‘The Voice’ recap: Battles continue with beautiful harmonies

At the outset of the third night of “The Voice” battle rounds on Monday night, each of the four coaches had just one steal left.

“So one, one, one, one? Oh, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” Adam Levine said to his fellow coaches, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams. “Let’s do this.”

Even the other coaches seemed vaguely amused by Levine’s hyperbole. It wasn’t a bloodbath. Despite his jocular threat, at one point, Shelton did not borrow the cane from his visually impaired team member Blind Joe in order to batter Levine with it. Neither did Stefani attack when the other coaches ticked her off — in a “mama bear” moment — by critiquing her singers.

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Still, the episode did include a handful of intense moments, as well as some exciting, and in some cases unexpected, steals.

Here’s how the evening played out:

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Blaine Mitchell vs. Blind Joe (Team Blake): Shelton matched 24-year-old Mitchell, a handsome former high school star athlete from Texas, with the 33-year-old Blind Joe, who never seems to lack for a quip about his own sightlessness, assigning them Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll,” because it worked for both Mitchell’s rock and Joe’s country style.

Mitchell worked the stage like the frontman he apparently is, and didn’t seem to mind that Joe, seated center and playing his guitar, stepped on many of his sung lines. (“You tell ’em, Blaine!” Joe exclaimed at one point.)

Shelton said that, in terms of singing, it was a “dead tie,” but he picked Blind Joe to stay on his team moving forward, saying he was “something really special.” Mitchell survived all the same. Levine moved in for the steal, saying he had “a vibe,” “a thing” — a star quality, presumably — that he was looking forward to working with

Cassandra Robertson vs. Viktor Kiraly (Team Adam): Levine insisted he wasn’t stacking the deck by pairing Kiraly, a 31-year-old Hungarian pop star, who had spun all four chairs during the blind auditions, and Robertson, a 48-year-old caterer and mother for whom he had been the only coach to turn, on the Tony Rich Project’s “Nobody Knows.”

“One chair versus four means very little,” he said. “Cassandra does not lack power and talent, I’ll tell you that.” Robertson amply justified her coach’s faith in her, prompting Williams to exclaim that she’d sung “like an effortless prance.” Shelton gushed that it was the best battle he’d ever seen, in terms of consistency.

Ultimately, though, none of that mattered. Even though Levine said neither singer “could have possibly done better,” he gave the win to Kiraly, as had seemed inevitable from the start. No one stole Robertson.

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Chase Kerby vs. Korin Bukowski (Team Gwen): Stefani set herself up for a far more difficult decision by pairing 30-year-old Oklahoma City candy store cutie Chase Kirby against quirky 20-year-old Miami pre-med student Korin Bukowski. Each of the indie singers had turned only Stefani’s chair during blind auditions, but both gave such a compelling, pure-hearted performances of Regina Spektor’s “Samson” that Stefani seemed unsure what to do.

The other coaches offered differing opinions — in fact, their critiques left Stefani seriously angry, she said, because she felt so protective of, “so mama bear” about, both singers.

Still, the No Doubt singer had to make a choice, and she picked Bukowski to move forward. Would anyone steal Kerby? Shelton said he felt the talented young singer had a “future in music” but was “being extra picky” about using his one remaining steal, and no one else came through.

Evan McKeel vs. Riley Biederer (Team Pharrell): Williams pitted four-chair turn McKeel, a 20-year-old from Richmond, Va., who sings in the church choir and to elderly people with dementia, against Riley Biederer, a 19-year-old former gymnast and YouTube star for whom he had been the only one to turn, giving them a song that was solidly in McKeel’s wheelhouse, Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground.”

McKeel handily won the battle — probably before he had even sung a note — but Biederer won Stefani’s heart. In a surprising turn, Stefani hit her button — with her hip! — to steal, crediting Biederer’s loose, confident performance style.

Braiden Sunshine vs. Lyndsey Elm (Team Gwen): In what turned out to be another heartbreaker for Stefani, she teamed earnest, curly-haired Lyme, Conn., 15-year-old Sunshine, a two-chair turn and the youngest singer in the competition, against 23-year-old pest-control worker Elm, who had spun four, giving them Howard Jones’ “No One Is to Blame.”

Levine said it was like watching a tennis match. “I was like, Lindsey. Then I was like, Braiden,” he said, adding that each singer had had a moment that showed great potential and that there was no wrong choice. Shelton advised Stefani to “flip a coin.” Stefani seemed flummoxed, but Sunshine laid on the charm at the key moment, urging her to take a risk on him.

It worked. Stefani followed her heart — in the moment — and picked Sunshine, later calling him a “diamond in the rough,” whom she was looking forward to taking further. Elm seemed like a natural to steal, but no one did.

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Andi & Alex vs. Chance Pena (Team Adam): Delightful duo Andi & Alex, angelic-voiced 23-year-old twins from Green Bay, Wis., who had turned four chairs, went head to head with adorable, entrepreneurial 15-year-old Tyler, Texas, high school sophomore Chance Pena, who had turned only one.

Levine was so enthusiastic about the way the three voices intermingled on the Calling’s “Wherever You Will Go” he said they should form a trio. Shelton called the battle “magical.” Stefani called it “unbelievable.” All the coaches had enthusiastic words about both Andi & Alex and Pena. Levine said choosing between them was the “hardest” decision he had ever had to make on the show, just “brutal.”

The choice: Andi & Alex would move on. And Pena? Well, he did all right, too. Shelton scooped him up for his own team. “We’re going to the finale, man,” the country coach told the handsome young singer. Stefani seemed jealous. “He’s a heartthrob,” she told Shelton. “You won the show.”

Williams is the last coach left with a steal. We’ll see how he uses it on Tuesday night.