'So You Think You Can Dance' recap: Bottom Four Surprise

I know I may be a little late to the Ade Obayomi party on So You Think You Can Dance, but, people, seriously, what does the guy have to do to satisfy you? Maybe next week, he should perform a paso doble, quick step, Russian folk dance, and a cotillion? Maybe Mia Michaels should forsake her judge's seat and build a routine around his bum? Or, or, wait, I've got it, maybe he should just grow wings and fly Nigel Lythgoe back from the absent judge's honorary academic holiday at the University of Bedforshire on his back? Will that be enough to get y'all to pick up your phones and tap away at your cell's wee plastic keyboards in support? I know he's not the most scintillating of personalities, and my colleague Alynda Wheat just e-mailed me to proclaim that she "DESPISE[S] the way Ade bounces around during the solo drum-out," but come on! The bottom two? Really?!

I'm not kidding: When I saw Ade and Brandon standing next to each other at the end of the row of five guys, I thought for certain that Brandon was the one who was headed for the bottom two. Sure, Brandon's trajectory this season has pretty much been fueled by thermo-nuclear rocket propellant, but thinking back to this week's performance show, Ade simply had the better night. I'm not saying there was a yawning chasm of distance between the two dudes, mind you, especially since they both out-danced their partners in their couples routines; I'm just saying that when it came time for the solos, Ade plainly out-danced Brandon. Period. And to those commenters claiming that Ade was not somehow properly evoking "Unchained Melody" in his performance, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree that Ade's electrifying exuberance — and back flip timed to the song's crescendo — was a perfectly legitimate interpretation of the song. Granted, like Kupono, it probably wasn't the wisest strategy to repeat his Wednesday solo again last night as his possible swan song. As leftovers go, though, it wasn't exactly awful to partake of it once more, either.

The rest of the bottom four, meanwhile, made perfect sense, no? Melissa certainly did shine in Wade and Amanda Robson's arch and slightly off-putting geisha-meets-Janet Jackson group number, which I found noteworthy more for its spare set design and vivid costuming than any of the actual dancing. But Debbie Allen nailed it when she politely scolded the ballerina for giving us nothing more than a showcase of technique in her solos — where's that "naughty" personality she so amply displays during all those off-stage moments?

NEXT: Mary fakes it

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