More Opinion Quickies: Glee and Survivor

So I watched last night's Glee and while I had some feelings about the episode, which I want to express, I just can't bring myself to do a full blog about it. Same with tonight's Survivor. So rather than just skip them outright, I'm gonna do some quickies. This probably won't be a habit, but you never know.

Glee: Choke: Glee did something bold last night: all three of the main storylines ended in a failure of sorts. Rachel choked during her NYADA audition and has probably ruined her chances of getting into that school, Puck failed the one exam he needed, despite actually studying for it and now won't graduate, and Beiste lied about leaving Cooter, after he had an abusive episode. It's all dark, sad, stuff (Well Puck's story was mostly played for laughs until the end) and the show handled it well. I especially appreciated how delicately they handled the domestic abuse storyline, much like how they handled the Gay Teen suicide story way back when. Having Beiste get hit, and then give Cooter another chance at the end is dark and the story probably won't end there, but it's also realistic. And having Rachel blow the biggest audition of her life is a devastating move for the character. Will she get another chance? It wouldn't surprise me, but for now her future has suddenly become incredibly uncertain, just as Kurt finally gets a break. Oh, and the musical numbers were all pretty solid. Anyways, good stuff Glee. Keep it up. Quicky Grade: 80% (Great) Quicky Best Musical Number: Shake It Up!

Survivor: One World: It's Gonna Be Chaos: Now we're getting somewhere. Watching the elimination of all the boys over the past few weeks has been fascinating (Especially since Kim, who I've liked from the start is more and more likely to win this game), but predictable. But instead of getting rid of Tarzan like I was expecting, or even getting rid of Sabrina, which was what the episode seemed to be aiming towards, Kat goes, after making the same kind of mistake at the reward challenge that Kim made last week, but on a worse scale, because Kim was more sympathetic in the eyes of her island mates than selfish Kat. There was other interesting stuff in this episode too, from Alicia deluding herself into thinking that she's running the show, to having the loved ones compete in the reward challenge. And with little time left to go before the finale, it should be interesting to see if Kim can pull this off and win it all. Quicky Grade: 78% (Good)

Glee: Saturday Night Glee-ver

What Happened, Yo!:

-Will is concerned about three of the seniors, Finn, Santana, and Mercedes, who he feels are all lost about plans for the future for lack of various things like ambition or a dream. In order to inspire the club (and them specifically), Sue and Will assign the album Saturday Night Fever as an assignment. Since most of the club hates disco, they sweeten the deal by offering a replica of the suit John Travolta wore in the movie. After an initial dance-off, Mercedes, Santana and Finn are picked as finalists for the prize.


-Mercedes is offended that Will doesn't think she has a dream. She performs Disco Inferno and tells everyone that she wants to be a star like Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston, but has no idea where to even get that process started, in addition to not having an supportive parents. Sam decides to help by uploading a video of her performance to YouTube. Later he shows her that almost all of the comments except 1 have been positive (And the one who wasn't happy just thought the video was going to be something else) in order to encourage her. Then they kiss.

-Santana tells everyone that she just wants to be famous, and ignores Will saying that that's a bad dream to have by saying that she'll probably be more likely to get it than others in the club. In an effort to help, Brittany uploads a sex tape the two of them made online, which becomes popular, but Santana isn't really happy about it. Brittany also has more ideas for Santana to be famous that Santana isn't that keen on. Later, she realizes that there's some things she won't do to be famous. Sue reveals that she's gotten Santana into a top Cheerleading school in Louisville as a potential start for Santana's future (Something that was actually one of Brittany's ideas).

-Finn is still unsure about his future but decides he shouldn't go to L.A with Puck. He and Rachel reconcile and Rachel decides that maybe they should look into some of Finn's dream. Will and Emma help pick up some pamphets for Finn to look at, but Finn secretly throws all the pamphlets out. Will sees him do it and confronts him, and Finn tells him that he just wants time to stop and doesn't have a dream. Will's sure he does and gets him to watch Saturday Night Fever. It inspires Finn, and gives him the courage to apply to The Actor's Studio, having decided he wants to be an actor and move to New York with Rachel.

-Everyone wins the disco contest thing and everyone gets a suit.

-Meanwhile, Wade, a member of Vocal Adrenaline (Now coached by Jesse St. James) who also happens to be Mercedes and Kurt's biggest fan comes to them for advice, because he wants to attend regionals as his alter-ego Unique, who is a drag queen. Mercedes and Kurt aren't so sure about it, but Sue tells them to encourage him to do it, as part of a plan to sabotage Vocal Adrenaline. They do it, but get second thoughts and try tp stop him. It's too late though and Unique is actually very popular at regionals, winning theirs.

I Liked This: There actually was a lot to like about Saturday Night Glee-ver. A lot of the strongest material in season 3 has been based around the fact that a lot of the Glee Club will be graduating this year and many of them are unsure what to do next, most of all Finn. So an episode which brought all this to the frontlines was bound to be a winner. Add in the fact that I'm a sucker for disco music and it would've taken a royal screw-up for me to hate this episode. Of course, of the three seniors who were spotlighted in this episode, we had spent the most time watching Finn be unsure what to do with his life. His story is moved along greatly here, and the scene where he tells Will that he just wants time to stop was probably the most effective scene of the episode. The conclusion with him applying to The Actor's Studio in New York, so he could become an actor and still be with Rachel was good, though I'm still not sure that this season will end with Rachel and Finn together.

As for the other stories, Santana's was quite funny, as Brittany tried to make her famous by releasing their sex tape spliced together with footage of Lord Tubbington doing household choirs. Brittany and Santana were in full-force this week, showing off just why they work as a couple, and the ending with Sue outlining a possible start for Santana that Brittany had helped come up with was sweet, and could provide a nice exit for the character, should Santana not return for season 4. Mercedes and Kurt helping out Wade (The final winner of the Glee Project who had to appear) get the courage to be Unique and dress in drag for Vocal Adrenaline's regionals was a good story, and I appreciated that even Kurt wasn't sure that Wade should dress in drag. As for Mercedes and Sam getting back together, the jury is still out on how promising this'll be, but you never know.

But...: It's a good sign when my biggest problem with the episode is that the title is terrible. The justification for why they were singing disco songs was pretty silly though. Also, what happened to Quinn? Sugar and Rory were missing too, but they're just recurring players. Where was Quinn?!

The Bottom Line: Saturday Night Glee-ver is a great episode of Glee, with lots of focus on the graduating seniors plans for next year (Which Glee always handles well), and lots of enjoyable tunes.

Grade: 85% (Great)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Number: Disco Inferno was probably my favorite, though Boogie Shoes and Stayin' Alive were pretty great.  

-Worst Musical Number: More Than A Woman probably stuck out to me the least.

-Random Plot Point Reference Alert: New Directions hates disco, but Will won his Nationals with it when he was a kid. All of this originates wayyyyy back from episode 2 Showmance.

-Sue: “You’ve been out of ideas since Madonna Week.” It's funny because it's true in a way.

Quicky Opinions!

Hey gang. Sorry for the lack of posts on things in recent weeks, but I've been busy/lazy. So here's some quicky opinions on things I should be posting about, but just haven't found/made the time to do. I'll try harder as we head into sweeps season, though.

Glee: After a seven-week hiatus, Glee returned with a strong, funny episode. Matthew Bomer was great as Cooper Anderson, Blaine's actor brother. His acting advice to the kids was comically horrible and I really bought into Blaine's conflict with him. Meanwhile, Sue seems to be getting a good arc for the last part of the season, trying to get the Glee club to win Nationals in order to prove she can still lead the Cheerio's without Roz Washington has co-captain (and struggling with the fact that her baby may have down syndrome). As for Quinn, I liked how the resolution to her car crash was handled. Watching her get used to being in a wheelchair will be interesting to see (As will this flirty thing she has going on with Artie) and provides a nice arc for the character going to graduation, as she attempts to walk again. And it's good to see that Finn and Rachel never got married, and this new conflict with Finn possibly going to California will be exciting to watch. Welcome back Glee. Quicky Grade: 82% (Great)

Modern Family: I've dropped the ball lately when it comes to talking about Modern Family, but Election Day was a great episode, filled with lots of humour and pathos. Mitchell and Cam abusing the power of their car megaphone was a highlight, as was Phil trying to get Walt to the polling stations.And although it would've been interesting if Claire had won, it's probably better for the show that she didn't. And Haley's worrying that she'll get rejected from her last college was a good plot for the character and the moment at the end with everyone celebrating her being waitlisted was funny and sweet. Aside from a massive lack of David Cross, good job, Modern Family. And I'll try to write more about you in the future. Quicky Grade: 85%

Survivor: One World:   I've also been dropping the ball with Survivor these past few weeks, to the point that the landscape of the game has drastically changed since I last wrote about the show. Anyways, this season, I've been enjoying Kim slowly but surely becoming the mastermind of the season without anyone really figuring it out. Well Troyzan figured it out when she was too assuring to him, but all that knowledge wound up doing is costing him his hidden immunity idol. It's too bad Jay's gone, because he was shaping up to be an interesting player. Bet he's regretting giving up the challenge for chicken wings now. Speaking of which, Chelsea talking Leif into giving up the challenge was great. And Tarzan remains as comical as ever. Another great episode from a great season. Quicky Grade: 80% (Great)

Glee: On My Way

Son of a bitch, Glee! Son of a bitch! OK, full disclosure: I inadvertantly had the big cliffhanger ending of last night's Glee spoiled to me right before I watched it. So I wasn't caught off guard when it happened, which was a bit of a bummer (Though, even if I hadn't known, I would've caught on before it happened. I always keep my eyes out for the warning signs of a car crash in TV/movies.). However, even knowing what was going to happen, Quinn getting in a bad car crash was still an effective ending (And I still yelled at my television) as Glee goes on hiatus for seven weeks. But of course, that ending wasn't the only thing that happened so let's touch on...

What Happened, Yo!

-It's the week before Regionals and Sebastian schemes to get Rachel out of the picture by blackmailing her with a fake nude photo of Finn in high heels. Rachel won't give in to his demands, which upsets Finn.

-Karofsky is outed and humiliated at his school. After seeing a series of hateful facebook messages, he attempts suicide and hangs himself. He doesn't die, but the news of his suicide attempt greatly affects all of our characters, causing Kurt to feel guilty because he ignored Karofsky's calls, Will to recount the time he almost killed himself, Sebastian (who knew Karofsky from the gay bar and wasn't particularly helpful to him) to call off the attack on New Directions (and use the Warblers performance to raise money for Lady GaGa's charity), and Rachel and Finn to decide they want to get married after regionals.

-Regionals happen and New Directions win (I know. Big surprise.).

-Sue is pregnant but won't reveal the identity of the father. She sees Regionals and decides she actually wants to help New Directions win Nationals, much to Will's surprise.

-After Regionals, Kurt visits Karofsky, where he helps him to see that his problems won't last forever and helps him envision a happy future. They become friends, finally giving their running storyline the closure I always wanted.

-Quinn wants to get back on the Cheerios but Sue doesn't think it'd be fair to all the others who've practiced all year. Quinn thinks the God Squad should pray for Karofsky's family rather than Karofsky because Karofsky acted selfishly, upsetting Kurt who tells her that even with all her troubles, she has no idea what it's like. Quinn gets back on the Cheerios after all, because Sue admires the way she turned her life around. Quinn decides that she wants to go to Rachel's wedding and after regionals, she runs home to get her dress.

-Rachel's Dad's and Burt are opposed to the wedding (Carole, not so much) and try to figure out how to stop it from happening. Everyone (but Quinn) is present and the wedding looks like it'll happen. Rachel doesn't want to start without Quinn and texts her frantic messages.

-Quinn is driving and decides to respond to the messages. As she texts On My Way (Hey! That's the title of the episode. That couldn't possibly be a bad sign), she is sideswiped by a car and the screen goes black. To be continued in seven weeks.

-Son of a bitch, Glee!

I Like This:

We'll talk more about that ending (and how my knowing of the twist affected my viewing of the episode) in a second, but first let's talk about Karofsky. Since at this stage in the game, every competition until National's is robbed of it's suspense because there was no way they'd have them lose at Regional's, the show needed a story to make up for an unsuspenseful Regionals and Karofsky trying to kill himself definitely made up for knowing who was going to win. I wasn't spoiled on this in advance, but the moment we started cutting between Karofsky going through the worst day of his life and Blaine singing Cough Syrup, which repeats the phrase Life's Too Short multiple times, I knew where this was headed (as did everyone watching, I assume). The scene is beautifully put together and is one of the most emotionally powerful things Glee has ever done. It punched me in the gut with feelings and then did it again when they showed Karofsky's dad finding his unconscious body. I stated last fall (at least I think I did) that I had always felt miffed on how Karofsky and Kurt's storyline had just sort of ended last year without a real conclusion and that Karofsky's tearful apology in Prom Queen felt incredibly unearned. Well, I finally got the conclusion I wanted (Though I'm gonna assume we see Karofsky at least one more time after this) and it was beautiful. The scene at the end with Kurt and Karofsky at the hospital was lovely.

I also liked how the show was pretty grounded and realistic in both the suicide attempt, and everyone's reactions to it. When something like this happens, you can't just carry on like nothing's happened and I liked how the suicide attempt was the catalyst for much of what happened next. As for other things I liked, I liked how Rachel and Finn rushing the wedding made sense (and how the show still recognizes that this isn't a good idea). I'm also glad that Sue has finally stopped targeting Glee (like she was supposed to after season 2 ended) and is now helping them. I'm also excited to see how her pregnancy is handled.

Now let's talk about the ending. All throughout the episode, we are being reminded of how Quinn has turned her life around and how she has her whole life ahead of her. She rejoins the Cheerios and decides to support Rachel and Quinn. She also has a confrontation with Kurt, which as far as we know, was never resolved, which will give Kurt something to feel guilty about in seven weeks. Really, it's obvious that something bad is going to happen to her once you already know that something bad happens, but I still like how it was handled. The show has taken a lot of time to make us care about Quinn turning her life around and it should be interesting to see if the show actually kills her off or not.

But...: All the Regional's stuff felt like they were just getting it out of the way, rather than actuall getting us to invest on whether or not they'll win Regionals and even though I knew they would win Regionals, I still felt a little miffed (That's my word of the day). And Will's personal story felt out of place and superfluous to the scene where he gets the kids to promise they'll never try to kill themselves.

The Bottom Line: On My Way was a powerful episode that sort of ignored Regionals, but has left me excited for the return of the show in seven weeks.

Grade: 80% (Great)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Number: Cough Syrup. Beautifully performed, beautifully staged.

-Worst Musical Number: Glad You Came, the second Dalton number, because it felt like filler. If you don't have a major character on the other team (Sebastian's not a regular yet) or if you can't make an emotional connection with something going on with the episode, you don't need to give the rival team 2 numbers.

-Theory Time: Here's my prediction for how the cliffhanger will be resolved when we get back. Quinn doesn't die (at least not immediately) but becomes comatose for an episode or two, allowing Rachel's (and possibly Kurt if the two never resolved their argument this week) guilt space to play out. Should Quinn awake, we won't see her back at school for another couple episodes so she has time to recover. Should she die... I have no idea what might happen. So that's my theory.

Glee: The Spanish Teacher: An Abridged Opinion

I'm a bit short on time this week, so I'm going to do a opinion of last night's Glee without the recap I usually put into these posts and a bit shorter than it might otherwise be. So, it's like a quicky opinion for those of you who regularly read my blog, except I'm calling it an Abridged Opinion.

Last night's Glee focused on an aspect of the show that has been ignoring for a while: Will is also a Spanish Teacher. And as frustrating as it was to learn that he doesn't actually know Spanish and has apparently forgotten he won Teacher of the Year one time (as shown in a yearbook picture Emma was fawning over in episode 1. I don't forget these things, Glee!) so he could be shown as a poor educator, I did appreciate his arc over the episode, as he became more of an intentional jerk in his efforts to have Glee do Latin Music Week so he can get tenure, only to get a reality check from Santana (who complained about him because he was projecting stereotypes about her culture to people who didn't know better) and how he stepped aside to let guest star Ricky Martin become the Spanish teacher. I also enjoyed Ricky Martin, who was a delight as David Martinez.

As for the other stuff, Sue was on fire this week and I enjoyed her plot about wanting to have a child. I also like that Finn and Rachel's engagement is treated as a bad idea by most of the characters who hear about it, because it definitely is a bad idea. I liked the scene with Kurt giving Finn the college literature and am more excited to see where this is all going than ever. And I liked how Emma (who was showing off her amusing pamphlets all episode) wound up being the one getting tenure. Because Will and Sue definitely didn't deserve it and giving it to Roz Washington who we barely know would've been a bit of a cop out. The ending was sweet too. Over all, solid episode of Glee.

Grade: 77% (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Number: La Isla Bonita definitely was the stand-out this week.

-Worst Musical Number: La Cucharacha and A Little Less Conversation were really bad, but they were meant to be bad, so I'm gonna go with Sexy and I know It, because I don't care for that song in English, let alone in Spanish.

-Sugar continues to amuse me every week with her crazy outfits, reactions, and background comedy.
 Her random push-ups was probably the best part of Sexy and I Know It.

-The old History Teacher was forced to retire after some memory issues started showing up. "And that's how Germany won World War II".

-One last thing: I still don't really care for the Mercedes/Sam/Shane love triangle at this point, because outside of a couple scenes in Asian F, Shane doesn't have an identity outside of Mercedes' Boyfriend Who Is An Obstacle For Sam, so I can't empathize with Mercedes dilemma because I don't know what she sees in Shane.

Glee: Michael

What Happened, Yo!:

-With the former Troubletone members a bit disappointed that they didn't get to do Michael Jackson at sectionals (And forgetting that they did Thriller way back in season 2. Although that was mashed up with another song I suppose.) New Directions decides to do Michael Jackson at Regionals and kick off Michael Jackson week. But Blaine is so excited, he tells Sebastian, who as the new captain of the Dalton Academy Warblers (somehow) decides that Dalton will do Michael. Obviously this won't stand, so New Directions challenges the Warblers to a Michael Jackson off. However, during their showdown of Bad, Sebastian throws a slushee at Kurt. Blaine takes it, but the slushee has been tainted with something, requiring Blaine to need surgery for his right eye.

-New Directions is mad about this development and wants to fight back, but they can't prove that Sebastian has done anything wrong, so Will tells them to take the higher road. Kurt is really angry but doesn't want to be violent. Santana doesn't want to be violent either (Sebastian's dad is a powerful man and could get her thrown in prison if she tried anything), so she confronts Sebastian and gets him to fess up to tainting the slushee. She gets his confession that he added Rock Salt on tape (She taped a recorder to her underboob), but Kurt wants to take the higher road so they don't turn it into Sebastian's headmaster or the police. Instead they tell the Warblers they won't be doing Michael Jackson at Regionals in order to take the higher road. They do one last MJ number and all the Warblers except Sebastian join in. They deflate Sebastian's bubble though when they reveal they have his confession on tape and leave him with the tape discredited in the eyes of his peers.

-Meanwhile Sam convinces Mercedes to perform a duet of Human Nature with him and then they kiss afterwards. Continued next week I suppose.

-Meanwhile, Rachel is still unsure about whether or not to accept Finn's proposal. He gives her time to think it over. She asks Quinn for advice, and Quinn tells her to dump him and move on because he won't fit into Rachel's future. Quinn also reveals she got accepted into Yale. When Kurt gets his NYADA finalist letter and Rachel doesn't, Rachel breaks down because she's unsure about her future. So later, after Finn performs a song about how he'll never stop loving her, she accepts his proposal. In a twist of fate though, it turns out that she's a NYADA finalist after all, which will definitely complicate things with Finn if she gets into that school.

I Liked This: Michael was a mostly solid episode of Glee with good songs in it (I love Michael Jackson) and lots of funny lines. Though I have issues with the ending of the whole "Sebastian injures Blaine" plotline, I was glad that the Glee writers came up with a better justification for Blaine missing a couple episode than the justification they had for Puck missing a couple back in season 2, and I am enjoying Sebastian as a villain (Though again, I have some issues with him which I'll discuss below). I also thought Santana was on fire this week. However, I think the stuff I liked the most this episode was the less flashy stuff. Quinn getting into Yale was a great step for the character and I'm glad that Kurt did wind up becoming a NYADA finalist. My favorite part of the episode has to be Rachel though. That scene where she breaks down about not having plans for the future (Since she's sure she didn't get a NYADA finalist letter)and having nothing going for her except for Finn was a great one. And the way it led her to ignore Quinn's advice (another good scene) and accept Finn's proposal after he sings a Michael Jackson song out of love was good too. The best part though was her learning she's a finalist after all, and the look on her face when she realizes she may have just made a rash decision. I was unsure how Finn's proposal was going to turn out at first, but now I'm getting excited to see what happens next for Finchel. And again, I liked most the songs this week.

But: Hey, Glee. I'm all for taking the higher road, but Sebastian did something dangerous, illegal, and worse than anything Karofsky, Vocal Adrenaline, and the rest of the bullies ever did (It's not as bad as Sue tripping/pushing people down the stairs though). You can't say that the right thing to do in that situation is to not tell the police. I liked that he at least got discredited to the rest of the Warblers (who aren't evil.), but Saint Kurt's logic for convincing the team not to tell the police was seriously flawed. In addition, Sebastian can't be the captain of the Warblers. The Warblers don't have a captain, they have a council of seniors who determine everything. You can't just change that because you want the new character you introduced as a transfer student whose only been with the team a few months to be the leader. No real major issues with Michael besides this stuff (Though in my mind, these things are pretty big issues) though. Maybe less songs or less music video recreations would've been nice, but that's just me nitpicking.

The Bottom Line: Michael was a solid episode of Glee and a good tribute, even with the big issue of the characters deciding to not report a crime.

Grade: (So head's up, I've decided that I'll now be grading on the percent system starting now. It's just easier this way.) 70% (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Number: Probably Smooth Criminal between Santana and Sebastian. I also liked Never Can Say Goodbye alot.

-Worst Musical Number: I love Artie and I love Mike Chang, but Scream just seemed out of place in that episode.

-Not much from Sam and Mercedes this week, but what we saw shows that things are heating up a ton between those two.

-He'll probably recover from surgery just fine, but I wouldn't mind if Darren Criss had to keep on wearing eyepatches for the remainder of his time on the series. Eyepatches are awesome.

-Santana: "This isn’t violent. This is clever. I taped it to my underboob".



-Santana: "If Kurt would have taped this to his junk, I would have never heard the end of it. We would have had a whole week of songs about it!" Probably my favorite line of the night.

Glee: Yes/No

What Happened, Yo!:

-Emma and Sue find out that Beiste eloped over the holidays with Cooter (So much for that love triangle they were setting up.). Emma begins wishing that Will would propose and Sue suggests that Emma propose to him. She fantasizes about it but accidentally slips it out in front of Will, who decides that he's going to propose. In order to make it perfect, he assigns the Glee Club to come up with the perfect proposal song.

-Meanwhile Sam is still trying to get back Mercedes, but Mercedes keeps insisting that their relationship was just a summer fling. In an effort to impress her, Sam joins the only sports team with an open spot: synchronized swimming. As the club works on the assignment, Mercedes and a few of the other girls sing The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face and she thinks of Sam instead of her current boyfriend. The rest of the girls tell her to think about it and to take things slow and this storyline is left to be continued.

-Also meanwhile, Becky decides she is going to romance Artie and make him her boyfriend. Artie sort of asks out Sugar and gets rejected right before Becky comes along so he lets her watch him perform and later goes to dinner with him. While he defends his actions, saying he likes spending time with Becky, he gets nervous when she sends him a nude photo. When he tells Sue he really doesn't intend to see Becky again, Sue tells him to just straight up tell her and treat her like a normal person. Becky is hurt by the news, but Sue helps cheer her up.

-Will learns that Finn is planning to join the army, like his father before him. He alerts Finn's mom and Burt, who tell him that Finn's dad wasn't the hero Finn thinks he has. For some reason, Finn's dad was dishonorably discharged, and after coming home, he developed a drug addiction and died of an overdose. Finn is devastated by the news and left more unsure than ever. Later Finn, Rachel, and Kurt lament the future and how unsure they are of what's going to happen (NYADA letters are coming back and Rachel and Kurt are unlikely to get them.).

-Will, meanwhile asks Emma's parents for their blessing to marry Emma, but is shot down. They tell Will that she won't be able to handle marriage and all that stuff with her condition. Will starts having second thoughts and upsets Emma when he suggests she might not be able to handle the marriage. But, he later decides to go through with proposing and gets the Glee Club and the Synchronized Swimming Team to put on a big aquatic rendition of We Found Love, before he proposes. Emma accepts happily.

-Later Rachel meets Finn in the break room where he talks about how much he loves her before he straight out proposes to her. TWIST!

I Liked This: Yes/No was a solid episode to come back to the third season on. I'm glad that the writers are no longer dragging their feet on Emma and Will, by inserting more contrived drama to get between them. These two people love each other so why not marry them off? And even though it was obvious that Will would propose and Emma would accept, I did enjoy the scene between the two of them after Emma's parents plant doubt in Will's mind. Emma's OCD is serious and it's good to see the show tackle it honestly. As far as the other plots go, I was a bit worried at first with where Becky and Artie's storyline would go when I saw it in the previews, but it was actually very well-handled and entertaining. Hellen Mirren as Becky's voice-over was really funny, and it added extra weight to her final voice-over. It was nice to see softer Sue in this episode as well. Finn's story was also quite good. The idea that everything he thought he knew about his dad was a lie is a good one, and I liked how it led to the proposal I didn't see coming. Finn and Rachel are again two characters who should be together, and this proposal makes things extra interesting. Can't wait to see how she responds.

But...: First of all, Will makes finding a proposal song an assignment? Really?! Even for Will, this seemed like a serious misuse of authority. Secondly, I was a bit disappointed with how the love triangle storyline between Sue, Beiste.and Cooter was resolved before it could even get started. Really? They couldn't stretch that story out any further. And, for a person Mercedes is supposed to be serious about, we've seen barely anything between her and Shane that shows why she'd want to be with him over Sam. I actually forgot the character's name until she brought it up. That makes the love triangle storyline pretty one-sided. Hopefully they fix that soon. Those are my main quibbles. I also thought the Summer Nights number was rather unnecessary (though I'll admit it was entertaining), and I'm not sure about Syhnchronized Swim Coach Roz Washington. Her rant was funny, but her character came off as a clone of Sue Sylvester (minus the hatred of Glee Club). Hopefully, if she becomes a recurring character, her personality will become more distinctive because this show certainly doesn't need two Sue's. Those were my only issues though.

The Bottom Line: Yes/No was a fairly solid episode of Glee and a good one to start the second half of the season on. I can't wait to see where these characters go from here.

Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Number: We Found Love was good and flashy, but my favorite number this week was the smaller-scale, but incredibly emotionally effective The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.

-Worst Musical Number: I did not care for Rachel's slow version of Without You. Santana and Artie's assesment of the song were pretty on the dot.

-Sue: "Well Michael Chiklis in a wig, I would like to offer my congratulations. I've been bested. I guess it's time to call Boreanaz."

-Becky's voice over: "I, Becky Faye Jackson, am the hottest bitch at McKinley High School. You may be wondering why I sound like the Queen of England. It's simple: in mind, I can sound like whomever I want. So lay off, haters".

-Roz Washington: "I've never seen lips like that on a white child, and one of your nipples is higher than the other."

-Sam: "Swimming is sexy". Finn: "Not if it's synchronized!"

-Sue: "You can maybe go one day without the driving gloves. It's a wheel chair Artie, not a Porsche".

-Artie jumping into the pool was pretty funny and I was glad to see that he wasn't putting himself in any danger.

-Also, how the hell did Will find the time to change into that fancy suit and get to the other side of the pool during the duration of We Found Love. That was ridiculous.

Glee: Extraordinary Merry Christmas

What Happened, Yo!:

-It's Christmas time and the New Directions are decorating and singing and stuff.
-Rory is homesick because his family can't come out to see him for Christmas. He sings a sad song about it, but the group finds it too depressing.
-They decide they want to have a much happier Christmas than last year (Which wasn't as depressing as they want you to think.)
-Sue has decided to give something back, after a rather hard year by helping out at the local homeless shelter and wants the Glee Club to come spread Glee to them. They decide to do it.
-Sam bonds with Rory over homesickness and decides to be his Holiday Sponsor, showing him the spirit of Christmas in the west.
-A local network has lost the rights to the yuletide log and needs an hour to fill, so the Station Manager (who saw Sectionals) wants the Glee Club to put on a holiday special.
-Artie is chosen to direct and he wants to pay homage to the greatest holiday special of all time (The Star Wars Holiday Special) and shoot it in black and white like The Judy Garland Christmas Special.
-Artie wants to keep the tone light and make it all about fun.
-The club learns that Sue's homeless thing is the same night as the special. They're a bit regretful about it, but they want to be on TV. Sam and Quinn decide to help Sue though.
-The Special comes on and it's two acts worth of songs, bad jokes, and black and white goodness.
-Towards the end, Rory shows up as Itchy the Christmas Elf, and reads from the Christmas story, reminding them the true spirit of what the holiday is about.
-With the special being cut short by a last second agreement with the Yuletide Log people anyways, the newly enspirited Glee Club goes to the homeless shelter (which they were still hoping to do anyway) and helps out with a song.
-Meanwhile, Rachel gives Finn an approved list of things she wants him to get her for Christmas.
-When he sponsors a South African Pig for her, she rejects the gift, so he agrees to get her something else.
-After their experience with the special, Rachel accepts the gift of the pig, but Finn has gotten her two additional gifts: a star named Finn Hudson (because there's already a star named Rachel Berry.) and beautiful earrings.
-Rachel is overwhelmed and decides she has too much good in her life, so she and Finn go volunteer with Sam, Rory, and Salvation Army.
-Happy Holidays!

I Liked This...: Extraordinary Merry Christmas packed a whole lot of holiday cheer into it. I'm a sucker for Christmas songs and lots were packed into this episode (Arguably a little too much, but we'll talk about that shortly.), which I mostly enjoyed. There was also the typical amount of entertaining lines and such. What mainly worked for the episode though was the special itself. A perfect parody of cheesy Christmas Specials, I was delighted by every minute of it. Really, if the special took up the whole episode, I would be giving this Glee an extremely high grade. I'm also glad that the show is following up on Artie's directing dreams, which were kind of brushed to the side for most of the West Side Story Arc.

But...: With 9 songs in this episode, Extraordinary Merry Christmas felt a little overstuffed. They definitely could've cut one or two songs out and fit in a little more plot. And while I could appreciate the main message of the episode (Help others less fortunate than you. Especially at Christmas), it kind of felt generic and tacked on, like the writers couldn't think of a good plot outside of the special, so they dug into a metaphorical book of old Television Stand-By's. Not saying that promoting helping the less fortunate this time of year is a bad thing. Just wishing it could've been handled in a more creative way.

Warning: Some viewers of Glee may have never heard of The Star Wars Holiday Special. So when Artie talks about it being the greatest holiday special of all time, they may have taken that to heart and attempt to search it out. Do not by any means watch The Star Wars Holiday Special. It is awful. Sometimes so bad it's good, and there is one cool sequence with Boba Fett, but that is no reason to watch it. Trust me. Once you watch The Star Wars Holiday Special, you can never go back to that blissful period of unawareness. So Do. Not. Watch.

The Bottom Line: Despite relying on some old Stand-Bys to do it's storytelling, and despite promoting the Star Wars Holiday Special, Glee delivers a very gleeful Christmas episode this year to end the year on a nice note. Hopefully the show can get even better in 2012.

Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Random Plot Point Reference/Re-Emergence Alert: Last year's Christmas episode is referenced in the beginning and we finally find out what happened to Artie's magic legs: they broke the next day.
-Best Musical Number: Hard to pick. I like most of these songs. Probably All I Want For Christmas Is You. Or maybe Let It Snow.
-Worst Musical Number: My Favorite Things, simply because I'm not sure how that's a Christmas Song in any sense of the word.
-This Week In Semi-Offensive Jokes I Found Hysterical: Station Manager: "I am absolutely delighted that our network's Christmas Special is being directed by a teenage disabled boy. You're like a modern day Tiny Tim. (Artie wheels around and looks at him.) Oh. I am sorry. Tiny Tim could walk."
-Also, where was Sugar? I took her presense with Mercedes and company at the end of last episode as a sign that she was joining New Directions, but she was a no-show this week. I noticed her in the promo for January's Yes/No, so where was she this week?
-Best part of the special. Blaine (To Finn and Puck): "Say, are you dressed as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo?" Finn: "No. That's copyright infringement. Any resemblence to Star Wars Characters is completely coincidental".

Community: Regional Holiday Music

What Happened, Yo!:

-It's Christmas and Abed was hoping to spend some time with the study group, but everyone has different plans.
-The Glee Club comes around doing songs to promote their upcoming Christmas Pageant. Everyone's upset by this, except Jeff who has tipped off the music industry that the club is doing unlicensed covers without permission, leading to a cease and desist order. This causes the club to have a mental breakdown.
-Cory Raddison (who like's being called Mr. Rad) wants the study group to fill in like they did when the first club all died in a bus crash, but they decline.
-Abed, who just wants to end the semester on a light note goes to see Mr. Rad and winds up getting talked into recruiting the study group to do the pageant.
-One by one, the various members of the study group fall to songs targeted to get them (Abed gets Troy to do a rap about infiltrating Christmas, Abed and Troy appeal to Pierce's baby boomer side, Pierce gets orphans who don't know what Christmas is about to get Shirley, Annie seduces Jeff, and we don't see Annie and Britta get turned.)
-During the turning process, Abed talks to Mr. Rad about the pageant and notices that he won't consider Britta for the role of Christmas Queen and wants her to play a tree.
-On the night of the pageant, the study group is all ready to perform the pageant and get ready for Regionals. Abed learns that Mr. Rad plans to keep the study group in the Glee Club after the pageant for a never-ending series of competitions.
-As the pageant begins, Abed tells Britta that Mr. Rad wants her to play his role and that the lyrics to the song will be in her heart.
-Britta goes out and is just awful, but when Mr. Rad freaks out and calls her the worst, everyone thinks that's too far. The Dean permits Britta to finish her song, but Mr. Rad has a meltdown, where he accidentally confesses to killing the previous glee club by cutting the brakes to the bus.
-Abed sadly admits that Jeff is right and trying to make things brighter only makes things darker.
-Christmas morning, Abed goes to watch the terrible Inspector Spacetime holiday special from the 80's when he gets a knock on the door.
-The study group has decided he was right and they should be together this Christmas, so they all settle in to watch the special together.
-And with that, Community goes on to a indefinite hiatus.

I Liked This: I was always going to love this episode. It combines 5 of my favorite things: Community, Glee, jokes about Glee, TV shows that do musical episodes with original music, and Christmas music. Plus, it's the last Community for a while so I'm not going to be looking for flaws. But even if I was looking, I don't think I would've found anything. Regional Holiday Music was full of heart and humour. I found all of the songs to be hilarious, and the climax with Britta being the worst and the Glee teacher being homicidal was a good way to resolve the story (before the real resolution at Abed's.). And of course, the show got in plenty of clever jokes about Glee, from recreating the choir room complete with mute Piano teacher, to pointing out that calling someone a bully for not liking Glee is reverse bullying. Plus the Regionals runner was never not funny. Community had a lot to live up to after last year's Christmas episode and boy did it deliver.

But...: It's so good, I'm even more furious at NBC!

The Bottom Line: Excellent Episode. Excellent Show. Come back soon, Community!

Grade: Holy BLANK! (Perfect)

Memorable Moments

-If I had to pick a favorite song, it would be Troy and Abed's rap. But Annie's ridiculous Santa Baby-esque sexpot song, where she gets dumber and dumber is a close second.
-Jeff: "Merry Christmas everyone. The Glee club just became the History club".
-Abed: "Glee! I'll understand every scene, because we'll sing what we mean instead of making a face!"
-Mr. Rad:"Families are closer when families are winning!" Abed: "Everything's cooler when camera's are spinning!"
-Jeff: "Oh please, not liking Glee club doesn't make us bullies and implying that is reverse bully-ism!"

-Annie: “Boopy boopy boop doop sex”
-Jeff: "Look, eventually you hit a diminishing returns on the sexiness!"
-Choir of Orphans Wondering Who Was Born On Christmas: We asked our public school to give the answer
But they could only teach us not to pray. The Constitution says the state can't tell us. Was anyone important born today?
-Mr. Rad: "When we win Regionals, then it's straight on to Sectionals, and then a week later is Semi's, then Semi Regionals, then Regional Semi's, then National Lower Zone Semi's!"
-Britta: "Me so Christmas, Me so Merry!"
-Dean: "Why don't we let Britta sing her awkward song?"
-Mr. Rad: "...And you can let me do that, or there can be another BUS CRASH!!!" Crowd: Gasps and mumurs. Mr. Rad: "Well... figuratively. I'm not saying 'I killed the last Glee club'. Ha, I'm saying you not listening to me is like metaphorically cutting the brake lines on your own... Look! Kings of Leon!"
-The Choir of the Bells thing at the end was also great.

Glee: Hold On To Sixteen

What Happened, Yo!:

-Quinn tells Rachel she plans to get Shelby fired by telling people she's sleeping with Puck. Rachel points out that if Quinn does this, she will be hurting her child and will truly hit rock bottom.
-Sectionals is at McKinley this year.
-Finn tells Mr. Schue that they need to get Sam Evans to win Sectionals and he's only 4 hours away.
-Blaine laments to Kurt that Finn won't let him help the Glee club. Sebastian shows up and while Blaine is gone, he and Kurt express their dislike for each other.
-Rachel and Finn travel to Kentucky to get Sam, where they find that Sam is secretly working in a male strip club to help pay for some of his family's needs. They convince him to go back with them.
-Quinn tries to get back together with Sam so he can help her raise Beth when she gets Shelby fired. Sam tells her she has "rich white girl problems" and encourages her to just enjoy her senior year.
-Tina tries to get Mike to apply for a school where he can dance, but Mike tells her that he's applied to Stamford Pre-Med because he doesn't want to rip his family apart. Tina tells him not to be a coward and follow his passion, but Mike gets upset.
-Sam tries to convince the boys that they need "sex appeal" to win, and most of the boys are ready to go with that, but Blaine disagrees. He takes a crack at Sam for selling himself and they have a brief physical altercation.
-Blaine asks Finn what his problem with him is. Finn admits that he was jealous, but they need Blaine to win. Fin apologises and they unite.
-Sam tries to get Mercedes back. Mercedes tells him to move on, but Sam tells her he's going to get her back.
-Tina confronts Mike's dad and tries to get him to watch the West Side Story DVD with Mike's performance. Mike Sr. tells Tina that the path of the performer will be filled with hardship and there won't be lots of opportunities for them. Tina tells him she doesn't care if there's hardships and he should honour his son's gifts.
-The Troubletones approach New Directions and tell them that when they lose, they can join Troubletones for Regionals. This makes New Directions indignant and Will tells him they're going to focus on winning, while Quinn makes an oblique reference to knowing Shelby's secret.
-At Sectionals, the first group performs, and they have that Glee Project Girl from the first episode. They're good.
-Quinn is heading to get Shelby fired, when Rachel pleads with her to wait until after Sectionals.
-Quinn confronts Shelby, who tells her she's ending it with Puck, and that Quinn should enjoy being young before it slips away from her. She also apologizes.
-Troubletones perform and are good but Finn and Blaine are still confident.
-As New Directions begin their performance, Mike Chang Sr. arrives and seems impressed. Their rendition of ABC gets the crowd to their feet.
-New Directions also does Control and Man in the Mirror. At the end they get a standing ovation from even Mike Chang Sr.
-New Directions celebrates their good performance. Mike's dad tells him that dancing is his path and he and his mother will help him anyway they can. Mike's worried that he missed the deadlines for the schools he wanted, but Tina has sent in his application just in case.
-New Directions wins Sectionals! Troubletones come in second and are devastated.
-Quinn tells Rachel that she's not going to get Shelby fired and thanks her for stopping her from doing something stupid. They finally become friends and Quinn decides she wants to go to Yale for the Drama program.
-Quinn tries to gets Mercedes, Santana, and Brittany back to New Directions with a promise from Will and Rachel that Troubletones will get one number a competition. She also tells them that they'll all be gone soon, and with her life in front of her, she wants to be with her girls while she can.
-Mercedes, Santana, Brittany, and Sugar come to the auditorium during the victory rendition of "We Are Young", and join in, finally reconciling the two clubs together.

I Liked This: Glee took a real stumble last week, but they always manage to do good competition episodes and this one was a good one. I liked that the main dramatic thrust of the episode was redeeming the character of Quinn, and finally getting her back on a path to some kind of stability. I liked that the writers found a suitable way to possibly lure Mercedes and Santana back to the Glee club (and that Brittany was more than willing to go back.). I liked that Tina had a storyline, even if it was another part of Mike Chang's storyline. I liked that Glee shared the wealth with their sectional numbers and got everyone involved in some way. I was also a fan of Finn and Blaine's stuff this week. And somehow the writers were able to get in an appropiate amount of tension, even though everyone knew New Directions would win (I also didn't miss having a scene with the judges. After season 1, those scenes were never as good, and really the only judge I wanted to hear from was Tickles the clown.). Plus Tina and Mike Chang did lots of singing! Really, this was a swell episode of Glee.

But...: There was still flaws with this episode. The beginning of the episode made a big deal over needing to get Sam back, and besides the fact that they thought the best way to reintroduce the character was to put him in a strip club (Though I could somewhat appreciate his justification of it.), we don't get any real resolution to his conflict with Blaine and he doesn't seem that instrumental to their victory. And I would've liked to see one more thing of New Directions getting ready for Sectionals, before (or possibly after) their scene with the Troubletones.

The Bottom Line: It wasn't as good as the first two sectionals (I really liked Special Education, even in that mess of a first part of season 2.), but Hold On To Sixteen was a solid installment and a good resolution of the plotlines for the initial part of the season.

Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Number: I really dug ABC the most out of all the Sectionals numbers.
-Worst Musical Number: Red Solo Cup. What was the point, besides "Chord Overstreet decided he wanted to return after all, so let's give him a solo to welcome him back!".
-Now that I think of it, Sam's stripping may have been the writer's way of getting back at him for leaving. Good one, writers.
-Tonight was the first episode in a while where the theme was incredibly obvious. In case you missed it, it was "stop being young the first chance you get" (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.).
-Good to see they remembered that they needed 12 people and recruited some people from the bad. Because I would've been pissed off if they just waved that off.
-Dalton Academy also advances to Regionals, which means we get to see more of Sebastian. I'm fine with that.
-Santana had already prewritten her welcome back insult to Sam: "Welcome back, Lisa Rinna. I've missed you so much since your family packed their bags, loaded them into your mouth, and skipped town. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to enjoy a crisp pickle but couldn't find anyone to suck the lid off the jar. I assume you've been working as a baby polisher, where young mothers place their infants heads in your mouth to get back that newborn shine. So glad you're back. I haven't seen a smile that big since the abominable snowman got his teeth pulled by that little gay elf dentist. Love, Santana."
-Blaine is a good boxer! "I also started the Dalton branch of the fight club. Which I obviously can't talk about."
-I liked Tickles line about getting to be around kids that are only sick with talent. Honestly, of all the ideas for ridiculous judges, Tickles is the best one since the Comptroller from season 1.

Glee: I Kissed A Girl

What Happened, Yo!:

-Following up on Mash Off's cliffhanger slap, Santana is about to be suspended for two weeks under the school's "Zero Tolerance on Violence" policy, when Finn claims she only stage slapped him and gets her off. He intends to get the New Directions and Troubletones together on an assignment to help Santana.
-Sue is worried about how the forthcoming attack ad will affect her, so she looks up one of her booty calls so people won't think she's a "friend of Ellen".
-The Senior Class President Election is almost here (finally) and Brittany seems like a sure thing to win. A worried Kurt considers rigging the election, JFK-style much to Rachel's alarm.
-Finn proposes Lady Music Week, where they do songs by ladies for ladies in order to get Santana to come to terms with herself and show how much they support her.
-Santana initially thinks the idea is stupid, but she quickly warms up to it by the end of the first half of the episode.
-Quinn invites Puck over because she wants to sleep with him. Puck tells her off and declines.
-Beiste is shocked to find out that her love interest Cooter is Sue's booty call. Cooter says he's still not sure what she wants, but he wants more than just a buddy.
-The student council elections are happening at the same time as the congress elections. People vote and stuff.
-The Glee girls come to Santana's defense when the Sophmore Rugby Captain tries to hit on her, because he sees her as a challenge.
-After the girls all sing I Kissed A Girl, Santana announces that she's come out to her parents who support her, and all she has to do now is come out to her grandmother.
-Kurt hears he won the election, but only because someone rigged it. He's the prime suspect for this.
-We find out that Rachel was the one who rigged the election. Finn tells her she has to come clean.
-When Beth hurts herself, Shelby calls Puck to the hospital/ Afterwards, they hook up but Shelby regrets it. Puck gets mad at her and tells her she missed out on something special, before leaving.
-Santana comes out to her grandmother, who rejects her because she didn't keep it a secret and basically disowns her. Santana is devastated.
-Beiste comes to challenge Sue for Cooter, but Sue has lost the election and decides she doesn't want to let go of Cooter. Beiste declares her love for him though and won't go down without a fight.
-Puck goes to Quinn who wants to get pregnant again. Puck refuses, and realizes that while everyone helped Santana with her non-secret, no one helped Quinn, who is a real mess. He holds Quinn and assumedly tells her his secret about him and Shelby. Really, Puck?
-Burt is now congressman. Kurt congratulates Brittany on her victory, even though he's devastated over his loss.
-Santana sings Constant Craving, which she says reminds her to stay strong. As she sings, we see Shelby regrets giving up Puck, and Kurt celebrates his dad's victory, even though he regrets his own loss, and we also see him finish his application to NYADA, even though he probably doesn't have a shot at getting in now.
-Rachel reveals to the room that she came clean about rigging the election and has put Kurt in the clear, but has been suspended for a week, is having this all put in her permanent record and is banned from competing in Sectionals. Twist!

I Liked This: Honestly, I Kissed A Girl worked the most for me when it was being downright poignant. Kurt losing the election, meaning his chances of getting into NYADA are pretty much zero, Santana getting rejected by the one family member she cares about the most, Rachel getting banned from Sectionals, Quinn being so desperate, she tries to get pregnant again, and even Beiste realizing she's losing her man to Sue (who feels he's the only good thing about her life after she loses the election). Moments like these were when the episode was at it's best. There's fascinating television in all of those moments. I'm glad Glee had Kurt lose the election (I'm even more glad he didn't lose because he was gay.), because it's realistic. The idealist doesn't always win. Dreams don't always come true. It's sad, but it's compelling and I'm actually finding myself interested in Kurt again. Rachel getting suspended and banned from sectionals is a good twist too, and a nice way to create more suspense for Sectionals. And once again, Naya Rivera had some terrific acting in this episode. Oh, and the whole Puck/Quinn/Shelby storyline didn't really bug me this week.

But...: All those moments of poignancy I liked were just moments in the midst of an episode with some real problems in it. For one thing, the show did a lot of telling but not showing with a couple big plot points. Why couldn't we see Santana getting support from her parents, instead of just hearing about it? Why was the congress election brushed to the side for much of the episode? I didn't even realize it was the week of the election until we saw the polling booth. Even with that ad, Sue losing so much support and Burt suddenly getting lots of support weren't even alluded to until Sue pulls out that paper showing she lost.

I also had issues with the assignment this episode. It's good that the clubs are showing Santana that they care about her, but Finn's idea for Lady Music Week seemed ill-conceived (though I imagine Glee will sell lots of singles through their song choices this week) and I don't really believe that Santana would've warmed up to that idea by the third song sung (an acoustic cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? Really, Finn?). The episode also just didn't seem to spend as much time on Santana's journey as it could've. And lastly, they may have explained why the bullies got away with slushy-ing people with a zero-tolerance violence policy, but there's still plenty of instances of violence on the show that they haven't justified, so I didn't believe that Santana should've been at risk of suspension.

The Bottom Line: I Kissed A Girl had some really good moments and ideas in it, but it was also kind of a mess of an episode that could've been better executed. The good stuff still manages to elevate the episode, but for grade-wise, I still feel like this episode was merely...

Grade: Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good)

Memorable Moments

-Oh yeah. What was up with Puck's hair this week? It looks weird.
-Best Musical Number: I was a big fan of Constant Craving, because it was well done and worked well for the closing montage.
-Worst Musical Number: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun just didn't work for me.
-Somewhere along the line, Brittany turned from a legitimate candidate who was all about female empowerment, to Crazy Brittany Running For President and Winning Because She's Popular and Bribed People With Candy. And that's a bit of a shame. She's still funny though, so that's good.
-Sue was actually really funny this week between her not understanding why somebody might think she's a lesbian, and her book of booty calls.
-Santana was mainly showing her soft side this week, but I loved her claims that she has an evil alter-ego named Snix, whose actions she can't control.
-Santana: "Thank you, guys. Thanks, Finn. You know, with all the horrible things in my life, now I get to add that."
-Sue: "Why would someone assume I'm a friend of Ellen just because I'm mannish and highly aggressive and have short hair and I only wear track suits and I coach a girls' sport and I married myself? It just doesn't make sense."
-Artie: "Where's Rachel? She never misses applause."

Glee: Mash Off

What Happened, Yo?:

-Puck is "Hot For Teacher". Shelby is a sub in one of his classes, because apparently she needs more to do than just coach Troubletones.
-Sue is running absurdly ridiculous attack ads against Burt Hummel, and tells Kurt that he doesn't have a chance winning the election, because he refuses to play dirty.
-New Directions and Troubletones will be facing off at sectionals, so Will and Shelby decide to have a friendly "mashoff" competition.
-Quinn is suspicious as to why child protective services haven't come yet.
-Rachel gets Shelby to write a letter of recommendation for Rachel's college application. She mentions that other kids wanting to get in won't have a prayer without a lot of activites like Rachel has.
-Kurt is still mad at Rachel for being in the student president race.
-Santana is insulting Finn and the two decide to gather their Glee clubs for a dodgeball match.
-Shelby tries to underplay Puck's feelings as just a crush, but Puck insists he has strong feelings. Shelby does admit that Beth likes him.
-Quinn still playing nice with Shelby.
-Dodgeball! Set to both clubs doing a mash-up of One Way Or Another and Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Troubletones win and then beat Rory with dodgeballs for some reason until Kurt gets them to stop.
-Mercedes officially becomes leader of Troubletones and demands Santana apologize to Finn and start playing nice.
-Santana gives a series of increasingly thinly veiled insults-disguised-as-apologies to Finn, until Finn uses the one weapon he has and says Santana only tears people down, because she tears herself down, because she's in the closet, and in love with Brittany who may not love her back.
-New Directions performs an Hall and Oates Mash-up.
-Puck admits to Shelby that Quinn planted a bunch of things in the apartment because she wants Beth back.
-Class President debates. Kurt rallies to ban dodgeball as the first step to stopping bullying. Rachel drops out of the race to support him for never playing dirty..
-Rachel and Kurt make up.
-Shelby tells Quinn off and hopes it'll be a wake-up call for her.
-Santana learns that the niece of one of Sue's competitors overheard Finn telling her to come out of the closet and her lesbianism is about to be used as part of an attack ad against Sue, outing her to everybody.
-Troubletones does an Adele mash-up. It's beautiful.
-Santana notices Finn whispering to Rachel. Though he's just whispering how good he thought Santana was, she yells at him, slaps him and yells some more declaring that because of him, everybody will know.
-To be continued.

I Liked This:

There was a bunch of stuff I liked in this episode. All the mash-ups, Santana vs. Finn, Rachel dropping out of the class president race to support Kurt, Sugar trying to copy Santana and saying she sounds exactly like Adele, Puck telling Shelby what Quinn's doing, and Shelby reprimanding Quinn. I even appreciated the over-the-topness of Sue's campaign ad. But for me, the best part of the episode was Naya Rivera and the ending.

Naya Rivera is great as Santana, who has become one of my favorite characters on the show. And this episode gives her lots of comedic material to work with. But in the last five minutes of the episode, when she finds out she's about to be outed to everyone in Ohio, goes to deliver one of her best musical performances in Rumour Has It/Somebody Like You, and then freaks out when Finn whispers something to Rachel, slaps him and shouts at him, Naya also gives perhaps the best performance she's ever given. It really elevates the episode as a whole. The ending itself is one of those well-earned legitimate twist endings you don't see coming (Maybe the first one Glee has done since Mattress. Mercedes joining Troubletones was a twist, but it wasn't unexpected.), and is very powerful stuff, but it's Naya Rivera who truly gives it an impact. If the whole episode was on par with this last scene, Mashoff would get a perfect rating easily.

But...: The whole episode isn't like the last scene and I still have some complaints. I continue to be annoyed with Quinn's big villainous turn. I really hope this is leading somewhere good for the character, because Quinn has turned into early season 1 Quinn again and I don't like early season 1 Quinn. Plus, whether he's 18 or not, I still have issues with the Puck/Shelby romance. I did like the scene where he confesses what Quinn has done, and his scenes with Beth were cute, but I did not care for the opening sequence at all. And Kurt's "Let's ban dodgeball" speech was overly preachy (even for Kurt) and felt shoehorned in, in order to give the earlier dodgeball sequence more purpose than just being an excuse to do a musical number and finally justify the dodgeball motif the season's iTunes singles have been using. As was the crowds enthusiastic reaction to it.

Bottom Line: Honestly, I wasn't sure how I felt about this episode of Glee until the final minutes. There was good stuff and there was bad stuff, and I was hovering around giving the "pretty good" grade again, but that final sequence was well done enough to make me not care so much about the negative parts of the episode and give it a solid...

Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments

-Best Musical Performance: Rumour has it/Somebody like you. No question.
-Worst Musical Performance: Was not a fan of Hot For Teacher. Just didn't think it was well done.
-Fun Fact: Rumour Has It/Somebody Like You is Glee's 300th musical performance.
-Fun Fact #2: This is the 3rd time that Glee's 6th episode of the season has been a mash-up episode.
-Santana: “You guys, hurry up. Go get some wet towels, We have to keep Finn wet before we can roll him back into the sea.”
-Rory is not good at insults. “You’re skinny like all the crops failed on your family’s farm failed.”
-Brittany on Adele: “She sounds like what banana cream pie sounds like when it sings.”
-One last thing: I also liked that it's unclear who's at fault for outing Santana. Finn did say it in public, but Santana provoked him heavily, and neither of them could've predicted what would happen. Personally, I think they're both at fault, but it wouldn't surprise me if the show comes back in 2 weeks clearly on the side of "It's all Finn's fault".

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. 

Sunday-Tuesday Quicky Opinion Time, Yo!

Hey everyone! Due to a couple of days full of wacky adventures, but not much opportunity to maintain this blog, I am doing a quicky opinion for Simpsons, HIMYM, Terra Nova, New Girl, and Glee. Then, I'll probably take a break from the "quicky" thing for a while. Key word: probably. I'm a busy guy.

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXII: Treehouse of Horror has been around for 22 years. Almost as long as The Simpsons, so the writers have a pretty good idea on how to make them memorable. And this installment is a good one with only one real weak installment (the first story after the amusing title sequence, where Homer is paralyzed and can only communicate by farting, and even that one had a great (albeit totally unintentional) Breaking Bad Reference), and two stronger ones. My favorite was probably the middle segment, which was a bit of a Dexter spoof, mainly because I've never seen Avatar, so I didn't get many of the various references I assumed were made during that final segment. Quicky Grade: Awesome! (Good)

How I Met Your Mother: The Return of the Slutty Pumpkin: First they brought back Victoria. Now the Slutty Pumpkin (who is Katie Holmes!) is brought back into the show, and this time we actually get to meet her. The episode, which was about wanting to like something, but just not connecting with it, was a good one, with lots of comedy from Ted realizing he and Naomi don't work, and a good twist ending where we find out Naomi feels the same way. The other two stories, were good too, especially the one where we learn that Barney is a quarter Canadian. Classic. Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Terra Nova: Bylaw: Bylaw was a solid episode, that revolved around the first murder committed in Terra Nova. Though someone confessed to the murder early one, which led to an interesting dilemma, where Taylor had to decide whether to carry through with the bylaw that states banishment is the punishment for murder, the actual muder turns out to be more complicated than this. A few twists and turns later and the real culprit is being banished. Also slight advancement on Josh trying to bring his girlfriend to Terra Nova, by making him promise he'll do some mysterious task for Mira. And he's still annoying. Dinosaurs are still sweet though, and the baby Anklyosaur was cute. Grade: Awesome! (Good) Quicky Dinosaur Scene Count: 3

New Girl: Naked: Naked takes one of those classic sitcom conventions: one character walks in on a character of the opposite gender naked, and puts it's own charming, Zooey Deschanel-filled, spin on it. Basically Jess walks in on Nick dancing naked, laughs and shatters his confidence at the worse possible time: his first date since his break-up. Lots of crazy things happen, but the funniest part of the episode has to be Schmidt who is offended that he is the only one who hasn't seen Nick's penis (Winston and Nick grew up together.). His attempts to see it were hilarious. So after a three-week break, New Girl came back as funny as it's been so far. And that's a good thing. Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Glee: Pot O' Gold: After Asian F, I wasn't sure that Pot O' Gold could be as compelling, and I turned out to be... mostly right. There was still plenty of enjoyable moments. I like that Burt will be taking on Sue for the congress seat and that story was good. I also liked new Irish exchange student, Rory and his attempts to get Brittany's "Pot O' Gold" were amusing. Quinn's attempts to get her baby back though just didn't fit in right with me, no matter what justification the writers attempt to give her and Puck/Shelby is kind of creepy. And the whole Santana and Brittany defecting thing wasn't the best plot. But I still enjoyed this episode though and the next one looks to be interesting, to say the least. Grade: Enjoyable Enough (Pretty Good)

Glee: Asian F

About a week ago, last night's episode of Glee was sent out to critics. Or at least, the TV news guys like TV Line, EW, and E! Online. And all of them pretty much had the same opinion: one of the best episodes in a long time (E! went as far as to call it possibly the best episode ever). So throughout this past week, I kept hearing things about this episode and it got hyped up for me. So going into this week I had high expectations for this episode. So did it meet them? Mostly. I wouldn't say it was the best episode of Glee ever, but it probably would be on a Top 10 list for me. And it definitely threw my hope for Glee back in full swing.

One of the reasons (probably the biggest reason) I enjoyed this episode so much was because of it's focus on one of my favorite characters, recently promoted series regular Mike Chang. Back in season 1, he barely said a word (though he said more than other male background character Matt.), but during season 2 he began getting more and more lines, plus a duet of sorts and a couple dance numbers. This episode saw him finally take the spotlight (for part of the episode at least) and it was glorious. We get a look into his home life, where we see all the pressure he's under from his parents, primarily from his father. We get a glimpse into why he likes dancing so much. And we see him get his first solo as he auditions for West Side Story, showing off how much he's practiced his singing since last we saw him. Man, he has a sweet voice now. His story of struggling to follow his dreams, while meeting his parents extremely high expectations was a nice one, and the scene where his mother encourages him to follow his dreams and he teaches her some dance was genuinely sweet. And with him getting the role of Riff, we're sure to see him get more focus in the future. And I could not be happer about that.

Of course, the big focus of the episode was on a character who also hasn't been getting enough attention as of late: Mercedes. Despite being one of the original members of New Directions, Mercedes hasn't gotten that many stories of significance since season 1. The show's even aware of this and has commented on it in their typical self-aware fashion. But now they actually seem to be trying to put her back in focus and that's a good thing. This episode continues the auditions for West Side Story that started last episode. We see more of Marcus (Mercedes boyfriend who was very briefly introduced in the season premiere) and we see him encourage her to want more and to take the spotlight back. Suddenly, Mercedes Diva-ness which was her major trait in season 1, and made a brief resurgence in season 2 is back in full swing. She feels she deserves the role of Maria and more respect from a group that always seems to favour Rachel (and we see that she is getting pushed harder in booty camp.). She gives her all in the audition and the directors are unable to decide between Mercedes and Rachel so they give them a call-back.

Meanwhile Mercedes diva-ness continues until she refuses to continue at booty camp, calls Will out for his favourtism of Rachel and very nearly gets kicked out of New Directions (Or maybe she did get kicked out. Not sure because after her Dreamgirls fantasy sequence everyone has left the auditorium.). She and Rachel both kick butt at the callback, but Rachel is confident that Mercedes beat her. Based on promos I was sure Rachel had won but suprise, suprise, they both won. Artie, Beiste and Emma decide to doublecast the role and double the number of shows so they can both be Maria. Everyone's happy, right? Not Mercedes who convinced that this is just their way to appease Rachel refuses the part, and goes to join Shelby's new Glee Club. I liked this plot, because it fell in line with her character and even though Rachel and Mercedes have clashed before (and everyone quits the club at some point), the show was still able to make this feel like this was different. Like everything's going to change... for a while at least. Plus, even though Mercedes decisions were kind of unlikeable, at least I was able to figure out the process by which she made those decisions and her motivation. That's something that didn't happen much in season 2.

Meanwhile, Kurt has come to terms with the fact that Blaine is meant to be Tony (though we can see he's still disappointed when the cast list is posted in a great wordless scene) and is confident about his chances in the upcoming school election, as the only candidates so far are him and Brittany and he's 11% ahead of Brittany. Then, Brittany, who's running on a platform of female empowerment, gets the attention of the female population of McKinley, through a flash mob number of Run the World (Girls) that seems to elevate her chances. And to make matters worse, Rachel (who at this point is sure she lost the part to Mercedes) decides out of desperation that she's going to enter the race to ensure her chances of getting into that New York school. This is a decision that, like Mercedes decision to join the other Glee Club is actually understandable, because we know why she's doing it. It becomes less understandable though, when she chooses to stay in the race even after getting the part (her justification at this point is a lot weaker), and now Finn is in an unenviable position: does he vote for his girlfriend or his brother? More on this to come, surely.

And in a last story, Will is confused as to why Emma won't let him meet her parents . Thinking she's embarrassed by him, he takes action to invite them himself. Turns out her dad is Ralph Malph (well, played by Don Most, who was Ralph Malph on Happy Days) and both her parents are ginger supremacists (in another absurd plot point that only Glee could pull off). They're also pretty unintentionally cruel to their daughter and suddenly, we see where Emma's OCD may have come from. This also retriggers Emma's OCD and suddenly all the progress Will's made has pretty much disappeared. Will still wants to help Emma though and the episode ends with a great rendition of Coldplay's "Fix You".

Again, this wasn't the best episode Glee has ever done (That honour probably goes to Wheels. Or maybe Sectionals or Journey). I still have some quibbles about the episode, like Rachel's decision to stay in the race and another thing I'll mention below, but it was still an extremely solid episode. As good as the best episodes in Season 2, and many great ones from Season 1. Glee has yet to miss a step this season, and while things could still go wrong when the show returns November 1st (We'll see how they handle the first Glee Project winner to get an extended role on the show, irish Damien and how they handle Nov. 8's Rachel and Kurt lose their virginity episode), my confidence in this show has been utterly restored.

Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Memorable Moments
 
-Abruptly Resolved Subplot Alert: Santana is suddenly back in New Directions after getting kicked out, having secretly reaffirmed her allegiance. Please tell me that this isn't a sign that the writers are going back to season 2 habits and that there's more to this story.

-Random Plot Point Re-emergence/Reference Alert: Tina still pretends to be a vampire to intimidate Figgins. Huh. Also Mike brings up the time she faked a stutter for 9 episodes back when the show started.

-Best Musical Performance: Cool impressed me but the best number was probably either Fix You or Rachel and Mercedes Callback song Out Here On My Own.

-Worst Musical Performance: Was not that big a fan of It's All Over. It was still good, but not as good as the other numbers.

-No Sugar Motta this week, but she's bound to pop again soon now that Mercedes has joined her Glee Club.

-No Sue this week either, outside of a brief non-speaking cameo during Run the World, but it looks like she'll be back in full force November 1st.

-Emma's description of double-casting Maria: "It's like the special Olympics. Everyone wins!"

-I briefly mentioned it above but the whole scene with people reacting to the cast list was terrific. Especially Mike's joyous reaction and Rachel's solemn one, knowing what getting the part cost her.

Glee: I Am Unicorn

It's not uncommon that Glee has a plot point that's so absurd and implausible, no other show could pull it off. Of course, sometimes even Glee can't pull it off (season 1 fake baby plot, I'm looking at you.) but usually it can because of it's funny. Tonight we find that Sugar Motta (who I'm still loving) has gotten her father to bribe Figgins (with a very large cheque) into starting a second show choir where she is the star, led by the best show choir director in the country: Shelby Cocoran. It's a ridiculous way to bring Shelby back into the fold if you think about it, but it's also really funny so it works. So now Shelby is back, and with her comes memories of season 1 in another good episode.

Shelby's return also allows for more spotlight to Quinn this time around, who only got a couple of scenes last episode. Quinn is still off being the bad girl and hanging with the Skanks when Sue recruits her to be the focus of her newest campaign video, showing how the arts took everything she had. She then is taken by Puck to see Shelby, who tells her that she wants her to be part of Beth's life, but only if she cleans up her act. This only makes Quinn angry but she geets a couple wake-up calls of sorts throughout the episode. First, Quinn does Sue's video and when she confronts Will to blame him in the video climax, Will reprimands her in a great speech about how she only cares about herself, how she always blames the club when it's only been good to her and how she needs to grow up. He even references the time she lived with Mercedes. Then, after Puck (who has seen Beth in a great, tender scene) tells Quinn she has to get her act together for Beth's sake and after a heart-to-heart with Shelby (who went through something similar to Quinn where she gave up Rachel) she dyes her hair back to normal and rejoins Glee. But Quinn has an ulterior motive: she wants Beth back and will do anything to make this happen. Well that should be interesting.

Meanwhile, Kurt is following through with his pledge to run for class president, with help from Brittany who sees him as a unicorn (in a good way. It means he's good and special.). At the same time, auditions for West Side Story (directed by Emma, Beiste, and student director Artie as Will is busy elsewhere) are underway and Kurt hopes to be Tony. So he auditions with a Barbara Streisand number (He got permission from the lady herself, Rachel Berry first.) in a very elaborate number involving him moving around a rafter and showing off his Sai skills (which Chris Colfer actually has, as shown the last time he was on Conan.). He does a good job, but when spying in on the directors meeting, he hears that they're worried he's not masculine enough for Tony. And then he finds his class president posters are pink and feature unicorns, even though he wanted to scale it back. So he gets Rachel and auditions again with a scene from Romeo and Juliet, which he tries to do in a manly way, but gets more laughs then anything. He's discouraged, until his father tells him that he's gotta embrace who he is and write his own plays, if the roles out there aren't suited for him. So he embraces the pink poster design, only to find that Brittany has decided to run for class president too (as encouraged by Santana), because she's also a unicorn. And then Blaine tries out for West Side Story and is asked to read for Tony. So that should also be interesting.

There's other minor storylines that come into play too. Rachel tries out for Maria, but may face tough competition from Mercedes (who's auditioning next week). Will runs a booty camp with Mike Chang, for the weaker dancers as part of his new focus on making New Direction's winners. Finn contemplates a future of working for Burt and is encouraged by Rachel to shoot higher, as he could do more. His dancing also improves. Sue becomes the front runner in the race for congress and Will, Emma, and Beiste begin thinking of someone who could challenge her. These all work to varying degrees, but also make the episode feel kind of cluttered and could've maybe been saved for later.

All in all, this episode of Glee continues my optimism that season 3 will be a step up from season 2. There's interesting storylines (and continuing storylines, which were lacking in season 2) and I'm even starting to like Kurt again. The promise of Rachel versus Mercedes and Brittany versus Kurt makes me excited for next week (plus my favorite character, Mike Chang is getting a storyline.). If Glee can stay this consistent, it'll become as special as it once was. Like a unicorn. And that would be great.

Rating: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Memorable Moments

-One quibble. Shelby implies she put Rachel up for adoption, when she was hired to carry her by Rachel's dads. Hopefully, this was just a slip-up and not Glee altering it's whole continuity.

-Actually another quibble. Blaine is established as a junior, which I don't mind because it means Darren Criss will be sticking around, but now him getting all those solos as a sophmore (in a glee club with stricker rules about who gets solos) seems unrealistic. Then again, it is Glee.

-Only three songs tonight! There hasn't been fewer than four songs since early season 1. I didn't mind this though, and all songs tonight were solid.

-Favorite song of the episode: Something's Coming, because I'm a big Darren Criss fan. Didn't have a least favorite.

-"What's the capital of Ohio. Brittany?" "O."

-"You dress like you own a magical chocolate factory". Oh, Burt Hummel.

-"I'm a unicorn too. Maybe even a bicorn"

-Also, the promo for next week looked amazing. I was chilled, but that may be because Coldplay's "Fix You" reminds me of one of those sad Scrubs endings.