Jason Castro may not have shot the deputy, but with a swift but painful rendition of a Bob Marley classic, he annihilated his hopes of becoming the next “American Idol.”

Now ask him if he cares.

The dreadlocked, easygoing Texan was sent packing from “American Idol” on Wednesday night in what was arguably the most jubilant exit of any contestant ever.

Admitting that his inexperience had gotten the better of him during the previous night’s grueling performances of “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Castro appeared visibly relieved to have the pressure of the competition behind him. Having to perform two songs in one week, he said, was tough to handle.

The 20-year-old college student, who all season long seemed to take the pressure of the show less seriously than his rivals, even said he had appreciated one of the barbs sent his way after he had forgotten some of the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

“Somebody told me that I shot the Tambourine Man yesterday,” he said, laughing. “I thought that was pretty funny.”

Later, host Ryan Seacrest pointed out that Castro appeared to be relieved.

“There’s three songs next week,” Castro responded. “I don’t know what I would have done.”

Castro then launched into his final performance on the show, laughing and joking his way through “I Shot the Sheriff” one more time.

All in all, Castro’s gleeful exit was a welcome change from the tears and melodrama that often accompany the ousting of an “Idol” contestant.

Still, without Castro around to remind us that dude, this is just a TV show, the competition is bound to start feeling more serious. After all, we are down to just three singers now, all of whom are formidable contestants with their eyes laser focused on taking the “Idol” throne.

Miss those dreadlocks yet?

Is there something rotten in the state of “Idol”?

Not if you ask host Ryan Seacrest.

The night after the show faced perhaps its biggest controversy so far this season, Seacrest just seemed to brush it all under the rug. Since Tuesday night’s performances episode, the show was tarnished with accusations that Abdul unfairly used pre-written notes to judge a performance by contestant Jason Castro BEFORE he even sang one of the songs she referred to. For a full rundown of the debacle, click here.

While Abdul herself explained the gaffe on Seacrest’s radio show Wednesday morning as confusion and misunderstanding , the incident was barely hinted at on Wednesday’s “Idol”  broadcast.

The moment was left out of the recap of the previous night’s show, and Seacrest took a brief moment to defend Abdul by only cryptically referring to the “gossip” he had read on the Internet.

“For the record, the rumors, they’re not true,” Seacrest said. “She’s part of our family, and we love her.”

So what “rumors” was Seacrest referring to? That Abdul might have based her notes on the rehearsal instead of the live show? Or that someone wrote her notes for her? Or, even more sinister, that the producers vet the judges’ comments to try to sway the competition in a certain direction?

There was a lot of buzz out there, and Seacrest wasn’t specific about what is and isn’t true.

On the “Idol” forums, the debate is still raging. Some fans say the issue should be dropped:

“no scandal, case closed! Top 4 here we go!!!”

Others feel shortchanged:

“Paula got caught in an obvious lie to the AI viewers, and they handled it as if she was the victim.”

How do you think “Idol” has handled “Paulagate” so far?

In seven seasons of “American Idol,” Paula Abdul has definitely had her moments.

But her gaffe on Tuesday night’s episode was either the “Kookiest Paula Moment Ever” or a sign of the judges’ apparently not-so-spontaneous evaluations of contestants’ performances.

Abdul on Wednesday sought to explain the blunder as a simple misunderstanding. “We all just screwed up everything,” she told Entertainment Tonight.

It was Neil Diamond night, and after each of the show’s five remaining contestants sang their first of two songs for the evening, the judges were asked to comment on their performances.

Randy Jackson quickly rattled off his impressions, and then Abdul launched into a lengthy analysis of contestant Jason Castro’s two performances. Yes, that’s right. Abdul remembered TWO performances. When Castro, and all of the other contestants, had only performed ONCE.

“Oh my God, I thought you sang twice,” a flustered Abdul said when Jackson gently pointed out that Castro had only performed one song so far. She added: “This is hard!”

“You’re seein’ the future baby, you’re seein’ the future!” host Ryan Seacrest said.

Abdul tried to cover for the mistake by saying she had been reading her notes from both Castro’s performance and contestant David Cook’s performances.

The flub was enough to convince some fans that Abdul must have prepared her notes on both songs before the live performance.

On the “Idol” forums, some fans pondered whether the judges’ comments were a function of who the show’s producers want to win rather than the content of the performances. Others gave the show the benefit of the doubt, saying Abdul must have taken notes at the dress rehearsals

Abdul explained on Wednesday that Idol producers had thrown the judges a last minute curveball during the show.  “I am feverishly trying to write notes for every performance,” she recounted, saying her notes got mixed up.

“I was just trying to give my critique for Jason Castro, and scribbled Jason’s name, and that was David (Cook)’s. “This is live television. This is fun!,” she said.

That’s it. The next time Simon Cowell actually likes a performance on “American Idol,” he should just keep it to himself. No one tunes in to see him say anything nice, anyway.

Carly Smithson’s elimination on Wednesday night’s show simply defied any rational explanation, even in the cruel and unforgiving world of reality TV. For the first time in weeks, the Irish diva on Tuesday night received uniform praise from all three judges for her passionate performance of “Superstar” from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Composer Andew Lloyd Webber was the show’s guest mentor.

The praise from Cowell was enough to make Smithson, who last week accused Cowell of being too hard on her, whip out a blue T-shirt that read “Simon Loves Me (This Week).”

But besides Smithson’s standout performance, rival contestants Brooke White and Jason Castro were both panned up and down both on the show and in the blogosphere, including right here on Fan Fare. One of them surely appeared headed for the axe on Wednesday.

So what happened?

During Wednesday’s episode, Cowell took a stab at explaining the results, saying White had shown herself to be human by stumbling over the beginning of her performance of “You Must Love Me,” from the film “Evita.”

And Castro, he said, was “charming” even though his rendition of “Memory,” from the musical “Cats,” was an agreed upon disaster. Admittedly, Castro saying “I didn’t know a cat was singing it” in his pre-taped interview before his performance is likely to go down as one of the highlights of this season.

On the “Idol” forums, some fans tried to explain Smithson’s departure by saying the show had become more of a popularity contest than a singing competition. Others said the choice of “Superstar” was a controversial one that may have alienated some religious Christian voters. One fan, however, really got to the root of the issue:

“Carly didn’t get enough votes.”

For the full elimination night story, click here.

It must have been conceived as some sort of cruel joke.

For seven seasons now, the judges of “American Idol” have repeatedly told contestants to steer clear of singing songs by Mariah Carey, ostensibly because the singing competition’s up-and-coming star wannabes could never hope to measure up to one of the great voices of pop music.

So, let’s just say it was a little strange to find Carey as the guest judge on Tuesday night’s show. Because you know what that means: the contestants were allowed to perform an old Mariah song, a new Mariah song, or any other Mariah song of their choosing.

As judge Simon Cowell predicted at the beginning of the show, the night indeed turned out to be lackluster one for the girls because of the unavoidable comparisons between them and the great Carey herself. That didn’t stop Cowell from delivering his usual barbs, however.

“It was a bit like ordering a hamburger and only getting the bun,” Cowell told Brooke White after her performance of “Hero.” “In other words the vital ingredient, the bit in the middle, was missing.”

Ouch.

The other girls — Syesha Mercado, Kristy Lee Cook, and Carly Smithson — emerged without being compared to fast food, but they didn’t get any overwhelming love from the judges.

The remaining three boys, however, put the judges in a festive mood. A leather pants-clad David Archuleta’s performance of “When You Believe” was declared the evening’s benchmark by Cowell, and David Cook’s rock take on “Always Be My Baby” received a standing ovation from judge Randy Jackson.

Later, Jackson likened Jason Castro’s take on “I Don’t Wanna Cry” to “a weird beach luau,” but Paula Abdul said it was a luau that she would “love to be at.” Cowell agreed with Abdul, saying that “the guys completely won the night.”