VOICE OVER: The Battles Seem More Like Friendly Duets

While Mondays get a really bad rep for being the start of a work week, those who have been watching The Voice for a while know with that show, there is now something redeemable about such a universally un-motivating day. So on Monday, October 15, the Battle Rounds week two continued in full force. However, with the compatibility of all of these singers, the audience was left wondering if these should be called the "Battle Rounds" at all, because nothing about tonight resembled a battlefield. Indeed, the friendly atmosphere made it seem like tonight's episode should have been dubbed simply the, "Team Bonding Rounds." If you need a quick refresher on the contestants, click here to read the other summaries from this season.

Team Blake Shelton, with the help of advisor Michael Bublé, opened this evening's battles. Latin-style singer Julio Cesar Castillo faced off against who Carson Daly called a "fiery soul singer," Terisa Griffin, singing "Conga." With these incredibly fast-paced lyrics, both singers were tongue-tied the moment they tried this song. Terisa was concerned because she thought the song fit her opponent better than her, and she even accused Blake of pairing her with Julio to try to get rid of her. Blake eagerly reminded her, "I begged and pleaded my case to get to be your coach." He just wanted to find something that makes a good battle. Even at the last rehearsal, however, they both had trouble with the lightning speed of the song, especially Julio. But they got up on that stage and owned it. As the coaches cracked up during this whole performance, you could tell they all loved this number with its purely insane speed and the combination of the two singers who were just plain different in both looks and musical style. Blake told them, "Both of you did awesome! I don't really even know what to do. I have to think back to when we were in rehearsals. Julio had the most trouble in rehearsals, and seeing what I saw today, I think he put the most work into it. So I'm gonna have to go with Julio." Because he's no fool, CeeLo Green stole Terisa to keep her in the game.

The next round was made of two young, wide-eyed singers from Team Christina Aguilera and advisor Billie Joe Armstrong. Dez Duron and Paulina sang a beautiful duet arrangement of "Just the Way You Are." Dez had auditioned unsuccessfully last year, so he admitted to being really nervous, which didn't surprise Christina. She said, "There's a little more weight on Dez's shoulders to show that he made it past the blinds for the second time for a reason." Christina also cautioned both of these singers on multiple occasions to use the crazy riffs and tune ad-libs in moderation. Paulina was particularly fond of her ad-libs and had a hard time being sparing with them all throughout rehearsals. At the final rehearsal, Christina voiced her fear that Paulina might end up experimenting with that on stage and end up flat. During the performance, these two sounded great, but Paulina still seemed to want to do her own thing, which caused Christina to just shake her head. The consensus among the other coaches was that Dez won, though Blake said Paulina's voice would jump out on the radio. Christina concurred with them, choosing Dez to represent her team next week. An elated Dez said, "Moments like these are what you live for. I want to be the one to give Christina her first win." 

Sam James and Benji from Team Adam Levine (and advisor Mary J. Blige) sang, "You Give Love a Bad Name." In rehearsals, Adam described Sam as a powerhouse, while Benji likes to scream. "There's density to Sam's voice. Both of them together is going to be a really powerful duet." In the final rehearsal, they were really sounding awesome, but Adam reminded Benji to do the screaming and growling in moderation and for Sam to make sure to get those big notes; these two smart guys clearly took everything Adam said deeply to heart. This was one of those performances that NBC showed previews for all night leading up to this, so the audience was really looking forward to it. The rockstars did not disappoint. This performance was just a huge load of awesomeness and excitement, which the coaches clearly loved. Adam especially was very visibly proud of his mentees. This performance was definitely the highlight of the night. The coaches basically all said that Benji won, except for AdaM. Adam basically told Sam that he delivered a pretty spot-on performance the whole way through, which won him this battle.

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Sally ("Ginge") is a BroadwayWorld.com contributor based in Atlanta who writes re-caps of NBC's The Voice episodes week to week. However, she is first and foremost a Broadway fan. Her favorite shows include Wicked (of course), Next to Normal, Billy Elliot, and the very best show of all time, The Scarlet Pimpernel.