The Voice Recap: Season 30 Battles Continue With A Huge Loss (And An Even Bigger Win) For Kelly Clarkson

As a wise woman once sang, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," and that sentiment certainly applies to Kelly Clarkson's experience on Tuesday's episode of "The Voice," which began with a major defeat — and ended with an even bigger win.

Picking up after last night's oh-so-dramatic cliffhanger, contestant Kayleigh Mathews revealed that she would be joining Riley Green's team, despite Clarkson hitting her Steal button first. She was visibly disappointed, but little did she know that an even better contestant would be hers for the taking at the end of the night.

Let's fast forward to Tuesday's final Battle between Team Queen Latifah's Chari and Marcus Ladden Jr. Even before this duo sang a note of Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald's "On My Own," we knew that whichever contestant lost, the other would be stolen. It was almost unfair for Latifah to even have both of these singers on her team in the first place. 

Sure enough, Chari (TVLine's grade: A-) and Marcus Ladden Jr. (TVLine's grade: A) gave us exactly the powerhouse performance we were expecting, with 19-year-old Ladden Jr. impressing us slightly more with his mature sound. When Latifah announced that the winner was Chari, we knew it was only a matter of seconds before someone snatched up Ladden Jr.

But then a few seconds went by... and a few more... and we were beginning to think that Ladden Jr. would slip through these foolish coaches' fingers. Just when all hope seemed lost, in came Clarkson with a potentially game-changing Steal.

"I had to us my Steal on Marcus," she said. "He's kind the whole package. He has range, he has tone, he has that emotionality that you really want for a singer. With Marcus, Cut Week is going to be hard." Meanwhile, Latifah is just focused on both of the Steals thus far — Mathews and Ladden Jr. — were originally members of her team. She knows what's up!

Read on for a breakdown of the results from Tuesday's other five Battles, then drop a comment with your thoughts below. Did you agree with all of the coaches' decisions tonight? And who gave your favorite performance of the night?

Luke Cope wasn't too confident going into this Battle, and with an opponent like BigCountry, we don't blame him. Still, he reminded himself that "nobody can do Luke Cope better than Luke Cope can" before hitting the stage. To his credit, Cope held his own tremendously, bringing a uniquely raw sound to his side of Chris Stapleton's "Tennessee Whiskey." But like Queen Latifah said, "BigCountry is a presence, a force to be reckoned with ... full of energy and life and voice and ability." And branding! Don't forget branding! (Side note: Can we talk about how one of the best country performances of the season was coached by Latifah and Patti LaBelle? There's officially nothing they can't do.)

WINNER: BigCountry (TVLine's grade: A)
ELIMINATED: Luke Cope (TVLine's grade: A-)

Sometimes there's just no "right" choice, so we empathize with Kelly Clarkson, who was going through it during this performance, knowing she'd have to eliminate either Anna McElroy or Johnnie Kapua. Their voices are gorgeous together, complimenting one another perfectly on Teddy Swims and Maren Morris' "Some Things I'll Never Know," and each of their individual runs, riffs, and belts impressed us more than the last. If we could, we'd fuse them into a single person, but science has only come so far. We'd give McElroy the slight edge here, as she has a slightly more distinct sound — and Clarkson agreed, keeping her on her team.

WINNER: Anna McElroy (TVLine's grade: A-)
ELIMINATED: Johnnie Kapua (TVLine's grade: A-)

"The Voice" has been pushing Adam Levine and Riley Green as the show's new bromance, and Green took their relationship a step further on Tuesday by having Brendan Coulter and Keiyana Osmond battle it out to Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved." Unlike some of the more compatible pairings thus far, Coulter and Osmond have very different voices, and they also took very different approaches to the tune. Osmond brought more of a softer, storyteller vibe to her, making us feel like she was singing from experience, while Coulter focused on melting our faces off with his big, bold sound. He sounded excellent, but there was something about Osmond's thoughtful choices that made us want to hear more.

WINNER: Keiyana Osmond (TVLine's grade: A)
ELIMINATED: Brendan Coulter (TVLine's grade: A-)

This is another duo we'd genetically fuse, if only we could. Their performance of Tucker Wetmore's "Wind Up Mission' You" felt like a celebration of country music, with Evan James bringing a more contemporary sound compared to Luke Curran's classic approach. Fantastic individually, and even stronger together, this felt like more of a team-up than a face-off. Adam Levine looked sick to his stomach having to choose between the two, and he admitted that James only edged Curran out "a little bit."

WINNER: Evan James (TVLine's grade: A-)
ELIMINATED: Luke Curran (TVLine's grade: A-)

You could feel the love throughout Hazel Gerson and Nina Howland's performance of Sia's "Breath Me," so we weren't surprised to see it end with the two contestants hugging and crying. And why not? They should be proud of what they brought to the stage tonight, both on their own and as a duo. There's a vulnerability to Gerson's voice, while Howland's feels like more of a finely tuned instrument, but we could have seen Kelly Clarkson's vote go either way.

WINNER: Nina Howland (TVLine's grade: A)
ELIMINATED: Hazel Gerson (TVLine's grade: A-)