Why Was Alexis Grace Kicked Off Before Michael Sarver?

Tonight's American Idol left me with a lot of questions about things I might not want to know the answer to. Like, why didn't Kara speak the entire night? Why did Carrie Underwood cut her hair and what on earth did she have on her head? Why did Randy Travis's jacket have that strange Frankenstein stitch all over it? And, why was Alexis Grace kicked off before Michael Sarver?

I'm not sure we'll ever find the answer to that last one. Michael was one of my sure bets to go home tonight, right along with Anoop but they both managed (somehow) to get enough votes to keep them in the competition. I should have added "Who in the world is voting for these two?" to my list of questions. Still, it was Alexis who got sent home after a just okay rendition of Dolly Parton's Jolene last night and an even worse one tonight when she was supposed to be singing for her life. All in all, I think Alexis lacks a connection to the audience much like Jasmine last week. She just didn't seem to care at all that she was off the show and wouldn't be getting the chance to participate in the Idol Summer Tour.

The rest of the night, much like yesterday, was uneventful. The music video may have been the best part of the night with everyone whooping it up by tossing around water balloons. We missed the part where Ryan Seacrest apparently hit an audience member with a water balloon meant for Simon. That would have been a lot more interesting to watch than some of these performances. There were one or two emo moments in the beginning during the scenes from an Italian restaurant where we waving Jasmine and Jorge goodbye.

We found out early that Danny and Lil were safe and most of America was probably shocked to find out that Anoop was too. Seacrest tried hard to mount some tension in these moments but he failed. It's tough to get all tense and wonder "what is going to happen" when you already know 60% of the contestants are safe simply by where they are seated in the lineup. Allison took it rather well when she found out she was in the bottom three stating "Ain't no thing" in true Allison fashion. Instead of answering a direct question, Paula pontificated about the contestants' internal change to Simon's chorus of "answer the question" and the rest of the elimination went by quickly.

The guest performances tonight - Country stars Brad Paisley and a duet by former AI winner Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis, were, to borrow a Randy Jackson phrase, just okay to me. The whole Grand Ole Opry theme put me to sleep and it was hard to stay focused. I guess I wasn't the only one having trouble paying attention - Jackson couldn't even remember Alexis's name and called her Allison. The lady who evidently got hit with the balloon probably didn't see it coming because she was asleep. I hope AI kicks it up a few notches in the near future because the question I am really starting to ask myself now is 'why am I missing LOST in real time for this?"