An appropriate title for this post, yes?

Tonight's episode (and I suspect next weeks) had the air of the inevitable: shocking eliminations are starting to catch up with the contestants, and now it's down to performances and fanbases.

The night started out with an interesting rendition of "Hey Soul Sister" by Haley, Lauren, Jacob and Stefano. I won't talk about my feelings on that song (let it just die please) and instead focus on the fact that Jacob sounded pretty good, and that maybe singing in a group makes him hold back some of his tendencies to oversing. That said, this was all sorts of heinous.

There was a Ford video about the environment (that desert looked awful familiar.)

Then Casey, Scotty and James Durbin sang "Viva La Vida". The boys sounded okay individually, but together it was sort of icky. (Although there was something appealing about Scotty's country twang on it, which makes me ache for the days when contestants used to take songs outside their genres and twist them up)

There was talk by the couches (which, interestingly enough, never involves the girls) and Casey and Jacob went head to head, with Jacob landing in the bottom three.

After commercial, David Cook came onstage and sang his latest single. The sound mix seemed strange, but what was interesting was that by the second verse, Cook had already recovered (professionalism at its best). I loved his interaction with Steven Tyler and his mom. I love him, and think he's one of the best things to happen to Idol.

Then Stefano (of him, James and Lauren) went to the bottom three.

Then it was down to Haley and Scotty. In a dream world, Scotty would have been bottom three. Instead Haley's bottom got to brush the dust off the silver stool before Ryan declared her safe.

Katy Perry (feat. Kanye West) performed. I don't know what to say about this really. It's a catchy song, but it was obvious that Katy was singing to a backing track and she was still not greatly in tune.

Finally Stefano was told he was going home. (I really wanted to go give James a hug. That kid looked devastated.)

Next week's theme is Carol King. (What will James and Jacob do?) Apparently Bruno Mars and Crystal Bowersox are going to be on, so we'll see.