Original air date: September 23, 2009
I love this episode. I think this is going to be a very common thing for me to say of the first 13 episodes. I think I loved every single one and rewatching these episodes has been such a great experience so far. I'm being reintroduced to characters I'd forgotten about and loved, I'm remembering how charming all of the characters were in the beginning, in spite of their flaws. It's just been great. In this episode, we are introduced to the awesomeness of Burt. On first viewing, I was so nervous to meet this guy, given the comments Kurt had made about him in previous episodes. All I knew about the guy was that he seemed to be suppressing his son's gayness (only giving him a car if he stopped wearing form fitting sweaters that stopped below the knee, for example) but this episode surprised me. Lets find out why.
We open this episode on the sole reason that Heather Morris was cast at all, the infamous Single Ladies routine. Heather was a back up dancer for Beyoncé during a tour she did and was brought onto the show specifically to teach the cast to do this dance, they liked her and hired her and thus Brittany S. Pierce was born.
Side bar: this song was so annoying and I'll never understand how it became popular...ok Beyoncé is why it was popular but it's still an annoying song.
However, I love this sequence, if there is one thing that is refreshing about the first 13 episodes it is its restraint with songs. All they are doing here is trying to recreate Beyoncé's famous music video for the song, the kids are not singing it, it is clearly Beyoncé and the whole song is not played. I'm going to miss this restraint so hard when we get to later seasons.
So, Kurt, Tina, and Brittany are busy filming their dance video when they are interrupted by Kurt's dad, Burt. Since Kurt is still pretending he's in the closet, he quickly makes up an excuse as to why he is wearing the Beyoncé unitard while dancing around the basement, saying that it wicks away sweat for workouts and that all guys totally wear them now.
Then Tina chimes in that it's for football, which Kurt agrees with saying that all the guys on the team wear them. Brit then helpfully tells Burt that Kurt is totally on the football team and is the kicker. Burt seems happy with this and reminisces about his own time on a football team. He then asks if one of the girls is his boyfriend and Kurt quickly puts his arm around Tina but says that he doesn't want to be exclusive yet. Burt goes to leave but asks Kurt to get him tickets to his next game so he can watch. Nice hole you've dug for yourself there, Kurt. This won't lead to crazy hijinks at all.
GLEE!
We cut to Will and Terri's apartment where they are practicing Lamaze techniques with Terri's sister, Kendra as their coach. Kendra is awful to Will and says he's too nice and supportive. Ok...nice and supportive during labour sounds good to me but whatever. Kendra says he needs to be super tough and I'm not sure how tough gets you through labour, I guess she means don't be a wuss and faint on your wife when she needs you the most? Anyway, she then wants to show Will how to rub the gas bubbles from his wife's belly which makes Terri freak out. She says she doesn't want Will to touch her stomach because he might hurt the baby, then asks him to make her a sandwich.
Terri then breaks down and confesses to her sister about faking the pregnancy. She then decides that she has to tell Will but Kendra stops her, insisting that dishonesty is "food to a marriage" and that it will die without it. Ok, Kendra, not sure I'm going to take that advice. Kendra's suggestion is to find a baby to pass off as Terri and Will's.
The next day, Will is sitting with Emma and Ken in the lunch room which is totally not awkward at all. Emma tells them about the fact that she saw Sue on the local news channel and we segue into Sue doing her segment about how caning should be allowed again. Charming. When this first aired, I didn't believe a news channel would air something like this but now we're living in a hellscape and this seems tame in comparison. Now I'm depressed.
That's Sue's cue to enter and brag about her celebrity status and how the local news station's ratings were through the roof because of her segment. She leaves them all in their shock to get to a satellite interview because she's hot stuff now or something. I'm just going to add that I love that Sue calls Emma every similar name except Emma. Perfect.
In the choir room, Will is handing out sheet music and Rachel gets upset that she's not given the solo. Tina has been chosen to do the solo because Will is jealous that Sue is branching out and I guess he wants to try something different. He really should be incorporating all of their voices anyway because it is a glee club which is supposed to be about multiple voices coming together but whatever. Rachel thinks Will is trying to punish her and says that Tina isn't ready for the role of Maria (which is an odd thing to say given that they aren't doing the whole play, just singing a song from the musical.) She then storms out of the room in a huff. Artie thinks that every time she leaves the room this way, it loses impact and I really agree...but I still lover her.
Kurt takes the opportunity to ask Finn for a favour. He wants his help to get on the football team so that his lie to his father will be the truth. Finn agrees and this is one of those instances where I can see why the other kids look up to him and think of him as such a great guy. Kurt is still going with this whole "not gay" thing that even Finn knows is bull crap. Finn is not the sharpest tool in the shed, who does Kurt think he's fooling? I guess his dad? Anyway, they're now on the field and Finn is helping Kurt try out for the team.
Ken tells the team that their kicker sucks ass and has been down graded to water boy. The next person who can get the ball through the field goal posts will get his position. This leads Kurt to say the most adorable thing ever:
Kurt puts on his Single Ladies music (again Beyoncé singing and not the glee kids) and does a little dance before punting the ball through the posts. He casually asks if that was good as everyone around him cheers. Ken is elated and tells Kurt that he can wear a tutu on the field as long as he can kick like that during the game. Kurt is in and his lie has become a reality. Good for him.
We cut to Sue being talked to by the news station's owner. He brings up the fact that her cheerleaders have started defecting to show choir and how that looks bad for her. He says her show is about being a champion so they need her to win nationals or she will lose her segment. I now realize that this whole plot was added as a way to make Sue even more determined to take down the glee club but her segments are funny so I'll allow it.
Back at the school, Finn sees that Quinn is upset and tries to find out what's wrong. She tells him that she's pregnant. Finn is confused because they've never had sex but she reminds him of the time they were making out in a hot tub when he prematurely ejaculates. Finn is really easy, isn't he?
Fun Science Fact: You can actually get pregnant from having sex in a Jacuzzi or hot tub. People think that the hot water kills the sperm but it only slightly lowers the sperm count if you've been sitting in it for a while but not to a degree that would be considered "safe". HOWEVER: You cannot or at least are extremely unlikely to get pregnant by being in a pool where a man has ejaculated into the water. Especially since neither were naked. Sperm can only live a short amount of time and they would doubtfully have time to swim through the water, find the vagina and then travel up the vagina to fertilize an egg. Basically her story is utterly bunk but I think that's the point given the spoilers that happen. Wow, two sex ed lessons in the past two recaps. Who knew glee could be so educational?
Anyway, she cries on Finn's shoulder while he freaks out silently and tries to tell her that everything will be ok. I've gotta say, I kind of like that even though he is clearly freaked, he is still doing his best to put his feelings aside to comfort her and make sure she's ok.
Sue is at Sandy's house and it is super, super creepy. He has a weird doll collection and tells us that he's been collecting them since 1961. I love Jane Lynch's dry delivery of the line "Now, isn't this just lovely and normal?" The sarcasm is strong with her and I love it.
Sue has come to offer Sandy the position of Arts Administrator at the school which seems impossible given that he was accused of molesting a male student at that school, abusing his power as a choir instructor. Imagine what he would do with more power? Especially considering that he referred to his couch as a "casting couch" just now...
Why does Sue have the power to do this? Well, apparently, she's blackmailed Principal Figgins with this commercial he did for anti-embolism socks:
Sue and Sandy then plot a way to derail the glee club. Sue has an ingenious plan to steal Rachel away from the club and it involves Liza Minelli and Celine Dion. Sandy is all in on this idea.
Cut to Rachel, seeing the audition sign up sheet for Cabaret where you have to audition with the Celine Dion song of your choice. Again, this episode shows restraint by only giving us a bit of Rachel's outstanding performance of Dion's Taking Chances for Sandy and Sue and they promptly give her the lead.
Will finds out about Sandy coming back and is super pissed and rightfully so. Figgins counters by claiming that Sandy was never formally charged with anything and my blood boils. I hate this defense of sex offenders, I hate it so much. "but they weren't charged, so it must not be true!" "well, they weren't convicted of anything!" Gah! I hate you sometimes, Figgins. Will accuses Sue of doing this on purpose in order to sabotage glee because they stole Rachel away. He is right but he does sound crazy.
We cut to Will begging Rachel to come back but she's having none of it. She acknowledges her flaws but says that she should be judged on her talent not whether or not he likes her because she works the hardest and wants it the most out of everyone in glee. Will counters that everyone knows she's the best and they coast because of it which is why he wanted to give other people a turn to shine, so they can all feel like stars and work harder because it's the only way they will win regionals. Rachel says that she understands but doesn't understand why she has to be trampled to make others feel better. Ouch.
Side bar: I relate so much to Rachel Berry here because I totally get not being recognized for anything you do and shunted aside to make other people feel better while not recognizing that maybe everyone needs a confidence boost from time to time. Especially if they've earned it. I remember once I won this scavenger hunt thing and you got a trophy for winning and I was so happy and proud of myself for winning but then the person who organized it took away my thunder by saying that they recalculated the points in favour of some younger kids because they needed the boost or something. Pro tip: if you want to give the trophy to younger kids, just say the younger kids won. Don't say that one kid won and then take that victory away from them because you think other kids need to win more because that is a sucky feeling and more damaging to self-esteem than just not winning.
Moving on. Tina is now practicing her solo of Tonight from West Side Story and she's doing well with it but is clearly nervous and falters at the end notes. Will says she's doing great but she rightly tells him that she was sharp. She then tells him that he should just give the solo back to Rachel so that she will come back and they can win sectionals. Admittedly, this is sad too because Tina is now in the position of feeling like she was handed the solo out of pity and that only Rachel can sing it. Tina has a lovely voice and with practice, could definitely do it (the actress can probably already nail it) but she wants Rachel back on the team and feels she has to give up her solo for that. It's not fair to her at all.
She leaves Will alone in the auditorium, feeling dejected and like he's failing all of his students. Then Finn comes in and burst out crying on Will's shoulder. We cut to a little later and they are eating together after Finn has calmed down. Will offers to set Finn and Quinn up with Planned Parenthood but Finn nixes that as "it's not even a conversation. She's keeping it." I get kind of pissed because this show is perpetuating the myth that all Planned Parenthood does is abortions. They are kids who make little to no money, even if she's keeping it, of course she should be set up with Planned Parenthood because they will look after her and give her all of the check ups she needs without having to pay through the nose like you would with a regular doctor in the States. And it's things like this that make me super happy that I live in Canada, where I don't have to worry about paying for baby check ups and ultrasounds.
Anyway, Finn is freaking out because all of the guys who have had kids in high school are stuck in menial, low paying jobs and he doesn't want that. He wants to go to college and so he needs a football scholarship. To get a football scholarship, he needs their team to start winning which leads him to asking if Mr. Schue will teach the team to dance, as a way to loosen them up. Will agrees, hoping to get football players to join glee club.
Later, he tells Terri about the teen pregnancy which gives her an idea. An awful idea. Terri got a wonderful, awful idea.
Will pitches his idea to the football team, who are not pleased. Basically, they are teenaged boys who think dancing is icky. Ken is on board though because he's sick of losing and basically, the guys have no choice but to go along. Kurt is very into the idea and attempts to teach them the Single Ladies dance, it's a callback to the beginning! Ken is visibly uncomfortable with the whole thing and tells them all to hit the showers.
Puck asks Finn what's up and then immediately teases him about being in love with Kurt. Finn drops the bombshell that Quinn is pregnant to shut him up and it's a resounding success.
Puck immediately goes to harass Quinn about it, not just because he's an asshole but because (dun dun DUNNNN) the baby is his. He offers to take care of her and the baby because he's not a deadbeat like his own father but she outright rejects this idea because she sees him as a "Lima Loser" a staple insult of this show. I don't know, Quinn, why do you think Finn is any better an option? Because he's football captain? That's textbook peaking in high school and he can very well still be a Lima Loser too.
Quinn runs off to her car crying and Terri is waiting for her in her car like some sort of psycho. I have so many questions about this. How did she know which car was Quinn's? How did she get inside? Why did she think this was a good idea? None of these questions get answered. This is Glee, bitch, just roll with it.
Terri offers to help Quinn and gives her prenatal vitamins so her baby won't be ugly. That's not what that's for but nice gesture, I guess. It's enough to pique Quinn's interest.
It's the night of the football game and Will sits in the stands with Emma. The football team has decided against doing the dance they practiced and Finn is too scared to go against any of them. They start to play and are getting crushed by the opposing team and taunted.
Burt shows up and Kurt is very excited. It's a cute little moment where instead of the kid being embarrassed by an overenthusiastic parent, the parent is kind of embarrassed by his kid.
The clock is ticking down. There is apparently only 1 second left on the clock when Finn calls a time out. He tells his team and Puck that they have to do the thing they rehearsed. Puck is not happy but Finn says he doesn't want to be a Lima Loser all his life and that strikes a chord with him and they all agree to do the thing.
This scene has always played clunky to me and maybe I don't know anything about football, ok I know nothing because I'm a Snow, but it seems to me that with 1 second left on the clock, there would not be enough time for any of this to play out. Then again, I get to see a football team do the Single Ladies dance and then score so it's kind of amusing. This ties them up so now it's up to Kurt to kick them a winning score or something. I honestly begin to tune out the minute people start talking sports, I'm sorry.
Kurt steps onto the field and Burt is super worried because of how little he is. Kurt makes a motion and Single Ladies starts up again. Kurt kicks the winning field goal and everyone goes nuts. His father, Burt, is bursting with pride but there's still a sense of dread that he won't accept Kurt.
The following is the sweetest thing I've ever witnessed. Burt congratulates his son on the winning game and tells him he's proud of him and this sparks Kurt to finally come out to his father. His father says he knew all along that he was gay and is completely unfazed by this revelation. It's really sweet because the way this show built him up, you thought he was going to be a butch manly man about it and disown his son. It was refreshing to see him so open about it. He's still uncomfortable with the idea but his love for his son never falters and well, that's better than a lot of kids get. I love the way they handled this subplot, I was so scared they were going to go a different way and delightfully surprised when Burt acted like it was no big deal. Burt gets major MVP this episode.
Finn offers Quinn his old baby blanket for their baby and promises to be a good dad for her. She looks suitably guilty but not guilty enough to, you know, come clean or anything. Puck comes by and acts like a douche because it's his default mode. Finn stands up for Quinn and Puck storms off like a baby.
The next day in choir, Will welcomes three new members to the Glee Club. Puck, Matt Rutherford, and my man, Mike Chang. (This guy is awesome and woefully underused in this show). He then gives out sheet music to sing Tonight again and Rachel looks excitedly and expectantly at him, until she realizes that Tina still has the solo.
Rachel officially quits Glee and goes to Sandy to give her full devotion to the musical. Which pleases Sandy to no end. We then end the episode of most of the other characters looking completely dejected with their lives.
I still love this episode. It has it's faults, like most of Glee does but it never fails to put a smile on my face and I just love the Burt/Kurt storyline. The baby plot is less interesting to me but there's still some solid scenes, particularly the one between Will and Finn. It's really nice remembering how much I used to love this show and look forward to new episodes. Let's see how the next episode holds up, which it will because Kristen Chenoweth is amazing.
I love this episode. I think this is going to be a very common thing for me to say of the first 13 episodes. I think I loved every single one and rewatching these episodes has been such a great experience so far. I'm being reintroduced to characters I'd forgotten about and loved, I'm remembering how charming all of the characters were in the beginning, in spite of their flaws. It's just been great. In this episode, we are introduced to the awesomeness of Burt. On first viewing, I was so nervous to meet this guy, given the comments Kurt had made about him in previous episodes. All I knew about the guy was that he seemed to be suppressing his son's gayness (only giving him a car if he stopped wearing form fitting sweaters that stopped below the knee, for example) but this episode surprised me. Lets find out why.
We open this episode on the sole reason that Heather Morris was cast at all, the infamous Single Ladies routine. Heather was a back up dancer for Beyoncé during a tour she did and was brought onto the show specifically to teach the cast to do this dance, they liked her and hired her and thus Brittany S. Pierce was born.
Side bar: this song was so annoying and I'll never understand how it became popular...ok Beyoncé is why it was popular but it's still an annoying song.
However, I love this sequence, if there is one thing that is refreshing about the first 13 episodes it is its restraint with songs. All they are doing here is trying to recreate Beyoncé's famous music video for the song, the kids are not singing it, it is clearly Beyoncé and the whole song is not played. I'm going to miss this restraint so hard when we get to later seasons.
So, Kurt, Tina, and Brittany are busy filming their dance video when they are interrupted by Kurt's dad, Burt. Since Kurt is still pretending he's in the closet, he quickly makes up an excuse as to why he is wearing the Beyoncé unitard while dancing around the basement, saying that it wicks away sweat for workouts and that all guys totally wear them now.
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| Oh yeah, I can totally see this being all the rage with insecure high school jocks. Totally. |
Then Tina chimes in that it's for football, which Kurt agrees with saying that all the guys on the team wear them. Brit then helpfully tells Burt that Kurt is totally on the football team and is the kicker. Burt seems happy with this and reminisces about his own time on a football team. He then asks if one of the girls is his boyfriend and Kurt quickly puts his arm around Tina but says that he doesn't want to be exclusive yet. Burt goes to leave but asks Kurt to get him tickets to his next game so he can watch. Nice hole you've dug for yourself there, Kurt. This won't lead to crazy hijinks at all.
GLEE!
We cut to Will and Terri's apartment where they are practicing Lamaze techniques with Terri's sister, Kendra as their coach. Kendra is awful to Will and says he's too nice and supportive. Ok...nice and supportive during labour sounds good to me but whatever. Kendra says he needs to be super tough and I'm not sure how tough gets you through labour, I guess she means don't be a wuss and faint on your wife when she needs you the most? Anyway, she then wants to show Will how to rub the gas bubbles from his wife's belly which makes Terri freak out. She says she doesn't want Will to touch her stomach because he might hurt the baby, then asks him to make her a sandwich.
Terri then breaks down and confesses to her sister about faking the pregnancy. She then decides that she has to tell Will but Kendra stops her, insisting that dishonesty is "food to a marriage" and that it will die without it. Ok, Kendra, not sure I'm going to take that advice. Kendra's suggestion is to find a baby to pass off as Terri and Will's.
The next day, Will is sitting with Emma and Ken in the lunch room which is totally not awkward at all. Emma tells them about the fact that she saw Sue on the local news channel and we segue into Sue doing her segment about how caning should be allowed again. Charming. When this first aired, I didn't believe a news channel would air something like this but now we're living in a hellscape and this seems tame in comparison. Now I'm depressed.
That's Sue's cue to enter and brag about her celebrity status and how the local news station's ratings were through the roof because of her segment. She leaves them all in their shock to get to a satellite interview because she's hot stuff now or something. I'm just going to add that I love that Sue calls Emma every similar name except Emma. Perfect.
In the choir room, Will is handing out sheet music and Rachel gets upset that she's not given the solo. Tina has been chosen to do the solo because Will is jealous that Sue is branching out and I guess he wants to try something different. He really should be incorporating all of their voices anyway because it is a glee club which is supposed to be about multiple voices coming together but whatever. Rachel thinks Will is trying to punish her and says that Tina isn't ready for the role of Maria (which is an odd thing to say given that they aren't doing the whole play, just singing a song from the musical.) She then storms out of the room in a huff. Artie thinks that every time she leaves the room this way, it loses impact and I really agree...but I still lover her.
Kurt takes the opportunity to ask Finn for a favour. He wants his help to get on the football team so that his lie to his father will be the truth. Finn agrees and this is one of those instances where I can see why the other kids look up to him and think of him as such a great guy. Kurt is still going with this whole "not gay" thing that even Finn knows is bull crap. Finn is not the sharpest tool in the shed, who does Kurt think he's fooling? I guess his dad? Anyway, they're now on the field and Finn is helping Kurt try out for the team.
Ken tells the team that their kicker sucks ass and has been down graded to water boy. The next person who can get the ball through the field goal posts will get his position. This leads Kurt to say the most adorable thing ever:
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| I really loved first 13 Kurt. I'm going to miss his sass. |
Kurt puts on his Single Ladies music (again Beyoncé singing and not the glee kids) and does a little dance before punting the ball through the posts. He casually asks if that was good as everyone around him cheers. Ken is elated and tells Kurt that he can wear a tutu on the field as long as he can kick like that during the game. Kurt is in and his lie has become a reality. Good for him.
We cut to Sue being talked to by the news station's owner. He brings up the fact that her cheerleaders have started defecting to show choir and how that looks bad for her. He says her show is about being a champion so they need her to win nationals or she will lose her segment. I now realize that this whole plot was added as a way to make Sue even more determined to take down the glee club but her segments are funny so I'll allow it.
Back at the school, Finn sees that Quinn is upset and tries to find out what's wrong. She tells him that she's pregnant. Finn is confused because they've never had sex but she reminds him of the time they were making out in a hot tub when he prematurely ejaculates. Finn is really easy, isn't he?
Fun Science Fact: You can actually get pregnant from having sex in a Jacuzzi or hot tub. People think that the hot water kills the sperm but it only slightly lowers the sperm count if you've been sitting in it for a while but not to a degree that would be considered "safe". HOWEVER: You cannot or at least are extremely unlikely to get pregnant by being in a pool where a man has ejaculated into the water. Especially since neither were naked. Sperm can only live a short amount of time and they would doubtfully have time to swim through the water, find the vagina and then travel up the vagina to fertilize an egg. Basically her story is utterly bunk but I think that's the point given the spoilers that happen. Wow, two sex ed lessons in the past two recaps. Who knew glee could be so educational?
QUINN: Ask Jeeves said a hot tub is the perfect temperature for sperm. It, it helps it swim faster.Well, Ask Jeeves is a fucking liar and also, who the hell uses Ask Jeeves anymore? That shit is so 90s it's not even funny. I say this as someone who used Ask Jeeves and at the time this aired, even I was like what? No one uses that anymore.
Anyway, she cries on Finn's shoulder while he freaks out silently and tries to tell her that everything will be ok. I've gotta say, I kind of like that even though he is clearly freaked, he is still doing his best to put his feelings aside to comfort her and make sure she's ok.
Sue is at Sandy's house and it is super, super creepy. He has a weird doll collection and tells us that he's been collecting them since 1961. I love Jane Lynch's dry delivery of the line "Now, isn't this just lovely and normal?" The sarcasm is strong with her and I love it.
Sue has come to offer Sandy the position of Arts Administrator at the school which seems impossible given that he was accused of molesting a male student at that school, abusing his power as a choir instructor. Imagine what he would do with more power? Especially considering that he referred to his couch as a "casting couch" just now...
Why does Sue have the power to do this? Well, apparently, she's blackmailed Principal Figgins with this commercial he did for anti-embolism socks:
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| Stupid sexy Figgins |
Cut to Rachel, seeing the audition sign up sheet for Cabaret where you have to audition with the Celine Dion song of your choice. Again, this episode shows restraint by only giving us a bit of Rachel's outstanding performance of Dion's Taking Chances for Sandy and Sue and they promptly give her the lead.
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| I know people hate her but look how happy she is, awww |
We cut to Will begging Rachel to come back but she's having none of it. She acknowledges her flaws but says that she should be judged on her talent not whether or not he likes her because she works the hardest and wants it the most out of everyone in glee. Will counters that everyone knows she's the best and they coast because of it which is why he wanted to give other people a turn to shine, so they can all feel like stars and work harder because it's the only way they will win regionals. Rachel says that she understands but doesn't understand why she has to be trampled to make others feel better. Ouch.
Side bar: I relate so much to Rachel Berry here because I totally get not being recognized for anything you do and shunted aside to make other people feel better while not recognizing that maybe everyone needs a confidence boost from time to time. Especially if they've earned it. I remember once I won this scavenger hunt thing and you got a trophy for winning and I was so happy and proud of myself for winning but then the person who organized it took away my thunder by saying that they recalculated the points in favour of some younger kids because they needed the boost or something. Pro tip: if you want to give the trophy to younger kids, just say the younger kids won. Don't say that one kid won and then take that victory away from them because you think other kids need to win more because that is a sucky feeling and more damaging to self-esteem than just not winning.
Moving on. Tina is now practicing her solo of Tonight from West Side Story and she's doing well with it but is clearly nervous and falters at the end notes. Will says she's doing great but she rightly tells him that she was sharp. She then tells him that he should just give the solo back to Rachel so that she will come back and they can win sectionals. Admittedly, this is sad too because Tina is now in the position of feeling like she was handed the solo out of pity and that only Rachel can sing it. Tina has a lovely voice and with practice, could definitely do it (the actress can probably already nail it) but she wants Rachel back on the team and feels she has to give up her solo for that. It's not fair to her at all.
She leaves Will alone in the auditorium, feeling dejected and like he's failing all of his students. Then Finn comes in and burst out crying on Will's shoulder. We cut to a little later and they are eating together after Finn has calmed down. Will offers to set Finn and Quinn up with Planned Parenthood but Finn nixes that as "it's not even a conversation. She's keeping it." I get kind of pissed because this show is perpetuating the myth that all Planned Parenthood does is abortions. They are kids who make little to no money, even if she's keeping it, of course she should be set up with Planned Parenthood because they will look after her and give her all of the check ups she needs without having to pay through the nose like you would with a regular doctor in the States. And it's things like this that make me super happy that I live in Canada, where I don't have to worry about paying for baby check ups and ultrasounds.
Anyway, Finn is freaking out because all of the guys who have had kids in high school are stuck in menial, low paying jobs and he doesn't want that. He wants to go to college and so he needs a football scholarship. To get a football scholarship, he needs their team to start winning which leads him to asking if Mr. Schue will teach the team to dance, as a way to loosen them up. Will agrees, hoping to get football players to join glee club.
Later, he tells Terri about the teen pregnancy which gives her an idea. An awful idea. Terri got a wonderful, awful idea.
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| "I know where to get a baby" she said. "If I can't have one, I'll snatch one from the cheerleader instead." |
Will pitches his idea to the football team, who are not pleased. Basically, they are teenaged boys who think dancing is icky. Ken is on board though because he's sick of losing and basically, the guys have no choice but to go along. Kurt is very into the idea and attempts to teach them the Single Ladies dance, it's a callback to the beginning! Ken is visibly uncomfortable with the whole thing and tells them all to hit the showers.
Puck asks Finn what's up and then immediately teases him about being in love with Kurt. Finn drops the bombshell that Quinn is pregnant to shut him up and it's a resounding success.
Puck immediately goes to harass Quinn about it, not just because he's an asshole but because (dun dun DUNNNN) the baby is his. He offers to take care of her and the baby because he's not a deadbeat like his own father but she outright rejects this idea because she sees him as a "Lima Loser" a staple insult of this show. I don't know, Quinn, why do you think Finn is any better an option? Because he's football captain? That's textbook peaking in high school and he can very well still be a Lima Loser too.
Quinn runs off to her car crying and Terri is waiting for her in her car like some sort of psycho. I have so many questions about this. How did she know which car was Quinn's? How did she get inside? Why did she think this was a good idea? None of these questions get answered. This is Glee, bitch, just roll with it.
Terri offers to help Quinn and gives her prenatal vitamins so her baby won't be ugly. That's not what that's for but nice gesture, I guess. It's enough to pique Quinn's interest.
It's the night of the football game and Will sits in the stands with Emma. The football team has decided against doing the dance they practiced and Finn is too scared to go against any of them. They start to play and are getting crushed by the opposing team and taunted.
Burt shows up and Kurt is very excited. It's a cute little moment where instead of the kid being embarrassed by an overenthusiastic parent, the parent is kind of embarrassed by his kid.
The clock is ticking down. There is apparently only 1 second left on the clock when Finn calls a time out. He tells his team and Puck that they have to do the thing they rehearsed. Puck is not happy but Finn says he doesn't want to be a Lima Loser all his life and that strikes a chord with him and they all agree to do the thing.
This scene has always played clunky to me and maybe I don't know anything about football, ok I know nothing because I'm a Snow, but it seems to me that with 1 second left on the clock, there would not be enough time for any of this to play out. Then again, I get to see a football team do the Single Ladies dance and then score so it's kind of amusing. This ties them up so now it's up to Kurt to kick them a winning score or something. I honestly begin to tune out the minute people start talking sports, I'm sorry.
Kurt steps onto the field and Burt is super worried because of how little he is. Kurt makes a motion and Single Ladies starts up again. Kurt kicks the winning field goal and everyone goes nuts. His father, Burt, is bursting with pride but there's still a sense of dread that he won't accept Kurt.
The following is the sweetest thing I've ever witnessed. Burt congratulates his son on the winning game and tells him he's proud of him and this sparks Kurt to finally come out to his father. His father says he knew all along that he was gay and is completely unfazed by this revelation. It's really sweet because the way this show built him up, you thought he was going to be a butch manly man about it and disown his son. It was refreshing to see him so open about it. He's still uncomfortable with the idea but his love for his son never falters and well, that's better than a lot of kids get. I love the way they handled this subplot, I was so scared they were going to go a different way and delightfully surprised when Burt acted like it was no big deal. Burt gets major MVP this episode.
Finn offers Quinn his old baby blanket for their baby and promises to be a good dad for her. She looks suitably guilty but not guilty enough to, you know, come clean or anything. Puck comes by and acts like a douche because it's his default mode. Finn stands up for Quinn and Puck storms off like a baby.
The next day in choir, Will welcomes three new members to the Glee Club. Puck, Matt Rutherford, and my man, Mike Chang. (This guy is awesome and woefully underused in this show). He then gives out sheet music to sing Tonight again and Rachel looks excitedly and expectantly at him, until she realizes that Tina still has the solo.
Rachel officially quits Glee and goes to Sandy to give her full devotion to the musical. Which pleases Sandy to no end. We then end the episode of most of the other characters looking completely dejected with their lives.
I still love this episode. It has it's faults, like most of Glee does but it never fails to put a smile on my face and I just love the Burt/Kurt storyline. The baby plot is less interesting to me but there's still some solid scenes, particularly the one between Will and Finn. It's really nice remembering how much I used to love this show and look forward to new episodes. Let's see how the next episode holds up, which it will because Kristen Chenoweth is amazing.
Burt is definitely one of my favorite characters from Glee, and one of the few things I still remember fondly about the show.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back with more blogging fun!
Burt is definitely the best part of the show, pretty consistently from what I remember. The actor playing him is very lovable too.
DeleteI'm glad to be back. :)