American Idol: Cliffhanger!

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History is written by the winners. In years to come, on damp, drizzly Novembers in our soul, when we find ourselves gathering our kin round the hearth to hark back to the glory that was season six, we will know how this story ends. When we gather to sit on the group and tell sad stories of the death of kings, we will remember, in that distant tomorrow when the Earth seems swept of entertainment, how once from the uncleansed masses arose a shy little back-up singer with the voice of a goddess; how once there was a mischievous lad named Sanjaya whose antics stopped a nation dead in its tracks; of a sailor who defied all odds to stand with the final six; tales of the Slighs and Glocksens who once walked the Earth – when in the years to come we share these memories it will all seem so inevitable that one of them was destined all along to slay the others and triumph.

But here, in the present tense, where history is not yet written we stand on the brink of perhaps the greatest cliffhanger in Idol history.

Going into the semifinals show, there were plausible scenarios floating around the ‘Idol’ pundit community in which any of the three finalists could be eliminated, and any of the three might win it all.

For the first time this season, everything hung on performances.

All three came into Judges/Producers Choice night on Tuesday needing a home run to assure their place in the finals -– and we received a night of solid doubles and triples. Only Melinda, whose supernatural abilities shone through all three numbers, soared high enough above the pack seemingly to guarantee herself a slot in the finals.

But with Jordin and Blake now at the head of, at least judging from the crowds in the Idoldome, armies of fanatical adolescent fans –- Melinda’s more mature appeal may well get lost in the shuffle.

Then again, although it was once thought that Jordin, LaKisha and Melinda would split the same vote, it now seems that Jordin and Blake will split the youth vote, with Melinda monopolizing the mature electorate -- picking up LaKisha’s voters along the way. Which could set up a very interesting youth-versus-maturity final if it is Melinda competing with one of the others.

These are indeed the times that try an ‘Idol’ pundit’s soul, but they’re also great days as we approach the widest-open finals in ‘Idol’ history.

What is remarkable, however, is that, contrary to all expectations, the remaining contestants have not pulled apart in the final stretch. If anything they seem closer than ever. Whenever they are on stage together, Blake, Jordin and Melinda cling together, whisper and gossip –- seeming to support and cheer on each other.

It is as though what they have shared in their common ordeal over the past few months is even more powerful than the fact that, for each, the other two stand between him or her and immortality. They still seem to have effective denial mechanisms in place (called sportsmanship by some) wherein they process each week’s elimination not as a victory over their competitors, but as a senseless, mysterious act of God, His wonders to behold.

But next week, the final gladiatorial singing competition will occur and, like it or not, there will be no denying for the remaining two friends, that having come this far, one of them must fall so that the other can triumph. Destiny is at hand.

As the poet Hardy wrote about the iceberg and the Titanic unknowingly seeking each other out in the mists:

Alien they seemed to be:
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,

Or sign that they were bent
By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,

Till the Spinner of the Years
Said ‘Now!’ And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

So it was in the mid-Atlantic a hundred years ago and so shall it be on the Kodak stage in one mere week.