Last night was the final showdown before the finale next week. Who will make it to the final 2? The judges and Ryan seem to have their favorites and used every opportunity to pimp them to the viewing audience. Ryan kept reminding us how "humble" Kris has been throughout the competition, while also delivering a slight dig to Adam talking about how Adam has performed songs by Queen and Cher (which he did all the way back in Hollywood week). It seemed to us to be a cheap shot that Ryan was covertly reminding people that Adam (OMFG!) might be gay. Of course, more recently, Adam has done Steppenwolf and Led Zeppelin, but there was no mention of that. Simon is Adam's biggest fan, it seems. He said as much in a recent TV Guide interview, and tonight he reminded the audience that Adam deserves to be in the finals due to his talent and that they should not assume he's safe so they'd better vote-vote-vote for him. It seems that everyone is agreeing that Danny will be in the finals, and the remaining spot is the one up for grabs.

There was no particular theme for the night's performances. Each contestant sang two songs: one picked by the judges and one picked by himself.

(1) Danny Gokey sang "Dance Little Sister" by Terence Trent D'Arby. This track, an album cut off D'Arby's 1987 debut was chosen by Paula because she wanted to see him perform something uptempo. We, like a lot of people, were unfamiliar with this song, but liked Danny's rendition. The judges really ripped on Danny's dance moves, and while dancing is not his strong suit, we felt he did a fine job bringing the song to life and setting the mood for the night. We agree with Simon that the saxophone solo was unnecessary, but overall this was a strong performance that should please the multitudes of Gokey fans out there.

(2) Kris Allen sang "Apologize" by OneRepublic. Another debut album song, this 2007 hit was chosen by Randy and Kara. In general, Kris gave a good performance of this song, but his voice couldn't quite hit the highest notes of the refrain. We agree with Kara in that it was competent rather than spectacular, but Kris did prove why he belongs in the final 3. We don't think it was quite good enough to make that final jump into the top 2, though. Once again, Kris was the recipient of bizarre criticism by the judges as they began fighting among themselves when Simon called Kara's critique a "cop out" because he felt Kara was blaming Kris for just performing the song she chose without interpreting it in a new way.

(3) Adam Lambert sang "One" by U2. This 1992 international hit from the band's Achtung Baby album was chosen by Simon and had to be cleared specially for this episode as the U2 catalog is not part of the American Idol repetoire of pre-cleared songs. According to Simon, Bono said it would be the band's "pleasure" to have Adam sing it. With blue mood lighting in place, Adam gave another one of his signature performances. The audience went bananas, and Simon was visibly pleased. For us, while we enjoyed it, we felt that Adam did overemote in places. However, we disagree with Randy and were very pleased with the liberties that Adam took with the melody especially on the quieter opening verse. Simon declared that if Adam is not in the finals after tonight's results, it would be one of the biggest upsets in Idol history.

(4) Danny Gokey sang "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker. It would seem like such a natural for Danny to sing a Joe Cocker song, but this is the first time in the finals that he had the opportunity to do so. Cocker's 1974 version of a song written by Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher (and recorded earlier in '74 by Preston) was an obvious choice for Danny that played into his vocal strengths quite well. For us, this was Danny's most memorable performance, and he displayed quite a bit of vocal subtlety in the opening verse navigating his voice around the quiet falsetto notes with ease. If there were any doubt that Danny would land in the final 2, this performance erased them completely.

(5) Kris Allen sang "Heartless" by Kanye West. This recent late-2008 hit by West would have been our last guess for Kris's pick. For us, this performance was similar to Adam Lambert's rendition of "Ring of Fire" back in the top 11 because when Kris began, we didn't know quite what to make of it, but very quickly Kris won us over. This was a fantastic version of Kanye's hip hop hit, and we agree with Kara in that it was bold of Kris to rearrange it for acoustic guitar. It was a testament to Kris's talent that he was able to pull it off so well. Undoubtedly our favorite Kris Allen performance, this was our favorite performance of the night and allowed Kris to remain in the running for the final 2.

(6) Adam Lambert sang "Cryin'" by Aerosmith. Adam gave his usual powerhouse performance and went over-the-top for his last performance before the finals. Given that this 1993 hit is an Aerosmith song, over-the-top is entirely appropriate and is the only way to go. Tyler would be proud (and maybe more than a little envious of Adam's vocal range). Adam unleashed his full 1980s heavy metal style vocals for this performance, and we agree with Randy that Adam is tailor made to do a rock album -- perhaps a combination of heavy metal, glam rock, and those melancholy ballads he likes to do.

In summary, we liked every single performance last night, and we don't feel there were any obvious major missteps by anyone. It will all come down to who has the biggest fanbases from among the three to see who gets into those final two spots.

It's been speculated heavily online pretty much from week one of the finals that the finale would come down to Danny and Adam, and we were among the speculators. Even though Kris gave excellent performances last night, we don't feel that anything was a real game changer, and that he will be the odd man out tonight. Danny is a lock for the final 2 as he has been a fan favorite from the very beginning and is the only contestant never to have been in the bottom 3. Adam and Kris had also never been in the bottom until 2 weeks ago when they both appeared in the bottom 3 together.

However, response to Adam's appearing in the bottom 2 sent shockwaves throughout the Internet, and his fans all determined not to assume Adam would ever be safe and promised to vote for him each week. We think this will give Adam the edge going into tonight, but we aren't 100% confident that Adam will just sail through. Adam is a unique contestant to say the least, and his appeal may be lost upon middle America who may decide to go with the safer, Arkansas-born, Kris. That would be a shame because, not only is Adam deserving of being in the finals, but Kris and Danny are too similar in talent and range, which would make for a very boring finale.

Tonight's results show will definitely be one for the history books, and we'll be tuning in tonight in anticipation for the verdict.