It was a ‘90s flashback on “The Masked Singer,” dropping a special Sunday episode after the World Series bumped them from their usual Wednesday time slot.
Tag Team was back in effect to help usher in a night of high energy and fun as The Lambs returned to try and defend their crown one final time before advancing to this season’s Semi-Finals in the worst format ever for this show. Their competition this week were Milkshake and Walrus.
Thanks to the winner-take-all, three-week rounds, whoever won tonight was advancing automatically. The next three weeks will introduce the final seven contestants, who will battle for the final of three slots in that semi-finals. So who will join Harp there tonight?
Helping to bring the ‘90s to life were “Boy Meets World” star Danielle Fishel, who helped provide some new clues for our new contestants, as did *NSYNC star Lance Bass. Tonight’s performers couldn’t have been more different, either, with a rapper facing off against a rock edge and those sweet Lambs harmonies.
Let’s jump right in with this week’s masks. And don’t worry, before we get to the shocking unmasking, we’re going to make you power through the terrible (and occasionally good) guesses made by our illustrious panel of Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger first. We do this because we love … to torture you.
Along with the panel’s guesses, we’ll be sharing some internet speculation, too, so if you don’t want to be potentially spoiled (because they are very good at this), you may want to skip past the guesses sections.
(“Two Princes,” Spin Doctors) Walrus can definitely carry a tune with a relaxed rocker vibe, but we didn’t get from this that that’s what he was mainly known for. He sang like you’d expect a multi-talented heartthrob who maybe gigged on the side for fun, but acting was his main bag. He has a fun stage presence and some charisma in that costume, but we’re not sure it’s strong enough to lead a band or launch a solo career.
Guesses: With a package packed with clues, we learned so many very specific things, like how he tap-danced on a late-night legend’s desk back in the ‘90s. He also apparently is tied to a “killer zip code,” and there was none bigger than “90210” back in the day.
He also apparently had a catchphrase that people still remember at one point. But he also said that he started his career as a heartthrob in malls signing autographs for our moms, and then got a whole new generation of fans on streaming platforms.
Visual clues included a broken heart reconnected with music notes inside, a cat wearing a “Jenny” nametag, and a screenplay labeled “Rom Com.” He also mentioned a look that included flannel shirt, leather jacket and floppy hair — so basically everyone in the ‘90s. “Whoa!” Is this Joey Lawrence — who did moonlight in music?
His on-stage clue was presented by Lance Bass of *NSYNC in the flesh, who read from a CD case, “This mix was made to give you a break from heartache and, yes, they’re all my TV theme songs.”
Ken heard the phrase “full house” in reference to the screaming fans in the mall, so he went with John Stamos; a tired guess he will never get tired of making. Stamos is a unofficial member of the Beach Boys (tying to “Summer to Remember” in the clue package), and his catchphrase was, “Have mercy!”
Robin Thicke was picking up what we’ve been putting down, tying everything directly to multi-show child star Joey Lawrence. Nicole, though, was thinking more “Saved by the Bell” and then she butchered the name Mark-Paul “Courvoisier” aka Gosselaar aka Zack Morris. She then changed it to Mario Lopez because she could say it.
Twitter wasn’t so sure on this one, either, throwing out names like Jordan Fisher, Jaleel White and Brian Austin Green — who did rock out back in the day with Robin Thicke on that car, if you’ll recall! There was some love for Joey, though, which is where we’re leaning.
(“Jump on It,” Sir Mix-a-Lot) Milkshake brought all the girls to the stage, but we still weren’t all that impressed with his flow throughout this piece. We were expecting a ‘90s rap legend with his clues, but he fell behind the beat several times and seemed to struggle to keep his character and energy up. If this is something he used to do, he’s either way out of practice, or that suit was leaving him winded.
Guesses: Rap-related clues included the phrase “fantastic voyage,” talk of his mix tape blowing up and the ladies admiring his rhymes. He said he collaborated with the biggest names in the business in his day and that his career “took off like a rocket.”
There was a bowl of peach pits at one point and a chocolate sundae at another while he talked about a shake. He also mentioned ringing a bell, which always makes us think of LL Cool J’s iconic music video, as well as talking about picking up the blitz, so boxing and football references there.
Danielle Fishel brought out his on-stage clue with the message, “A playlist that’s perfect for your pre-game, main event and after party … just ask Wiz and Snoop.” Robin was thinking football players with rap skills like Tyreek Hill, DeSean Johnson nd Ezekiel Elliott.
Ken also had LL Cool J on the brain, but Robin pointed out that he didn’t hear him licking his lips between the lyrics. Jenny, though, wondered if the stray “jazz” word in the clue package was an on-the-nose reference to DJ Jazzy Jeff, without the Fresh Prince. Even Nick wasn’t feeling Nicole’s T.I. guess, which needed more than peach pits to carry it.
In fact, the internet couldn’t do much better with their guesses, indicating that this is definitely not someone who’s made their mark in rap in any significant way. We did see some agreement with panel guesses, as well as names like Bow Wow, Lil Wayne and even Mike Tyson — so yeah, they got no clue!
(“Ironic,” Alanis Morissette) The Lambs were stronger last week, as this song didn’t quite fit their harmonies as well. With so many great group songs out there, why wouldn’t they want to find a way to blow the audience away with their strongest element, those harmonies. This is a song with an edge and they fell between smooth and edge and it didn’t work as well, but we still believe they’re definitely a professional singing trio, because it’s just too tight.
Guesses: There weren’t a lot of new clues, but the internet doesn’t really need anymore after their confidence following last week’s episode. They did say they need to stay “hocus-ed,” which this year will always make people think of “Hocus Pocus.” They also showed an old film reel, box TV and film clapperboard.
Lance Bass came out again for this one — making us once again wonder why they couldn’t get three different celebs for these cameos? It happened on the TV show last time and here we are again and it’s just awkward. His clue was, “Go your own way and cruise the country with your besties. Turn those daydreams into a … reality.”
Nicole thought of The Corrs’ road trip song, “Breathless,” which isn’t a terrible guess. Jenny considered SWV, but Robin wasn’t hearing that at all, so he stood by his guess that these are The Chicks — but the Lambs weren’t giving anything up, and Twitter is still certain they’re Wilson Phillips, with a little love for The Chicks.
This first unmasking should be totally obvious, as Milkshake just wasn’t in the same class as the other two. It’s not because he was performing in another genre, just that he wasn’t as strong or entertaining in it as either Lambs or Walrus were with their respective performances.
And then, we were absolutely stunned when it was Walrus instead who was going to be unmasked first. Did Milkshake really bring it that much better than we thought he did?
Robin Thicke: Joey LawrenceJenny McCarthy: Scott WolfKen Jeong: John StamosNicole Scherzinger: Mario Lopez
Jenny was suddenly putting together clues because of the “Jenny” cat talking bout how she always had the stray cats (stars) living in her house, and there was one who lived there for seven years. She also had a heart painting that broke that this guy put back together, which could be the broken heart that was magically repaired in the clue package. That’s how she landed on Scott Wolf.
But even all those very specific clues led her astray, as it was indeed Mr. “Whoa!” himself, Joey Lawrence. He appeared to have had an absolute blast on the show, and even teased that it was so much fun, he’s thinking of putting out some more music sometime in the future.
(“What Is Love,” Haddaway) Milkshake was off-key and kind of a mess throughout this. We’re not sure what the judges were watching because this was a bit of a trainwreck for us. And who picked this song for either of them? The Lambs stripped it back and made it a vocal showcase, slowing the melody down and hitting the chorus with their beautiful harmonies. We wish the solo portions on “What is love?” were a little stronger, but this was night and day.
Even if The Lambs didn’t’ totally nail every moment of this performance, it was so far beyond what Milkshake did, with his off-key warbling and talking — it was like William Shatner up there against the Supremes.
This should be a no-brainer, but we’ve said that before. This performance only reiterated that Milkshake shouldn’t have made it past Walrus, but here we are. Maybe Kelis was right about the magic of a milkshake. Thankfully, she was not and this was as far as Milkshake would go.
Robin Thicke: DeSean JacksonJenny McCarthy: DJ Jazzy JeffKen Jeong: LL Cool JNicole Scherzinger: T.I.
This one had everyone pretty well stumped because he just wasn’t quite good enough to sell himself as a professional rapper. Robin was on the right track with a football player who can rap, he just landed on the wrong one as Le’Veon Bell was unmasked.
Le’Veon was one of those artists who wanted to take advantage of the anonymity of this show to showcase a talent people may not think of when they see him. Another season that could have given him more than one episode to do that might have been more effective, but at least he did get that chance here.
“The Masked Singer” returns Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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