"Step It Up & Dance" recap (1.10): The Season Finale

Well, after weeks of drama, backbiting, tears, and a few minutes of dancing, we're at the end of the season. Pretty boy Cody, hot Asian chick Michelle, and jovial hottie Nick are the finalists. Oh yeah, and Miguel.

All four dancers show up to rehearse for their big solo dances, which will decide the show's winner, and host Elizabeth Berkley and choreographer Jerry Mitchell are waiting for them, which leads to the episode's greatest moment. Elizabeth announces that Jerry will spend half an hour alone with each dancer to help them prepare, and the camera first pans to Cody, and then immediately switches to Jerry, who's literally licking his lips and leering in anticipation. It instantly reminded me of those old cartoons where a hungry character would look at someone and imagine them turning into a steak.

After Jerry stops drooling, Nick (my favorite) is first to rehearse, and does a very cute story dance, and by the end, he's all hot and sweaty and sexy and ... damn, where's my A1 Sauce? Michelle is next, and she shows up wearing thigh high black leggings and sky blue Underoos, and dances a very elegant but fiery Asian routine. Cody comes out and dances to a very pretty acoustic pop song that I liked so much I had to go in search of. Turns out it's called "It's Over" by the NY based T.J. Moss. Oh yeah, and Miguel danced.

The dancers show up at the theater thinking they'll be rehearsing more, but are in for a shock. They have one more group challenge before they get to their solos. They bring out the guest choreographers, Keith Young and his wife Sharon, who have a long list of Broadway credentials, but I'm distracted by how much Keith looks like Captain Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. They announce that the group will be dancing to Fergie's song "Labels & Love" from Sex and the City.

They start rehearsing the SATC shopping dance challenge with the Fergie song (which is absolutely atrocious, btw), and Miguel comes up with this howler, which is my second favorite moment of the night, and how I want to remember him:

"Let me break it down, okay. In the Sex and the City challenge, Michelle is Miranda, especially with that haircut ... Cody is totally Charlotte because he's so like prim and proper and like 'I'm Canadian, we do nothing wrong' ... and Nick is totally Samantha, like male slut, right? And I'm curly haired, fashion forward, never has a man ... I'm Carrie Bradshaw!"

No, Miguel, you're more like Carrie - The Musical, but without the cult following and Betty Buckley. But believe it or not, that's not the worst thing he says tonight.

You can find out who wins the $100,000 after the break!

During rehearsals, Miguel steps wrong and strains his ankle (who says voodoo dolls don't work?), and decides to go to the hospital to have it checked out. The doctors tells him he should stay off his foot for a week, and he has to make a decision:

"The decision i have to make is compete for the hundred thousand dollars and win it, but risk possibly getting hurt which will affect my career. I'm better than these three dancers, and you know what, it would suck for those three dancers to know they won by process of elimination because I couldn't dance."

I am so glad that I will never have to write about Miguel and his asshattery again.

The big night gets underway, and Miguel decides that the show must go on, and the four dancers perform their SATC routine (in front of a packed theater that includes all the eliminated dancers and guest judges). The guest judge for the finale is singer Akon, who brought his "protege" with him, singer Colby O'Donis. When I heard that, I thought it was the most hilarious made-up music name since Johnny Cougar, but after some checking, I found out that it's his real name!

The winner of the SATC challenge will be featured in an upcoming O'Donis music video, which made me wonder what second place got. After the dance, Michelle is named the winner, and then the grand finale starts ... finally.

And the winner is....

Well, duh. From day one, Cody was the man to beat. I was hoping that Nick would slip in there somehow, but Cody just had too many things going for him. He was great looking, he could do those fancy roundabout kicks, he was great looking, he possessed leadership ability ... he was great looking.

I'm not suggesting that the main reason he won was because of his looks, but I just find it interesting that this disclaimer popped up almost immediately after he won:

"The judges considered both their scores and input from the Producers and Bravo in reaching their elimination decisions".

Well, that's the end of the show and the season. There's no word on whether there will be a season two, but if there is, I have some advice; keep Elizabeth, ditch the permanent guest judges (unless it's Toni Basil or an incoherent Paula Abdul) and in the name of Bob Fosse, let the dancers dance!