Oh, I wish every night of American Idol was group night. Because it's pleasing to see a handful of singers come together and utilize teamwork and put on a nice little performance. But it's even better when you see egos clash and find out who's utterly, utterly bush-league.
I was surprised at first by how bitchy people were to outsiders joining their already-formed groups, but then we saw that Tatiana Del Toro was one of those free agents who joined a pre-existing team. Tatiania (the girl with the crazy laugh and the press kit) is batshit insane in a way that's very, very compelling to me. I don't think she is faking whatever it is she's doing which is why I think she could really be a star. Have you ever watched footage of Celine Dion showing off her "personality"? Not too different. Anyway, so Tatiana joined some group, tried to take control and called them bad singers and when they didn't seem to like it she tried to join another group, and then went back to her original. The looks on Tatiana's teammates' faces were priceless.
The second group of turmoil involved Jasmine (who reminds me, looks-wise, of Gabrielle Union), Bikini Girl and Rose. Bikini Girl irks me but Rose's tie-dyed shirt and blanket-sweater barefoot thing also didn't win me over. Wow, look at you, wearing your id tag on your head. Yeah, you can be a free-spirited hippie but you don't have to be gross about it.
The other group of drama, "Team Compromise" was mostly annoying and not titillating. Nancy (red weave) Wilson wanted to rehearse and Kristen, the blonde chick, wanted to take a break, so for some reason this made them mad at each other. The only part of them that was exciting was Nathaniel Marshall, who is a drama queen nightmare. He started weeping trying to get the girls to work together screaming "It's not just your dream at stake!" and then ran off, hand to forehead, so spent that he couldn't talk the next day.
The morning of the performance Katrina refused to get out of bed, ostensibly quitting the competition. This didn't entirely surprise me—Katrina seemed like she was all talk but didn't actually have the balls to get up as a part of a team and be a professional performer without the pouty-face sex-kitten routine. Her fellow group members didn't seem too surprised by her quitting either. The drama with her return was probably a little overhyped, what with the pounding of the fist on the table, but I knew it would prove to be good watching.
We got off to an auspicious start with "White Chocolate" performing a cute a cappella version of "I Want You Back"—even Simon clapped (although you could argue that India Morrison barely sang). Then everybody forgot the words to "Get Ready" but I spotted that Nick/Norman Gentle made it through so I have a reason to live until next week.
Then we saw "Action Squad" perform, which contained Alex Wagner-Trugman (one of the dorks) and Emily Wynne-Hughes (pink hair with cupcake neck tatoos). I was surprised that Alex made it through with his awful dancing and facial expressions and Emily didn't—she seemed to be the lone one holding her faltering team together. But I guess a lot of things were going on behind the scenes, as the also-eliminated Ryan Pinkston claimed to feel insulted by Paula Abdul—he saw "an evil in her eyes." Paula may not be perfect but I would never say her eyes were focused enough to summon the powers of darkness.
Then Simon proclaimed of a batch of singers: "all crap," a phrase I think he should use more along with "a succession of horrors." I'm waiting for him to one day say "Literally, worse than the Holocaust”.