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With only four dancers left in the competition, the tension has really ramped up among the moms and dancers. This week's theme was "Down the Rabbit Hole." (Meaning Alice in Wonderland, but I assume the phrase "Alice in Wonderland" is under copyright, so they had to use a lot of euphemisms). The skill was characterization, how well the dancers could project their characters.

The initial group competition was a tough one. The dancers all learned the same routine, and then had to perform it several times, as a different Alice character each time. Luckily each dancer was more familiar with Alice in Wonderland than I was, so they were able to embody, for example, the character of a dormouse. (Is there a dormouse in Alice in Wonderland? I suppose there must have been, but for the life of me I can't remember it.)

Trinity was knocked out of the competition first, when they all played the White Rabbit. A surprise all around, since she usually kills it in direct competition. McKaylee was eliminated in the next round, when they had to play the dormouse. And finally, Kalani lost at playing the Queen of Hearts to Gianna, whom everyone assumed was simply playing her mother Cindy.

The winner of the competition got to assign the solos for each dancer. You knew by Cindy's evil chortle that she was, as Abby put it, "not going to take the high road." Cindy insisted that Gianna assign each dancer to the thing she is the worst at.

This move, while understandable, also proved to be more divisive than I suspect either Cindy or Gianna thought it would be. If the other moms were having trouble with Cindy before, they were merciless to her this week. And the other dancers were angry at Gianna, too.

I have to admit, I chuckled hearing some of the assignments. But this move also kinda backfired on Cindy. It did indeed push the dancers out of their comfort zone, but I think it also gave them something to fight for. Let's face it, spite is a great motivator. Whereas if each dancer had been assigned her best type of dance, they might have been inclined to take it easy, everyone worked extra hard this week. Out of fear, if nothing else.

The first routine was McKaylee doing a modern funk routine as the Cheshire Cat. During the practice sessions, the choreographer wanted her to be a sad, lonely kitty. It made me wonder if I wasn't the only one who wasn't familiar with the source material. I was frankly relieved when Abby burst in (as always) and told McKaylee to smile wide during the entire routine.

McKaylee did quite well with her routine. I was reminded (in a good way) of that crazy-ass nightmare routine she did with the flying harness and the raven feather costume. And her amazing job with the Le Mis routine.

Next up was Gianna doing a jazz funk routine as the Mad Hatter. Personally this routine didn't do much for me, although I was curious to see if her wacky heavy hat was going to tear the bright orange wig right off her head. (Backstage, Gianna had wondered the same thing. By which I mean, kind of a total meltdown. Lot of stress backstage these days.)

Third on stage was Kalani in her hip hop White Rabbit routine. I was ready - nay, eager - for this routine to be terrible. Hip hop has proven to be the undoing of many dancers on the show so far, and it was definitely not Kalani's strong suit. To my surprise, she was completely adorable, and did a pretty good job with it. She didn't hit the moves as hard as, oh say Trinity would have. But she had a fluidity and energy that brought a lot of fun to the routine.

And finally, Trinity had a lyrical dance routine as Alice. I'm not sure who was responsible for her costume design, but it was pretty weird. Sort of a shreddy, floaty blue thing with a blob of blonde hair pegged to the back of her head. It wasn't bad in the abstract, in fact it was a perfectly lovely outfit. But it was pretty far from Alice's iconic blue dress and white apron. I thought she did fairly well with her routine, all things considered, but clearly the judges disagreed.

It's amazing to think back to the early episodes and realize how far each dancer has come. A lot of tough judging decisions had to be made this week. And the judges… chose not to make them.

First they singled out Gianna as having by far the best performance of the night. (Even though Abby is still angry at her and Cindy for the dance assignments they made.)

Then, after a lot of the usual reality show "drag this out for maximum suspense" hemming and hawing, the other three dancers are told that… they are all safe, no one is going home this week, and they will all be competing in the final episode.

Wha?

This decision was apparently partly decided by Cindy's bad sportsmanship. The reason Abby gives for the judges' non-decision is that she's not about to let one of the moms determine who advanced to the final competition. I question that logic - after all, don't you want to test each dancer by putting them in unfamiliar waters and seeing how they perform? But there you have it. Prepare for next week's episode to be CRAZY.

Image copyright Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition/Lifetime