At 3:30, there's a montage of people crying, mostly as a result of rejection, although one guy sobbing like he's at a mob funeral is actually going to Hollywood. Anastacia Freeman, however, is crying even before she enters the audition room. Ryan procures her a napkin to wipe her eyes with and lets her pull herself together before sending her on in. The judges start by letting her climb down off her absurdly vertiginous heels and giving her a little encouragement about being the next American Idol, and then she sings "Unbreak My Heart" in a way I wish I could unhear. They lie that they aren't laughing at her and let her continue in a style that betrays a completely unique grasp of key, melody, rhythm, music overall and the nature and physics of sound itself. Randy wonders if someone told her to come audition, and Anastacia -- with the help of a "Cheap Dramatization" (it even says that on the screen, as she's played by some production assistant) -- tells the story of being instructed by God to audition for American Idol. Not The Voice or The X Factor, the mention of which on this show is probably a bigger miracle than being spoken to by God. Anyway, the judges do a one-two-three-no and Anastacia leaves angry, complaining in the parking lot about them and how she won't listen to them any more or return to auditions if they're here, and besides she heard Nicki Minaj worships the devil. And then she can't even dramatically rip her audition number off her shirt properly. That wasn't very nice of God to set her up like that.

Ryan meets a little kid named Kayden Stevenson, who is actually 16. He looks cheerful and happy, but he reveals that he has cystic fibrosis and thus a life expectancy of 35. Now what the hell am I supposed to do with that? Make a crack about how he's the only person who has ever auditioned for American Idol as part of a midlife crisis? I don't envy the judges if he turns out not to be a good singer. We see him at home hooked up to a breathing machine and he says that the upside of having a terminal illness is that he can do everything when he's young. Well, because he has to. Good on him for looking on the bright side, even if it is illuminated with a penlight. He sings "I Wish" and has kind of a high, thin voice like young Michael Jackson but not as good. Still, his is an inspirational story, so they chat him up a bit and tell him yes, unanimously. So there goes several months of his unnaturally short life. Nicely done, judges.