Writer: Brad Falchuck
Grade: A-
I guess I’m glad the Quinn baby daddy fiasco is out in the open now. I hated it all along, and at least the trite drama is over and they can move on to the meatier dramatic potential of that storyline.
Mercedes’ solo ballad was truly amazing, as was Amber Riley’s lip-syncing. It was nice to see some personal growth from Rachel in that scene, too, smiling throughout, stunned by the end, and complimenting Mercedes. Even Rachel’s “I’m gonna hug you now” was perfect because Mercedes has always been a bit prickly toward Rachel.
The locker room scene with Finn was one of Will’s better teaching moments. I have a feeling his “You can’t always get what you want” was intended not just as a literal statement, but was also intended to lead Finn down the mental road he followed, culminating with suggesting the use of that song to the club. Seriously, you don’t just drop a quote from a well-known Rolling Stones song to a classic rock-loving glee club kid and not expect him to make the connection…
Unfortunately, I thought the song they chose for Rachel’s solo ballad wasn’t a great choice for her vocal style. Lea Michelle is pretty versatile, but I still thought she sounded a bit shrill.
This episode really highlighted one of show’s core problems regarding the glee club as a competitive activity—the showrunners don’t want to repeat songs, so we didn’t get to see the kids actually use the songs they’d come up with (and practiced on- and off-screen) all season long, but instead pull new songs out of their butts at the last minute and perform them well enough to win. The writing was so obvious that it made it all feel a bit ridiculous. It’s also a shame that New Directions winning sectionals was predictable—if they lost, how would the writers structure the rest of the season? But then again, it was a 50/50 shot either way, so there’s no avoiding some level of predictability in that scenario!
The Will/Emma romance storyline felt tacked-on because most of it was crammed into the last 15 minutes of the episode. She told him no at her cancelled wedding, and a few minutes later he’s running down a hallway to give her a big epic smooch! I’d rather they’d saved that resolution for the spring and ended with the glee club’s triumph, but at least they held off on stuffing a similar Finn/Rachel scene into the episode.
I know I sound pretty negative, and I do think this show has a lot of shortcomings (some of them are even built into the concept), but despite my criticisms, I still enjoyed this episode.
Other Stuff
-The audience dancing during the Rolling Stones number was just waaaay too much cheese, and I really like cheese.
Quotes
Santana: “Sex is not dating.”
Brittany: “If it were, Santana and I would be dating.”
Sue (to Will): “I am reasonably sure that you will be adding ‘revenge’ to the long list of things you’re no good at, right next to being married, running a high school glee club, and finding a hairstyle that doesn’t make you look like a lesbian.”
Will: “But I—“
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