Although part of me was hoping to see Mariah Carey and Paula Abdul compete to out-crazy each other on "American Idol" last night, as it turned out Carey was the best guest coach they've had all season. She listened, she gave intelligent opinions, and she gave David Archuleta a genuinely insightful tip. Carey might be loopy, but she's no dummy.

As for the final seven, there are six of them who could win (although Syesha Mercado's and, increasingly, Carly Smithson's chances are slim) and there's Kristy Lee Cook, who sounded unbearably wretched compared to everyone else in the field. Even Jason Castro outsang her handily. Castro and, even more so, Brooke White seemed back on their games as we close in on the finale. David Archuleta remains formidable, as maddeningly vanilla as his song choices continue to be. The night belonged however to David Cook, who put a highly unexpected and frankly quite brilliant on "Always Be My Baby" -- an arrangement I'm almost certain Cook didn't lift from some obscure version he found online.

David Archuleta There are some things about David that will never change -- his predilection for "inspirational" songs of any stripe, his appeal to preadolescents and grandmothers, his inability to add the least bit of original shading or personality into any vocal. But I will concede that the David whose last name I can't remember has been expanding the limits of his fine instrument with his last few outings and that's what he has to do -- all he can do, really -- to win the competition. In the event he does, he will surely not be more successful than the likes of David Cook and Brooke White. David's "When You Believe" was blatantly obvious, but it gave him a lot of tough notes to hit. Past recurring problems with his very low register, he hit them. I think that if Archuleta had any musical knowhow at all, he would have rearranged the melody into a sequence more suited to a male voice, which is less suited to making huge rapid drops up and down in pitch. But as it seems I write every week, Archuleta doesn't know anything about anything. Not music technically, not anything about its history except for the inescapable megahits -- he probably has the "Macarena" on his 4-gig flash drive iPod, which is two-thirds empty. 8

Carly Smithson Carly performed as if she thought she was absolutely destroying "Without You," but really it was merely engaging -- a lot of the tune's impact was blunted by an arrangement that put every note somewhere where Carly could murder it. That was a bad idea -- other singers on the night, and far less talented ones at that, got into the spirit of the theme (Carey, as Knocked Up's Ryan Seacrest narrated at the top of the show, has a five-octave range) by just giving the notes that were way out of their league the old college try. If Carly had challenged herself, she could have blown those kids out of the water. She didn't, though -- it's like the field was all playing Guitar Hero and Carly set it on Medum while the other six had to play Expert. She might have gotten away with this gambit, but the judges called her on it, old school. Have they turned? It would certainly be a shocker, and a travesty, if Carly went home over Kristy Lee this week. Were I the producers, I would toootally fix things so this happened. 9

Syesha Mercado Syesha has survived a long time by repeatedly being slightly better than I thought she was -- since this keeps happening logic dictates that she must be continuously improving. She swings for the fences each time out, a risky but defensible approach given her position, and I think it's worked once again with a "Vanishing" that despite its obscurity (ironically, not to me -- I was all over Mariah Carey's debut album when I was ten, I listened to that cassette over and over again, maybe Syesha did too) really won me over. Syesha picks a song that's too hard for her every time out and it always costs her a perfect score but impressively, she gets closer each time. She didn't quite reach the peak of "Vanishing," but she came close to toppling it. Syesha is still a huge longshot since she just doesn't have the following of the others I sense. It's not beyond the realm of possibility though that she just has a transcendent moment one of these weeks and surges to the finale. Given her persistent efforts to better herself it could happen. She's playing on Expert. 9

Brooke White Brooke White could go home this week, but it wouldn't be the fault of her performance, which was her best in some time. The wipeout potential on the tune "Hero" was huge. This was the toughest song White had ever attempted on "Idol" by a wide margin. Winningly, she delivered it while also giving the most confident accompaniment on the piano we've yet seen from her. That shouldn't figure into anybody's judgements about whether White should continue on "Idol," but it does show her shaping into someone who's going to sign a record deal right after her ejection and releasing a record quickly with several of her own compositions on it. I felt like after a few detours that took White out of her comfort zone and led to a bottom three scare she was at once restoring her potential as a dark horse winner and her potential as a commercial artist. The latter is rather substantially more important. The one thing that White did that was unnecessary was following the original's key shift up for the bridge. Key shifts like that are an imperative part of diva music, since they allow the Big Finish to commence, but since White was giving it more of a reading in her Carole King-derived style, it would have been totally appropriate (and face-saving). Anyway, I thought even with the fluffed notes on the bridge it was a pretty nice one and I think Brooke moves on. 8

Kristy Lee Cook Kristy's "Forever" was so bland, glitchy, and stiff that I felt bad for her -- she's a draft horse in the field of thoroughbreds, talentwise. I think she's a near-lock to get the axe. Her attempt to graft a bit of a country feel on to the tune didn't go all the way -- she still tried to sing it like a ballad, only she missed her mark about every fifth or sixth note. Every single person who went before her was massively better, something that at least some of the people who have been voting for her week in week out had to notice. 6

David Cook Cook's "Always Be My Baby" was reminiscent of Blake Lewis's "You Give Love a Bad Name," a radical remix that was so eye-popping it changed the shape of the whole season. Only Cook is already a strong #2 favorite right behind David Archuleta. Will this be enough to defeat Mr. Adorable? No. Cook has to be this good or better pretty much every time out after this, which seems unfair since all Archuleta has to do is not forget to put his pants on... or the lyrics. I don't know if I can understate how smart Cook's treatment of this song was. By throwing in some haunting suspended chords and delivering the vocals in a knowing growl, he totally gave the song a stalker subtext (euphemistically identified by Carey as a "male take") that one would have thought impossible. That's pretty badass for "American Idol." It seems plain that to complete the theme of reinvention, renewed relevance, and "the most talented cast ever" David Cook would be the ideal winner of "American Idol" this season. He'd be the first "rocker" winner, the first instrumentalist, and certainly no complete commercial stiff like Ruben Studdard or Taylor Hicks. As for David Archuleta... about 94% of mainstream hits these days are love songs. Either that or anthems about how hard you're going to party. Neither seems something David Archuleta can deliver with any authority, so who's buying his records? Not all the people who are voting for him. By the time his album comes out they will all be obsessed with whomever is the cutie-patootie of "Idol" Season Eight. 8

Jason Castro Tough act to follow for Jason, who did sound a little more confident and invigorated adding hand percussion and an island feel (reggae from the guy with dreadlocks -- it's a rule) to "I Don't Want to Cry." I didn't think it was either as good as Paula and Simon did nor as bad as Randy did (the incredibly rare Paula-Simon/Randy split was trenchantly noted by the ceremony with which Cowell revealed he was siding with Forever Your Girl). Although the sound of the performance was nothing out of the ordinary for Jason the difficulty of his vocal part was -- it was the first time I felt as if Castro was challenging himself in a month. He did better than I though he would, too, hitting most of the notes, if not exactly with authority. At the very least most of his croaks were in pitch. I also felt that like Kristy Lee's sort-of not-quite country touch, the monster ballad nature could not quite be killed. He should have gone further, and used fewer instruments. Could he maybe be a shock ejection? No, I think the big pats on the back from (two out of three of) the judges keep him going. Bottom three? Totally could happen, it could be anybody in there. Likely not David Cook. Absolutely not David Archuleta. 7

This week the die and I agree that Kristy Lee Cook must go. MUST go. Whether I actually threw the die or fixed things because I hate Kristy Lee's singing so much I leave for you to speculate for yourselves.