Reinhart opens the night with Michael Jackson's Earth Song, provoking mixed and heated reactions from the judges. Randy Jackson seems to almost visibly cringe and tells her she was practically "screaming at the end. " He didn't like her song choice either, a sentiment by Jennifer Lopez who expressed it in a nicer way. But Steven Tyler insists that Reinhart nails it and tells her to ignore the other judges. A confused Ryan Seacrest asks the threesome, "What is she supposed to do with that concoction of feedback?” Wait and see.

Up next is James Durbin’s country-inspired and swoon-inducing delivery of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin'. The judges gush over Scotty McCreery's swoon-inducing rendition of Alan Jackson's Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning), then heap praise on Lauren Alaina's cover of Martina McBride’s Anyway. Then Jackson poured salt on Reinhart’s emotional wounds by claiming Durbin, McCreery and Alaina were tied for first place at the end of the first half.

But then came round two, when Reinhart belts out a powerful and emotionally-charged take of Ben E. King's I (Who Have Nothing). The judges' earlier disses had fueled her competitive drive, and along with Gaga's advice to an add extra breath before delivering her final "I love you,” -- it was all she needed to deliver a gorgeous performance and command a standing ovation. All three judges were raving by the end of the song with Lopez proclaiming, “This is why we have such high standards for you. We’re gonna go easy on you, Haley!”

The ever-provocative Lady Gaga gives unsettling advice to the country boy McCreery: she tells him to pretend the microphone is his girlfriend, which provokes him to kiss the cross around his neck. Then he delivers a soppy version of The Coasters' Young Blood which the judges mystifyingly seem to love. Jackson compares him to Pat Boone -- which must have made Gaga's toes curl.

Then it's Lauren Alaina's turn to sing Elvis’s Trouble, and the teenager's nervous about proclaiming herself “evil” as written in the song. But Gaga tells her to get out of her own head and into character and apparently the advice works: The judges are wowed, and eccentric wordsmith Tyler opines, "Your voice is so pure and perfect and right on pitch, and you just deliver a song like a blue plate special. And I'm in love with the buckles on your shoes." Okay then!

James Durbin wraps up the show with an electric and infectious delivery of The Clover’s Love Potion No. 9, and which prompted Lopez to exclaim, "You can sing anything.” It sure seems that way.

But props go to Gaga, who physically goaded Durbin into twisting his hips a la Elvis style. "When you move those hips, it makes you sexy,” she flirted.

In the end, Gaga proved the secret ingredient to the Durbin's elixir.



Karen Malmquist is a sophomore at La Salle University, and the head writer and star of In Other News, a comedy series airing in Philadelphia.