Episode guide: Will took Emma's advice of letting other stars in the group shine this week, changing up all Sectionals performances to feature under-used characters such as Sam, Quinn, Santana, Mike and Brittany.
This caused tension for everyone, most notably tension, who was robbed of her usual solo. But she had plenty more to worry about:
Santana revealed that she slept with Finn and even a counseling session with Emma didn't make Rachel feel any better about it. She ended up confiding in Puck, who tried to recruit new members to the group in light of Kurt's departure. He succeeded in landing a girl wrestler named Lauren, but he was also thrown into a port-o-potty by his football teammates.
As a result, he made a deal to be nicer than ever.. but couldn't stop himself from at least kissing Rachel. He did then back off, but after she told Finn about what happened, he dumped her.
Elsewhere, Emma had shocking news of her own for Will: she went to Vegas with Carl and got married!
Kurt, meanwhile, was having some trouble adjusting to life at Dalton Academy. He didn't get a solo at Sections, as Blaine tried to tell him the team frowns on anyone who tries too hard to stand out.
As for Sectionals themselves? Dalton and William McKinley tied for first. Both will move on to Regionals.
EPISODE GUIDE: Burt and Carol announced plans to wed to open this episode, which led to Kurt planning a ceremony and reception.
While he was doing so, most other characters were dealing with the issue of Karofsky bullying this gay student. Sue, still acting as principal, said there was nothing she could do because there was no proof. Members of New Directions tried to protect Kurt, with Sam even getting into a major fight with his teammate... well, all members except for Finn.
He didn't wanna cause strife with an offensive lineman, which of course made Rachel very disappointed in her man.
That takes us to the wedding, which was an emotional affair. Everyone cried and Finn ended up giving a great speech. He said he and Kurt were pretty much brothers now and he'll never let anyone hurt Kurt. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about the fact that Karofsky was remaining at school. (Even after Kurt said he threatened his life and Sue tried to expel him, the school board overturned the decision.) As a result of this fact, Kurt told the group at the end of the episode that he was transferring to Dalton Academy because he didn't feel safe as William McKinley.
Elsewhere:
- Sue's mother came to town because she had killed her final Nazi and because her daughter was marrying (herself... don't ask). But Sue stood strong and ended up telling off the mother who left her and Gene years ago.
- Quinn accepted Sam's promise ring. These two are now going steady.
Sue takes over as principal this week after she forces a student to sneeze on Figgins and make him sick. When Will comes down with the same illness, he's sent home and Terri comes over to take care of him.
She seems more grounded than usual, telling Will that she's taking medication and seeing a therapist. The two end up having sex.
At school, meanwhile, New Directions need a teacher. Kurt ends up asking the woman who is subbing for Will in Spanish class: Holly Holliday. She's a free spirit who lets the kids do almost anything and who bashes Will's taste in music. She wants the group to update its set list as it decides what to sing for Sectionals.
Such an attitude endears Holly to the group, even to Rachel, who admits that she's always wanted to sing a fun dance number - so Holly joins her on stage for a number from "Chicago."
But after Mercedes gets in trouble for taking Holly's advice (stuffing tater tots into Sue's tail pipe in protest of them being banned), Holly breaks down, visits Will and realizes she's too flaky to be an effective teacher. She has commitment problems and fears passing these along to the kids. Terri actually walks in on these two chatting, freaks out a bit and is told by Will to leave, that the night before was a mistake.
Will ends up coming back to work because Sue realizes Holly is even more danger than her other nemesis, and is embraced by his students.
Episode Guide: The club learned of its competition for Sectionals this week and one of the teams was the Dalton Academy Warblers. When Kurt when to spy on them, he quickly met Blaine, an openly gay student who was totally comfortable with his sexuality. He encouraged Kurt to stand up for himself, even when things got very difficult.
Kurt took this advice and fought back against the football-playing brut that always bullied him. When Kurt confronted him in the locker room, the guy kissed Kurt! I didn't see that coming. Turns out, it was Kurt's first kiss.
Elsewhere, thing got awkward when most of the guys admitted they pictured Coach Beiste in unusual scenarios in order to take a break and not get too excited, sexually. When she found this out, courtesy of Will, Beiste wanted to quit. She was humiliated.
But will talked her out of it and said she was beautiful on the inside and outside. He learned she had also never been kissed and gave her a smooch.
Finally, Puck returned and bonded with Artie, solely to fill his community service obligations. But he didn't treat Artie very well, as you can tell the theme here is bullying. In the end, though, Artie forgave Puck for being a jerk and said he's tutor him in math.
EPISODE GUIDE: After learning that Emma loved The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Will decided to make the group put on that musical for the school.
His students were totally into it, with the exception of Finn, who was unsure about being on stage in his underwear because he was oddly insecure for such a jock. But Rachel helped him overcome those fears a bit and the practices seemed to be going very well.
However, Will later took exception to Carl being included in the play. He actually inserted himself into a role in order to keep up with Emma's man and asked his crush to rehearse a scene with him that involved her character trying to seduce his. It was hot stuff.
Soon, though, Sue would be the one to talk sense into Will. She had agreed to do a report on the show in order to show parents what sort of inappropriate arts their kids were being taught at school. Will discovered this plan (thanks to Becky), confronted Sue over it and got an inspired talk from the coach. She was on to Will, she knew he only put on the play to attract Emma - and Will realized he was crossing a line. He was pushing boundaries and asking his kids to stage a lewd performance just because he wanted to steal another man's woman.
In the end, Will told the kids this, apologized to Emma and said they could still put on the show, but only for themselves. They performed a final number in an empty auditorium.
After last week's stellar episode, I have to admit I wasn't holding up a lot of hope for this week's. After all, when it comes to consistency, Glee hasn't really sorted out all its kinks as yet, and they do tend to follow up really strong episodes with those that are more filler than killer and, sadly, I was not mistaken. But the good news is, although Duets is a bit of a filler episode, it isn't really half bad.
After his injury last week and much to the rest of the club's delight, new kid Sam finally joins the Glee club and is soon perused by Kurt, who believes him to be gay. This ramps up very quickly when Will decides a little competition is in order and decrees the couple who performs the best duet will win a dinner for two at a local restaurant.
Finn and Rachel think they have it in the bag, but wanting to keep Sam in the club, they decide to rig the vote and perform the most offensive song they can find. However, the rest of the duos want to win and set out to perform the best numbers that they can.
After ditching Brittany after she suggests the two girls perform a Melissa Etheridge song, Santana teams with Mercedes and they perform a diva-filled version of River Deep, Mountain High and Tina and Mike perform Sing! from A Chorus Line.
After having a heart to heart with his recovering father, Kurt realises he can't keep going after straight guys hoping they are, in fact, gay and he releases Sam from the commitment he made to sing with him and opts to do a duet with himself, performing a stonking version of Le Jazz Hot from Victor/Victoria. After teaming up with a reluctant Quinn, she and Sam perform Lucky and end up winning the competition. Their free dinner turns out to be their first date.
Sensing Kurt's unhappiness of not being able to find somebody to not just duet with, but to be with, Rachel asks if he would be her duet partner, even though the competition is over, and the two do a lovely mash-up of two classic Judy Garland songs.
Last season my biggest gripe with Glee was the fact it was partial to putting in filler episodes rather than focusing on the ongoing storyline, and whatever happened in that specific episode would wrap up nicely within the hour. Thankfully, although this episode screamed filler, it did actually manage to move along the main plotlines pretty nicely.
Kurt is still coping with being the only gay student in the school (and, as revealed, within the entire town), Sam joined the club and sparked up a romance with Quinn, and Santana and Brittany's relationship was made a bit clearer, rather than assumed by innuendo. All these little stories nicely linked up to the characters' progression and make them more rounded and believable.
What I thought was a wasted opportunity this week was the storyline between Brittany and Artie. The writers have really ramped up Brittany's character this season and her one-liners are getting up there along with Sue Sylvester's (who was noticeably missing this episode) put downs and, while I have been enjoying getting to know the character more, I felt the writers let both her and Artie down this week when it came to the issue of him losing his virginity to her.
Having a disabled character in a primetime American show is a pretty bold thing to do, but whenever there is an issue to do him and his disability, it seems the writers skirt around it somewhat and I felt they could have done a lot more with the issue than they did. Kevin McHale, who plays Artie, is a great little actor and I hope they give him a bit more screen time to let his character develop further and I hope the Tina-Mike-Artie triangle gets him a bit more screen time than he currently has.
Overall, this was a bit of a take it or leave it episode. Nothing exceptional happened, there were no real big numbers to speak of, and the focus on musical theatre, although perfect for a viewer like me, might have alienated some of its audience a bit.
Next week, the gang will be donning their fishnets and throwing caution to the wind, because just in time for Halloween, they will be putting on The Rocky Horror Glee Show.
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