#AllTheFeels! Week four of Dancing With the Stars' 19th season was an emotional one, as each performance honored the contestant's "most memorable year." There was joy — as in Alfonso Ribeiro's show-stopping, crowd-pleasing Fresh Prince-inspired routine — but there was sadness and introspection, too, like when Lea Thompson recalled losing her father to cancer just days after he'd been diagnosed. Both stars brought down the house in different but equally memorable ways. Let's recap!
Janel Parrish and Val Chmerkovskiy, safe
Janel chose 2002 as the most memorable year of her life, because that's when she moved from Hawaii to L.A. to start her career. It was also the year she lost her former vocal coach and mentor, B.J., to breast cancer. Janel had never spoken about B.J. in public before, but she wanted to pay tribute to the woman who had been like a second grandmother to her, and who encouraged her to pursue acting. "B.J. always taught me to perform from the heart," she said.
Janel did indeed perform from the heart — a gorgeous, sensual rumba set to a slowed-down version of Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know." Rookie judge Julianne Hough commended her on her technique and said B.J. would be very proud, while Bruno Tonioli raved that she looked like an "exotic angel" who took him to the Garden of Eden. "You were incredible. That was absolutely breathtaking," Carrie Ann Inaba added.
Score: 36 out of 40 (9 from everyone, including America!)
Jonathan Bennett and Allison Holker, safe
Jonathan's most memorable year, not surprisingly, was 2004, the year he starred as Lindsay Lohan's love interest in Mean Girls. That movie was a sign to his parents that he'd made it, and he thinks of it fondly especially now, having lost his mom a year ago and his dad four months ago to cancer. "It changed me and made me grow up," he said of his father's death.
Jonathan wanted to pay tribute to his dad with a fun routine, and he did just that with his Mean Girls-inspired samba set to Kelis' "Milkshake," complete with a snippet of the Plastics' "Jingle Bell Rock" routine. Unfortunately, while the judges loved his "attack," they weren't crazy about his technique. "I feel that you should have more elegance," Carrie Ann told him.
Score: 24 out of 40 (6 from everyone)
Betsey Johnson and Tony Dovolani, in jeopardy
Betsey chose 1975 as her most memorable year, because that was the year she gave birth to her daughter, Lulu. Things with Lulu's father didn't work out, but being a mom changed Betsey's life in more ways than one, and even inspired her to start her own company. "Lulu brought an energy to me, and a new life to me," she gushed. "This dance for me is my big thank you to Lulu."
And what a thank you it was. The judges loved Betsey's jive to "Love Will Keep Us Together," with Carrie Ann praising it as "phenomenal," and Julianne saying that the way Betsey celebrates her daughter is the way America celebrates her. "Not only are you brave, you're beautiful," Carrie Ann raved.
Score: 29 out of 40 (8 from Carrie Ann, 7 from everyone else)
Bethany Mota and Derek Hough, safe
Bethany's most memorable year was 2009, the year she started making the YouTube videos for which she is now famous. Speaking about the videos in her intro package, she explained that she did them at first because she'd been bullied by people she thought were her friends. "I felt like I had kind of lost my voice," she explained.
Clearly that's no longer the case. Her rumba to Colbie Caillat's "Try" brought Julianne to tears with its strong message. "What you stand for is so beautiful, and what you wish that you could have told yourself years ago, you just told so many girls tonight," Julianne said, choking up. Her one note was to brother Derek, whose choreography didn't have enough rumba content for her. Bruno noted, too, that Bethany needed to work on her hip action, but Carrie Ann gushed that it was a "gorgeous" performance.
Score: 33 out of 40 (9 from America, 8 from everyone else)
Michael Waltrip and Emma Slater, in jeopardy
Michael used his dance this week to pay tribute to his late friend, Dale Earnhardt, who died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500 — Michael's first Daytona win. "It's like I went from the highest high to the lowest low within 30 minutes," Michael said in his intro package. "There's a part of me that still isn't over that day."
In honor of Earnhardt's memory, Michael did a quickstep to a song the two used to listen to together. The routine started out strong, but midway through, Michael lost his footing and couldn't get it back. "It was so close," Julianne said sympathetically.
Score: 25 out of 40 (7 from America, 6 from everyone else)
Lea Thompson and Artem Chigvintsev, safe
Lea's contemporary routine this week paid tribute to her father, who died just days after being diagnosed with cancer in 2003. During the last week they had together, Lea and her dad celebrated a year's worth of holidays; when they reached Christmas, he got up out of his chair and pulled her off the couch for one last dance. "For me, in my life, the way he died taught me to live," she said.
Understandably, she was emotional when she finished her performance — and she wasn't the only one. "Every once in a while on this show, there are these moments that just go into my heart," Carrie Ann told her. "I will remember that dance forever."
Score: 39 out of 40 (9 from America, 10 from everyone else)
Antonio Sabato Jr. and Cheryl Burke, safe
Antonio's big break came in 1989, when he was cast as the hunk in Janet Jackson's music video for "Love Will Never Do." That video changed his fate — and his family's — so he dedicated his samba to his mom, who supported him even before he made it in Hollywood.
All three judges had similar notes for Antonio — namely that he dances too small and needs to fill the space around him. "We need you to open your chest. For a man with such a beautiful body, you close yourself off a lot," Carrie Ann explained.
Score: 29 out of 40 (8 from America, 7 from everyone else)
Tommy Chong and Peta Murgatroyd, in jeopardy
Chong's most memorable year was 2003, the year he went to prison for transporting drug paraphernalia across state lines. "I lost all my freedoms, and I was helpless," he recalled. "Overcoming that fear was very, very hard to do. You know what I learned in prison? I learned how to live each moment one moment at a time. This jive routine is a celebration of my freedom."
It was indeed. Though his footwork was far from perfect, the judges loved his energy. Carrie Ann said that he was "totally easy on the eyes," while Bruno joked that there was "no chain in the world" that could bound his free spirit. Julianne, meanwhile, quipped that she was "pretty much obsessed" with Chong, though she also admitted it wasn't his best dance.
Score: 28 out of 40 (7 from everyone)
Sadie Robertson and Mark Ballas, safe
For 17-year-old Sadie, life as she knew it turned upside-down in 2012, when she and her family started doing their reality show, Duck Dynasty. In honor of that, Sadie recruited her dad and uncles to join her onstage in their trademark camo and full beards. Mark donned some facial hair, too, while Sadie rocked a feathered outfit and wowed the judges with her samba. "That was fantastic. By far the best samba of the night," Carrie Ann gushed. Added Bruno: "The little bird has got some bite. It was like Natalie Portman in Black Swan."
Score: 37 out of 40 (10 from Julianne, 9 from everyone else)
Alfonso Ribeiro and Witney Carson, safe
Alfonso finally gave the people what they wanted this week — The Carlton! "The most significant years of my life would be the years [I spent] on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," he said in his intro package. "It was a wonderful time in my life." Unfortunately, the success of the show turned out to be bittersweet. "I was pigeonholed," Alfonso explained, noting that he temporarily "fell out of love" with the character because of that.
Now that he's on DWTS, though, he's "back in love" with Carlton — and with The Carlton dance. "I love how it makes people feel," he said. "My goal this week is to give America what I feel they've been asking for this whole season." Mission accomplished — and then some! Alfonso's jazz routine to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" was everything Fresh Prince fans could have hoped for, and those fans include the judges.
Score: 40 out of 40 (10 from everyone)
In the end, one couple had to go home, and that couple was Betsey and Tony.
Tell Us: What was your favorite dance of the night?
