This was the big one tonight, wrapping up the "So You Think You Can Dance" season. And the winners are ...
-- Lauren Froderman, pulling a mild upset. From the beginning, Kent Boyd seemed to ride a wave of destiny, never being in the bottom three. Still, judges kept pointing out the remarkable work of Lauren, who was only in the bottom once. We were reminded of that tonight, as she leaped between styles and moods. One moment, she was a hip-hop dancer, taut and tough, full of muscle and menace; the next, she was a ballroom dancer, being glided along as if she had no moving parts. This is the chameleon-like quality that makes her hard to describe and impossible to ignore.
-- Kent. His runner-up finish was a giant leap for a farm kid from small-town Ohio. He emerged as one of the show's most memorable dancers ever.
-- Robert Roldan. Easy to overlook at first, he kept getting better in any style. He even managed to have dignity while departing in a Bollywood costume.
-- Napoleon and Tabitha D'Umo. When judges brought back the year's best routines, they kept returning to ones choreographed by this gifted duo. Travis Wall was also strong, but this was their year.
-- The guest stars. I was especially impressed by Quest Crew, Luke (the 7-year-old tapper) ... and, of course, Ellen DeGeneres. Her surprise appearance -- re-creating (sort of) Alex Wong's superb hip-hop duet with Twitch -- was a masterful mixture of comedy and serious dancing. Don't call Ellen a quitter, just because she won't return for "American Idol." A quitter is someone who, say, leaves the Alaskan governorship mid-way in her first term; Ellen finished her "Idol" term gracefully, then added a "Dance" exclamation mark.
-- Twitch and Wong and others.
-- And the show in general. Despte two injuries, this was a great season. We'll be looking forward to it next summer.