Some elections have an "October surprise," some baseball games have a 9th-inning rally, some football games have a Hail Mary pass. And on "Amerian Idol," it's not over until the pleasantly pudgy lady sing.
That's Crystal Bowersox; her final performance -- a rousing, gospel-style version of "Up to the Mountain" -- wrapped things up. I think she'll be the surprise winner on Wednesday.
I had predicted Lee DeWyze would win; many people did. What I hadn't expected was Crystal's spectacular, final-night charge. Here are a few of my comments; please add yours:
1) Hey, I thought there was a rule that every final-song/first single number had to range from so-so ("A Moment Like This") to awful. The show continued that tradition by giving Lee "Beautiful Day." Then it broke its own habit, by giving Crystal a terrific song. I'm looking forward to her single.
2) Earlier, Lee chose "The Boxer." He did a good job, but there's only so much you can do in emoting these lyrics: "La de la; la de la la la la; la de la; la de la de lah."
3) Crystal chose "Me and Bobby Magee," which has its own "na de na na" segment. The rest, however, is passionate and she sang it beautifully.
4) The producer chose "Everybody Hurts" for Lee; it was OK.
5) For Crystal, the producer chose "Black Velvet," a song so good that Nikki McKibbin sang it well during the first season. I like it as a deeper, more-sultry sound, but Crystal did a great job after nudging it to a higher octave.
6) Crystal got all the breaks this time. The big one was winning the coin flip, so she could sing last.
7) More importantly, she sang that last one beautifully. I was wrong in predicting Lee would win. I think the winner is Crystal-clear.