Back from break, Supernova is standing next to Brooke on the judges' dais as she tries to sell some Supernova concert tickets. Good luck with that, especially with Jason acting like a spazz right at her elbow.

Ryan's pre-interview kicks off with the clip of Dave dubbing him Ryan "The Dark Horse" Star. Ryan admits that he wasn't doing so great early on, but has been doing better and better in recent weeks. And he thinks that if he keeps going at this rate, he could end up winning. Ah, he had me and then he lost me.

Ryan's singing "Clocks" by Coldplay, and he's back behind the baby grand, the site of his greatest early triumph. He starts off softly, in the middle of the song as always, singing the high "ooohs" along with solo piano. The crowd waves its hands obligingly. And then the House Band kicks in, which is Ryan's cue to stand up, send the piano bench flying, and climb right up on top of that Baldwin. He sings the first half of the first verse from up there, then leaps off for the second half. I swear, he's going to break an ankle one of these days. He's not a small man. He works the runway hard through the song, although this isn't his best performance vocally. He does a little Daltrey-twirl with the microphone cable (which makes me sad that it's not cordless, because, "Incoming!"), then suddenly seems to realize that he needs to be on the other end of the stage and back behind that piano right now. So he dashes over, does a hood-slide over the baby grand like Bo Fucking Duke (which cracks up the other Supernovices), and tinkles out the solo piano break. For the coda, he drags himself back up there belly-first, finishes from his knees, then leaps down to the stage again. I hope he knows a good orthopedist.

"Oh my God, it's the Dark Horse!" Dave says, more mockingly than he might intend. He says that it's going to be a tough night, and, indeed, everyone seems to be bringing their A-game this time. Dave compliments Ryan's intensity, and appreciates his willingness to climb the piano. Jason is less complimentary, saying Ryan is strong behind the piano, but when he gets up he tends to "lose the plot." Whatever that means. Dude, it's a rock song, not Berlin Alexanderplatz. Jason is roundly heckled. He interrupts himself to glare up at someone in the balcony behind him, but that's as far as it goes. I kind of hope it's Lars Ulrich up there. As for Gilby, he thought it was a great performance. He likes how Ryan does something different every week, and "There's nothing better than watching an inspired artist perform." Wait, does he mean Ryan?