Well, it looked a bit OTT. It must be HORRIBLE to be bottom 2 but don't they ever think about the possibility and have a strategy to cope with dignity/humour/resilience?

You don't want to look like a complete woobie. Do you?

I have 2 left feet so I would be a Julien anyway. It would come as no surprise to me. But how would you react if you hadn't been expecting it?

I think she should have mentally prepared herself being in the position she was on the leader board.

Dave is clearly popular with the public and an army of women will always vote for Anton no matter what.

I saw that one coming

I don't think you can say how you would react till you are in the situation.

She might have been prepared for it on some level anyway and still have found it upsetting.

We are all different after all.

It must be pretty galling to think so few people have voted for you so I can't criticise Rachel for looking deflated. She's not an actress and her Countdown job doesn't exactly call for much emotional range. She must also be aware that Pasha has reached the final in the last two years so was probably giving herself a hard time for thinking she was letting him down.

I think one person's "complete woobie" is another person's "ahh, she really cares bless her" anyway.

Mind you I'd either be sobbing in the corner or stomping round refusing to dance again if the ignorant peasants couldn't appreciate my artful offerings first time so Rachel looked like the model of restraint compared to that!

Yes, I know we're different but it IS showbiz. I know she's actually NOT showbiz herself but it's not fair to your partner to have a meltdown.

That goes for the ones who mouth off (Jan Ravens will NEVER be invited to the Christmas party) and the woobies. Julien handled it very well indeed considering he acted like a diva the rest of the time. So well done to Julien. And Vanessa! There's one you'd have expected to go loony-tunes but she behaved beautifully.

I'd be a bit lip trembly to be honest, and be considered weak and all sorts most probably.

Which is why I never criticize the dancer's reactions - it's hard to be controlled all the time, well, it is for me.

I think that it's very easy to say " oh I wouldn't do this, if I was in the same situation " . Sometimes you need to walk in someone else's shoes before you understand how you will feel/react.
I would think that I would be level-headed and try not to panick but who knows really how I would react if I was at her place. Can't believe I just defended Rachel .
I will try my hardest not to panick and not become an emotional mess, how will that work ? I don't know lol.

This is a personal view but I wouldn't class a few tears as a meltdown. Julien's approach to the whole thing was akin to the aloof model on the catwalk, so his reaction was entirely as I anticipated. Ditto Vanessa, she had a wobbler on Big Brother but it was entirely different circumstances (including that Endemol/C4 did not employ her in any other capacity).

I thought that she was getting more upset each time the judges voted to save her, perhaps she really felt for Julien.

As Elvis said: “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.”

Tbh I'm not surprised that she found herself in the bottom 2.
-lovely girl but boring
-lackluster partnership with pasha
-mediocre dancing
-middle of the leaderboard
-the only memorable part about her QS was her interesting outfit so I was not surprised to see her in the bottom 2.
It was bound to happen.

I don't think Rachel nearly had a break down, that's over-exaggerating. She was just a bit emotional.

If you see it in another perspective, it showed she actually cared about the show. There was this talk that she wasn't 'in it', and just blagging away, playing a ditzy princess helpless in the arms of Pasha.

There was this talk that Pasha's patience was wearing thin and couldn't wait for Rachel to be voted out. Apparently they took Monkseal's one screen capture of their 'safe sex face' to cement their demented theory.

And then we were told by the judges that actually Pasha wasn't giving Rachel an easy ride. We could see from that dance she had as much, if not slightly more quickstep content than, say, the excellent jazz-inspired QS by Natalie.

But no, naysayers who would rather see the back of Rachel and Pasha couldn't wait to jump on her now to imply she's manipulative, of high opinion of herself (because she should be prepared that there will be one day she'll be in bottom two, right?). If she reacted calmly some other might say, "Ah ha! You see, she doesn't give a damn!"

Well, it just shows that everyone sees these things differently. I thought that her speech when she was first selected, about being glad to do it again and hopefully do it better, was lovely and showed that she'd definitely prepared herself for being in the b2. She was also in control when talking to Claudia. (I could list a lot of people who have been much more resentful and entitled in that little bit.) I thought she and Julian were both very impressive in their resilience.

And then after her dance, which she'd obvious put her all into, she had a cry on Pasha's shoulder for a moment longer than perhaps the usual. Well, so would I, that's all I can say. It might have been her last dance, maybe she felt she'd messed up again, maybe it was just the tension at getting through it. As I've said on another thread, I thought maybe she wasn't taking it that seriously and seeing how much she cared about it made me like her more. She wasn't so overcome that she wasn't respectful to Julian - she went over to speak to him, etc.

Can't see what there is to object to.

It must be heart breaking to nearly go out of a show that you clearly love, when comedy acts like Mark (who really does not dance a step) , when people who go completely and utterly wrong (Fiona) and Deborahs tragic attempt at a so called "jive" get better scores and comments.

Crikey, Ben was as wooden as a plank, with Kristina using him as nothing but a pole to dance her usual x-rated stuff around him. It was awful. Lets see him dance a jive and move round the floor in a quickstep!

This is what happens when the judges over-mark people like Mark. Contestants like Rachel who have no dance training, who have very very hard choreography, are pushed to the bottom of the leader boards.

She needs to be given the chance to get better.

Rachel doesn't excite me at all. As has been said, she's a lovely girl but doesn't seem to have connected with either Pasha or with the dancing. She seems a lot more happier playing squash!

I think I would go all limp and have to be held up.

Perhaps as she is not a trained dancer, tv star or model, perhaps she is not as confident?

She is also being given very hard routines, dances and heavily criticised by the judges.

Breakdown sounds a bit dramatic, I would say she was upset and showed it.

I agree with this comment. I hope she can bounce back next week.

She is a well known TV presenter ? Now also often on the comedy shows ie Jimmy Carrs Countdown etc She is no shrinking violet on that .

Rachel's dance was ropey.
Mark was equal on points with her, and Deborah and Fiona didn't score more than her - they were below her on the leader board.

That's what would upset me ... that somehow I hadn't connected enough with the public to be forgiven a ropey dance and lifted (like 3 of the 4 below me) out of the danger zone. Maths is her skill set - she would have worked that out in a trice.

Indeed, but she is a relative newcomer and they are all pre-recorded.

To be viewed live by nearly 10 million must be incredibly daunting, not to mention the large live audience.

No to mention The Gadget Show.

The Gadget Show ...