The TV Chick

Thanks to last night’s episode of Glee, I now have “Blame It On The Alcohol” stuck in my head. Not to mention some Ke (dollar sign) ha. There was a lot of criticism of this episode, but honestly, I found it a lot better and less disappointing than last week’s. I wasn’t a huge fan of what went on with Schue and Beiste (obviously more on that later) but I was so happy Emma was back (come on, I started to doubt she might ever be back!) and there were some knockout-listen-to-on-my-iPod-on-repeat performances.

As the title implies, the episode centers around the alcohol problem at McKinley. Figgins meets with Schue about this and asks that the Glee Club perform a song at an assembly for alcohol awareness week. This won’t go well. Schue then tells Emma they should be friends again and gets her a toaster. Emma asks if he’s dating anyone, which of course he is not. I love Will and Emma together. I think what happens later gives fans some real hope. I just wonder where Carl is in all of this. Emma asks about Will’s love life yet offers no info on her own. Perhaps she knows Schue doesn’t want to hear it?

Back in Glee Club land, Puck wants to have a party at Rachel’s house because her dads are gone. Rachel is a bit reluctant. She shares an awkward hug with Finn where you can see on her face that she’s still into him. She sings him her original song and oh dear god her song is so bad! I mean, that’s the point but oh man. It’s an ode to her headband. Ha! Finn suggests she should do a little living so she has more to sing about. She decides not to be a princess anymore. Party time!

At the party, Kurt and Blaine are in attendance!! Thank goodness Criss is back. Whew boy have I missed him. Rachel’s party is lame and filled with wine coolers and drink tickets. Puck convinces Rachel to let him break into her dads’ liquor cabinet. Then the fun really begins! Disco ball! Body shots! Drunk Rachel! But Finn’s not drinking and neither is Kurt. Finn explains the archetype drunks. There’s the happy drunks: Mercedes and Rachel, the stripper drunk: Brittany, the angry drunks: Santana and Lauren Zises and the needy drunk: Rachel. This was pretty amazing to see, not that I condone high school drinking, but this was hilarious. Then it’s Spin the Bottle time!

Sam and Brittany make out. Rachel and Blaine make out and I admit, it’s kinda hot. Blaine and Rachel sing “Don’t You Want Me Baby.” Every song is better with Darren Criss. Kurt looks on jealously, and I really loved this drunken musical number. Burt walks in the next morning to Kurt’s room and Blaine is asleep in his bed. All the Glee kids are hung over. Artie and the rest of the Glee kids sing “Blame it on the Alcohol.”  I will now have this song stuck in my head for way too long. I enjoyed this musical number thoroughly. Schue tells them it glorifies alcohol and they are of course drunk.

Later that night, Rachel drinks a bottle of wine by herself and calls Blaine and asks him out on a date. He says yes to the date and tells Kurt he enjoyed the kiss with Rachel. Kurt looks up to him and is mad he would do this and question his sexuality. Blaine tells him that he’s not quite sure who he is. I found this conversation very honest and necessary. Kurt might be a bit dramatic at times (um, that’s why we love him) but in this case, I think it was hard for him to grasp that Blaine might be unsure of his sexuality.

Meanwhile, Beiste and Schue discuss the alcohol situation. Schue opens up to her about what’s going on in his life. She says they are going to a honkey tonk bar for stress relief. Oh boy. Will and Beiste hang out and get wasted. Will rides the mechanical bull. Drunk Will and Beiste sing some random country song. I like his voice and it’s cute that Beiste sings but it’s a bit of an odd choice. I could have done without this musical number. Beiste and Schue get home all drunk and talk about the Glee kids. She kisses him on the mouth and says she loves him. This part was cute. Schue tries to grade papers and drunk dials Emma. The aftermath of this is going to be fun!

Later, Kurt goes over to Rachel’s house to help her clean up, but honestly it was just to learn about her date with Blaine. They didn’t kiss but she had a good time. Kurt tells Rachel that her and Blaine will never have chemistry. She wants to prove him wrong.

Burt and Kurt talk about the whole Blaine situation and he thinks Kurt was inappropriate, despite Kurt’s insistence that they were fully clothed. Kurt asks Burt to educate himself on being gay. Again, this is something that not a lot of high school teenagers wouldn’t have the guts to say. Go Kurt!

At school, Schue apologizes to Emma for the drunk dial but apparently she didn’t get any messages. The Glee kids take a shot to prepare for their big performance. They sing “Tik Tok,” and Brittany freaking nails this. How is she not super famous? She is so damn good. I couldn’t get enough of this. In fact, I will probably watch this performance several times today. And I kind of don’t like the original Ke$ha song but Brittany makes me like the song. At the end of the performance, she and Santana throw up, thus exposing all of their drunkenness. And apparently, Schue had drunk dialed Sue and not Emma. Sue plays the message over the PA system. Emma puts her hand over her face, and as the message goes on, you can see that Emma likes it. Yay!!

After the Glee kids’ drunken performance, Will asks the kids to sign a pledge. If they do drink, they can call him to drive them home. He’s going to stop drinking too. This is the requisite “be safe, don’t drink” Glee message, but I had no issues with it. It all made sense in context. And supposedly, their performance turned other students off from drinking. At the end of the episode, Rachel and Kurt are having coffee. She’s there’s to surprise attack kiss Blaine. She kisses him and after he says he’s 100 percent gay. Apparently this gives her inspiration to write a song.

Let me tell you, I was so glad Blaine said that he was 100 percent gay. It would have been such a huge copout if he decided to go out with Rachel for a bit just to see if he liked it. In any case, I adored almost all of the musical performances in this episode. I can’t speak enough praises for Heather Morris’ performance of “Tik Tok.” I also think that while having a high school alcohol episode has been done before, it makes total sense in the Glee world. In fact, I’m surprised we haven’t seen any of them get drunk before this. The only thing I wish this episode had was another Darren Criss performance. And I’d love to see Terri return sometime soon. Maybe she’s actually pregnant this time around? Emma’s return was fantastic though. I sense she will be exploring her feelings for Will or at least grappling over them. Also, a lot of the cast members have been posting on Twitter that they are filming the regionals episode this week. The competition episodes are notorious for being amazing, so that is very exciting. Also, in two weeks when the show returns with new episodes, Gwyneth Paltrow is back reprising her role as Holly Holliday. LOVE! I honestly cannot wait.

Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 pm on FOX.