Dancing with the Stars: Getting to the top single-handedly

Competing on "Dancing with the Stars" is so easy, I could do it with one arm significantly incapacitated by a ruptured tendon that probably should've been operated on by now.

Ok, so that's not as catchy saying "it's so easy, I could do it with one arm tied behind my back" or "it's so easy, a caveman could do it", but the idea remains the same — Cristian de la Fuente (pictured, left) shot to the top of the leaderboard for the first time a week after an injury threatened to have him leave the competition.

And in an even bigger shocking turn of events, his score didn't even seem THAT inflated due to pity points from the judges.

I'm not ready to say he was the best dancer last night (that would still be Kristi Yamaguchi) or that he turned out the best performance of the evening (I liked Mario's waltz and Kristi's quickstep better), but, overall Cristian probably left the best impression out of any dancer heading into the semifinals.

Of course, big-time credit has to be given to his partner Cheryl Burke who cleverly choreographed around her partner's injury. I was genuinely scared his arm might fall off during their uni-gloved "Beat it" tango, but the couple pulled off the silly dance (again, to "Beat it") very well. By the time Cristian pulled out the glittery arm brace for his mambo, I knew we were in for something good, and they couple delivered my third favorite dance of the evening, earning Cristian a 29.

Besides Cheryl blatantly dancing around him for some portions of their dances last night, I noticed that Cristian seemed more focused on his dancing last night than he had been in a while. Personally, I thought he looked better this week than last week before he got hurt. The fact that he has to be more careful is making him think about what he needs to do a lot more, which is shoring up his technique (which is his weak point). He's not my fave, but I was genuinely thrilled for the guy when he got his 29 at the end and high fived everyone in the back with his good hand — and later tried to cover up his nipple while being interviewed by Samantha.

If Cristian was feeling the love from the judges for the first time, it's becoming increasingly apparent that Mario is never going to. The judges pretty much agreed that he finally exuded elegance during a beautiful waltz. His posture was excellent and his lift with Karina was kind of breathtaking and completely fell in synch with the dance. Of course, the judges could only muster 9s, and Len even managed to compare his dancing to Britney Spears getting out of a car before saying something nice about him.

Unfortunately, his Latin round jive (his supposed strength) was sort of a disaster. Len, again, was particularly harsh, this time insulting Mario's feet, while Bruno (in a good mood all night) and Carrie Ann commented that the dance's wildness actually worked. I agree that the dance was while, but I don't really think it worked. The only thing that worked for me was Mario's pink suspenders.

While Mario's never really gotten the love he deserves (maybe he should stop grabbing Karina's ass while they're dancing - around 1:06 of their jive), the two contestants who've gotten the most love this season took a bit of a stumble.

Actually, Jason Taylor took a significant tumble last night, as his samba brought out a seven from Len (I figured they'd thrown away anything lower than an 8 by now). In fact, while Taylor did his best, the samba was a bit lethargic and, um, boring.

Meanwhile, while his tango earned two 10s, it seemed to me just a way for the judges to have him keep pace with Kristi (they SO want that final) during the ballroom round (she'd earned two 10s). Jason sort of lost his balance out of a simultaneous spin with Edyta (around 2:23), but fortunately he fell towards her. He had good posture and footwork, but his tango was unspectacular to me and was a 9 at best. Still, none of that matters because the shot of him getting a (ridiculously unnecessary) spray tan and showing off his insanely sculpted body ("Nice V-muscle" – my girlfriend Erica) was probably good enough to earn him about 20,000 votes.

Kristi, in my opinion, was pretty much flawless during her opening quickstep. At this point, the judges REALLY have to look hard for reasons not to give her a 10, since she's so good technically. I would've given her a 10 for that quickstep, even if it may have been missing a "wow" moment (which is really hard to achieve during a quickstep).

It wasn't for lack of trying. Kristi appeared to spend most of her rehearsal time this week trying to convince Mark to throw in some lifts. I was kind of with Mark on this one — just because they're now allowed to do one for each dance, doesn't mean they HAVE to. I don't really think lifts are going to impress the judges all that much (though it may impress viewers at home), and, personally, I thought the rule would mostly be beneficial to couples who have accidentally done a lift in the past and lost a point.

Then again, maybe Kristi has a point. She's so technically good, that part of her dancing is hardly worth watching anymore. That may help explain why she pulled out on umbrella last week, and was pushing lifts on Mark this week.

Of course, maybe she should refocus on her dancing, after a slightly insane samba which featured a lot of impressive spins, but seemed a bit out of control. It was almost as out of control as Kristi's fringed yellow outfit and Mark's bright red ensemble. They looked like ketchup and mustard. Also, their dip at the end was noticeably late (which the judges didn't comment on).

Then there's Marissa and Tony, who I'm picking to go home, mostly because I don't really remember too much about what they did.

I know they did a very lovely fox-trot to "New York, New York", which Bruno wanted to be even more theatrical than it was, and I remember their mambo being competent, but a bit slow and definitely unexciting. I've definitely enjoyed watching Marissa finally become as good as I thought she was going to be all season the last few weeks, but I think she's going to be going home. She also thinks she's going to be going home. Why else pull out the "I survived cancer" card now?

So what'd you think of this episode? Was Cristian overscored? Where would one even get Mario's pink suspenders? Since Tuesday is DWTS' 100th episode, and they're counting down the 10 best dances on the show, what's at the top of your list? (I've got Drew and Cheryl's freestyle #1, and Mel B. and Maksim's paso doble to "Free your mind" #2) Finally, who do you think is going home? (I'm planning on saying goodbye to Marissa.)