Glee: The First Time

Before I talk about The First Time, which I actually really enjoyed, I want to get my one major complaint out of the way. Glee put on West Side Story too soon after the audition process for me to fully believe it. Yes, Glee isn't that realistic, at least in the performance sense, and yes, at least they didn't put the whole thing on in a week like last years Rocky Horror Glee Show episode, but it still kind of bugged me. High School kids can't put on something like West Side Story in less than a month. They just can't. They've stretched out the student council plotline longer than the musical! I did like the West Side Story plotline and I did appreciate that they extended it for as long as they could, but it still kind of bugged me. And now that we got my one major complaint out of the way, let's talk about The First Time, which for an episode that got a lot of attention because it was gonna be about sex, was actually quite tasteful.

I should probably start by bringing up my personal views on the issue, since I do use the word "opinion" after all. I'm one of those people who still believe in waiting for marriage before having sex, but I can accept the fact that waiting is no longer the societal norm and that most teenagers these days have sex. That's their choice and I'm fine with that. And since Glee does it's best to capture the teenage experience (though I'll still never believe that a Glee club would be that unpopular in reality), I was fine that it tackled this issue. And as I mentioned above, it was quite tasteful. They talked up all sides of the issue and the "sex scenes" at the end was more like the lead-up to it. They didn't even show as much of the process as they did back in season 1 with "Like a Virgin". I thought the starter to the "Rachel and Blaine set out to lose their virginity" story (Artie tells them that they're lacking passion in their performances during rehearsals for West Side Story, because they haven't had a sexual awakening.) was a bit contrived, but it led to some great moments between Finn/Rachel and Kurt/Blaine and good stories, so I'm willing to overlook it.

Blaine and Kurt's storyline got into full gear though with the return of the Dalton Academy Warblers and new member Sebastian. Their performance of Uptown Girls wasn't as good as the various West Side Story numbers but it was worth it for the introduction of Sebastian, who I'm enjoying better than Karofsky as an antagonist for Kurt (more on Karofsky who returned last night shortly), because he's openly gay so the conflict is more going to come from his advances on Blaine. I'm expecting more of him in the future (because I keep up with the latest Glee news and know there'll be more of him), and I'm looking forward to it. Anyways, Sebastian also furthered the plot by getting Kurt and Blaine fake I.D's to a gay bar, where after dancing with Sebastian for much of the night and getting a bit drunk (Kurt was designated driver and had no alcohol. Blaine had one beer.), Blaine made sexual advances on Kurt, which got rebuffed and led to an argument between the pair.

The gay bar scene also led to the return of Karofsky, who apparently had transferred schools so his teammates wouldn't hear rumours about him and just wants a normal senior year before coming out or something. The scene between Kurt and Karofsky was nice even though I never felt their conflict got properly resolved in season 2 (Karofsky's tearful apology to Kurt in Prom Queen felt a little unearned for my taste) and hopefully we'll see more of that bear cub in the future.

Meanwhile Finn and Rachel were planning to have sex, but after a romantic dinner, Finn got upset when Rachel mentioned that she was doing this to improve her performance and it didn't happen. So Rachel once again calls on the help of the Glee Club Girls (plus Brittany and Santana. No Mercedes this week, but that makes sense.) to figure out what she should do. Quinn and Santana want her to wait (though Santana just finds Finn terrible in bed.), and Brittany isn't much help, but a nice monologue from Tina (who needs more screentime.), intercut with I Have A Love from West Side Story (more on that coming up shortly.) helps Rachel know that if it's with someone she truly loves, it's the right thing to do.

Ultimately after the opening night of the musical and some nice conversations between the two couples, they both do the deed. The scenes leading up to this are both nice, with Finn having one of his best scenes in a when he reveals that he isn't going to be recruited to a college for football and he doesn't know what to do anymore.

One more thing about this story was that I really liked how the musical numbers were handled. Only Tonight, Uptown Girl, and America were straight up performances with the rest of the numbers being intercut with scenes that fit in with the song and created a good effect. Honestly, I enjoyed it so much, that it actually elevated the episode for me. Intercutting is a powerful tool when used effectively. Glee should come up with ways to use this more often.

There were other stories present too, but they were pretty minor. Coach Beiste's romance with a football recruiter was pretty much the only adult storyline this week. Will was barely in the episode at all, actually. Artie had a small storyline about how being a director validated him, which led to a nice scene where just as he begins to think everything is wrong, the cast brings him flowers and thanks him. And Mike Chang also had a minor plot this week where his father demands he quits the play and basically renounces him when he doesn't. Which is harsh, but means that Mike Chang should get even more screen time in the coming weeks, which I would love to see.

After Pot O' Gold wound up being kind of disappointing, I started to worry about Glee, but The First Time gets the show back on track. I really am enjoying the more character-based focus this season and hopefully, we'll see more of this kind of thing in the coming weeks.

Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Memorable Moments


-Random Plot Point Re-emergence/Reference Alert: The auditorium is still named after April Rhodes apparently. Kurt brings up the time Blaine made out with Rachel. Less random but still counts: Rachel brings up the time she talked to the girls about sex in The Power of Madonna.

-Best Musical Number: America was fantastic.

-Worst Musical Number: Uptown Girls was only there so that the Warblers could re-enter the scene singing.

-Santana's opinion of sex with Finn: "It was like being smothered by a sweaty out-of-breath sack of potatoes that someone soaked in body spray."

- Not much Rory this week, except for a joke during the bit of what we saw of the actual performance where Beiste mentions they have to work on his diction.

-Besides no Mercedes, there was also no Sue or Shelby or even a reference to the fact that Puck and Shelby kissed. I expect to see all of these people/plot points next week.