I was just glad that they (the judges) seemed to be tough on everyone, except perhaps Cristian, but I agreed -- those dances were 2 of Cristian's best, and he really won me over last night.
Jason's latin number was just plodding but I thought the judges would gush over him regardless, but they didn't. Have I just been blinded by his poise in previous weeks? Because I don't remember him looking down at the floor and almost hunching, and his lack of pointed toes really stood out last night. I like that the judges sometimes couch their remarks and marks in terms of how far along is the competition -- maybe Jason's dance might've been 8 or 9 worthy a month ago. But I'm starting to like Mario and Cristian as much or more as Jason, and I was definitely a Jason fan early on.
I would've said Cristian was the next to go before last night. But he's got sentiment behind him now, and he and his partner actually did a great job with both dances, so, yeah, I'm afraid Marissa will be next to leave.
I'm glad Kristi and Mark got 2 10's for their quick step. I didn't find the samba as bad as Carrie-Ann found it. K & M should still get very high marks for their superior technique. This dance seemed almost like a "concept" dance, or at least it was very stylized, but I liked it. (K's outfit needed to go, but she didn't choose that.) And K&M don't normally rely too much on big tricks, and I thought what they did put in was neat. But maybe I'm blinded by my fandom.
I will say I'd rather see K & M getting some 8's and 9's these couple of weeks, rather than staying at all 10's and having to be super-perfect to keep getting 10's right through to the end. Now, it's like they've been shown not to be perfect and won't have everyone gunning just for them, or have the judges being, consciously or unconsciously, harder on them.
Of course, it's still a popularity contest, and I'm sure Jason has huge chunks of NFL fandom supporting him. He'll be hard to beat.