Music

First and foremost, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Kurt and his Single Ladies dance. I can watch that sequence on repeat forever

Kurt’s dad, in one scene being sketched as the quintessential ‘man’ (watching Deadliest Catch, all about sports, the lumberjack shirt, dirt bikes etc…).

Terri gets herself even further into the pregnancy mess when she tells Kendra and Kendra convinces her not to tell. Stupid Kendra.

Sue gets her TV show. Slightly unbelievable, but adds another fun layer to Sue. Also, she keeps calling Emma by the wrong names, Irma last episode, Alma this time.

Rachel is appalled, Tina is getting the solo. Rachel goes on a rant how she ‘made it clear that anything West Side Story goes to me’ and that ‘Tina knows how much I respect her but…’ Tina’s eye roll look says enough, no way in hell does she believe that even for a second.

Schue keeps his decision though, Tina gets the part. Too bad they make Tina fail at it

Kurt comes to ask Finn something, all smiles. By now his coming out to Mercedes has made the rounds, obviously, even though Kurt himself is still not saying anything. Finn, self centered as he is, immediately assumes it’s about him and says he already has a date to the prom, but that he’s flattered and that he knows how important dances are to teen gays…

Kurt is flabbergasted at first, then shocked and denies being gay. He just wants a favour. And that’s an introduction to the football team. Finn agrees, because, as he says, the more Glee and Football mingle, the easier his life becomes. He protests when Kurt wants to use his music, but Kurt holds to it, he needs a proper warm up.

Kurt comes up to ‘audition’ for the ‘role’ of kicker. The team laughs at him as he performs the Single Ladies dance to warm up. And then gives the ball a massive kick and scores. Tanaka immediately welcomes him to the team. His mind is on a single goal, he doesn’t care how or what, Kurt can wear a tutu if he wants, as long as he scores like that in the game, none of it matters.

Sue gets another bit of ammunition to undermine Glee club. Her TV station boss expresses his concern about top cheerleaders defecting to Glee. Sue needs to win Nationals.

Quinn drops a bombshell on Finn, she’s pregnant. The moment Finn hears that word, his first thought is if it is his, and then how? He and Quinn never had sex… Quinn reminds him of last month when they were in the hot tub together. While kissing, Finn’s usual method to stop from coming failed. “But we were wearing our swim suits!?” he says. Quinn replies that a hot tub is the perfect temperature for sperm…

This is the ultimate confirmation of the stupidity that is Finn. We now know Quinn isn’t being completely truthful but Finn has no clue whatsoever.

Both of them are more focused on what the effect is going to be on their own particular situation. This isn’t all that weird, they are teenagers after all, but it hits much harder for Quinn. She is the one who actually carries the child and will bear the brunt of the attention and prejudice and stereotyping and all that. It will set her back in her goal to get out of this town, she knows this, shows it by literally saying it: “I really thought I had a shot at getting out of here.” Since she is planning on keeping the baby, this will effectively anchor her down.

Sandy remains creepy, creepy, creepy. I really don’t like him.

Sandy sets up auditions, specifically so Rachel will audition and they can get her out of Glee. Rachel sings Taking Chances (and she rocks that song!) and of course gets chosen.

Schue and Rachel then have a very nice dialogue going on. Rachel actually shows some awareness of how she is seen by others, and admits that this is correct. However, she wants Schue to judge her not on her character but on her talent since “it sounds awful, but I’m the best one in there.”

While she is indeed a very good singer, the others aren’t bad either, and some (Kurt) easily outsing her. Will agrees, however, and tells her so. With Rachel pulling all the weight, the others slack off and they can’t win Regionals like that, Will says, and he has no choice but to give others solos as well so they can all feel like a star…

Really, Will, you’ve made questionable choices before, but you’ve not been that much of an outright jerk before. Completely ignoring the talents he has, he only ever really has eyes for two people: Rachel and Finn.

Rachel doesn’t accept that though, she wants the solo, only her pains matter, only her being bullied matters. It doesn’t occur to her that maybe the others are indeed being pulled out of their shells, but it doesn’t necessarily lessen what they’re going through.

During rehearsal, Tina fails the song (which is really lame, btw, she could’ve easily done it) and takes one for the team when she tells Schue to give the song to Rachel.

Finn seeks out his replacement father figure/older copy of himself in his time of need. Finn speaks out what I wrote above, he’s seen the guys around town who had kids in High School, they’re still here, working menial jobs and just barely getting by. He doesn’t want to be that guy, he needs a scholarship so he can go to college (note how it’s all about him, not a word about how Quinn will get just as stuck). But to get a scholarship, the Football team needs to start winning. Bottom line, he wants Schue to teach the Football team some moves.

Finn is and Idiot. He apparently never has, in his whole 16 years of life, been to a library, or even fucking heard of what a library is… And he wants to go to college…

Kurt is being all cool against the lockers and delivers the punch line that silences Puck

And woohoo! Teaching the guys the Single Ladies dance. *radiates Kurt love*

Puck finds out Quinn is pregnant and confronts her. And then it comes out, Finn isn’t the father, Puck is. Puck is angry that she didn’t tell him. “My dad’s a deadbeat, but I don’t roll that way!” Quinn tells him she had sex with him because he got her drunk and she felt fat, but it was a mistake and she doesn’t want anything to do with him. Quinn’s responsible though, she doesn’t accuse Puck but acknowledges her own choice in the matter (I had sex with you…).

Terri ambushes Quinn, since she heard from Will about the pregnancy she has realised that this is her chance to get out of the mess she’s in.

Yay! Game time! The team protests about doing the dance routine for real. Kurt sends Finn an imploring look, but he ignores it. Inside he agrees with the team. The game starts and the McKinley Football Team sucks.

Kurt waves at his dad as he climbs the stands, yelling “I told you, I told you”. It’s easy to see Burt’s embarrassment at this as he discreetly waves Kurt down. Finn finally talks Puck into trying it and it works, Puck scores after surprising the opponents by dancing the routine. Kurt then gets to kick and scores. As he is hoisted up he waves at Burt, and Burt is so ecstatic he almost drags the two guys in front of him from the benches as he pulls at their shoulders in happiness.

Then we come to the best coming out to a parent scene I’ve ever seen. Kurt’s in his room cleaning up and working one of his beauty routines when Burt comes down. Kurt has realised, through Glee and Football, that he can be anything and wants no more lies. So he comes out and says it: “And what I am is… I’m gay.”

And Burt, glorious Burt, who’s been sketched as a ‘man’s man’, whom you would expect to not take this well, just says: “I know. I’ve known since you were three.”

Kurt isn’t sure at first what to make of that, but when Burt clarifies: “All you wanted for your birthday was a pair of sensible heels,” he knows and he can start to smile. Burt isn’t in love with the idea but makes it very clear that no matter what, he loves his son and will be there for him, and they hug.

*Side note: Seems a bit odd though that with Burt knowing about the heels he wanted then, why he would make a fuss about a tiara collection and take away his car (1.03). Unless there was another reason that Kurt rather not explain.

Puck is hurt by Quinn’s speech and attitude earlier and takes it out on her with a couple low blows.

Glee club finally gets a full complement with Mike Chang, Puck and Football Mike joining. Why Mike and Mike join, no idea. But Puck joins so he can be closer to Quinn, he meant what he said, he wants to be there for the baby, even if Quinn doesn’t want him.

Will starts rehearsal with the West Side Story solo again, and doesn’t bow to Rachel, go him, even if his motives are still skewed. He gives the solo to Tina again, and Rachel makes up her mind. She quits Glee and joins the musical Sandy is directing, where she can be the one and only, the star.

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Best Lines

Kurt: My body is like a rum chocolate soufflé, if I don’t warm it up right, it doesn’t rise.

Finn: I got this from the school library. Did you know you can just borrow books in there? All of them. Except for the Encyclopedias and stuff.

On the whole I didn’t find this episode that strong, although that could be because the focus lay on the Will story and I tend to like those less. I mostly go for the background kids and their stories

Cute intro, Will is bursting at the seams with the news that Terri’s pregnant. Nice fleshing out of Will’s dad in just a few lines of dialogue, the dreams he had. It gets Will thinking about his own dreams, which gets reinforced by Quinn’s disparaging remark/question if he ever performed after High School. So, a completely unbelievable segue later, Will has started an a cappella group with Henri, Howard and Ken. Conveniently, all the other guys are misfits, which automatically makes Will the star.

Terri is getting desperate to actually get pregnant, especially after Will tells his parents.

The moment Will has his new group, he’s abandoning Glee. He wants to be famous himself. And while getting fame by having his Glee club win Nationals is nice, fame by being in the spotlight himself is better. But being in the spotlight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And when it blows up in his face he goes back to the thing he knows he can do, which is Glee,

Quinn and Santana are on a crusade to break up Glee, under orders from Sue (even though Quinn’s eager to do it for her own reasons). Hence the remarks to Schue, and setting Mercedes up to go after Kurt as a love interest instead of a friend. Which is what they have become. And also trying to get the others to hire Dakota Stanley, who then breaks all of them down, one by one. And then the kids band together, kick out Dakota Stanley and get stronger as a group in the process.

Finn is trying to make it about him by threatening to quit if they don’t go along with what he wants. As ever, he’s yo-yoing between enjoying Glee and worrying about his reputation. Will recruits Finn for the Acafellas so he won’t quit. And there we have Puck getting involved with the Acafellas. I’m not quite sure about his motives, but I’m not convinced they are what he says. I think he just wants to sing, loves to sing, but thinks (and rightly so) that joining Glee will tank his reputation.

Kurt has a kick ass car Too bad about the window… And too bad it gets taken away. Lousy reasoning too, taken away because he had a tiara collection :/ I’m not sure I buy that.

Kurt was this close to coming out to Mercedes, and then last minute turned it around by confessing he loved someone else. And his look is straight on Finn. But he confirms, even as he gets a frowny what-are-you-on-about expression, when Mercedes turns around and sees Rachel and thinks it’s her. Because he doesn’t quite dare to come out yet. Even though most already suspect or know, as evidenced by Rachel and Tina’s gayvention of Mercedes. Mercedes has some nice lines about stereotyping and judging on appearances. And when it comes down to it, of course she’s right, until Kurt comes out you can never be 100% sure.

And then Kurt comes out, and the person he tells is Mercedes, who has really become his best friend. Lovely moment, very well done. Especially his looking around to see if they’re no one else to hear before he actually says he’s gay. And the tie keeps smiling, even though Kurt is sad, and lonely

Sue chews out Quinn and Santana for failing to bring down Glee. She revokes their tanning privileges, which has Santana in tears. She’s still mostly a caricature at this moment. See also, earlier, where she dumps Puck because his credit score is terrible. She gets fleshed out more later, but is being set up as a supremely self invested girl. Quinn has actually learned a lesson from the whole procedure, she’s learning putting the losers down isn’t all that fun, because she is getting to know the losers, and they’re people too.

Sandy is way, way too creepy.

I LOVE Josh Groban hitting on Will’s mother

And a nice ending for Will’s dad who’s taking a cue from his son’s dream-chasing to change his own missed dream: he’s enrolling at law school.

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Best Lines

Mercedes: Have you ever kissed someone?

Kurt: Yes, if by someone you mean the tender crook of my elbow.

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Josh Groban (to Will’s mom): Let me tell you, throngs of screaming teenagers don’t do it for Josh Groban. Josh Groban loves a blousy alcoholic.

The Kids

Rachel’s not improving much on what was established about her in the pilot. The first words out of her mouth as we see her are to tell Schue that she picked out some music that “feature me heavily in the lead vocal.” Later on, when dancing, she has no idea where the other kids are as evidenced by her almost kicking Mercedes in the face.

Interesting to note that Rachel comes to school alone, Finn comes alone, but Mercedes, Tina and Artie come together, and have apparently been doing things together as well. They’ve started a real friendship.

Kurt is being held hostage by the Football team. Schue, who has been teaching at the school long enough that he should know what goes on, is totally oblivious to the obvious discomfort that Kurt radiates. The look Kurt gives Schue as he walks past is full of contempt and quiet desperation. The moment Schue is gone, the football team gets to business. Kurt’s call for them to wait as he tosses his bag at one of them to keep it safe from the dumpster is a way for him to regain at least some measure of control in the situation. It gets clear here too that Puck is really the muscle of the football team bullying. Finn is the quarterback top dog, and Puck does the hard work.

Kurt and Mercedes are growing a friendship too, they argue fashion and hair and there’s shared looks as Schue talks during rehearsal.

Mercedes gets a solo bit, good, albeit a bit stereotype and very, very short. Schue takes the spotlight, to show it to the one who will get it later, Finn.

Quinn is getting more uncomfortable with Finn being in Glee. She needs Finn to quit, if he doesn’t, it’s her popularity that’s taking a hit (see review of 1.01). Good of Finn to stand up though and stick with something that he really likes.

Rachel keeps impressing upon Finn that he’s good and talented and such, even though, I’ll say again, he’s not that good. But she has a crush on him, plus (or maybe even because) he matches her perfect picture so she can’t stand the idea of him quitting Glee. She even joins the celibacy club for him. The celibacy club meeting scene was mostly just meh… Although it provides a nice bridge to the song the Glee kids do at assembly when Rachel runs out after proclaiming that really all they want is sex.

During the song, Kurt gets to smack Finn’s butt, I wonder if this is where his crush on Finn starts.

After the performance, Quinn is now sure she needs to join Glee club or else she will lose Finn. Puck… there’s more going on in his head but he’s hard to read. He’s into Quinn, so if she joins he’ll go too, that much is sure. Quinn auditions for Glee club with two trusty lieutenants (Santana and Brittany) and nails it (even though her voice is a bit weak). She has no choice, everything she does has to be perfect, so her audition for Glee as well.

The whole picnic on stage thing, over the top much. Rachel’s actively seducing another girl’s boyfriend because he fits her better, and Quinn’s feelings (if she even realises Quinn has them) are irrelevant. And Finn doesn’t mind, to him it’s a natural state that girls are automatically attracted to him. The only reason he runs away is to stop from “arriving” not because he has any thoughts on how it’s not exactly nice to cheat on your girlfriend.

Rachel gets told it’s not all about her when she complains about Quinn joining. Too bad it doesn’t stick. Her rendition of Take a Bow is noticeably auto-tuned. It’s also hypocritical, blaming Finn for putting up a show and leading her on, making her think he might be faithful to her, while it was her coming after him in the first place.

The Adults

I’m only noticing now that Will actually has a Glee vanity plate on his car, nice accessorising to show his obsession with Glee. More evidence Will hasn’t really been paying attention to what is needed for Glee Club to work, but that he’s just chasing his dream (and his past) when Sue waves the rulebook in his face. I would think, when you take over a choir and get the kids’ hopes up with talk of going to Nationals or even just Regionals, you’d look up requirements and such. Except he hasn’t. Sue has to tell him there’s a rule book and that he needs more kids.

There’s not really a coherent base to Sue’s desire to undermine Glee club. The Cheerios are majorly successful, their budget is more than enough, what with Sue’s extra sponsors outside of school and Sue herself is successful. It’s not that she hates music either (even though this doesn’t really get articulated until the Madonna episode). It seems to me it’s mostly that Sue always needs something to challenge, to bounce herself off of. Being afraid of Glee club taking her spotlight is a ridiculous motive.

Emma is aware her crush on Will is wrong (as in he’s married), but she’s not really stepping back. Will isn’t either, he’s flattered by the attention, and likes the fact that Emma is fawning over him instead of riding him, as Terri is. Emma is literally throwing herself at Will. She stands around the corner until he’s there and then comes barging out as if she never noticed him. It takes Ken Tanaka saying it to her face to make Emma realise she can’t be around Will the way she has been, “playing house” with him in cleaning and stuff. Emma sees the light, a little bit, and backs out of cleaning with Will, confronting him with their behaviour, and focusing her attention to someone else. Even if she has zero interest in that person.

Nice cut to Terri in the new house deciding what needs to be done there, as the kids sing Golddigger, except that that isn’t really Terri’s underlying motive. Terri is still annoying, but also kinda sad. And Will… instead of addressing the deeper issues here, he just hides away (submerging himself in the bath), then gives in and gets an extra job as janitor because it’s easier than getting into what’s at the base of Terri’s behaviour.

Terri learns she’s not really pregnant and she’s exasperated at first. This was something she wanted and now it got taken away from her just like all the other stuff. Along the lines of something she said in the previous episode: “why can’t we have nice things!”

Terri wants to tell Will about hysterical pregnancy at first, but can’t when she hears him express his dream of family. So she blurts out that it’s a boy, and backtracks on the new house. Deep down she knows she can’t keep this from him, but she desperately wants to keep him, and she knows that he’s pulling away from her. And the harder she tries to keep him, the more he pulls. But Will wants a family more than getting away from Terri, so as long as he thinks she’s pregnant, he will stay.

The responses in the crowd to the sexy song are fun to watch. Sue is outraged, not just at the kids daring to perform something like that, but also at the reactions of the others. I wonder a bit why she is so outraged, but I’d wager it’s tied to her being not in a relationship, and about over-doing things, beyond the natural state (kinda how she explodes at Santana after her boob job in 2.01). Emma is liking it a lot, Will is horrified and Figgins is swaying to the music barely seeing what the kids are doing. Like always, he seems mostly clueless. He goes with what is best for the school, either in terms of bringing in money or increasing reputation, but what he thinks doesn’t really come out.

Also, inconsistency. Figgins gives Will a list of pre-approved songs they can sing, which are all songs that have Jesus in the title or are about balloons… And Sue is not protesting that, while she later in episode 2.03 protests when the kids want to sing religious songs… It pours more oil on Sue’s fire too by cutting her dry cleaning budget to get Glee new costumes.

Funny Bits

Kurt on doing Freak Out at assembly, with a matching gesture: “They’re gonna throw food at us! And I just had a facial!”

Kurt can express so much with just gesture, posture and looks. *love*

Kurt and Mercedes arguing fashion and hair during the second rehearsal

Kurt has the best lines

Rachel: “We’re gonna give them what they want.”

Kurt: “Blood?”