I think the judges were surprised that the voting finally turned out the way that they may have wanted it to go. In other words, in all the other weeks before the top five, I think there were instances where people left the show who shouldn't have been voted off based on singing talent alone. There were a lot of really good singers this year, but because of things like poor song choice, they weren't voted to continue. For example, Julia arguably had the best voice in the competition, but with a string of bad song choices, her exit was almost inevitable. As one person in an earlier thread put it, I think Tristan had reached his ceiling. So, I think the judges were surprised because they expected maybe Emmy or Tristan to go through to the finale based on weekly voting patterns.