I have slightly higher hopes for single mother Suzanne Toon, who got a little sharp during her rendition of ''I Can't Make You Love Me'' but imbued the song with enough feeling to make it interesting, as well as Natashia Blach, who maybe shouldn't smile quite so big when she's singing but who definitely nailed her rendition of ''At Last.''
The evening's Most Likely to Succeed trophy, though, should probably go to Syesha Mercado. Personally, I don't see myself ever hopping on the bandwagon of a singer who knows only three volumes — Bam, Boom, and Bombast — and judging from Simon's wincing, I think he'd agree. But there's no denying the girl showcased a huge instrument on Aretha's ''Think,'' and her ''power of positive thinking''/''my dad kicked his drug habit'' backstory will probably outweigh her total lack of nuance come voting season.
Oh, and on the subject of nuance (or lack thereof) what to say about precocious former American Juniors contestant Julie Dubela? Since the kid is only 16 (and I'm fighting bronchitis and need to get to bed), I'll keep it short. For starters, her rendition of ''Me and Bobby McGee'' wasn't terrible by any stretch; it just wasn't quite as good as Julie thought it was. Second, even if she'd temporarily channeled Janis Joplin and sung the bejesus out of her audition, there's no way the judges were ever going to let her through. Julie was a sacrificial lamb, fattened on a steady diet of reality TV dreams and parental encouragement, and led to the slaughter by Idol producers who knew they had a live one. And yet, while I didn't take much joy in Julie's downfall, I'm not shedding any tears for her, either. After all, she's got her entire adult life in front of her, with hundreds of opportunities to try, to succeed, to fail. Here's just hoping they don't all get played out on our television sets.
What did you think? Did you enjoy the loopy tone of tonight's episode? Are you celebrating the return of ''Crazy Paula''? And did you see any contestants tonight you think have a shot at the top 24?
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