‘American Idol’ : No Suspense! Who would you send home?

We know this week it would have been either Casey or Big Mike to go. So why was Casey the first to be saved? When the Final 2 was Crystal (The clear winner) and Big Mike? Where was the suspense?

Last Night's episode of ‘American Idol‘ was all about bringing people together. Chris Daughtry came back to perform his new single, and Season Three winner Fantasia did the same with hers; the families of the four remaining hopefuls gathered onstage as the eliminations wore on. All well and good, but at the end of the night, it was time to cast off one person, and the identity of said eliminee was pretty unsurprising, when all was said and done.

In retrospect, should Michael Lynche — whose time on the show ended at around 9:58 p.m. ET — have been saved all those weeks ago? At the time, I was skeptical but ultimately thought he deserved it. But now that I’ve seen how the show has panned out over the past few weeks, I’d say that the judges should maybe have held off on using the save, which was only available to them once all season, until a bit later; while he was an early favorite who possessed one of the best pure instruments in the competition, things sure did take a turn for the more mundane once the hyperactive glassblower Siobhan Magnus was shown the door two weeks ago. And if ever there was a season where mere singing ability was on the low end of the totem pole as far as reasons for keeping contestants around, this one was it.

Michael, he of the baby born during Hollywood Week and the penchant for asserting his physical dominance over the rest of the group by picking people up (seriously, how many moments of Michael lifting fellow ‘Idol’ types were relived during his signoff montage? I counted at least four), had more than a few missteps during his ‘Idol’ tenure. (Also, he seemed unable to decide whether he was from New York or Florida. But I digress.) But I really did like his voice quite a bit, and his impassioned version of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” remains one of my favorite moments from this season to date.

Some might see Casey James‘ ascent to the Top Three as a victory for the professional wrench-throwers at Vote For The Worst, who threw their collective weight behind him after last week’s disastrous Sinatra Week performance. But a look at recent ‘Idol’ trends shows that a good-looking, rock-leaning guy who plays guitar isn’t exactly the most shocking candidate to succeed for a long time on the show — especially this year, when the talent pool seemed so oddly depleted so early.