Airdate: Thursday 17th November 2011
So here’s what you missed on Glee:
If the title of the episode ‘Mash-Off’ wasn’t enough of a hint, Glee returned to what it does best this evening as we saw Schuester’s New Directions and Corcoran’s Troubletones participate in a mash-off, involving both choirs performing different mash ups as a rouse by the teachers to put some of the fight back into both teams, as it is revealed that they will battle each other in Sectionals. This episode we saw closeted lesbian Santana taking her usually funny digs at her fellow singers a step too far.
This episode also saw us being reminded that former best friends Kurt and Rachel were still not speaking to each other, following her choice to run against him in the student presidential election. We see Rachel begging Kurt to forgive her and taking a bold move in stepping down from the race. We see each candidate give a speech in front of the school, with Brittany promising to ban hurricanes.
Speaking of campaigns, we get to see the lengths that Sue is willing to go in her bid for congress, defaming Burt Hummel’s character with suggestions that he in fact has a baboon heart and is married to a donkey. But it is the campaign video of the man running against both Sue and Burt that causes the biggest drama this episode, as he ousts Santana from the closet as a way to pass judgement on Sue’s commitment to family values by appointing a lesbian as co-head of the Cheerios.
Whilst Santana was particularly harsh in this week’s episode she didn’t deserve to have her personal life used in such a way. The episode leads to next week’s titled ‘I Kissed A Girl’ in which she comes out to her family, and some have suggested that this was deserved considering Santana played a large part in Kurt coming out of the closet. Whilst I am a firm believer in the age old sentiment ‘what goes around, comes around’ sexuality is not tool that should be used to hurt anyone.
But beginning with a Van Halen cover and ending with a face-slap, this weeks episode was far from boring. As a whole it didn’t have the heart of last week, but Glee is first and foremost a musical show and in this sense it was back on form. All the songs were of high quality and showcased a lot of the talent within the cast, especially the ‘You and I/You and I’ duet between Idina Menzel (Shelby) and Matthew Morrison (Will).
Other Memorable Moments
• Santana slapping Finn clean across the face for revealing in the hallways of McKinley High that she likes girls
• The dodgeball scene was hilarious. With an 80’s mash-up we saw bodies flying across the room, and there were some hilarious shots of balls smashing into the faces of the players
• Burt Hummel offering to help talk to Santana’s parents having been through the situation himself was particularly touching.
Favourite Musical Number
As for the musical numbers this week, they were all very good, the musical producers of Glee have a knack for creating catchy mash-ups including old favourites like ‘Heads Will Roll/Thriller’ and ‘I Feel Pretty/Unpretty’ but this week marked the 300th song on Glee, an accolade that was saved for an Adele mash-up of ‘Rumour Has It’ and ‘Someone Like You’. The leads were taken by Naya Rivera (Santana) and Amber Riley (Mercedes) with both girls nailing their vocals.
Favourite Quote
“She sounds like what banana cream pie sounds like when it sings.” – I’ve missed Brittany’s inane comments!
