Finale Time: So You Think You Can Dance 8/7/08

Cat's ready to walk like an Egyptian tonight. The introduction to the Top 20 was really cool. Why was Will all by himself in the intros? Like his ego wasn't big enough. I'd forgotten about some of the people who got voted off early. Suzie and Rayven completely left my brain. Is somebody missing? Is that why Will was by himself?

Oh, right, Jessica. She must still be injured. Are they going to mention her? I wonder...

Joining Mary and Nigel tonight are Mia, Adam Shankman, Debbie Allen, and Lil' C. They saved Debbie Allen for the finale when she has no influence at all. Adam's promised movie role is a 3-D movie - Step Up 3D. I can see blockbuster.

Or not.

Cue Season flashback. Lots of leaping, lots of Mary screaming. Cause that sound isn't burned into my poor eardrums. Because the judges and producers have a woody for Will, they also included his ouster as one of the "shocking moments" in the flashback.

It's time for a Shane Sparks Group routine. Mark must have loved doing this thing. It is so totally him. And Gev. It was a really cool routine, ending with the final four the only ones left standing. Very cool. Yay for Shane Sparks. Seriously, though, is no one going to mention the lack of Jessica from the group?

Nigel's first favorite is the Bollywood routine with Katee and Joshua. I would agree. I really wish they would do the Bollywood group routine, since I missed it, but this is good enough. The whole thing is amazing, from start to finish. The knee rolls are just spectacular. A joy to see again.

Mary's first favorite is Courtney and Gev's rhumba. Love it. Their partnership was so perfect, and it a joy to see them together again.

Slick. It's the promised Dance Off. Philip Chbeeb vs. Robert Murane. I didn't know before that Philip got pneumonia and that's why he wasn't in Vegas. Did they mention that before? It's a popping war! The two of them have never met before, as the overly dramatic intro told us. It's time for the battle. They are both amazing. I think that Robert might be a bit sharper, and he is such a contortionist, that adds a lot of impressiveness. I think that Philip Chbeeb would have stood a better chance in the competition had he made it through. The whole things was very cool and well done. They were amazingly entertaining. I wonder if they are going on the tour? Probably not, but it would be a cool segment. As far as pure popping goes, I think that Robert won it, but that's just my opinion. Mia liked Philip more, Adam liked Robert (and called him a freak of nature, and said that he scares the living *bleep* out of him). Debbie thought that Philip was more musical, but Robert was more theatrical, and so he won. Nigel liked that Robert could mock Philip's moves, and so he votes for Robert. Mary screamed for Robert. And screamed again. And again. Lil' C called it buck (which if I recall correctly, is a good thing), and gave his vote to Robert. So, Robert wins the Dance Off. Would he have gotten anywhere in the actual competition? I don't think so. BUT - I thoroughly enjoyed the battle.

Cat answers the "Will Comfort be on the tour, since she was #11, and then she came back?" question, saying that the top 11 will be touring.

Adam's favorite dance (which he revealed after pimping his new movie, and his old ones) was Comfort and Twitch's hip hop. The camera man was drunk again. This routine is a lot of fun, and it is a joy to see Comfort in her own element, and Twitch too.

Lil' C's favorite routine (and mine too!!!!) is the Bleeding Love routine by Mark and Chelsie. I love Lil' C. Can we please get rid of Mary and keep him? I don't think that the routine was as raw and tight as the first time, but that would have been hard. Still, it gave me chills. Amazing. Thank you for showing that to us again.

I'll take it. I can just imagine him squinting his emotions. Katee and Will were wonderful, as could be expected. They did it better this time, which is amazing. They hit a turn that they missed the first time.

Adam's got another favorite! It's Sonya's Jazz with Courtney and Mark and I am giddy to see it again. It is such a wild and raw and weird showcase for Mark, and a great side of Courtney, I can't help but love it. I kind of want the song. Off to search iTunes.... Fan-freaking-tastic.

As a surprise, we get a dance from Mary! She got to rip a shirt off of Season 2's Dmitri, and I'm sure she liked that part. Her monstrous teeth made an appearance. It was nice to see her doing something silent and it was nice to see why she is qualified to be a judge.

Mia's favorite is next, and it is the Pas De Deux by Katee and Will. Great dance. Unfortunate to have to stomach Archie's version of Imagine again, but Time for the first elimination, and poor Courtney still trying to catch her breath from the routine, is eliminated. Not surprising, but sad all the same. Her retrospective was really touching. Unfortunately, it included Mary screaming. She got a bouquet nearly the same size as she is, and I wish her the best in her dancing career.

Time for a reprise of the Nigel choreographed 5 Guys Named Moe routine. It is charming. I really like the way these guys dance. Just a total joy.

It's time for a Cirque de Solei routine from Wade's show in Vegas, Believe. It was funky. An homage to all the bunnies who have given their lives to incompetant musicians. What else would we expect from Wade Robson? Seriously? Nothing like a stage full of people dancing in various rabbit heads. One dancer looked like her skirt was made out of a broken papasan chair. It was almost African Dance inspired in parts. Just weird. I hope that Wade is back choreographing for this show next season. I've missed him.

After that bit of surrealism, it's time for another elimination. Katee is eliminated! That's a shocker to me! I thought it would come down to her and Joshua. Instead, it's between Joshua and Twitch. I really like her with the bangs. It's a better look for her face. She is an excellent dancer, but I never really got behind her totally. I'm happy to see it come down to the two guys.

As a surprise, as the Top Girl, she's getting $50,000! First year ever, they are giving a prize for top boy AND top girl! Very cool. She looked shocked. In a good way.

Cat took a moment to speak with Debbie Allen, who enjoyed the show from home this year. Her outfit looked like something you would find in the cast off closet from Cabaret. There was a little performance from dancers from the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, and it looked to be straight out of Happy Feet for the most part. I love those wacky penguins, so I can appreciate that. Nigel joined them, and that was really cool to see him dancing as well. Good for him. His tap was impressive. After last year's stupid fake out of Nigel "dancing" with Cat, and it was just a bad cartoon, I was happy to see some actual dancing this year. The routine would have been better if Nigel hadn't spoken. Adam wants to challenge Nigel to a dance off next year. I hope to see that.

Mary's next favorite is the Door routine with Katee and Twitch. Yay! I'm glad that Katee got to do this one again, even if it was after she was eliminated. Just amazing. When props are used well in dances, it's really neat.

The Jonas Brothers performed next, and I really don't like them so I skipped it. I'm not 13, so I don't get the appeal. They just sound whiny to me.

Debbie Allen's favorite routine of the season was Twitch and Kherrington's Viennese Waltz for Jean-Marc's daughter. It gave me chills. The lifts were amazing, and they were both so elegant and gorgeous. Yup, more chills. Thanks for that, Debbie.

Nigel's final pick for favorite is the Katee and Joshua No Air routine from the very first week. Wonderful to see it again. They were both fantastic. Katee looked like she was going to cry for real at the end, poor thing.

There was a little retrospective of previous seasons before the final results. I missed the first season regrettably, and some of the former dancers are doing some really cool things. I love to see this kind of thing, because a lot of time people disappear and you never hear about them again, so it was lovely to see what they are up to. I wish they could come back and dance!


AND MY WISH IS GRANTED!!!!

The Best of So You Think You Can Dance with some former dancers. I am totally geeked out about this one. I loved seeing Ivan again, he was one of my faves. And of course Neil and Lacey and Travis and... and... and... I just can't keep up. Utterly fantastic. Can we do this every year, please? Pretty please?

The time has come.

It's down to Twitch and Joshua.

They both look like they are about to faint.

And the winner is....

JOSHUA

I think he absolutely deserved it. He grew so much duing the season. I went from constantly forgetting about him to anxiously awaiting his dances. Congratulations to him.

(Sadly, Twitch got some flowers, but didn't get a retrospective, and neither did Joshua. Wonder if they ran out of time?)

Can I just say that all of my favorite routines, save for the Gev and Courtney NYC Tourist one, were chosen? That makes me really happy.

So, that's it for another season of So You Think You Can Dance. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.