown around as homage, because I found her focusing way more on her lipstick than on anything else.

12. Dexter Roberts. He's afraid of spiders too! His bland good-ol-boy charisma was pretty well summed up by his song choice, Chris Young's slightly abashed "Aw Naw." "It's an upbeat song, and I'm fun," he said before his performance. He's sorta sloppy, with his vocals sliding around the notes a bit, and definitely the least charismatic of the male contestants, but I can see him going far if not in the competition, at least on the bro-hayseed circuit. Harry suggested that he ditch his in-ear monitors, which could maybe help!

13. Kristin O'Connor. That she was unable to think of five facts about herself—and the first one she offered up was the fact that her best friends are a pack of quadruplets—was a portent for her underwhelming performance of Kelly Clarkson's "Beautiful Disaster," which she decided to remake into a song about herself. (Sample lyric: "And if I try to save him/ My whole world could cave in.") That she could be capable of self-sabotage might be interesting if anything else about her seemed potentially compelling. But alas.

WHO I VOTED FOR: Thanks to the voting period being expanded way beyond its limitations in previous seasons—it's now open until 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. PT) across the country, instead of a few hours after each time zone's airing—my time-shifted watching didn't disenfranchise me. And Google and Idol have entered into a partnership where merely searching on the show's name or one of the contestants brings you to a ballot where you can vote for people up to 50 times apiece. So I gave 50 votes to Majesty and MK, and 25 to Jess and Malaya (neither of them were great, but I want them to stick around and I suspect the female contestants will need as much help as possible this season).

THE BOTTOM THREE: All women, unsurprisingly. MK was one of them, surprisingly. What? Oh man, America, please don't let the culture war be fought on the Idol stools these next few weeks. The other two were Malaya, who was probably the most uneven of the women, and Kristen, who, well, yeah.

WHO WENT HOME: Kristen got the boot, a result that was completely expected after last week, when her underwhelming performance somehow garnered her a Wild Card slot. (I blame her "marketability.") Bring back Bria Anai!

FILLER ALERT: Weren't the results shows only supposed to be half an hour long this season? Sigh, Fox. The extra minutes on this week's results show were filled out by Season 12 winner Candice Glover, whose album Music Speaks finally came out after almost an entire year of delays and who really deserves better than anything the currently R&B-strangling pop market can offer her, and Jake Bugg, who reminded me of the guy from Alt-J doing a super-sincere Unplugged set. (He was touted as a "discovery" by the judges, which, well, he's also been flogged to next week and back by his label. I do like, however, how the musical guests will apparently be more in keeping with the show's overall Next Big Thing mantra.) Over the course of the hour, the judges, paying homage to the pre-performance packages of the contestants, offered up five facts about themselves. There was lots of joshing about the dudes being nude. A treatise on Keith Urban's new hairdo (think Infinity On High-era Pete Wentz, only with an ombre swoop) would have been more illuminating. Maybe next week!

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK: The theme is "Home," and WGWG torch-bearer Phillip Phillips returns to the Idol stage! I wonder what song he'll sing.

Maura Johnston is still somehow watching American Idol. She's on Twitter — @maura