So You Think You Can Dance 8/16. America's Favorite Dancer Is...

Dear God what is Cat wearing? It looks like she’s stuck in the middle of a mudslide. Well, that or her stomach just exploded and sent chocolate pudding flying everywhere. She does the usual spiel, you know “record votes”, “thousands of auditions”. Everyone is back to do the opening, and it is pretty clear that the less talented were weeded out earlier, because the solos get markedly better as the later eliminees start. Cat welcomes “all her babies” back to the stage and tells us that there will be no filler tonight. I highly doubt that Cat, or else we’d already know the results. Instead, it’s just going to be a lot of filler but no padding. I’m not exactly sure what that means. Tonight all of our “jidges” are back, which apparently doesn’t include Debbie Allen. Cat asks everyone to sum up the season in one word and shows us that all but one of our judges don’t understand the meaning of “one word” (Yay for Dan Karaty understanding English) and some don’t understand the meaning of “this season” (I’m looking at you Shane Sparks). Also, is Dan Karaty a little person? Even Mary seems to be towering over him. Also, can we please derail the Hot Tamale train before next season?

Video package number one of the night is the highlights of this season. So, highlights mean embarrassing moments? Oh dear god, you really think that Sex guy is a highlight of this season? Shame on you producers. Well, at least they finally segue into the good dancers. It’s all fun to watch again, and it even gave Cat chills.

Everyone is back to dance the Tyce Lion King routine from earlier in the season. I’m pretty sure there was a better dance the entire group could do together. I mean, sure there was no “Ramalama (Bang Bang)”-caliber number this season, but was this really the best group number? I don’t think so. Also, twenty dancers doing one number just makes the stage too crowded. I mean, I understand letting everyone have their moment on stage, but why not break it down into the top 10 dancers and the bottom ten dancers. Then we may actually be able to focus on the dance instead of just a mass of whirling bodies.

Every judge now gets to pick their favorite routine of the season and we get to watch them all again. Mary is first, and she leads us into believing we’re gonna have to watch Cedric plod through another partner number, but instead it turns out it’s Lauren and Pasha’s Transformers hip-hop. Which, frankly, was awesome. It actually seems a little more carefree this time and is more fun to watch. They both seem to be having a lot more fun with the number now that they don’t have to worry about eliminations. Pasha, especially, seems to be a lot looser and jokier. Cat reminds us about the lockdown situation (THIS IS A LOCKDOWN!), and makes up for them not having a proper sendoff by having everyone give them a standing ovation.

Filler video number two is about the range of dancers that they saw in auditions, which range from the bizarre to the pretty awesome to watch. It also features at least one (although I think there was more than one) perverted facial gesture from Nigel. It’s time to bring back the clogger from the auditions for another performance. He’s pretty fun to watch, although I think I’d probably get tired of watching this repeatedly. Also, I gotta give the kid props for clogging to Timbaland. Cat tells us she sniffed his shoes. Cat, that’s just creepy. You’re not Nigel, you don’t have to creep us out.

After pimping American Band, It’s Nigel’s turn to pick his favorite performance and his choice is Hok and Jaimie’s Wade Robson hummingbird routine. Rewatching this, I notice even more the intricate beauty of the movements, from the slight tremor in Jaimie’s flower to the fluttering of Hok’s hands. Hok tells us that people outside of the show really liked the routine as well. Jaimie says the same thing. I don’t doubt that because it clearly is the most distinctive thing they did all season.

Jean-Marc Genereux wants to see Sabra and Dominic’s hip-hop routine. Rewatching this performance of Sabra in a hip-hop piece shows me how I maybe wasn’t right about it last night. Because she’s a lot better in this one than she was in her one with Neil. She still draws the attention a lot more Dominic though. There’s still that great moment though, when he’s just holding her. Dominic says it was a blessing to be Sabra’s partner. I definitely think it would be.

Is it just me or are the commercial breaks excessively long tonight? Adam Shankman’s favorite routine was Sara and Neil’s Disco routine. It’s fun to watch, but I think both of them had better routines this season. Sara does remind me though why I wanted her in the finals instead of Lacey. Although something tragic has apparently happened to her hair. Oh wait; those are just atrocious curly bangs. I truly hope that that hairstyle is dead for good. Just like Disco…

Video filler number 3 is all about breakers. It’s cool to watch this style of dancing, but I’m glad that the show is completely populated by breakers, because most of them can’t handle the other choreography. It ends with Nigel trying to be ghetto, but failing miserably. After the video package, we now get that awesome breaker who had scoliosis, Brian Gaynor. This guy rocks. He actually seems like a little robot. I’m actually really glad that they brought this guy back. I loved his audition, but I understood why they couldn’t put him through. All of the judges but Mia and Shane are standing by the end. Everyone loves him.

The top 8 are now dancing together with Shane Spark’s Matrix hip-hop group number. I didn’t think this routine was great the first time, and I still don’t love it.

It’s time for Wade Robson’s favorite routine. It’s Lacey and Danny’s Samba routine. It’s still sexy, but I still think Lacey has a fundamental problem connecting with her partners. I think it’s because she’s still more focused on the camera than on her partner at times. Danny rocks this one out, as expected. Ooh, it’s time for the first elimination of the night. The dancer who is not America’s favorite is… Lacey. She knew it was coming, and frankly, I think most people did. She’s absolutely fine and is proud of making it this far. Good for her. She gets a video package of her best moments, thanks everyone, and smiles politely until the commercial.

Is Cat’s dress supposed to look like a tutu covered in smog? Is that why she appears to be giving birth to a giant ball of fluff through her belly button?

It’s time for the first musical guest of the night, Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls. Now, I only know this woman as being part of that group of strippers masquerading as musicians who searched for a new stripper last year and took “Veronica Mars” off the air for a large number of weeks. My god, this is bad. It’s blatant that she’s lip-syncing because her mouth actually gets off beat from the lyrics resulting in her mouthing things during spaces when there are no lyrics. Good job Nicole. At least people are dancing in the background. She may actually start singing in the middle, I’m not sure. Either way, it still sucks.

Shane Spark’s favorite routine was Sara and Pasha’s West Coast Swing routine. It’s still a fun routine to watch, and it’s still clearly a Benji creation, involving slides and pandering to the camera. The moment where they seemingly rewind is still awesome. Cat asks if they enjoyed working with Benji, and neither of them seems to remember the experience well.

Tyce’s favorite routines both involved Danny and Anya. The one he picked was Jean-Marc’s waltz number. This number reminds me of why I wanted Anya to make the top 10. Because she’s great, and it definitely takes a lot of talent to not be completely shown up by Danny. Granted this is her style, but she did it in other genres’ too. Oh, and Danny is still awesome.

It’s time for Tony Meredith’s favorite routine. He chose Wade Robson’s awesome deranged cabaret hobos routine with Sara and Jesus. I’d like to point out that this is now Sara’s third time being in a favorite routine. This routine is still awesome, but it’s a Wade Robson routine, so really, what do you expect?

Mia Michaels’ choice is the Mandy Moore Jazz power lunch number with Neil and Sabra. This was a fun routine, but both seem somewhat winded. Neil’s acrobatics aren’t as good as they usually are and Sabra’s energy isn’t as bright as it usually is. It’s time to eliminate one more dancer, and this time the dancer who’s given the ax is… Neil. No surprise again. He also seems to know it was coming. He gets the requisite video package. He loved the experience, does a wookie impression (which causes Cat to jump up and down like a schoolgirl, which is excessively cute), and smiles his way into the commercial break.

When we come back it’s the group Mia Michael’s routine that featured everyone in black doing awesome Mia Michaels movements. It’s beautiful to watch, but it was Mia Michaels, so that was also fully expected.

YES! It’s time for Cat and Nigel dancing. Mary very funnily intros it, saying that they will be the first and possibly last time they dance on the stage. But, instead of a real dance, it’s a cheap video gimmick, where their heads are pasted onto dancing bodies, and poorly dancing bodies at that. You let me down SYTYCD.

It’s time for the second musical performance of the night, this time from Ryan Cabrera. It’s the song they use to say goodbye to the dancers. Again, there’s not really any dancing, so besides relating to the show, there’s really no reason for this performance. Not surprisingly, instead of showing the tepid performance, they intersplice it with clips of people getting eliminated from the show.

It’s time for the final choice of favorite performances, and it’s Dan Karaty’s time to choose a favorite routine. He chooses Lacey and Neil’s Mia Michaels meets her dad in heaven piece, which I was fully expecting to see again, because it was such an emotional piece for her and it’d be really mean of the show not to pick it as one of the favorite routines of the season. Watching this, I realize that I didn’t appreciate this piece nearly enough the first time. It is an extremely beautiful and heartfelt piece, and maybe it didn’t come across as much the first time, but this time it really is something special.

The time is finally here, it’s time to crown our winner. Cat gives them an opportunity for last words to one another. Sabra says she’s privileged to have been able to work with Danny and Danny says roughly the same thing about Sabra. Cat gives a speech to them about how much they’ve both made it so far from their beginning. Americas Favorite Dancer is…. Sabra. She is immediately crying and jumps into Danny’s arms and joins Cat in a scream and gets mobbed by everyone. I have to say that I’m exceptionally pleased with the final two and the winner. I mean, I loved Danny. He’s the best dancer there. But he had an established career (of sorts) before the show began. That being said, this was an awesome season and I look forward to next summer. Thanks for reading my recaps.