A Little Bit of Shuffling in the Standings - Nicole Goes For It, Erin Shines and Evan's Freestyle Doesn't Impress

LIVE!!! From Hollywood!!!! This is the Finals of Dancing With the Stars!!!

Our couples will be doing four dances for the Finals - two tonight and two tomorrow night. There’s gonna be some tired puppies at the end of this one! The first one will be a “redemption dance.” The judges will pick that one, it will be the one dance the judges thought they should have done better. Then we get the great Freestyle!

Bruno goes into rehearsal to help Erin with her Samba. He tells her what to do with her feet, and as she does the steps again, Bruno yells “Yes! Look at your ass!” Erin says she just has to forget her nerves and do it. Maks is wearing a vest and at the beginning of the dance, they go to take it off and Maks pulls it back on, looking at Len and buttoning it. Dammit Len! You ruined our Maks chest sightings! They end the dance with Erin tossing her hair at Bruno, Maks fooling with Carrie Ann, and both giving Len a kiss. I thought it was great! Erin looks really hot and the dance was fun! Len says they’ve fulfilled all his dreams. “I always wanted to be kissed by a man with a beard to see if it prickled.” He says they will be looking for more because it’s the Finals, and thanks Maks for not taking his clothes off. (Spoilsport.) Len tells Erin her improvement from her last Samba is fantastic. Bruno tells Erin “you were hotter than noon in the tropics.” He adds “you moved that butt like I couldn’t believe the results.” Carrie Ann said Erin moved herself up three notches. There was confidence in her face and it was fun. Maks looks like he’s going to leave without grabbing Tom’s butt but Erin reminds him.

Before the commercial we see Anna crying, saying she’d rather do four Paso Dobles than one Freestyle. She’s a little freaked out. I’m sure hubby Jonathan could help! Back from commercial and we’ll get Erin & Maks’ scores: 10-10-9=29. Erin says that Bruno promised to teach her how to walk in heels and “that didn’t happen, Bruno.” Bruno yells “that’s why you got a nine.” Tom laughs at Bruno saying “didn’t know your mike was open, did you, wise guy?”

Evan & Anna are next, and Len goes in to help. They’ll get pointers on for a Viennese Waltz. Evan had no chemistry with Anna, and Len stressed to Evan that he needs to take every chance to look at Anna to increase the connection. The dance is incredible and Evan seems to be doing well in the connection department. I get Anna’s dress, now, they’re dancing to “Piano Man” and she’s wearing what looks like a keyboard on the bodice. Bruno says Evan’s fluidity and lyricism was as good as always, and the connection was smiling and sweet. Carrie Ann tells Evan he had a lot of problems the last time he did this dance, pointing his toes, not connecting with the audience, but he’s rectified all that now. It was emotional and enchanting. Len says it had grace and movement but sometimes he collapsed during certain movements. Carrie Ann and Bruno both start “choking” with those comments. In the Celebraquarium with Brooke, we get the scores: 10-9-9=28. Evan says he loved doing the Viennese Waltz again, but it’s bittersweet because they don’t want it to be over.

Emmitt Smith was “waving off” the judges during Evan’s scores, as Tom tells us. Emmitt is still cute!

Carrie Ann will help Nicole & Derek with the Rumba. She wants Nicole to not worry about the movement quality but the emotional quality. Derek says Carrie Ann gave Nicole permission to let go and not worry so much about the steps. Nicole says she’ll let go tonight. After a few steps Derek takes the band out of Nicole’s hair and lets it fly - hopefully she doesn’t whip her head too much. It hurts to get hit with hair! It’s a very sensual and great dance. They do some pretty incredible moves too. Carrie Ann said that with her past performances the only way she could grow was to be vulnerable, soften her edges. She says this dance was mesmerizing. She says that when Derek picked Nicole up at the end of the dance it was a lift. Derek protests that the song was over and Carrie Ann begs to differ. Talk about nitpicky! Len is looking at Carrie Ann in disbelief. Len loved the choreography, with power and softness interchanging. He says he still saw a little lack of confidence here and there, but it was great. He tells Carrie Ann as she pipes up that she was wrong about the lift at the end of the dance. Bruno saw eroticism and sensuality seamlessly woven into something of extreme beauty. He calls it “superlative.” After the commercial, their scores: 9-9-10=28.

Erin & Maks are ahead at the end of the first round!!!

It’s the Freestyle round! No rules and anything can happen! Erin & Maks are first. Maks has trained in ballroom all his life, and he doesn't want to do a hip-hop style but wants to make it memorable. Mandy Moore, a choreographer, comes in to give Maks pointers. Uh oh, Len will not be happy, there’s a bed on the ballroom floor! They dance to “How Do I Get You Alone?” and it’s very passionate and sexy. They look like lovers who hate each other but can’t leave each other. Erin even danced barefoot, a la Lacey! Len gets to start and says that Freestyle is all about risk and in parts they pulled it off. He called it a mix of emotion and commotion. He liked it but didn’t love it. Bruno called it a psychodrama, putting her heart and soul into the dance. Some of the steps she pulled off were incredible. Carrie Ann said it was the perfect choice for a risk, and for Maks to call in someone and get out of his comfort zone was great too. She says it’s not Maks’ specialty to “make someone look good.” (Huh?) She says there was one stumble with the tosses on the bed and Maks says “it’s not the bed we practiced on.” Erin tries to play embarrassed. Their scores: 9-8-9=26, and Len’s 8 gets mightily booed.

Tom says “it’s not the bed I rehearsed on” is his best excuse in ten seasons.

Evan & Anna’s Freestyle is next, and he seems to be arguing with Anna about doing something different, and telling her that her moves are “cheeky” and can’t compete. He doesn’t want their Freestyle to look like anything else they’ve already done this season. Anna is upset and says it’s scary and “I’m a little bit freaked out.” Anna says they hit a wall and she brought in Bobby Newberry in to help resolve the choreography issues and now they’re excited about their Freestyle. They’re dancing to “Footloose” and it’s full of energy. It’s got some great Jive steps and I love the ending lift they do. Wonder what the judges will think about this one? Bruno says Evan went demented - “I didn’t know if I was watching Footloose or Screw Loose.” (Sounds bad!) He knows Evan wants it very badly, and while he “went for it” he lost some technique. Carrie Ann called it odd. They didn’t match their lines when dancing side by side, but she loved the energy and the last lift. Len thinks they took the path of least resistance. “It wasn’t what you wanted to do, Anna, and it wasn’t what Evan wanted to do, and it’s not what I wanted to see.” Jeeze! It wasn’t that bad!!! Evan tells Brooke they went for high energy and 100%. Their scores: 8-8-8=24. The audience boos for that too.

Tom teases us about tomorrow’s season Finale. "The most popular cast is back with all new routines." Pam will be hotter, and Kate tells Tony (who’s looking off laughing) that 90% of her fans hate her. (And everyone else hates you too!)

Nicole & Derek want a high octane routine. Derek is pushing himself with lifts because Nicole is so talented. He wants to give Nicole the best chance to win. They really do a perky routine, starting out in suits and dancing to an Elvis song (I think it’s called “Satisfaction”) and tearing off the suits and end up in yellow outfits. They do some hold dancing and some great lifts, but it looks like Derek messed one of the lifts up. Carrie Ann says “that’s the Freestyle we’ve all been waiting for” and it killed her that they slipped on that last lift. Len saw Lindy Hop, Salsa, Quickstep and Jive. He saw fun and entertainment, and a fantastic Freestyle. Bruno called it dazzling creativity, saying the technique was superb. Their little slip at the end was because they were doing something that’s never been done. “A. Maze. Ing.” As they get into the Celebraquarium they do the lift again to show what it was supposed to look like. Their scores: 9-9-9=27. At least the judges took off for the bobble on the lift - it was a great dance, but they shouldn’t have gotten 10s.

Tomorrow we get two more dances from each couple that only the judges will score and will help determine the winner of the gaudy Mirrorball Trophy! Make sure you use your votes for the last time this season and help your favorites!

After the judges’ scores, here are the standings:
55 - Erin & Maks
55 - Nicole & Derek
52 - Evan & Anna

Will Nicole pull it off? Can the dark horse Erin stay on top? Will Evan’s bottom spot wreck his chances for victory? We’ll see tomorrow!