The top eight performed on "The Voice" this Monday, and it was the most awkward "Voice" episode since that time when a Tony Lucca-loathing Christina Aguilera gave a critique while staring apathetically into her Starbucks cup, or that time when she texted in the middle of Tony's thank-you speech.

Why? Because in the space of two hours, the following things happened:

Terry McDermott gets cuddly on cameraTerry McDermott almost swore on national TV (and in front of his toddler son!) when his family surprised him onstage, then he made out with his wife while host Carson Daly ickily leered and called it "good TV." Christina practically begged America to save her one remaining contestant, and it was not a pretty sight. Supposed social media correspondent Christina Milian claimed that every single contestant on the show was "trending worldwide!"--when a quick glance at Twitter proved that the only television show trending at all was "Liz & Dick." Adam Levine and Carson talked smack about Melanie Martinez's ex-boyfriend, while she squirmed and bit her lip and stared at her clunky shoes. Blake Shelton made a politically incorrect joke about the sunglasses-wearing Nicholas David being secretly blind. And Adam went off on a seemingly 10-minute-long rant about Hollywood rock club the Roxy that was about as hateful (and entertaining) as anything that's ever come out of Simon Cowell's mouth.

Thanksgiving week was a highly emotional experience on "The X Factor," especially for two contestants, CeCe Frey and Paige Thomas, who already had terrible memories associated with the holiday season: CeCe's sister died from cerebral palsy complications at age 7 on Christmas Eve, and on another horrific Christmas Eve long ago, Paige's mother was killed in a drunk-driving accident. So last Wednesday, both CeCe and Paige poured their hearts, souls, and quite literally their tears into performances for their loved ones. (CeCe dedicated "Wind Beneath My Wings" to her late sister, Kelsey; Paige dedicated Britney Spears's "Everytime" to Colleen, the woman who adopted her after her mother's death.) And after the show, they composed themselves and spoke to Reality Rocks backstage about showcasing previously unseen, vulnerable sides of themselves to America.

Beatrice Miller's very unhappy ThanksgivingThis Thursday was Thanksgiving on "The X Factor," obviously. But while the show made a feeble attempt to create a warm 'n' fuzzy holiday vibe by having the top 10 sing with L.A.'s Bancroft Middle School Choir and by (pre-Black Friday product placement alert!) helping Best Buy refurbish the school's music room, we all knew that by the end of this very ill-timed episode, two of these 10 contestants would not be feeling so thankful. Yes, it was another double-elimination night on "The X Factor," and Scroogey Simon Cowell and Grinchy L.A. Reid weren't going to let a little something like a major holiday stop them from getting down to business. If you were expecting hosts Mario Lopez and Khloe Kardashian to gleefully announce, "Hey, guess what? Surprise! No one goes home this week!"--well, that didn't happen.