The votes have been cast, the dances, done. We have made it to the end of the road, and it is time for the best episode of a very good show- the finale results! This is when the show brings out the very best routines of the season, all at once. Amazing! Let's get to the fun. 

We start with a group number that looks very Tayehesque. It is hard to pick out who everyone is because of big wigs and costumes, but I think it is the entire top 20. For the girls I only really notice Ryan and Jordan. The guys are a bit easier to spot, with Jess, Ricky and Mitchell standing out. Our final four come out the end looking intense. Cat is wearing a really adorable tight mini dress (but with three quarter sleeves). The dress is red sequin-y, and really cute. Cat tells Sonya "by god, you are weird"...fair (and she means it in a flattering way). 

We have come to the finale of this great, great show, and four dancers (3 awesome dancers) remain. Who will take the title of “America’s favorite dancer”? Probably Melanie. But we will see! The winner will take $250,000 and a bunch of promotional crap, so you know these four are excited. Guest judges include Kenny Ortega and Katie Holmes. Really? These are the best we can bring to the finale? In a season featuring Gaga, NPH and the surprisingly awesome Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Katie Holmes seems like a major letdown. Tonight the dancers will dance in pairs, solo, and with all-stars. Let’s get right to it.

Melanie and Marko: Disco by Doriana Sanchez

Disco is often a killer when featured on Dancing with the Stars, and apparently it caused some major injuries to beloved dancers last year on this show. I have faith in team Melarko. As the dancers get their disco on, I am reminded that disco kind of sucks. It is supposed to be high-energy, and there are some crazy lifts going on, but the dance is pretty boring. Kenny Ortega thinks it was fun, electric and sizzling. Mrs. Tom Cruise thinks they had a ton of energy. We learn that Mary did go to Studio 54 once. Hilarious. She says that they struggled with the lift transitions here and there. Nigel agrees with the struggle that Mary observed, and hopes to see better from them tonight.

Cat Deely is wearing some truly huge shoes tonight. How fun. We are down to the top 6, including the unlikely Ricky and Caitlynn. Guest judges tonight are Christina Applegate (apparently a Tony winner?) and Lil C.

Melanie and Twitch: Lame Hip Hop by Tabitha and Napolean

Last week, Mitchell and Clarice were sent home, and no one will really miss them. This week, we have a really, really, really exciting guest judge in Lady Gaga (who gets to sit in Nigel’s seat, which is bonkers). La Gaga is looking amazingly nutty today. Her outfit is a sort of psychedlic take on Sgt. Pepper, but in body suit form. I am sure you follow me. She also has faded teal hair. Wonderful. We also have a second guest judge who isn’t very exciting in director Rob Marshall. This week the dancers will do another routine with an all-star, and then a routine with a fellow dancer. They advertised that they would be doing this last week, but then crapped out to the boring solos. I am excited to see it.

Sasha and Pasha: Quickstep by Jonathon Roberts

We have made it to the top 10 already. Last week, we lost Alexander and Ryan, and it took me a while to remember who they were, so it can't be any great loss. This week, the dancers split from their partners and get to dance once with one of 10 all-stars returning to the show. In addition to this, they will be doing a solo. As sad as I am for the breakup of Melarko, I am excited to see what happens next. Tonight we have an extra special guest judge in the wonderful Neil Patrick Harris. Can he fill Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s hilarious shoes? We’ll find out together. Neil is our only guest judge this week, which is a welcome change. 4 opinions is too many.

Marko: Marko’s solo has a lot of personality and connection with the audience, something that is hard to do in 20 seconds. He also manages to do a lot of leaping and flipping, so that is always fun to see.

Let’s get right to business. The charming Cat Deely got herself a first Emmy nomination this week! Woo! She is a really great host and a sparkling personality on the screen. Props also go to Tom Bergeron for his nomination. Last week, the forgettable Ashely and Chris were both sent home. Maybe it was just a weak partnership or something, but I never saw any magic between them. It is interesting that they haven’t broken up a single couple yet, perhaps they have changed it so that no couples will be broken up? That seems a bit unfair to someone who has a crap partner.

Guest judge this week is Jesse Tyler Ferguson! How fun. Mitchell in the house (from Modern Family). I hope Cam shows up and declares to the crowd that Mitchell is (once again) cheating on him with choreography. Anyways…choreographer Sonya Tayeh is our other guest judge tonight. The couples will each dance two routines tonight, which means I am going to be writing a lot. Go grab your favourite dance-inspired cocktail (Shirley Temple, par example) and let’s get to it.

Sasha and Alexander: Paso doble by Tony Meredith and Melanie Lapatin

Last week, this show wasted all of our time by not eliminating any of the dancers. Dumb! This week, we have a fun guest judge in Debbie Reynolds (she sang in the rain, in case you didn’t know). Apparently, this week four dancers will go home. Exciting!

Ricky and Ryan: These two have a “sexy” jazz routine choreographed by Mandy Moore. Not that Mandy Moore, sadly. Ryan is not doing much to win me over this week…she seems annoying. Ricky is impressive with his athleticism in this routine, but Ryan just looks like prop. The judges have nothing but praise, and Nigel awkwardly says that the routine had the sexual chemistry of he and Mary Murphy. Debbie Reynolds wins me over early on by claiming that Ryan really gave it her all by coming out of both her top and bottom (wardrobe malfunctions). 

Caitlynn and Mitchell: We didn’t get to see Mitchell last week because of an injury, and this week they will be dancing a contemporary routine by Stacey Tookey. They have prop armchairs in their routine, which generally doesn’t bode well. As I suspected, the time spent in the chairs is a waste. After that, they suffer from what I saw last week in another couple, where they don’t have the emotional core in their dance. It is technically quite good. After the routine, Caitlynn is bleeding because apparently Mitchell punched her during the dance. Hilarious. Good for her for just dancing through it.

Welcome to a new show being recapped here at (Cult)ure, So You Think You Can Dance!  It is time for teenaged and 20-somethinged dancers to amaze us with serious skill, and time for me to prove, yet again, how little I know about dance. My history with this show is pretty brief, with me only having watched one full season in the past. What I remember from that season is some really entertaining dances and one “banoodles” choreographer named Mia Michaels. I am sure the show won’t disappoint in bringing us these two things again.

I didn’t watch the audition rounds, so I am meeting the dancers tonight. Let’s get to it!

Judges:  Our panel tonight consists of two regulars, Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, and one guest, Megan Mullally. Yes, Ron Swanson’s on-screen ex-wife AND real-life wife  (I may never recover from that one) will be joining us tonight. Consider yourselves lucky. Mullally spent time in ballet academies in her younger days, and has also done several Broadway plays.