As the final three dancers had their last chance to impress voters, "So You Think You Can Dance" reminded us of a remarkable moment, early on. There was Kent Boyd, 18 and overwhelmed. "I'm a frikkin' farm guy and I'm dancing next to Alex frikkin' Wong!" he said.
Wong -- already a brilliant Miami Ballet soloist -- had seen worlds that Boyd could only imagine. He and Billy Bell were already stars when Boyd was an unknown kid in small-town Ohio.
And then:
-- Wong was injured and had to leave the show.
-- Ashley Galvan, one of the two strongest women, was injured and had to leave the show.
(An aside: Did you see the "Rosemary's Baby" scene where Rosemary's husband linked with Satan-worshippers and then someone else suddenly went blind, letting him have the role he had coveted? I'm just asking.)
-- Bell fell short, never quite able to project a personality that matched his immense ability.
And there was Boyd tonight, transformed into the front-runner -- and transformed into a real-life version of Billy Elliot, the blue-collar kid (in a movie and a musical) who savored dance.
"You get to the point where I just want to dance," Boyd said Wednesday. I'll forgive him for switching the subject in mid-sentence (we do that sometimes in the small-town Midwest) and appreciate this as the perfect Billy Elliot statement.
Tonight's show gave Boyd all the advantages. He opened it with a vibrant Bollywood number, closed it (along with fellow finalist Robert Roldan) with a dynamic number done to a pulsating drum beat. He got to show off his natural goofiness in the first two numbers, then get dead-serious in the third.
That third one was a beauty, almost matching the exquisite number the other two finalists (Lauren Froderman and Roldan) had done earlier. Indeed, of the 10 duets tonight, only one (Roldan's opener, a blandly choreographed Broadway number) was so-so.
The result? I think Boyd will be named champion Thursday, with Froderman as runner-up. I also think this was a truly gifted trio.
This was the youngest finale ever -- average age, 18.7 -- and maybe the best. And if Wong hadn't been injured, it would have been even better. Really, you should see "Rosemary's Baby" sometime.