'Masked Singer' recap: 3 celebrities go home in shocking triple elimination

Popcorn, Jellyfish, and Seahorse were sent home in a 'The Masked Singer' triple elimination. Find out who was under each mask.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about The Masked Singer season 4 episode 10.

Buckle in folks, because the Masked Singer Super Six semi-finals was a LOT. The good news is that there were many amazing performances, but I have a feeling fans will find the format and eliminations controversial.

The six remaining singers were paired up and whoever wasn't sent through to the finals in each face-off was eliminated without the opportunity for a Smackdown round. At the end, fan-favorite Seahorse, Jellyfish, and Popcorn were sent home, with all three competitors unmasked at the end of the episode.

Luckily, what would've been kind of a bummer of an episode was saved by the amazing Craig Robinson, who channeled his mysterious, singing Doug Judy role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The comedian and soon-to-be Masked Dancer host showed off his own vocal chops with the most fun guest entrance ever on this show, complete with fireworks.

He was joined by Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger, Jenny McCarthy, and host Nick Cannon, who must've been in a festive mood because his suit looked like fancy gift wrap.

Robinson was all of us viewers when we watched the show for the first time.

"Seahorse, Popcorn ... this feels like what a conversation on acid is like," he joked.

Ahead of his introduction, the contestants got together for a group performance of a-ha's "Take On Me," with each masked singer getting an onstage clue.

The first pairing was Seahorse, a contestant favored by many fans to win the whole competition, vs. Crocodile. However, as we know, emotional ballads are often more successful on this show than boppier tunes. Croc's rendition of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" triumphed over Seahorse's cover of Bruno Mars' "That's What I Like" and he earned a spot in the final three.

Robinson certainly approved of Croc's powerful performance.

“Dude, I want to wrestle somebody," he quipped.

I honestly feel like I blacked out for the next few minutes of the show, because the next thing I knew Jeong was popping and locking while Robinson sat across from him stone faced. Whatever that was, a video of it belongs in the Louvre.

Next was Mushroom up against Jellyfish. This didn't feel like a fair fight as the fungi is a vocal wizard who can switch up his voice in virtually any direction, and of course he stunned with Amy Winehouse's "Valerie." But Jellyfish put up a valiant effort with a lovely performance of Rihanna and Mikky Ekko's "Stay."

Unfortunately, Jellyfish's rendition wasn't enough to get her to stay another time over Mushroom.

Finally, it was the battle between two killer vocalists: Popcorn vs. Sun. The buttery belter performed Tina Turner's "Better Be Good To Me," perhaps as a nod to all the guesses saying she's the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll underneath.

Popcorn did a spectacular job but Sun, as it's wont to do, outshined the rest with the most gorgeous and boldest performance of the season — and quite possibly the entire series. She made the bold choice of singing Billie Eilish's "When the Party's Over" a cappella for the most part, before the backing music came in. It was stunning, y'all. This only makes EW's (and Scherzinger's) case for LeAnn Rimes as Sun more convincing, because who else has the pipes and showmanship like her?

This season is basically Sun's to lose, so while Popcorn put up a great fight, she couldn't beat Sun for a spot in the final three. Popcorn was last to be eliminated, but first to be revealed. The panelists divulged their first impression guesses and every one of them except Scherzinger put down Turner as their initial prediction, and both Thicke and Jeong stuck with it. McCarthy changed her mind to Taylor Dayne, as did Scherzinger, who originally guessed Popcorn was Diana Ross.

Popcorn was then unmasked and revealed to be ... Taylor Dayne!

EW was right — there were tons of New York-related clues that pointed to the '80s star, who hails from the city, but there were a few hints that couldn't have fit anybody else. The snake, half-eaten apple, and meatloaf images in Popcorn's first clue package were definitely about Meat Loaf's cover of Dayne's "Original Sin," and the "mysterious illness" from her youth in her second package pointed to Dayne undergoing ureteral reimplantation surgery when she was 5, which led to treatments until she was 18.

Jellyfish was the second to be revealed, and the panelists' guesses were all over the place. Thicke went from TikTok star Addison Rae as his first impression guess to Gabby Douglas, McCarthy hopped from Daisy Ridley to McKayla Maroney, Scherzinger changed from Sofia Richie to Grimes, and Jeong went from Yara Shahidi to Chloe Kim as his final guess.  

The singing sea creature was revealed to be ... Olympic snow boarder Chloe Kim!

All the clues about snow and winter rang true for Kim, as well as her cameo in the Charlie's Angels movie, but paying attention to the overall contestant credentials really came in handy for Jellyfish. Kim appeared on Time's list of 100 most influential people and has an Olympic gold medal, as TMS teased before the season began.

As a sports fan, Jeong has correctly guessed other athletes before (Lonzo Ball most recently), but he especially rooted for Kim, a fellow Korean American he previously called a "pioneer for Asian Americans."

"Thank you for being an inspiration to my daughters — my daughters are 13, in middle school, you’re a huge name in our household and you inspire us all. Thank you and I wish you continued success," Jeong said after she was revealed.

After the break came the bittersweet reveal for Seahorse, who Jeong said "easily could have won this" season. As for first impressions, he initially thought she was Fergie but inexplicably changed his answer to Christina Aguilera. McCarthy maintained Seahorse was her initial guess Halsey, while Thicke and Scherzinger both changed their respective predictions to Tori Kelly. Robinson was just there to have good time and copy some answers, which we respect. 

Seahorse was revealed to be ... Tori Kelly!

There were nods to Kelly's time on American Idol, while the crossed-out broken smile from Seahorse's second clue package could only be about Kelly's album Unbreakable Smile.

“I thought it’d just be fun to come out here and show a whole other side of myself, be a little more sassy, show some choreo," Kelly said about why she went on the show.

The panelists were sad to see Kelly go, especially Scherzinger, who said she was "gutted." We certainly thought top three would be Sun, Seahorse, and Croc or Mushroom, so this episode was a game changer going into the finals.

Speaking of the finale, we'll have to wait until Dec. 16 to find out whether Sun, Croc, or Mushroom wins the Golden Mask Trophy. Next week, the holiday sing-a-long episode won't have any eliminations but will feature performances from the final three and the unmasked celebrities so far from season 4. 

This story originally appeared on: EW - Author:Rachel Yang

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