Jeanine and Ade are working together for the first time, and they are so excited. Their dance is a samba with Louis van Amstel. (Hooray -- I love Louis, and his choreography.) Jeanine calls the routine "suggestive but still classy." It is hot, and definitely suggestive, but I feel like they do a decent job of it. I can't help but think, though, how amazingly well Janette would have done in this routine. I tried not to think about that in fairness to Jeanine, but ... I thought about it anyway. Mary says the first 15 seconds was incredible, but it started to fall apart once it got into the actual samba. She gives some technical examples and says that it was "really novice" to her. Lil C says Jeanine looks amazing. He says he was excited about the idea of this partnership but that it really fell short for him. He adds that Ade was "frolicking." Nigel says Jeanine did everything with confidence and looked great, but Ade had to work on changing up his style.

Kayla comes out for her solo on a stage covered with feathers from Jeanine's outfit from the previous performance. She is strong and does a lot with her short time, but her goofy little moves during the "So You Think You Can Dance-Dance-Dance" part are weirdly unendearing.

Melissa and Evan are partnered, and then Fox 45 randomly runs an ad in the middle of the intro segment. I catch that they are doing Broadway with with Tyce DiOrio, and then a few seconds of commercial cut in again. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH. They are portraying an about-to-be-married couple. Tyce says Evan is "the dream for this style." They are quite adorable, dancing to "Get Me to the Church on Time" from My Fair Lady. The concept is that Evan is a groom who has overslept, so he is in a tux shirt and boxers, and Melissa is wearing what looks like a bridal-gown-themed negligee. The dance is very busy, which makes sense based on the song, and full of big moves, and the pair of them dance it well. Lil C says he again had really high expectations and expected Evan to take the helm and he didn't really think that he did that. He liked the dance and the performance and thought they were "really good" but could have been excellent. Mary says it should be "Get Me to the Finale on Time." Ha? She really enjoyed it and though especially that Melissa really came to life. Nigel tells Melissa she has been an inspiration for Season 6 because they've seen a lot of ballerinas, but he doesn't think they can adapt like she has. He tells Evan this wasn't a technically demanding routine, but it was demanding of their personalities, and he thinks Evan did bring enough this week.

Ade dances his solo, and he is all over that stage.

Kayla and Brandon are dancing together for the first time. I'm hoping they just rock since they are SO strong. They are working with Stacey Tookey on a contemporary routine about a mistress of a married man. It is a really challenging performance, and they really have that strength to pull it off. It's amazing, and I immediately rewind to watch it again. Also of note: Brandon's insane jump in the middle of the performance. Lil C says it was beyond intense and beyond amazing. He says this is the first time Kayla has been equally matched by her partner. Mary says Brandon is and has always been on the hot tamale train. She loved it and thought Kayla was exquisite and perfection on the dance floor. Nigel credits Stacey (who is well known on So You Think You Can Dance: Canada) for such an amazing routine. He says if anything, he would have liked to see them dance together sooner so they could have had a tad more time to work on their chemistry, but technically it was unstoppable.

Melissa hits the stage for her solo, which is a slinky number to Nina Simone.

Jeanine and Ade work with Tabitha and Napoleon on a hip-hop routine about "friends who are getting evicted from their apartment" to the song "Move." They dance with boxes, and it's complex at points, but they really sell the anger part of the dance, especially Jeanine. One strange thing: Toward the end, they are dancing with their feet in boxes, and when they jump out of the boxes, it looks like one of them is stuck on Ade's foot, but the camera cuts to Jeanine, so if he had a major issue, they didn't show it. Lil C says if moving were that fun, he would relocate every day. He says they danced it way better than he expected -- that Ade sunk into the dance and immersed himself in it and pulled Jeanine down into the depths of the dirt with him. "It was buc." Mary says first, it was really bothering her that she forgot to tell Jeanine that she thought she was amazing in the samba. Back to this dance, Mary says she thinks these two "won't be getting your eviction notice after that dance." (Is it just me, or is the audio wonky tonight? The volume on the judges' voices is really inconsistent. It's driving me crazy.) Nigel says they took the notes from the last routine and that they could have ended up applauding the routine, but tonight they are applauding the performers. Nigel says especially he wasn't expecting that level of performance in this dance from Jeanine.

Brandon pulls out all the stops -- and the little tiny dancing shorts and the Carmina Burana -- for his solo. He is amazing and looks like a statue (when he's finished) and gets a standing ovation from the judges. Nigel even says, "He's just given us one of the best solos we've ever seen on this show." 

Melissa and Evan have a quickstep with Louis van Amstel. It is a dreaded dance because, Melissa says, it is so fast and people don't recognize how difficult it is. Well, this is definitely fast, but I think people will recognize how challening the choreography was -- it is just nonstop, speedy and full of energy. Evan, as usual, sells the heck out of it with his face, and I think he's passed some of that on the Melissa because she seems to be acting more than is typical for her. It looks like the end lift was tough for Evan but he pulled it off. Lil C commends him from dancing "bigger than you've ever danced on the show." For the tough love portion, he points out than in episode two's jive, Nigel told him to work on his retractions, and he didn't take that note. Mary loves Louis' routine and thinks the beginning was great, but they fell apart as it continued. It didn't live up to her expectations overall. Nigel says he didn't love the lindy hop part of the performance, but he liked it otherwise, but he didn't think it was one of the strongest performances of the night. He says he doesn't know what's going to happen.

Jeanine does a sexy solo, but it kind of pales in comparison to the last one, by Brandon (as do all the others). 

Evan crams an insane amout of content into his solo (and no hat-dropping this week), including jumps and turns and turning jumps and more. I'm tired just watching.

Brandon and Kayla have the last partner dance of the night, disco with Doriana Sanchez. Kayla interviews that they expected a regular disco, but it's more like a circus. She is right -- it's relentless and tiring to even watch. Spin! Turn! Lift! Shake! Lift! Spin! Turn! Shake! Flip! Shake! Ack! They are amazing, but it just looks exhausting. Kayla can't even breathe after they are done. Lil C says ... well something unintelligible. Eventually, he says there was no darkness in the routine, and Brandon and Kayla look relieved because they have no idea what he is talking about.  Finally, he says they are making each other better and they looked awesome. Mary: "Holy smokies!" She says tonight was a home run for them. [Hot tamale screeching insanity.] Nigel says they need to get sensible about that and that they hyped the audience with music and a high-energy routine, so he has to critique is professionally. Then he runs around like a maniac and shakes his butt like a madman. He sums up that it was absolutely incredible. 

Lastly, the final three women also work with Sonya, on a piece about superheroes. It has the same kind of cartoonish aspect of the men's dance, lots of power and energy, lots of fun. Lil C says they have to have synchronicity but also shine and they were good but held back a little to be courteous to the other performers. He says he wanted to see some "buc-ness." He wanted more than amazing. Mary says amazing is amazing and that's what they were. She says they are the epitome of strong, versatile, flexible dancers. She says Kayla stood out just a bit because she has some moves that were a little harder. She adds that next year, they have to go to Comic-Con. Nigel: "Is it a bird, is it a plane, it's an arabesque!" He thinks it was fantastic.

Speaking of fantastic, I think Kayla and Brandon were 100 percent the strongest of the night and deserve to be in the finale. The other two positions are a little up for grabs for me.

What say you?