The powers that be have spent two months telling us that this is the most competitive Dancing With the Stars season ever, and they were determined to press that point to the very end. The six dances on Monday’s final performance show netted four perfect scores of 30 and two of 29. It’s gotten to the point where scores of nine actually get boos.

How to guess where the voters came down, since with the scores this close, the highest vote-getter will almost certainly win? Despite being the only dancer to get two scores of 30 on Monday, it still seems likely that Katherine Jenkins has the smallest chance of winning. This has more to do with the popularity of who she’s facing, of course. But the Welsh Wiggler nailed the steps in her repeat dance with Mark Ballas, the paso doble, and won her first 10 from that stingy old Len Goodman. Katherine tried to set herself apart at the start of her freestyle by doing a little singing, and the pair ripped through little pieces of several dances. Mark was wise to focus on his partner’s command of technique, but the lifting didn’t have the obvious crowd-pleasing quality DWTS viewers expect on this night.

The finale always features two elements: the dancers being asked to repeat a dance they had some problems with earlier in the season, and one of the judges stopping by their final rehearsals. I wonder who Bruno Tonioli had to bribe to get the opportunity to visit William Levy and Cheryl Burke? Compared to Bruno’s lust for William, Wile E. Coyote had only a mild interest in the Road Runner. Their cha cha received a 30, though to these eyes it looked a little basic for Week 10. As for their freestyle, it was basically a lot of Latin-y moves with a few lifts tossed in. There weren’t the pyrotechnics we’ve come to expect to cap off a season, so even though the pair scored a 29 (Len found it too trite), William might get overshadowed by what Donald Driver pulled off at the end.

Donald’s repeat dance was the Argentine tango, but while it scored a 29, I think Len may have been right in thinking it was too careful. It’s possible he and Peta Murgatroyd didn’t want to go all out with lifts, since there would be plenty of that in the freestyle. Fortunately, that last dance made everything else moot, and won the pair that elusive 30 – and the first 10 Len had given them all season long. There was a question about how Peta might handle the freestyle, since she’s a first timer at this level, but her strategies were simple: wear the skimpiest dress allowable, and have her football playing partner go crazy on the lifts. Donald’s idea to incorporate a line dancing theme into the freestyle gave the routine an extra measure of crazy, though there’s really never a good excuse for Cowboy Troy showing up.

I’ve been operating on the assumption all season that William is leading the voting, and I won’t back away from that now, but Donald winning wouldn’t be the most shocking thing in the world.