The glee has hit the fan.
Here’s how the trouble started: Her Evilness Sue Sylvester convinces principal Figgins to cut the Glee Club’s picture from the school yearbook to save money. Far from being disappointed, the Glee Club sees this as a blessing in disguise, since it saves their picture from getting defaced by "the cool kids." But Rachel and Mr. Schu are outraged by the injustice. The compromise: Only the Glee Club co-captains will appear in a quarter-page picture. Rachel is unanimously voted captain, and much to his chagrin, Finn agrees to be co-captain.
But when Finn gets hazed in the locker room, he chickens out and leaves Rachel to take the picture by herself. Disappointed, Rachel plasters a smile on her face and goes through with it. But there’s a silver lining to this cloud: The photographer casts Rachel and the Glee Club in a commercial he’s filming for a local mattress store.
The Glee Club, excited for their first taste of stardom, blow the mattress seller out of the water with their performance of "Jump" while dancing and jumping around on mattresses. The result is a commercial even our favorite social outcasts can be proud of.
Finally, the baby drama gets out of control. While looking for his pocket square, Mr. Schu finds a belly pad in his wife’s drawer. In a sobering display of anger (and one of the most dramatic scenes of the season), Will confronts Terry about the belly, and the fake pregnancy is revealed. Hurt and angry, Will leaves Terry screaming in the doorway. She’s convinced that if he feels good about himself because of “Glee,” their marriage will fail. He’s hurt that she was cruel enough to lie to him about something as important as a baby, and that she thinks he has to feel bad about himself in order to love her.
Mr. Schu heads to the school for the night, where he finds a stack of mattresses in the choir room, a gift to the kids for their talents in the mattress commercial. Mr. Schu unwraps a mattress and spends the night sleeping in his office.
Meanwhile, Sue is watching the mattress commercial, and as she C’s it, the commercial is an opportunity for her to bring down the Glee Club. Turns out that the kids are disqualified from competition if they engage in any professional opportunity, or receive payment for performing. After a shouting match with Figgins and Sue over the matter, Mr. Schu suggests they simply return the mattresses so the kids won’t be disqualified. But the mattress he unwrapped to sleep on can’t be returned. Mr. Schu is disqualified from Sectionals. His sacrifice means the kids might still be able to compete.
Quinn decides to do something about the Glee Club’s situation. She marches into Sue’s office (in her old Cheerios uniform) with a list of demands: 1) Quinn wants to be back on the cheerleading squad for the yearbook picture, 2) She wants the Glee Club to be allowed to compete despite the mattresses, since she knows Sue’s cheerleaders accept illegal shwag all the time, and 3) She wants Sue to give up one of the Cheerios’ six pages of the yearbook to the Glee Club so that the whole group can have their picture taken. Faced with the famed resolve of Quinn Febray, Sue accepts all of her demands.
The ending of this episode was far from happy. While Mr. Schu explains to the kids that he can’t join them at Sectionals, the kids insist they can’t do it without him. The final shot is the Glee Club’s yearbook picture, being happily defaced by a group of football players.
Though it ended unhappily, I was quite happy with this episode. The acting was phenomenal (even better than usual), especially in the scene Terry’s fake pregnancy is revealed. The heartbreak and confused anger showed by Mr. Schu (Matthew Morrison) were a surprising change for the character. With that scene, Morrison proved himself to be a versatile and engaging actor.
And speaking of acting, Lea Michele (Rachel) shines as bright as ever as she switches from determined optimism and confidence to insecure loneliness in the space of a heartbeat. Her character is complicated and just as sympathetic as she is annoying. Michele pulls it off week after week with amazing grace.
With Sectionals looming, I’m glad most of the baby drama is out in the open. But with Mr. Schu sleeping in his office and Terry’s foam belly gone, there’s a lot more at stake. What will Quinn do with her baby now that the Schuesters won’t adopt her? Has Will’s fight with Terry left the field open for Emma and Will’s budding relationship? Oh yeah, and will Emma really go through with marrying Ken, even though he’s scheduled the wedding for the same day as Sectionals? How will the kids compete without their coach?
The McKinley High Glee Club is looking far less gleeful than their name suggests. Watch “Glee” next Wednesday on Fox.
And speaking of acting, Lea Michele (Rachel) shines as bright as ever as she switches from determined optimism and confidence to insecure loneliness in the space of a heartbeat. Her character is complicated and just as sympathetic as she is annoying. Michele pulls it off week after week with amazing grace.
AMEN, she is the heart and soul of the show.