It's been many weeks since I've covered Glee, meaning that I haven't been able to talk about "Proud Mary" in the wheelchairs, Artie and Tina's romance, the drug-infused mash-up songs, the mattress commercial, or Suzie Pepper. To make a long story short, Glee remains a very fun show to watch, and although I will definitely be sticking with it, it continues to do some things that I find very off-putting. These things can take me out of the episode because they are so jarring. The end of the episode "Hairography" was nearly unwatchable due to forced dialogue, and plot points still come up for about one episode only to be neatly resolved by the end. The mid-season finale, "Sectionals," had some of these issues, but all-in-all, I was able to look past them for the most part because of how fun the episode was. Right now, the show's biggest sin isn't its fault: not coming back until April?! What the hell, FOX!?
"Sectionals" was written to be a potential (open-ended) series finale if it did not become the phenomenon that it has become, so many plotlines were essentially wrapped up (thankfully, the fake pregnancy story was one of them). All hell broke loose for the club because, in addition to Mr. Schuster not being able to attend the Sectionals meet due to accidentally and unknowingly accepting consideration for professional work, Rachel told Finn that Puck was the father of Quinn's baby. Finn's reaction and flight from the club was good, but Quinn's reaction was pretty unbelievable. Her rival for Finn's attention ratted her out (how did she figure it out... aside from her "psychic" powers, because her only evidence was Puck's devotion to Quinn), and she not only let Rachel off the hook, she told Rachel she was glad Finn knew. Which makes no sense because prior episodes have definitively shown us that she would rather have Finn as the father figure than Puck. I do like that Finn and Puck did not make up at the end; when Puck asked if they were cool, having Finn say no was very satisfying.
My other huge gripe with the episode was the way New Directions was able to come up with TWO new routines, which helped them win the competition, in about 20 minutes. Granted, one of them was pretty much a solo number by Rachel, which she claims she had been working on since she was 4 (note: I had no idea Barbara Streisand was the original singer of "Don't Rain On My Parade"; I have only ever heard the amazing Bobby Darrin version). But for them to choreograph "You Can't Always Get What You Want" so quickly is pretty unbelievable. Their final song was "Somebody To Love," so they didn't show it again.
However, in spite of the suspension of disbelief requirement, the episode was incredibly fun and rewarding. Emma took charge and represented New Directions at Sectionals, and showed some backbone by standing up to the cheating heads of the other two glee clubs (who received the set list for New Directions from Sue). Speaking of Emma, I'm really happy her wedding plotline ended; I like Ken, but the quickie wedding was almost as unbelievable as Terry's fake pregnancy, especially because of all the conditions Emma placed on their relationship and Ken's awareness that the whole thing was a sham. Things are going to be awkward between him, Emma, and Will when the show starts up again. The two new numbers used for Sectionals were great, and the final song was a great way to end this stretch of episodes (or series had it come to that). Too bad we won't get more Glee until April.
Up next: HBO presents a history lesson...
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