Last week on “The Masked Singer,” Squirrel barely squeaked out a victory in the tightest battle of the season. This week, the competition was even stiffer as Fairy and Jackalope joined the fray.
Also joining in on the fun were a whole slew of friends and neighbors from “Sesame Street.” It was definitely a fun night with Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Grover, Abby Cadabby, Count, and Oscar the Grouch interacting with the contestants and Nick Cannon.
Add to that Jennifer Nettles joining both as guest panelist and shameful promotional tie-in to her new show, “Farmer Wants a Wife,” an American adaptation of an international sensation dating show. How will it fare stateside?
And how did Squirrel fare against this stiff new competition? With the Ding Dong Keep It On Bell having rung last night, two masks would be revealed by the end of the night. And one of those belonged to one of the biggest social media influencers in the history of this new position! Who was it, and who was the other? There’s only one way to find out!
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.
(“Just the Two of Us,” Grover Washington, Jr. f/ Bill Withers) Squirrel now has us convinced that she is not primarily a singer, but has this as a secondary passion. Her performance showed off a lower register, but also a somewhat subdued and limited range. It was a solid enough sound, but didn’t stand out as much as she did last week as a winning sound.
Guesses: After a lot of hints about her past including her time as a figure skater, model, star of teen acne commercials and the fact she made out with Tom Cruise, the internet felt like they’d successfully homed in on this very specific resume. This week, the gorilla was back to steal her Swedish meatballs and she also brought out a wedding dress, quipping, “Say Yes to the Guess.” Was that a nod to the show, or her being married … or even having just starred in a wedding movie?
For her on-stage clue, an adorable tyke named Damir came out from behind the door to chat with Elmo and Nick. Damir was here with his brother, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who scared the world with his frightening collapse after a tackle back in January.
Damar said that he opted to come on the show tonight for Damir, because his baby brother loves “Sesame Street” more than just about anything else. He also brought a clue, which is a football with Ken’s face on it. “Ken, this isn’t the first time we’ve worked together,” explained Squirrel, “but it is the first time you’ve had more lines.”
She then chastised him for not recognizing his voice, which was funnier. It proves that she’s an actress, and her banter suggests she’s got some comedic chops. If we are standing by Twitter’s favorite guess of Malin Akerman, there is the 2009 movie “Couples Retreat,” which featured both of them.
When Ken marveled that he’d maybe worked in a movie with her, Squirrel shot back, “Maybe more than once.” Akerman and Jeong did both star on Sesaon 1 of the Yahoo! Screen series “Burning Love,” so that would be another shared screen credit.
Ken took a wider shot, though, going all the way back to his first movie for “Knocked Up” star Katherine Heigl. He tied the wedding dress to “27 Dresses.” He couldn’t land the Tom Cruise kiss clue, though, which opened the door for Nicole, who knew “exactly who this is.” Her guess was Kate Hudson, who received a Golden Globe by Tom Cruise. But Ken hasn’t worked with her.
Jenny was the one who put the right clues together, landing on Malin Akerman, but she was alone in this sentiment among the panel. We’ve got her back, though — did you know she was also in “27 Dresses”? Jennifer tried to play along, but couldn’t say yay or nay on if her guess Anne Hathaway, had kissed Tom Cruise. Malin did in “Rock of Ages,” for the record.
(“You’re No Good,” Linda Ronstadt) Fairy definitely has some chops. There was a wonderful texture to her voice, someone who is either preternaturally gifted or put a lot of time into honing her craft — or both. She has a lovely tone to her voice and great control. There was range, dynamic inflection, a hint of a growl, all the things you expect to see in a professional or aspiring singer.
Guesses: The biggest clue was Fairy saying she was a bit of a “nepo fairy” and revealing she made money charging the kids to come see her dad just hanging out. Clearly, she comes from a famous father, but has also forged a bit of an identity of her own.
She came to that identity, though, a little later in life — or maybe stepped away for several years to focus on education and mundanity. She did suggest she has a tie (ish) to “Sesame Street” and that Oscar the Grouch is an “old friend.” She said since returning to Hollywood, she’s been able to pursue passions both musical and acting.
As for that famous dad, she hinted that maybe he grew up with Sean Penn, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez, dropping him in a pretty elite crowd of young Hollywood “Outsiders” in the 1980s. Images included a black panther stirring a cauldron, a basketball, a rubber duckie ornament hung on a white Christmas tree and a police badge numbered 966.
Cookie Monster provided the on-stage clue of “Endless Love,” which Fairy contextualized by adding, “This clue should be music to your ears. A timeless classic that means so much more to me than just romance.”
Jenny was feeling very confident with the “ish” reference, thinking it was pointing to “black-ish,” with the badge suggesting “CSI” to land on Diana Ross’ daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross. Ken, though, was on the ridiculous train again with another Angelina Jolie guess he could not even begin to defend.
Robin lobbed out a Rashida Jones guess, tying it to mention of “The Office” and her famous father, Quincy Jones. “It takes a nepo to know a nepo,” Robin told Ken. But did he land the right nepo? According to Twitter, he did not. They’re looking at Holly Robinson Peete, and bringing the receipts to back up their guess.
(“Whenever, Wherever,” Shakira) Jackalope knows her way around a stage and a lyric. She had a commanding presence from the start, coming out with a lot of sass and stage presence. Interestingly, she sounded a lot like Shakira on this, and Shakira has a very unique timbre to her voice. It made it harder to differentiate who she might be, but it’s also a testament to the quality of her singing; she sounds like the real deal.
Guesses: Challenging the panel right away, Jackalope appears to be from the TikTok or social media generation, gaining her biggest fame online. She talked about being vulnerable with her fans giving her strength, she said she and her fellow outcasts defined an industry and that she shines brightest on Wednesdays (is that when she drops new content?).
She also said the phrase “Modern Family,” showed a heart necklace with a G on it, a picture of the “Scream” mask, ivy (a possible reference to Vine), and the men in black were wearing red head- and wristbands. She said through an accent — so English is not her first language — that she wasn’t very social growing up, so she found ways to express herself through music and dance. She also said, “This Jackalope don’t lie,” which was a clear nod to Shakira.
“I love you, too,” she told Nicole, adding that they hung out together and partied once. Count provided the “30 Under 30” clue. “Donald Glover, Emma Stone, and Michael B. Jordan,” said Jackalope, “It is an honor to be on the same list.” Nicole wasn’t super confident with her guess, and worried Jackalope would get upset with her, but she landed a great guess with Lele Pons.
Lele got her start on Vine where she had more followers than any other woman, before jumping ship to YouTube. On top of that, she was born in Venezuela, which would inform both the accent and her song choice. On Vine, she offered a variety of entertainment, helping to create the short-form entertainment that’s come to dominate social media. Oh, she also appeared in the first episode of the “Scream” TV show.
Jennifer admitted she has no idea about the social influencer world, so she threw out Camila Cabello, while Jenny wondered if maybe it was Jenna Ortega of “Wednesday” fame who’s also in the “Scream” sequel.
But it’s hard to deny the connections to Lele, which is what Twitter was doing almost immediately. It would make sense a social media platform would immediately pick up on a social media influencer. They were not, however, unanimous on this.
There was a mixed reaction last week when Squirrel won the round, and we also thought she’d have a tough time hanging onto that crown. After an even more competitive time this week, we don’t think she did enough to keep it, after all. She was outmatched at every level by both Fairy and Jackalope.
The voting audience and panel obviously came out of the episode with the same feeling as Squirrel was poised to be the first one unmasked on the night, ending her journey. At least she can say she held onto that title of champion for one week. That’s more than a lot can ever say these past couple of seasons!
Robin Thicke: Heather GrahamJenny McCarthy: Malin AkermanJennifer Nettles: Anne HathawayKen Jeong: Katherine HeiglNicole Scherzinger: Kate Hudson
Even Squirrel was nodding along with Jenny’s guess, wich Ken quickly noticed, and then she reminded him of when they worked together. As soon as she said it, he hung his head as if he knew she was right. And she was, as Malin Akerman was revealed to an excited panel and a frustrated Ken that he hadn’t figured it out.
(“On Top of the World,” Imagine Dragons) Jackalope kind of just powered through the verse of this offering up no real variation from the original melody and thus nothing really all that dynamic or memorable. It was a fair vocal, but nothing exciting. Fairy, then, immediately infected her lines with a little more substance and emotional resonance. She had a sweet vibrato and found ways to show off a little range and artistry, as well.
Going into the Battle Royale, it felt like Fairy had a little more going on as a musical artist. Jackalope is a talented singer, but she was so soundalike as Shakira it almost sounded like she was doing an impression. After the Battle Royale, our thoughts about both of them didn’t really change.
This time, it was up to the panel who was going to go home, but we were feeling confident that Fairy just brought a little more punch to her performance. That’s what happened, too, as it proved the end of the road for Jackalope. Wonder if the panel was regretting using their Ding Dong Keep It On Bell last week to save Gargoyle.
Robin Thicke: Lele PonsJenny McCarthy: Jenna OrtegaJennifer Nettles: Camila CabelloKen Jeong: Selena GomezNicole Scherzinger: Lele Pons
Nicole got to wear this badge of honor for pulling this one out — and Robin for jumping on the right coattails — as it was indeed Lele Pons who got unmasked and again blew us away with her spot-on Shakira impression.
“The Masked Singer” continues with “Sesame Street” Night night next Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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