Let's rock! Each of the 4 contestants will be singing two songs. The singers will be critiqued after...EACH...performance. Make a note of that, Paula.

David Cook ...is someone who I figured would go last. He goes first instead, and covers Duran's Duran's 'Hungry Like the Wolf'.

The Good - It's a great song selection - something I would expect David Cook to sing. he rocks it up, which is also something to be expected. It was a nice, good solid effort.

The Bad - And therein lies the problem. It was good. This is the Final Four. Good isn't good enough. You need Great. Good, in this stage of the game, could be trouble.

The Verdict - I agree with Randy Jackson. There wasn't anything wrong with the performance. He was right on pitch and it was 'alright'. But depending on what everyone else does, he may need that second song.

Syesha Mercado is next up, and I would be shocked if she didn't do anything from either Aretha Franklin (the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) or Tina Turner. She doesn't disappoint me - going with Tina and 'Proud Mary'

The Good - She's getting better and better as the weeks go on. She didn't nail all of the notes, but from an emotional standpoint, she didn't play it safe, which will cover up a lot of the blemishes. This was the performance I was expecting from David Cook.

The Bad - Despite the fact that she gave a good performance, she did miss a number of notes during the dancing part of the performance. At the beginning, a little bit too much pandering to the crowd for my tastes. At the end, her hips swinging back and forth looked like a fish wriggling around in a cross between plastic wrap and aluminum foil.

The Verdict - If you're basing this on technical performance, David Cook is far in the lead. If you're basing this on artistic merit, Syesha is far in the lead. I feel like an ice skating judge.

Where will Jason Castro fit in? He decides to do some Marley - Bob, that is. He gets 'I shot the Sheriff'.

The Good - Jason is completely in his element. He gets the guitar. He gets a song he actually knows and likes. This has the potential to be the best 'performance' that we've seen from him in a while.

The Bad - Notice I said potential. The potential would have been greater if he sang the notes in pitch, kept in time, or didn't have the facial expressions that looked like he lit up a toke 3 hours before showtime and is now getting into the deepest part of the high.

The Verdict - I don't think he was nearly as bad as the judges said that it was. And if you look at it as him performing to his crowd base, he's going to get more mileage than he will get credit for. That being said, he can not afford to have a train-wreck-like performance for his second song.

David Archuleta gets the 4th spot this evening. For the first song of the evening, he get's Ben E. King and 'Stand By Me'. Will the audience be standing by him?

The Good - What's up with the risk-taking by Mr. Archuleta? Great choice of song. Nice switching the vocal tambre around in the middle of the song, which is another risk that paid off. Great vocal technique at the end....

The Bad - ...but I think it was a great vocal solo at the end because he mentally threw out the lyrics with the bathwater. 'Oh, Beautiful Girl' is a lyric in that crappy remake by Sean Kingston, not in Ben E. King's version. Oops.

The Verdict - But the flub is only going to help him with his fan base. He sang it like he wanted to win, and the audience responded in kind. Easily the best vocal in round 1.

David Cook said that he could have done better, and he wants to do better this round. He decides 'Better' will be 'Baba O'Reilly' from The Who.

The Good - MUCH better vocal performance this time. It's a great song to select in terms of vocal expansion. He nails the pitches and really shines on the money notes. And he's got a nice white guitar.

The Bad - As good as the song choice was in the first round - that's how bad it was this round. That song will only appeal to the hard core rockers, and in this stage of the game, he must expand. Rockers have shown to be the least vocal of the voters, and no rocker has ever won Idol.

The Verdict - Great second song. The only question is - will it be enough. Huh, you ask? I'll explain later.

Syesha Mercado is going to be singing 'A Change Is Gonna Come' by Sam Cooke. Hopefully the change will be her no longer being in the bottom 2.

The Good - She nails the money notes. Probably the best notes that have been hit all night long. Maybe her best performance in a while.

The Bad - However, the too low vocal range hampers her emotional range when she's going for the money notes. And her dress looks like she's a chiffon figurine on a wedding cake. Seriously, who dressed her tonight? The wardrobe manager needs to be taken to The Ruins and be fed to that plant monster that lives there.

The Verdict - I liked the first song better than the second song. That being said, the great first song + the bawling all over the place on the second song = safe this week.

Jason Castro couldn't get the ire of the judges up more , could he? He tries not to with 'Mr. Tambourine Man.'

The Good - ....his dreds look like and well-kept this evening?

The Bad - So how can he piss off the judges more after that first song? Try forgetting the first set of lyrics of the second song and humming through it. And then racing through the rest of the lyrics like he was waiting for the Ricky Williams Emporium across the street to be open so he could get some more stash. And then the final note sounded like he was going through withdrawal symptoms. Did we ever mention that smoking weed causes you to have increased bouts of memory loss? Well Jason, now you know. Drugs are bad, Mmmm-kay?

The Verdict - There have been some YouTube videos that show him singing while stoned. Jason needs to go to the Ricky Williams Emporium, buy a couple of kilos worth of Mowie-Wowie, and then spend the rest of the night lighting up so he can forget his vocal crapterpiece performances.

David Archuleta wraps up the show with 'Love Me Tender'. The fact that he's singing this sort of song scares me greatly, but after Jason Castro just bastardized poor Bob Dylan, I'll be satisfied with almost anything right about now.

The Good - Here's what's the most impressive about this song - not that he hits the vocal (which he does), but that he pulls a page out of David Cook's book and makes the song feel contemporary - although it's older than dirt. And he sang it vocally with nice emotional emphasis - actually emoting through the song instead of just singing words. Nice job.

The Bad - Watch the pitch. The middle section sounded like the only way you were going to love them tender was to vocally slap them upside the head with a meat tenderizer.

The Verdict - It's a nice way to end the night. David did as much as he could to avoid being a Round of 4 upset victim.

Final Verdict - You had 1 singer that blew absolute chunks, so he gets to go down into the bottom two. Now the questions is - who joins him? You could make a case for any of the idols to be in the bottom, but all the way back in February, I put in my Idol Primer that it would be David Archuleta Vs. Syesha Mercado in the Final 2. I'm not going to change my mind now.

Trouble - Jason Castro, David Cook

So what are the elements for a shocking elimination in the Final 4? When 1. One of the favorites sings lights out, which causes people to vote for him (David Archuleta), 2. one of the people in trouble sings lights out, which causes people to vote for her (Syesha Mercado), 3. one of the people in trouble is a wreck, which causes people to vote to save them (Jason Castro) and 4. One of the people sings 'ok', which causes people not to vote because they either think he's safe or they think someone else will vote for him. That would be Mr. Cook, and if there's any way there's going to be a shocker on Wednesday, this is it. That being said, I think Jason Castro was so brutal that he lost his fanbase and he'll be walking out the door, which leaves David Cook safe, but it could be a very, very, close call.

Out - Jason Castro (but if there's a shocking upset, it's David Cook who's leaving)

Join us in 24 hours for the results.