‘Dancing With the Stars’ results recap: Mission Incomplete

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In the end, the mission ended up being impossible. As if it wasn’t hard enough to freeze during your routine during a live show, Chynna Phillips had to endure an hour’s worth of being told she messed up and then was given the boot at the end of Week 4’s “Dancing With the Stars” results hour.

“These things happen,” said an ever-consoling Tony Dovolani. “The thing is, she finished the routine.”

It’s too bad the Wilson Phillips singer couldn’t, ahem, hold on for one more day, because she really was an elegant dancer, and husband Billy Baldwin said he had wanted her to “stick the landing next week and wow the crowds again.” And now perpetual also-ran Tony will go without a Mirrorball for another season (but at least he got to dangle on a wire from the ceiling, “Mission: Impossible” style!). But while the judges were generous with Chynna’s score, the voters clearly did not respond in kind to Chynna’s inability to recover from her petrified tango.

Raphael Saadiq got the show off to an uptempo start, continuing with the Movie Scores theme with a rousing, brassy rendition of “Soul Man.” Love Raphael’s glasses and his cool swagger. But where were C. Thomas Howell and Arye Gross when you need them? Made me want to take a bunch of tanning pills and apply to Harvard Law.

Famous audience members weighed in on the contestants’ performances on Monday night, including former contestants Donny Osmond, Buzz Aldrin and Ian Ziering, and potential contestants-to-be Pee Wee Herman, Dr. Phil, Bruce Jenner, Courteney Cox, and Billy Baldwin. A girl can dream, can’t she?

Welcome back Julianne Hough! Our favorite blond two-time female champ returned after two and a half years away from the “DWTS” ballroom as a newly minted movie actress along with costar Kenny Wormald for an awesome “Footloose” medley. Now, I loved the original movie. I’m excited that this remake will be just as good. And Tuesday night’s performance only helped to confirm it. I bought Julianne and Kenny’s romantic pas de deux that started with sweet Julianne draped on the grand staircase hook, line and sinker. And just when I thought Tom was wrong in announcing Blake Shelton during this segment, the screen dropped and the rockin’ hoedown began. Now, no disrespect to movie soundtrack OG Kenny Loggins, but Blake did a smash-up job with this rendition. And the line dancing bunch of footloosers, kicking off their Sunday shoes, made for a rootin’ tootin’ good time. It was maybe the best hoedown ever. Their V-formation company front at the end gave me “Dirty Dancing”-finale shivers. What a nice homecoming. It was made more poignant when Tom interviewed an emotional Julianne, and then Blake led the cameras to commercial with his version of a moonwalk. All around adorable.

Julianne came back later on in the program, to the delight of Hough fans everywhere, to jive it up big time with big brother Derek to “Shake a Tail Feather.” There were fun sibling times and great applause to be had, and Tom observed “that’s the happiest I’ve seen Len all week.” Favorite part? After the dance ended and Julianne went over to the judges’ table to squeeze Len’s bum (both cheeks!) before giving him a hug.

There was a segment about how the contestants’ expectations for appearing on “DWTS” didn’t match up to the reality of the rigors of the show. Chynna thought she’d be such a natural that she’d only have to practice three hours a day. Ricki said it was harder than she could have imagined, and that her “clothes smell like a barn.” David Arquette is going to sleep at 9 or 10. Nancy Grace didn’t think she’d break down and cry in a dance rehearsal. Rob Kardashian didn’t realize how much time he’d have to spend spray tanning.

British singer Susan Boyle appeared to belt out a more mournful version of the Righteous Brothers’ classic “Unchained Melody” (not, as Brooke called it, “Enchanted Melody”), popularized by the movie “Ghost.” It was great to see SuBo in tip-top shape on the show after she canceled her scheduled Season 10 appearance because of illness. There was a chorus of strings in white behind her, as well as a full moon, and a bare-chested Val Chmerkovskiy and a twirling Peta Murgatroyd on the dance floor… but no pottery! Perhaps it would have been better had Peta made like a pottery wheel and was spun around by Val. But whatever. Susan looked so happy to be there. Did you see how she waved and waved and waved to the cameras backstage before the commercial break?

What did you think, ballroom fans? Did the right contestant go home this week?

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— Allyssa Lee