(Note: Carrie contributed to this comment.)
So, first off, I will now and forever more think of John as "Panther-boy," Rachel as a "Love Goddess," and Kelly as a "Soap Queen." The audience (studio and at home) is, indeed, composed of cretins. I mean, Kelly should have gone home last week. Really. But it was obvious that the producers (puppeteers?) were setting her up for the sympathy vote, and were setting Trista up for failure. I'll grant that Kelly's performance was above bar this week (making it her best yet), but I think Trista might have done even better. At least Trista wasn't actually clumsy/awkward, she was just saddled with a partner who is an excellent dancer but a mediocre teacher (not to mention an arrogant jackass).
I think you covered Joey pretty well, but you didn't mention his terrible facial expression (Carrie: dopey grin) during his jive. The little "this is how we created our routine and learned the dance" bit gave us some foreshadowing of what to expect when they talked about the tension between his desire to "perform" and her concentration on the technical. What was wrong with his performance last week? His butt stuck out. Not a performance issue, a technical issue. So this week they sacrifice all technique to concentrate on showmanship? Bleah. I liked the choreography a lot, but the execution was godawful. They didn't spend nearly enough time together performing as a couple, he spent the entire dance looking like he'd just gotten off a horse, and his arms were distractingly bad. (There was one point where I swear he looked like he was flapping his arms like a large, dopey bird.)
On to more pleasant things: John and Rachel. I certainly hope to see the two of them as the last two (four) standing. John has more personality than everyone else combined (Joey does have some...), and succeeds in expressing it in his dancing. If only he'd stop looking at his partner!
Rachel truly loses herself in the dance and follows beautifully. She's someone I'd be delighted to dance with myself (and no, not just because she's a supermodel). It's clear she put a tremendous amount of work into it, and it's clear that it's paid off. Her partner is also excellent, in that I can remember almost nothing about him; he truly showed her, without distracting from her. Actually, I might fault John for not doing that, since his personality really overwhelms all of his performances. I'll forgive him, though, since he gives a strong performance every time.
P.S. Dude, "did very good"? Oh, and Mack is a brand name.
"John and Rachel. I certainly hope to see the two of them as the last two (four) standing."
Ooooh, I just realised what the late-round stuff is going to involve: partner switching!