mercfan3

Someone pointed out that Ezra seemed way too happy about her not getting into college. Maybe it's him. Also...is she just not considering Hollice? (Sp)...Her father works there..she can go for free..

Are we getting more Caleb/Spencer scenes next week? (PLEASE) The show can't get them together too much though, they'll figure out the mystery in three episodes. But the Tyler/Troian chemistry is off the charts. Caleb's always been my favorite "fifth" liar...because of his relationship with all of the other girls. I would have loved it even more if Spencer had called Caleb up after talking to Toby and had been like "lol he fell for it, let's go destroy it." Also...putting those two together..they got rid of the evidence. It only took 5 seasons to figure that out. As for Aria...are we forgetting that Ezra used Aria to try and write a book, show? The least he can do is not be too upset over her using their relationship to get into college. Seriously, Aria shouldn't feel the least bit guilty. Just call it even now. (kind of. He still owes her.) Yup, totally on the train for Jason/Ashley. Would that make Spencer Hanna's half-step Aunt?

I loved Ian when he thought he was bad. You could tell he had a blast with it. It's too bad he wasn't final A. But Lucy isn't a bad actress. I doubt that's it. In fact, she's been playing at making herself seem guilty with little facial expressions and such. But I've seen her give away several spoilers. I doubt the girl who plays Jenna, knows either. She's even worse than Lucy.

Pam flat out said that people at the police station were suspicious of her story, which is why Pam was suspicious. Had she not heard anything, I'd bet she would be like Ashley.

Pam knew it because of what she heard at the police station. I think if one of your daughter's friends was presumed dead, and she returned and said she had been kidnapped, most parents would be supportive of that friend. Ali knows how to manipulate, and she would be a sympathetic figure to most adults. For whatever reason, people on these forums forget that Ali is a teenager. She was 14 when she disappeared. So sure, she was a mean girl. But she's still a child.

I love that especially Ian and Lucy think it's creepy. Actually..pretty much everyone besides Marlene has said it's creepy.

I think A just likes to troll a bit. That's what the whole locking them in places is. Just to scare 'em a bit. A probably goes back to his/her lair and laughs his/her ass off.

Wouldn't surprise me. Lucy has a tendency to give away spoilers on accident. I wouldn't tell her anything, either. :P

With two seasons left, I doubt they'll get rid of Caleb again. It wasn't a very popular decision the first time. (Unless of course, the actor wants to leave..but he seems to love being around Ashley Benson and Shay Mitchell, so I don't think so.) I think teaching Aria to have hacking skills was two fold. #1, it means he gives her the computer for practice. (I wonder if it was Caleb's hacking computer, and not Mona's that was stolen.) So that the girls, once again, lose evidence. (Seriously..Caleb has it for 3 months..nothing happens too it..give it to one of the girls for five minutes....like I said, I blame Caleb. He should know better by now.) And the second was to introduce the idea that A is messing with college applications. That's an interesting theory though. I really hope..whatever it is..it's a satisfying conclusion.

Not sure about Felicity/Megan's box. But I just mean that the main characters are actually dolls, and what we are seeing is some child (or crazy person, or crazy child..maybe the kid who murdered her sister..) is playing with them. When the show's over, the final scene is we'll see them all as dolls. I don't actually think this is it, but it's one of the few things that might make sense. Your theories also being possibilities. :D

Apparently the great police force missed a damn bloody knife in the victim's backyard.. And Toby thinks so much of them, that he only bothers to cover half of it up.

There's part of me who really thinks it's Jason..and he's norman bates. But as someone said above, I really just want a good explanation as to why they are being tortured. My crack theory is that they are actual dolls. A is the doll owner, making up his/her storyline. And that'll be the final twist of the show. edit: Totally forgot that Mona was the one who gave Aria the rape whistle. Thanks Tumblr! #smallcontinuationsmakemehappy

The only thing is, I doubt Mike would kill Mona. That end scene, with him crying, suggests he loved her. Unless we go back to Mike's mental issues..which were brought up and never touched on again. And the fact that A somehow seems to know that Aria is claustrophobic, which is something that Ali didn't seem to know, but Mike probably would...hmm..now that's got me thinking. I feel for Ali. I don't think she's a sociopath. I think she's a queen bee and a survivor. When it's you or her, she picks her every time. There's enough to her though, to suggest she has emotions and a tragic story. Apparently this was Aria's awesome episode. (Although, are we getting hints that A is going to pick on Aria this half?) The rape whistle was fantastic. Between the martial arts and the rape whistle, she is the only liar that has actually taken her safety into consideration. Although she still ended up in plastic wrap. I'm totally team Emison, so..goodbye Paige. Speaking of ships (and Aria) the computer....did A steal Mona's computer? Did Caleb really give it to her? If that's the case, shame on Caleb. He should know the liars can't have nice things. And I love Caleb's chemistry with all of the other liars. Also, my favorite scene of the night was with Mona and Hanna. That was just so well done.

She called Chris, Matt, Menlick and Taylor cute too. That's not that big of deal though..

I didn't think Pharrell came off creepy (or Gwen for that matter.) I think people are two quick to make bonds sexual. (It was even done with Michelle and Usher. ) Ryan was just a sweet kid who was happy all the time and seemed really eager to learn. It's probably the kind of positive energy that anyone would be drawn too. (He seemed to be popular with the cast.) Sugar looked very marketable and had a name that Pharrell was immediately drawn too. He could have had a crush. He also could think he can make a star out of her. (After all, despite not liking her voice, she's more talented than a lot of the people he's worked with.) Regardless, he wasn't creepy about it even if he did. CeeLo was creepy. Pharrell was like a school boy. And yes, Kudos (sort of..maybe it should just be expected?) to Adam, Usher, and Blake for never doing that. Could you imagine if Melissa from last season had been on CeeLo's team.

Casual voters...people who vote every week based on performance and song choice, not based on fan loyalty. I'm not saying it would be a perfect consensus. I'm saying that I think the majority of those people would have sided with Craig finale night. Given Matt's performances and Chris's (who was at a disadvantage anyway) song choices. I'm not saying every single one..but there are enough predictable patterns to say things like: -So long as you sing a song well, itunes bait will get you very far. Itunes bait consists of sensitive, almost acoustic ballads..current music from Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, and Bruno Mars will get the job done, but won't be nearly as effective as older classics. "Hallelujah" is the ultimate itunes bait, for instance. (Which, bonus points for having a religious reference.) And a country song always has potential there. They are song picks which people have a tendency to think singers are emoting extremely well on, and at the same time shows off their voice. All a contestant has to do is sing the song "well" and they'll be considered the best of the week, casual voters vote for them, and they move forward. (If you want to look at the anti-itunes bait, take a look at Chris's song list - every one of them except "When I Was Your Man." Sexual current pop songs are the opposite of itunes bait.) -you have to sing a song technically well in order for casual voters to vote. I know people bring up Josh Kaufman here, and his win against Grimmie and Jake. But Grimmie and Jake also didn't sing their songs particularly well, and Josh had been an incredible technical singer the entire competition (Something Matt is not). - people like creativity, so long as it's done well. If a contestant re-arranges a song in a way that sounds good (TJW's "Royals" for instance) that is another version of itunesbait. The problem is, it's much riskier. (And typically, contestants strip back a song so it sounds like the typical itunesbait song in order to "change it up." For instance, TJW's "Heartless." But look at Kris Allen for examples of that.) But it's risky because for every one of TJW's "Royals" there's a Reagan's "Fancy" or Bria Kelly's "Rolling In The Deep." (Which I loved, but wasn't executed well and the arrangement wasn't going to be something people liked. Remember, tone it down, don't blast it.) -genre. Genre matters to the Casual voter. They like country, WGWG (Kris Allen, Phillip Phillips, Matt McAndrew. Sort of a Damien Rice/John Mayer style), Blue eyed soul seems to be an emerging one as of late too. This seems to be far less of an issue with The Voice as it is with other shows of this type though. (Although, Country does have an advantage.) A huge example of the casual voter situation was Matthew Schuler. Matt sang the itunes bait song "Hallelujah" incredibly well. His song is in the top 3 show singles of all time. You would have thought he had a lot of fans. Incorrect. Matt was getting the casual voters. A week or two later when his performances weren't up to par, he was in the bottom 3. (And Carson said, without the twitter save he would have gone home.). With Matt's performances faltering, fans jumped to the contestant performing the best...Tessanne Chin. That's not to say there aren't other factors. For instance, fans of a contestant, fans of a coach, performances throughout the seasons etc.. but because this is a show where it's hard to get attached to any certain contestant, given the format, The Voice has always been a casual voter show. Which is why we get winners like Tessanne and Josh. People who performed excellent every week and could sing very well. The truth was, IMO, Matt is not a great technical singer. (This show has never had a not great technical singer for a winner.) He's an excellent performer. He emotes well. But he's not a great singer. Adam did a brilliant job masking it the entire season, but it reared it's ugly head when he got a more challenging song with "Over The Rainbow." But anyway, I don't see what's so controversial about saying "if you pick songs that people don't tend to vote for (Chris) or if you don't sing your songs particularly well (Matt) and someone else does (Craig) the person that does is likely to win." Isn't that how it should be?

Good for Craig. I hope his label capitalizes on it.

Personally, I think The Voice is a casual voter show. And the casual voters (likely choosing between Matt, Chris, and Craig) would have chosen Craig that night. Matt's final performance was terrible, and his best performance was first. That hurts with the casual voters, particularly because a lot of times casual voters tune in at 9. Chris wasn't going to win the second the song choices came out. It didn't matter what he did or not. But Craig? Craig had the typical safe Blake songs. He sang them well. And him and Blake were fantastic in their duet. To me, Craig had the best combination of song picks and performances. So he won. But if Matt had a "moment" with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" instead of butchering it, he likely walks away as the winner, IMO.

Had Matt sung "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" well, it would have won him the competition. I think it's likely a little too hard for him to sing well (He's not that great of a singer, song selection is everything for him and he's a strong performer), but if he couldn't hit the notes, they could have changed it up a bit. (The Reggae version is easier, for instance..and still would have been loved.) So in that way, I blame Adam a little..but really, it's mostly on Matt for being a pitchy mess. It's likely he did sing it well in rehearsal or that song wouldn't have been last.

Sugar was just really sharp and really loud. If she wasn't those things she wouldn't have been as disliked by the audience. She was far less sharp during the wild card and finale. (Although, she still was..)

I'm pretty sure Republic screwed that up. They pushed back his release because of his Broadway gig. They took it off of itunes but left it on Amazon and spotify.

Matt didn't write the song. Other than Damien's, I thought the duets were excellent..and probably the best performance of each of the contestants.

Meh, I think we got spoiled by the last two winners. Josh and Tessanne are incredible vocalists. I think Chris is at around Danielle's level. And they are both significantly better than the first three winners. I also think Adam has been far more involved since the season 4 disaster. But he's still off with song picks. Usher is probably the best there, finding a combination of good current and classic songs..and itunes bait and what his contestant wants to do musically after the show. Blake is very good with song choices too. But Adam, Christina, and Usher are really good at helping contestants learn how to perform. I hate the myth that only Blake has helped his contestants. It's just not true. Blake has more power in the country world. His backing means something. Adam has signed Tony, taken contestants on tour, offered to sign Grimmie and had her at public events. Kept in contact with numerous contestants (like Melanie.) Christina has taken Jacquie to different events and helped her pick out the best fit for a label for her. Usher was actually part of Michelle's process of creating her album. (His favorite song is "Lottery" off the album.) Josh hasn't even started creating music yet. Cee Lo worked with Vicki...the only one who hasn't done anything is Shakira, and she doesn't live in this country before. (Heck, we've already seen Gwen get Taylor John Williams and opening spot for Christina Perri.). The others just can't do as much as Blake can. The only exception is Pharrell. And I am so excited to hear Sugar's smash hit this summer. (Where's the vomit emoji?)

The Country winners go on a different label than the other winners. Big Machine has the first option (and has taken all three, Cass...Danielle..and now Craig) and they tend to be a lot more invested.

Honestly, I really don't see the similarity between country and classic rock. At all. I can see it with Bro Country and some of the Southern R&B of the 90s/2000s (Nelly), but not rock. I'm glad Craig won. The Country winners have done the best so far, Matt and Chris have potential for a future, but it would probably benefit them to get away from Republic. It made me giggle, but also feel a little bad for Adam. Two years in a row the guy thought he had the surefire winner. The finale was pretty good in itself. Jessie J. and Chris were the highlights for me. They had great stage chemistry, and he looked like he was having a blast. Really great of her treat him so well. As for the season itself. I've gone on record as saying I thought Chris had the best voice (I don't think it's particularly close either..hello pitch control and range. ) and that I wish Adam had found a way to keep him current and still show off his voice and sell itunes. (It's possible to do both....really.). Matt wasn't a good enough singer to win the show, IMO. He's a great performer. He got fantastic songs the whole season...but he's off pitch half the time. Craig's really good. He went from Southern rocker to straight up country, which bored me a little..but he's really good.