The Buzz with CCX - Season 18 Episode 4

[ScarletDevilCCX]

The episode opens with an announcement that Katy Perry is pregnant. Yay? Birmingham, AL dental student Danny La Rota, 24, is covering Lorde's "Royals". Well, it's...not worse than the original? Maybe? Okay, maybe not. If he weren't the first auditioner of the episode I'd say no way, but I know that they always open with a yes. Hopefully he won't go far. Oh, G-d, they're showing him at his work. That's a bona fide pimp piece.

 

Next we get a montage of Luke fans. And then it comes to a crashing halt with a guy who doesn't know any of the judges. His name is Lou Dawg and he's a surfer from Oahu. I still feel like we're getting pranked. He's good! But he really plays the dumb blonde to a tee, and that's obviously a stage name. Lionel says he was good, but he needs to "get it together" and come back. Katy says she'll roll the dice, but Luke says no as well. Next we get two Californians, 17-year-old Makayla Philips from Temecula and 22-year-old Devon Alexander from Sonora. Makayla went to auditions previously but was a couple of weeks shy of eligibility. She has a strong voice, but something just isn't resonating with me. Same for Devon; strong voice but for some reason I'm just not enjoying him.

 

Got my drink now. #SorryNotSorry. ...Nope, that's what it's called. It's a peach IPA by the Evil Genius Beer Company and that name is entirely in character for them. Mosean Wilson, 23, is from Springfield, IL, and he brought his keyboard with him. He went to live with his grandma at age 2 because his dad was a druggie, and the dad in question died last year, when he was 21, because it was right after he had his baby, who's 3. Sadly, his performance is just as atrocious as his math. The judges are all over it, though. We've seen five contestants tonight and I think my favorite is the one they didn't put through to Hollywood. It's like the Twilight Zone here; the average level of audition is on par with a Season 6 episode, but they're not rejecting people.

 

We come back to see a montage of the judges saying that they're rolling the dice on the contestant. We actually get to see one of them audition, but her name didn't go up on screen so she's clearly not important. She looks the end, but the voice isn't there. Also, she wouldn't connect with America as a whole; the New York accent is too strong. Okay, she's going through, and we get a full name: Faith Becnel. Next we get a couple auditioning together. Kat and "Space Cowboy", real name Alex. Or is it Sean? Ah, Alex was closer; his real name is Alejandro, to which the judges of course say "We like Alejandros here". He's 26 and she's 19. And they're going to perform "Shallow". Alejandro Guerrido Cortez and Kat Luna. Heh, her last name is Luna and he's the Space Cowboy. They're both going through. He's going to go by Alex because "Alejandro on American Idol" is already taken and even he's willing to concede that because Alejandro is the man.

 

We've got a montage of people who brought support. Emma's good, Chase isn't, and Marcus is somewhere in the middle but I'm fine with him going through. Then there's Tavia (no last name), 29, from Compton, accompanied by her "girltarist", Terry...or Tari. Terry seems more appropriate since she's clearly actually a fifty-something British man. They've only known each other for 48 hours but they're fast friends. Tavia's awful, though, so it's clear that she only got through to the viewers because of Terry, except that doesn't make sense because the producers screen them out and Terry's only been there for two days.

 

Sophia Wackerman is 20 and from Long Beach, CA. Her father is a drummer who used to tour with the likes of Frank Zappa and James Taylor, and her mother was a backup singer for The Moody Blues and Belinda Carlisle. But her mother died four years ago of lung cancer. Her mother was Naomi Starr, and the judges suggest that she use her mother's last name. Sophia is singing "Water" by Bishop Briggs. I seem to remember her being useless in Celebrity Duets, but her song provides Sophia with the best audition of the night so far! ...Also, I was wrong. Bishop Briggs was fine in S16's Celebrity Duets.

 

And now we have hauntings. Jimmy Levy's grandmother and mother are both psychics and he can see ghosts. Jill Dahne, the mother, comes in and gives the judges a reading. Katy's is that she's found her soul mate. Seems interesting given what we learned at the start of the show. Jimmy does "Wicked Game", and it's good, but they ask for something else and he does "What You Love" by Tori Kelly and it's awful, and Katy says "much better." Well, they put him through, but I still don't know what they were thinking. He was atrocious on the a cappella rendition.

 

Olivia Ximines is 16, a high school junior and a member of the dance team. The rest of the dance team comes with her. She's singing "Language" by Tori Kelly. Okay, we've got another strong one. She deserves a ticket. Katy says she's like a young Brandy. Three yeses. Megan Marna, 27, of Costa Mesa, CA, has a birth defect that has left her wheelchair-bound and used to walk with leg braces. She's singing "A Million Reasons" by Lady Gaga. It's not outstanding, but it's good enough to get a ticket in my mind. They've got constructive criticism for her, they feel like she needs to connect more with the song. Furthermore, she quickly proved that she is teachable.

 

Zack Dobbins is 18, from Clay, WV. His truck is named Loretta, she's a '93 F-150 (so roughly a decade older than her driver). He says that even if he got famous, he'd still want a single-wide trailer on a flat piece of land and the same truck. He's singing "Misuse", or possibly "Miss Use", a song that he wrote. Luke quickly stops him to help tune his guitar. His voice is a little too gritty, but it works with the tune--and he plays the guitar well. He could definitely have success in country. He admits that he doesn't know much about music except that he likes to perform it. They're definitely putting him through. They're playing "Country Roads" in the background.

 

Coming in on the end. Ren Patrick is 26 from Cypress, TX. She was in a toxic relationship for 8-1/2 years. Oh, she had a chance meeting with Katy 7 years ago where she advised Ren to dump him. Well, that particular backstory has had a good track record on Idol, and she could carry it on. She's good, and they did good with the episode-ender again.

Edited March 9, 2020 by ScarletDevilCCX