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Molten hot lava bomb
To be fair to Jason Castro, they should have had Jack Johnson as an American Idol mentor before Andrew Lloyd Webber, because I don’t think Jason is going to survive “Memory” this week. Everybody else has had a comfort zone; why not poor Jason? He really had no chance with the genre or the song, and surely he knew it while he was singing.

Brooke White, on the other hand, had a great chance to do something with what should have been a perfect song for her, “You Must Love Me.” It’s too bad she couldn’t pull it off, from forgetting the lyrics to straining for notes. Paula said Brooke didn’t “overact,” but I think that was because she was trying so hard to act out the performance that the song got away from her.

I don’t think David Archuleta had a great night, either, but at least he didn’t forget any words or miss any notes. I was afraid when Carly Smithson decided to do “Jesus Christ Superstar” that it was going to be one of those screeching versions that are more shouting than singing, but she really played well against the backup singers and turned the song into something new and unique to her.

And that brings us to my two favorite performances of the night. Syesha Mercado might not have hit every note, but she gave a real, honest performance of “One Rock and Roll Too Many,” showing the sassy side of her personality that made me pull for her early on in the competition. She was by far (by far) the most fun of anyone to watch tonight. By far.

However, David Cook gave me chills, and I can’t say that about any of the other contestants. This was a much better week all around than last week’s Mariah Carey snooze-fest, but like last week, David had a little bit better night than anybody else. Not only were his vocals true to both himself and the character, but the entire performance showed his mastery of portraying emotion through music. Once again, I can’t wait to see what he does next week.

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