Rock Star: Clear skies?

"Rock Star" elimination spoilers, post-haste...

Well, nertz. It's not exactly a secret who I've been pulling for, and I had resigned myself to her going home last week or tonight at the latest, and then Storm had to go and just blow up all over the stage and screen last night and fool me into thinking she would be around to the final week.

Instead, she goes home, but at least she got one hell of a three-song, two-night farewell: one of the most energetic covers of the season with "Sufragette City," a balls-out original with "Ladylike," and then a lovely tearjerker (it even had stone-faced Jason Newsted wiping 'em away) with "Wish You Were Here." At first, I was surprised she would go back to a ballad after regaining the ability to rock with "Helter Skelter," but you got the feeling she went into this evening knowing it was over -- and if she didn't at the start, she did once Magni got to sing the latest generic Supernova song instead of her. So she got to show one last color, and to sing goodbye to her late, mentally-ill mom. Then she got the nicest send-off I've ever seen for an eliminated reality contestant, up to Dave and Tommy and Jason all volunteering to play on her recorded version of "Ladylike." All in all, not a bad way to go out.

As someone pointed out over on Throwing Things, it's ironic that they all want to be in her band but none of them want her in their band, but she clearly doesn't fit into whatever the hell it is that Supernova is doing, so that's cool. It's late in the game, but maybe she'll get enough text messages to show up for the encore next week. And I know I'll be ordering a copy of Storm & The Balls' "Blue" CD whenever it comes out.

Time to rank the contenders one last time, I suppose. At the start of the season, there seemed to be a clear Big Four of Dilana, Storm, Lukas and Toby, and Magni has slipped in there instead. From least likely to win to most:

4. Dilana: I love Cheap Trick. Most of the new music I buy is from garage bands who are ripping off Cheap Trick. But when have they ever been confused with a punk band? It didn't sound so much like Dilana re-arranged "I Want You To Want Me" (yet another on-the-nose song choice) into a punk song as she just sang it at a completely different tempo from the band, all while flopping the lyrics around. There are times when she's a very cool cover singer, and her "Lithium," "Ring of Fire" and "Zombie" were three of the season's top 10 (if not top 5) performances, but whatever spell she had on me has been lost, and she's obviously way too high maintenance even for a short-term gig like this. I wouldn't be stunned if she survives the first elimination, or even the second, just so the band can maintain the fiction that they would consider a frontwoman, but no way is she winning.

3. Magni: Macro engaged: nice guy, total pro, fine voice, probably a better guitar player than Gilby, yet doesn't really bring that much to the table by himself. Lukas and Toby would have to basically threaten to rape Tommy on live TV for Magni to have a shot at beating them.

2. Lukas: I go back and forth on this. Apparently, during the performance show taping, Tommy gave some big emotional speech after Lukas performed about how he'd spent his whole life dreaming of being in a band with a guy who could make him feel the way Lukas made him feel after "Headspin." No doubt they cut it from the broadcast because it made it sound like Lukas had the gig won and no one needed to tune in for the next week and a half. But I just don't see the guy as a match for the T. Rex-style generic party rock that we've heard out of the band for the last four weeks. They pick him if they care about being around for more than one tour and one album and want to make their sound more modern; if they just want to cash in and go back to their day jobs, he's not the right fit.

1. Toby: He's the least interesting of these four, yet he's the perfect match for Supernova. I think that just about says it all about this season. Someone want to call Eddie Van Halen to see if he's changed his mind for season three?

What does everybody else think?