DWTS Season 21 - Week 10

Outside of America the Beautiful, I don't know one single song listed.    I'm assuming there will be no elimination tonight and all four of these couples will go on to the finale?

CA must have been aware of the audience vote before the show.  With Bindi in jeopardy, she nit-picked the hell out of Carlos at every turn in order to knock off a judge's point.  Looks like Alexa's fans are tossing their votes to her husband.

Bindi was solid on all her dances.  Loved the jazz routine, especially because it didn't involve an awkward ballroom threesome.  Not a fan of the trio dances normally.  And despite my aversion to Mark, well... it was great.

Actually, I thought Carlos did exceptionally well last night.  The fact that CA saw a lack of "connection" gave me my first jaw-drop.  I loved the dance.  Then, she proceeded to opine that Alek was equal to Carlos in the dance-off.  I call foul.  She was looking for any excuse to lower his scores.  Scripting?

Alek's waltz was beautiful, but I found America the Beautiful a bit manipulative.  Patriotic Americans - Vote Here should have been on a wall poster over their heads.  And I resented CA's choice in the dance-off.  Alek's performance was sorely lacking.  I'm getting turned off on him, even though I love that smile.

Nick.  Hmmm.  While he did well, I sometimes still see a bit of stiffness.  He's come a hulluva long way from where he started.

As of last night, my top two are Carlos and Bindi.  That's leaving personalities out of the equation and going strictly by what pleases me to watch.

Bindi/Derek - Salsa - that was fun.  I think we've seen better salsas on the show, but this was good.
 
Alek/Lindsay - Waltz - I hated the obvious manipulation of the serviceman and the flag and the patriotic song.  The waltz itself was not bad, but he still is kind of clunky in places. No way that dance deserved all 10s. 
 
Carlos/Witney - Contemporary - Still don't generally like contemporary on this show, and this was no exception.  It was okay but not great.  I liked it but wasn't wowed by it.
 
Nick/Sharna - Tango - again, it was okay but not great.  He just didn't seem to have the right posture and attitude for the tango.
 
Gorgeous dance by Jenna and Val.  It's always a treat to see the pros do some serious dancing.
 
Dance-off:
 
Alek/Lindsey vs. Carlos/Witney - no contest here.  Alek gave it the old college try, but Carlos was much better.  Have no idea what Carrie Anne was talking about.
 
Bindi/Derek vs. Nick/Sharna - this was a tough one.  I thought they both did a great job.  I'm surprised not one of the judges gave it to Nick and Sharna, but then again, I'm not.  The judges have been on the Bindi train since the first week. 
 
Trios:
 
Bindi/Derek/Mark - It felt kinda been there-done that for me.  Between the box, the synchronized arm movements, and the light (which has been used multiple times on SYTYCD), I just felt like I'd seen that dance before.  It was danced well, but I didn't get the "genius" comments at all.  It was pretty much a retread/mash-up of several other dances.
 
Alek/Lindsay/Emma - Again, not bad but it didn't wow me.  Alek can do the lifts like nobody's business, but his dancing seems to have plateau'd several weeks ago.  I enjoyed it well enough, but that's about all I can say.
 
Carlos/Witney/Karina - Now this was fun and energetic, and I thought Carlos did a great job with it.  One of the few dances of the night that made me really want to pay attention.
 
Nick/Sharna/Peta - I thought Nick really stepped it up on this one.  I enjoyed the choreography, they all seemed to be having a lot of fun, and no obvious (to me anyway) mistakes by Nick.  I am completely baffled as to how he ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard.  That's just wrong.  < sigh >
 
Overall, I thought this was a bit lackluster for the semi-finals.  Everyone actually danced fairly well, I thought, but very little of the choreography really grabbed me.  I really miss Tamar.  I wish her well and hope she recovers quickly, but I was really hoping to see her in the finals.  Right now, I could go for a win by anyone except Alek.  He seems like a nice guy and a good sport, but I generally like to see one of the better dancers win it all.