Masked Singer recap: Baby Alien blasts off, revealed to be former NFL quarterback

Warning: This article contains spoilers about The Masked Singer season 4 episode 4.

It was the Group B playoffs on The Masked Singer tonight, and it didn't disappoint. There were amazing vocals and fun energy, but unfortunately, Baby Alien was eliminated and sent back to his home planet.

Panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong, and Nicole Scherzinger were joined once again by Joel McHale. The comedian guests on TMS so much that if you don’t watch the show carefully, you’d think he was actually the flakey fifth judge who only shows up 2/3 of the time. McHale arrived in a flamboyant cape, rivaling host Nick Cannon's own over-the-top getups.

The childhood-themed episode was a delight, and began with showing the audience photos of Cannon and the panelists when they were kids. Who knew that adorable little Ken would grow up to be the world's worst detective? We kid, we kid. The motif continued with all the contestants' on-stage clues, from Serpent's baby bottle to Whatchamacallit's children's book.

All of the performances tonight were solid, but Serpent and Seahorse were on another level. Serpent's cover of Maren Morris' "The Bones" was fantastic, while Seahorse stunned everyone with a near-flawless rendition of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," which is not an easy song to nail.

Even Cannon, who's normally unflappable, looked astounded. He said Seahorse delivered “one of the best vocals I’ve ever heard” — and remember, he was married to Mariah Carey.

Besides the two standout performances, Crocodile also gave us his enjoyable version of Britney Spears' "Toxic," which Thicke said "fully seduced" him. Then there was Baby Alien with Imagine Dragon's "It's Time" and Whatchamacallit with "Money Maker" by Ludacris featuring Pharrell.

The panelists had a lot of fun with trying to deduce Baby Alien, who once again brought back his quirky accent straight out of What We Do in the Shadows. Scherzinger cooed over the out-of-this-world contestant, McHale made fun of his costume ("a washing machine with a tiny football player perched on the end of it"), and Jeong yammered on about Alien being Taylor Lautner, leading McCarthy to lead him away with a shepherd's crock. Normal stuff.

Ultimately, Baby Alien was eliminated. Cannon revealed the panelists' first impression guesses and then they gave their final predictions. McCarthy's initial guess was Ralph Macchio, which she updated to Nick Kroll; Jeong's was Matt LeBlanc, but he changed it to Freddie Prinze Jr; Thicke had Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which he switched to Jason Biggs; Scherzinger initially guessed David Schwimmer, but pivoted to Jeff Dunham; and McHale's final prediction was Eric Bana.

Baby Alien was finally revealed and ... the panelists were all way off.

It turned out to be retired NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez, the former Jets player known for a notorious "butt fumble" and chomping on a hot dog while sitting on the sidelines (hence the hot dog clue). Sanchez has also had a string of famous girlfriends, including Eva Longoria, Kate Upton, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler (which explains the reference to having his "public relationships probed"). And yes, he was in fact once "beamed onto the Tony Awards stage" to introduce a number from the show Memphis in 2010.

“You got everybody, everybody was way off," Cannon remarked.

After the elimination, Sanchez told EW he wasn't at all surprised that no one managed to guess his identity. "I thought the clue package was so hard. I obviously know it's me, but I still second-guessed it a couple times when I watched the clue package. I was like, 'Wait, what?' Yeah, that was tough. And I think the accent totally threw everybody for a loop."

The Masked Singer will be off for the World Series next week, and if there is a Game 7, the show will be on hiatus again on Oct. 28. In the next episode, we finally get to meet Group C: Squiggly Monster, Broccoli, Mushroom, Jellyfish, and Lips.

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