"DWTS" Week 10: The Semi-Finals
Oh my gosh, you guys: so much crying. There was SO MUCH CRYING during last night’s “Dancing with the Stars” semi-finals. Even Tom Bergeron, The World’s Least Flappable TV Host, just about lost it. It was an emotional time in the ballroom. (Heck, it’s an emotional time everywhere.)
We’re getting to the end of this roller-coaster ride of a season. And last night, the maybe three people who haven’t already completely fallen for Laurie and Val got not one but two rounds of routines to help them figure out who should take home the Mirror Ball Trophy—including the always-intriguing Trio dances. Let’s get to the cryhighlights:
We have to start with Laurie Hernandez and and Val Chmerkovskiy. Because Laurie isn’t just our favorite performer on the dance (or gym) floor—she’s also a kind, courageous person, and last night made that abundantly clear. Her tribute to her grandmother Brulinda, who passed away just after Laurie gave her heart-rending interview for the show, moved the entire world to tears. And then Laurie somehow managed to perform a powerful, emotional foxtrot. Grandma would have loved it.
Then—because we needed a big dose of goofy happiness to stem our lingering Laurie waterworks—James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess teamed up with Jenna Johnson for a jive trio that featured James’ racing car and a champagne bottle full of glitter. Thank you for that, James—and for the surprisingly impressive knee action, too.
We’d like to posit on the record that paso doble trios are the best trios, and to submit this, this, and the Jana Kramer/Gleb Savchenko/Alan Bersten paso from last night as evidence. Jana got wayyyy into her role as the sexy-evil princess of an enchanted digital forest, a concept that in theory makes zero sense but in practice was good, campy, neck-fringed fun.
In the end, Terra Jole and Sasha Farber got the boot—not surprising, but pretty heartbreaking given how close they came to Mirror Ball glory. Next week: the finals, aka Laurie’s coronation (right? RIGHT??)!
