“America’s Got Talent: The Champions” S02.E03 Episode 3 Recap ★★★★☆

A loaded show features five former AGT champions and a whole lot of weird, but which four acts will move on?

WE’RE BACK FOR EPISODE 3 OF AMERICA’S GOT TALENT: THE CHAMPIONS, and Terry Crews is rocking some wild red shoes to kick things off. WYD, Terry? Howie gets tonight’s golden buzzer, that is of course unless Simon steals it again. We’ve already put eight acts through the last two weeks, and we’ll add four more tonight.

Howie tells us five of tonight’s 10 acts are past AGT champions, a record for the show, so it should be an absolutely loaded slate. That will be a nice change of pace after last week’s extremely lackluster performances.

Let’s see what we’ve got!

Tonight’s 10 acts

Alexa Lauenburger

Well, we’ve got five champs performing tonight and we’re starting out with one of them, an 11-year-old girl from Germany named Alexa. It’s a dog act, which means I almost instinctively tune out (and judge Germany), but Alexa pulls me back in.

The first half of the act is a bit of the usual with dogs jumping through hoops, but the tricks get better and better and these dogs are really quite amazingly trained. A doggie conga line near the end is positively delightful, and really, that’s just it. The dogs are impressive, but mostly, this just made me smile, and sometimes that’s enough. Add in a peppy “Jump” track and all that was missing was a dancing Hugh Grant. Alexa and her dogs are adorable.

Tyler Butler Figueroa

America’s got kids tonight, with TBF returning to play electric violin. As always with Tyler, the story tends to overshadow the talent. Tyler is 12 years old, now four years removed from lymphoma cancer, and he’s certainly an inspiration. As a talent, he’s mostly fine.

This isn’t a great performance from him. The dancers and background overpower Tyler and remind me of the problem with many kid acts — is the talent great, or is the talent great for a kid? Or in this case, for a kid with a moving story?

Mostly, Tyler does exactly what he does every other performance: make me miss Brian Joseph King. Who, by the way, is performing next week and will put Tyler’s talent to shame. Heaven help us if we get Tyler in the next round but not Brian.

Ben Hart

Well that was a swing and a miss.

There’s something mysterious and interesting about Ben Hart… at first. Ben has a cool India story with bowls and rice and a magic river, but the performance is underwhelming overall. It’s just too small for this stage, too low key and low energy.

And with that, Ben the magician disappeared.

Freckled Sky

I’m not totally sure how to even describe what this act was. Freckled Sky is some sort of weird modern dance act with a montage of green screen movie effects behind it? It was weird.

Simon buzzes them. Do you know how much it must stink to get called back to AGT only to have the only judge that matters buzz you and essentially tell you mid-performance that he regrets bringing you back? And unfortunately, I can’t say I disagree with him.

Moses Concas

What is happening with this show tonight? Everyone is making such strange choices. Moses is Italy’s 2016 winner and he calls himself the world’s best harmonica player. And maybe he is! But he has not shown us that tonight.

The act starts out suuuper slow. It gets good in the second half but took a little too long to get there, with weird springy dancers taking away from his performance. Honestly, I’d like to see Moses again. He’s playing harmonica and beat boxing and I think there’s some pretty cool talent here, but this was definitely not the package for it.

Halfway home, there’s been lot of talent tonight but it’s been so, so weird. I have no idea who’s going to advance so far.

V. Unbeatable

Ahh, now we’re talking. I adored V. Unbeatable last summer and immediately tag this group as Howie’s likely golden buzzer.

And holy cow, were they worth the wait! This dance team is just out of this world. There’s so much air time and cool choreography that is simultaneously both unique and totally on brand, and there are at least five WHATTTT grab-my-head-in-astonishment moments. I have never seen a more creative dance team. I’d pay money to watch a full show right now.

Sure enough, Howie gives V. Unbeatable the golden buzzer, and it’s only in that moment that I am reminded of the cool story behind this act on top of everything else. That’s how stories ought to go. They should amplify an act, not be the reason for it. Maybe it’s just the flu I’ve come down with, but I find myself shaking and crying as the act concludes.

V. Unbeatable can win this entire thing. They’d be my front runner right now.

Michael Grimm

Oh. Good.

Michael Grimm is back.

Perhaps you can sense my excitement just dripping off the screen.

Michael won AGT 10 years ago, somehow beating Jackie Evancho in the finals against all odds. And the thing is, he has an incredible voice. But he’s just so boring. He’s like a modern Michael Bolton or something. That’s a compliment! But if Michael Grimm was going to be a star, wouldn’t he be one by now?

Duo Destiny

Duo Destiny are yet another prior champion, this one from Poland. They’re a boyfriend and girlfriend that found each other on Facebook to dance, and Howie asks them approximately 17 time if they’re going to get married.

The act begins and these two are part dancers, part balance, part acrobat, part trapeze. And they. are. AMAZING.

He hangs in the air by her arm and leg, looking like he might snap her in half, and he does the splits while she balances perilously but perfectly overhead. There are drops and catches, and there are back-to-back splits high above the AGT that I’m pretty sure make these two actually legally married now.

It’s different and new and definitely WOW, and my jaw is just dropped for at least the final 30 seconds of the act. The music and background only add to the overall performance. This was art, and it is beautiful and might well have been a golden buzzer if we still had one available.

Quick Style

Doesn’t Quick Style sound like it should definitely be the name of one of those acts that changes clothes every three seconds?

Instead, it’s a dance act that won in Norway 10 years ago and appears to have lost several members since. These guys look the sort of crew Jason Mendoza would *definitely* hang out with every night in Jacksonville.

Before their act, the guys give us a quick-style disclaimer that this will be a bit of a slow dance, so prepare accordingly. Yikes. It’s never a good thing when you have to convince us why you’re good.

And the thing is, Quick Style is really good. They’re quite gifted technically and, on talent alone, might be one of the night’s top acts. But they’re even slower than they warned and yet again, they just haven’t read the room or come prepared with the right dance.

I’m not sure if these international acts are trying to stand out or if it’s different overseas, but everything is BIG on the AGT stage and these guys were more quiet and confident. Not a real crowd pleaser.

Miki Dark

What a weird but appropriate way to end this weird but fascinating episode.

Miki Dark is a creepy demonic German dude and, like… what is this dude?

There’s no talking, lots of ominous music, and slow, deliberate movements that hold my attention all the way. Miki turns out to be a danger act crossed with some speck of magic and an ounce of sadism. Without warning, he turns and throws a knife right onto a board balanced around Heidi’s neck and perfectly hits the one envelope with Simon’s creepily kissed photo, and if you think that sentence sounds weird, you should have seen the act.

Well, alright then. Let’s pick some winners.

My personal rankings

Golden buzzer worthy

1. V. Unbeatable 2. Duo Destiny

Lots of big talent tonight

3. Michael Grimm 4. Alexa Lauenburger 5. Moses Concas 6. Tyler Butler Figueroa

What.

7. Miki Dark

Didn’t translate

8. Quick Style 9. Ben Hart 10. Freckled Sky

My top two is clear, but this is an absolute mess after that. Really weird episode, with a whole lot of talent that often didn’t seem like they gave us their best. The floor was raised tonight, as even the bottom acts were miles better than three or four acts each of the first two episodes, but most of them lacked that ceiling or wow factor.

I legitimately have no idea who stays or goes from here. Only Duo Destiny leaving would truly anger me, and only Ben staying would really surprise.

This should be interesting.

Tonight’s results

Terry comes back out and reminds us that, thankfully, V. Unbeatable is already through to the next round thanks to the golden buzzer.

He calls our first three acts to front stage: Ben Hart, Duo Destiny, and Freckled Sky. I notice for the first time that the girl from Duo looks a little like Anna Kendrick. This has to be them, right? Whew, it is. That place might have rioted.

Well that was my top act left along with my two on the bottom. Anything is possible now.

The next three are announced: Miki Dark, Moses Concas, and Tyler Butler Figueroa. I sigh audibly at the announcement of the final name, knowing it must be him. The superfans love a kid with a good story.

Tyler moves on, and that leaves Michael Grimm, Alexa Lauenburger, and Quick Style as our final three for the judges. Wow, all three of them are previous champions. This should be really interesting.

I do the math. I’ve got Simon voting for Grimm to protect the American brand. Howie goes with the kid with the dogs. Alesha feels like a Quick Style vote. That would leave Heidi as the tiebreak, and I am leaning Quick Style for her.

The votes begin…

Alesha votes for Alexa. Wow! That would’ve been my last pick for her. Howie goes next and he picks Alexa too, as I suspected. One more and she’s through.

Simon’s up next, and he unnecessarily bashes Quick Style by pointing out that this is really just a vote between two acts, not three, before casting a third deciding vote for Alexa.

Wow! I’m really surprised, but not disappointed. Alexa is the least “talented” act of the three, but she made me smile, and I needed a smile tonight.

Michael Grimm is my first top-three act in three episodes to not move on, but I’m not mad. The voting is still far better than last season, and I won’t miss seeing Mr. Grimm, and I suspect no one else will either.

Well, that was a weird one. 30 acts down, 10 to go. Let’s wrap up round one next Monday night… ■

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