‘The X Factor’ Recap, Big Battles at Boot Camp

'The X Factor' made Boot Camp more stressful for the contestants than it should have been. The remaining 60 acts were paired off and had to pick a song they would both perform in front of the judges. Some singers would have fared better if they didn't have a partner who wanted to sabotage them. Others forgot lyrics, and there were a lot of tears. It made for a pretty entertaining night.

The episode started with a the singers learning who they would be singing with, naturally they put Cece Frey and Paige Thomas together to torture the two. We would find out how they did at the end of the hour. All of the younger performers shined Thursday night, with tweens Beatrice Miller and Carly Rose Sonenclar killing an acoustic version of "Pumped Up Kicks."Carly was especially strong here, but the judges liked both.

Also nailing their performances were Diamond White and Dinah Jane Hansen, with Diamond singing her verse on Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" like a pro. I didn't remember Normani Hamilton from the auditions, but her and cutie Arin Ray sounded great together on One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful." There was obviously a lot of chemistry between the two. I don't know if that was the show's doing or if they actually like each other though.

After some pretty solid performances, things started to go downhill for a couple of contestants. David Correy was paired with his roommate Vino Alan on a too slowed down version of "What's Going On." David sounded great, while Vino seemed lost and and backstage he was convinced he did bad, even though three of the judges loved him, especially Simon. Britney is still scared by him. He's not going to jump off the stage and yank out your extensions, girl. Both Freddie Combs and Jessie Bryant choked during "Up On The Roof," and while Lauren Jauregui held her own against girl group Sister C. Britney and Demi weren't feeling the three ladies, saying that they were "annoying" and "not likable." Simon chimed in that "you two girls don't want them and they don't want you." Whatever that means.

There were a couple of contestants that used the song they chose to screw over their singing mate. Country dude Tate Stevens chose Babyface's "Nobody Knows," a song L.A. was familiar with, but Willie Jones unfortunately wasn't. I was excited to hear him not sing a Country song, but he kind of mumbled most of it because he didn't know the lyrics. He cried backstage over his mistakes, but Demi knew the deal and mentioned that Willie was probably set up. Tara "This Bitch" Simon did the same thing to poor Jenell Garcia. Simon said that "Landslide" was an awful choice for the both of them, it was, but Tara took the opportunity to try to run her vocals over it like a marathon. He also told Garcia that he felt sorry for her, and maybe they will give Jenell another chance. I wish she had spoken up about the song but she was probably too scared to do so.

Her friend Jillian Jensen was intimidated by powerhouse Latasha Robinson, but she would learn that she didn't have much to be shaken by. They argued over the song "Stay" by Sugarland and it proved too much for Latasha. She barely sang a note before she stopped her performance cold and then Jillian stepped up and took over the song. Robinson was upset that she got "upstaged" by a 19-year old, but at least Jillian tried to tell the judges that Latasha learned the lyrics.

Finally, it was time for Rihanna-lite and Chester Cheetah Face to go at it. Cece actually pulled out the "I'm not here to make friends" line before they hit the stage. The judges asked them why there were doing this, with Paige saying that she doesn't "fit in anywhere else but in the spotlight." A pretty good answer, and Cece tried to upstage her with some lame ass reply with fake tears.

They got into One Republic's "Secrets" and both sounded good, but there is still something  a little off about Paige's voice for me. I am rooting for her though, but we won't find out their fates until next week.