Dancing With the Stars Season 20 Episode 7 Review: “Era’s Night”

Someone said on Twitter last night that they can’t get enough of the theme weeks on Dancing With the Stars. I could probably live without them. This week was Era’s Night, where all the dancers dressed up and performed dances from different time periods throughout history. Like I said, I probably could have lived without this particular theme. Last night also included the dance-off, a competition where two couples went head to head, so to speak, in dancing. More on that later.

Moving onto the dances, I’m finding that I can’t quite peg whether I like Robert and Kym or not. I like Kym as a person. I like their dancing. I like their chemistry together. Last night, though, I found Robert making these big statements that were cheesy, and he’s made them before. Last night, he said, “He has a new lease a life,” after staying last week. Really? I would say you would have one after something akin to a near-death experience, not staying on a dance show for another week. Like I said, they danced well and got 31.

As for Willow and Mark, they did a futuristic ninja jazz performance. Mark called it “ninjazz.” While again they danced well (at this point in Week 7, all the pairs must dance well!), I couldn’t fathom dancing to that song in that style. At one point, they pulled a Batman-like climb up the dance the floor. It was at this point that I completely disagreed with the judges. I understand that Mark is always trying to increase his performance factor, like when he did his White Rabbit during Disney Week, or the Hunger Games tribute during the Most Memorable Year Week, but I definitely don’t think that this was the way to go this week. They ended up scoring a 39.

Looking to Chris and Witney, she tried giving him a story this week. He seemed to do a much better dance after that, but his emotions seemed forced, like he was made to feel them as opposed to actually feeling them. I think if that he could have actually let those emotions come through, they would have gotten a much better score. They scored a 31.

Finally, it made the “headlines,” as Tom called it, that Derek injured himself this week. He did break his toe and sprain his ankle. This caused Nastia to dance with Sasha as opposed to Derek. She mentioned that his body was different than Derek’s, and that Derek hated feeling useless. While Sasha didn’t seem too upset to be back on the show, he didn’t seem too happy that Nastia included Derek in everything, and that she kissed Derek first after their dance. I was worried that having the dance choreographed by Derek would impact their score, but it didn’t. They ended up getting 38 and first!

Later on, the dance-off happened, and everyone was super competitive, at least according to the video package. The way it worked is that that the couple with the most points chose the couple they wanted to dance against. The couple chosen then chose a style of dance. Then, they danced, and the winner got two points added to their score. First, Riker danced versus Willow, and while they danced different styles of salsa, Willow ultimately won. Next, Noah went up against Robert. Again, I’m going to have to disagree with the judges,because I didn’t actually see Noah move his body all that much. Regardless, he won the dance. Finally, it was the last two couples left: Rumer vs. Witney. While both girls looked very pretty, Rumer won.

The final two couples who were in jeopardy were Rumer and Val and Willow and Mark. I predicted that because of Willow’s Hunger Games fan base that she would stay. I was wrong. She was the one sent home tonight, not that I minded, but it was odd that the Hunger Games star’s fanbase didn’t get out and vote. You lose your favorite star that way.

Here is the score board after tonight after the dance off:

1. Willow & Mark- 39
2. Noah & Sharna- 38
3. Nastia & Derek- 38
4. Riker & Allison- 37
5. Rumer & Val- 37
6. Chris & Witney- 31
7. Robert & Kym- 31

Be sure to tune tonight to catch Dancing With the Stars‘ 10^th Anniversary Special.

[Photo credit: Adam Taylor/ABC]