The TV Chick

Glee is back!! It’s been a while, and I am very happy to have it back. Last night’s episode “Night of Neglect,” featured two of my favorite guest stars: Charice and Gwyneth Paltrow. However, they both won’t be back for an undetermined amount of time. In any case, Night of Neglect focused on neglected artists (essentially the Glee club) and had some major advancements for all the Wemma fans out there. And there were some performances that absolutely blew my mind. Also, Jessalyn (Terri Schuester) was back! Sadly, not for enough screen time but it looks like she’ll be back next week given how things were resolved.

The episode begins with Schue suggesting the Glee Club sell salt water taffy to raise money for Nationals. Artie, Tina, Brittany and Mike Chang are on an academic decathalon team and they need to raise money as well. Combined effort! Holly suggests a “Night of Neglect” — a benefit concert, where they only sing songs by neglected artists. Meanwhile, Sue calles Terri, Sandy, vocal adrenaline director Dustin Goulsby to bring down the Glee Club because they all supposedly hate Schue. Sue tells Gouldsby to break up Schue and Holly. Sandy sponsors the heckling club. And magically, Sunshine is back. She wants to perform in the benefit concert but are her motives genuine? She sings “All by Myself” and it’s rather amazing. I used to listen to this song a lot when it came out. True story. This version might be going on my itunes soon. I want to see her back for more than just a one-time song. And while Rachel continues to fill the “diva” role, Lauren tells Mercedes she is the best singer in Glee and she’s surprised she always gives in to Rachel. She appoints herself Mercedes’ manager and gives her a talk about divas.

But for all the Wemma fans (I know there are a lot!), there was a very sweet scene with Will and Emma. Apparently, Carl’s gone. He asked for an annulment, which he is entitled to supposedly because they never had sex. Aww Emma. She confides in Will about her OCD, and this is such an honest great scene. Love. I was waiting for them to write real, meaty stuff for Emma and they finally did. She struggles with OCD, it’s not all just grape washing and cleanliness — it’s serious stuff. Schue tells her he’s a friend she can count on, while Holly watches. Oh boy. I have a feeling it will be more than this very soon. Later, Dustin shows up to try to seduce Holly, when Will walks in. Holly apparently skipped lunch but that was the whole Emma/Will situation. She’s upset…I mean we knew Gwynnie couldn’t stay on Glee forever…sadness.

Fast forward to benefit time, when Kurt gives Blaine a tour of school before the benefit. Karofsky confronts them and Santana overhears them and confronts Karofsky. Go Santana! I loved her threatening Karofsky saying she has razor blades in her hair. Apparently, Sunshine and her Twitter followers don’t show up. There’s only the heckling club there who are yelling (and Blaine and Kurt).

Now onto the music. Tina sings “I’ll Follow You,” which she did a great job on despite stopping because of “boos.” Mike Chang dances to “Bubble Toes” by Jack Johnson. I kind of hate this song but he’s a great dancer. Holly sings “Turning Tables” and I gasp and die. Not really, I’m still alive to write my review. But I absolutely adore Adele and love this song like whoa. Gwynnie does great. Haters will hate and compare her to Adele but I think she really did the song justice. And the song seems sort of metaphoric for her relationship with Will. Last but certainly not least, in order to get new diva Mercedes to go on, Rachel tells her to take the closing number from her. Mercedes comes back in and sings Aretha Franklin’s “Aint No Way.” She totally kills it. Nice job Amber Riley. And to bring things to a close, Holly gets offered a job to teach French in Cleveland. She ends things with Will and tells him he’s in love with someone else. She says Emma is totally into him too. Awww.

I thought this episode was very solid. I enjoyed a lot of the music (“Turning Tables” and “All By Myself ” were obviously big highlights) and the plot was top quality too. I saw people were complaining that the plot only served the music but um, it was all about a benefit concert. Some of the best episodes on my favorite shows focus on dances or concerts and just because they don’t break out in song doesn’t mean it’s not a great plot device. I am sad Gwyneth will most likely not be back until season three — although I get she’s a big movie star and lives in London and all. I hope Charice comes back to resolve her storyline. It was implied that the director of Vocal Adrenaline found out and stopped her performance from happening but I want to see her again. Perhaps at Nationals? I’m also interested to see what Terri will be doing (per Sue’s crazy antics) next week to bring down Will. I’m hoping for another big revelation moment in the finale where Will and Emma kiss and music plays and it’s all lovely.

Next week is the super-sized Lady Gaga themed episode and Kurt returns to McKinley. Now it’s just a matter of time until Blaine follows him. I can’t wait!

Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 pm on FOX.