Rating: ★★★★★

Airdate: June 24, 2011, 9/8c on Oxygen

Guest coach Max Adler who knows a thing or two about tenacity.

The ending of this week’s episode actually had me shrieking “Oh. My. God!” Yes, I am that shocked by who is not called back this week. The Glee Project continues to grow on me, not because I like the tension of knowing someone is going to have their dream taken away from them, but because of the mirror held up to the television industry.

This week’s guest coach is Max Adler, who plays Karofsky on Glee. The theme of the week is tenacity and Robert Ulrich explains Adler is the perfect coach because Ulrich cast him for two lines and Adler parlayed them into an important recurring storyline. Ulrich continues to impress me as someone I would want in my corner. He has a real eye for talent and seems to genuinely care about his clients – and all the competitors on The Glee Project. I love when Adler stops them in the middle of their performance, gives them some notes, and makes them do it again – just like what would happen in a real audition.

One note Adler gives to Damien is to “stay in the moment” – that is, not to break character. This becomes an important bit of advice for this week for everyone. Melissa wins the homework assignment for the second week in a row, getting to work one-on-one with Adler.

Hannah delivers another solid performance in the video.

The music video is a mash-up of “Under Pressure” and “Ice, Ice Baby,” and features the competitors getting slushied. The mash-up is doubly appropriate because the competitors are starting to crumble under the pressure and the slushies are REALLY cold! Samuel, Hannah, and Marissa all struggle in the recording studio. Hannah also struggles with the choreography again but I didn’t find her nearly as whiny this week. There’s no doubt she shines in the video, putting out 110%. Alex, on the other hand, is the only one to really complain about being slushied. Again, when told to practice the choreography, he doesn’t, but instead just walks through it.

While shooting the video, Samuel is awesome and instead of being bothered by being showered in ice, he feeds off it, letting the shock ramp up his performance. It’s the first time I’ve been truly impressed by him! Damian takes Adler’s advice to heart and doesn’t break character, even though he’s freezing. Cameron, however, completely breaks character and makes them stop the take. This is something a huge production like Glee can’t afford.

It gets harder every week to pick the bottom three.

Selecting the bottom three gets more difficult every week. All the competitors are talented and Anders, Ulrich, Eric White, and Zach Woodlee ensure that the kids all look great in the video. I reluctantly picked Cameron – for breaking character; Hannah – for struggling in the recording studio and with the choreography; and Alex – for his continuing bad attitude. So I was shocked when Marissa is chosen for the bottom three because they felt she lacked the “spark” she’d shown in previous weeks. It was the first time the bottom three hadn’t been a unanimous pick, and the debate was over Cameron or Hannah. In the end, it’s Cameron in the bottom three again because Hannah did perform well in the video.

Alex performs “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.” He does it in drag based on Ryan Murphy’s comments last week about wishing he’d done that song in drag. As much as I am sick of Alex, I have to admit there is no question about his singing ability. His performance for Murphy is definitely the best of the three.

Merissa performs “Hate on Me,” cheekily inserting Ryan’s name into the lyrics, which he loves. Her voice is rich and her performance is good, though Murphy tells her to be less “all over the place.” I don’t think she really understood what he meant by that and I’m not sure I do either.

Cameron performs “Love Can Wait,” a song he wrote himself. I didn’t think his performance was quite as strong vocally as the other two, but he is able to showcase and lose himself in the lyrics and music he wrote in a way I don’t think we’ve seen before.

In trying to make a final decision, Murphy once again states “It’s about who can you write to.” Ulrich and Woodlee both look devastated by having to make a choice. You can see they’ve really come to care for these performers and want them all to win. Unlike previous weeks, Woodlee wasn’t there the entire time, and I wonder if his decision would have been different had he’d been there for more of the week.

The shock of Melissa going home was like a slushie in the face...

In the end, it’s Marissa who gets sent home. I’m not sure I would have picked her to be the winner, but her voice, dancing, and acting are all equally strong. She was twice given difficult notes for acting – in the homework assignment and last week’s kiss – and did a great job with both. She’s one of the strongest dancers of the group, and she’s easy to get along with. I would not have sent her home. Cameron’s lack of acting ability – breaking this week and freaking out about the kiss last week –  are worrisome, but Alex’s continued diva behavior should have sent him home already.

What do you think? Did Murphy get it totally wrong this week?

Tune in to The Glee Project next week at 9/8c on Oxygen.

All photos ©2011 Oxygen. All Rights Reserved.

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