The TV Chick

Because of the whole SOPA thing going on (which I agree with by the way), I wasn’t sure I’d be able to write this review. I tried last night to take notes but WordPress wasn’t having it. Anyway, last night’s Glee was actually quite enjoyable. I was reading a lot of dislike for it but I thought it had some pretty good music choices (hello, Lea Michele ballads are back!), plot (numerous proposals and one couple eloped) and a Maggie Smith bit that was hilarious.

The theme of “Yes/No” seemed to be love — those who have it, those who want it, and those who don’t really know what they want. The episode starts with the girls and guys discussing Sam and Mercedes’ summer romance. They sing “Summer Nights” which prompted me to sing a long. What can I say, I’m a sucker for “Grease.” I thought it was a cute rendition. We then get to Becky Jackson, who has decided she wants to go out with Artie, because they both have disabilities. Aw, Becky. Sue tells Becky to put herself out there and ask him out. Also, Becky’s inner monologue is British ala Maggie Smith. Love it.

Meanwhile, Emma finds out that Coach Beiste and Cooter eloped, prompting Sue to say she’s going to call up David Boreanz. Ha! Emma is happy for Beiste, but is thinking about her own relationship and how she isn’t engaged yet. She sings “Wedding Bells” and it was nice to hear Jayma Mays sing again. I adore her. And an episode that places a lot of focus on her makes me happy. Also, the fact that Coach Beiste and Sue were wearing some sort of top hat was fantastic. I like that they changed the words to “Will You Marry Me, Will.”

Schue then tells the Glee Club that he’s going to propose to Emma. Of course, they all come out with their suggestions of what song/dance number he should use (or they should use to help him). Meanwhile, Sam is trying to win Mercedes back, and decides the way to do so is to join a Varsity team. The only team that will let him on at this point is synchronized swimming. Haha! NeNe Leaks plays the swim coach and surprisingly, she did a good job. She made me laugh with her tale of winning a bronze medal in individual synchronized swimming. Plus, we get to see Chord Overstreet with his shirt off so, bonus!

The first song idea for Emma’s proposal is a mash-up of “Moves Like Jagger” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Artie sings while he, Mike Chang and Schue dance to it. Nice to see some dancing going on. I really enjoyed this mash-up too. I mean, it’s no Adele mash-up, but then again, what is?! Artie invited Becky to watch as a “date” but Becky wants a second half of the date — dinner at Breadsticks. Which actually turns out to go well and they get along great, but Artie clearly just wants to be friends.

Later, Finn and Schue are picking out an engagement ring for Emma and Schue asks Finn to be his best man. Really? This was the only part of the episode that I felt was really contrived (well, this and the whole situation about Finn’s dad that we learn later). Would a teacher really ask his teenage student to be his best man and tell him that he has learned more about being a man from him than anyone else? I really doubt it. I’m not totally against the whole best man thing but I just think Schue needs some friends his own age. But I digress. Finn tells Schue he has decided to enlist in the army to follow in his dead father’s footsteps. Oh boy.

The girls decide to sing “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” for Schue to use to propose to Emma. I love me a Lea Michele/girls ballad, so I enjoyed this thoroughly. All the girls are thinking of who they love and surprisingly Mercedes thinks of Sam, which shakes her a bit. I love that Santana thought of Britt.

Schue, upon hearing Finn’s decision, decides to have an intervention of sorts with Finn’s mom and Burt Hummel (his stepdad now, I suppose). Finn’s mom tells Finn that his dad didn’t actually die a hero’s death. He got addicted to drugs after coming back from the army and overdosed. Whew, what a thing to put on a kid. I feel like this all sort of came out of the blue and I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I really doubt Finn is going to enlist in the army.

But back to the love theme. The Glee kids tell Artie he can’t lead Becky on, because it’s unfair. So he decides to tell her and of course, it breaks her heart. She goes to Sue, and they hold hands and watch Lifetime (“television for ovaries”) and eat ice cream and get through it together. I loved this, I really did. The softer side of Sue is nice to see on occasion.

Anyway, Will and Emma have a kind of serious conversation that I think Will meant to throw her off to the whole marriage thing. But of course, it ended up with her in tears. Meanwhile, Kurt, Finn and Rachel are having a pity fest about NYADA and their future. Rachel sings “Without You” to Finn and I ate it up. Lea Michele can sing to me any day. I loved Santana’s quip at the end of the song though about how Rachel made it all about her and forced everyone to watch. We need more Santana (and her solos) stat!

But in the end, it turns out Sam has the winning idea for how Will should propose to Emma. The Glee kids do an elaborate synchronized swimming song and dance number to “We Found Love.” It even involves Artie rolling himself into the pool, which was kind of ridiculous. But I enjoyed the crazy, elaborate way in which Will proposed. And of course, Emma says yes! But what most of us were not expecting was another proposal. At the very end of the episode, Finn proposes to Rachel. Whoa. Of course, we don’t get to see her answer, but scenes from the next episode show she may take a bit to think about it.

The ending surprised even me. I get why Finn did it and that he’s feeling lost in life right now. But I can’t see it ending well. I mean, maybe Rachel won’t get into NYADA and she’ll stay in Lima with Finn and they’ll be married, but that doesn’t seem like the “revolutionary” idea that’s being thrown around for season four of Glee. I am curious to see when Will and Emma’s wedding will take place and if her parents’ lack of approval will factor in at all. And will Mercedes finally admit her true feelings for Sam? I also think that Vanessa Lengies is definitely underutilized and I hope we see more of her in the near future. The next episode is the Michael Jackson tribute, which should be interesting. I’m sure there won’t be a ton of plot development as there doesn’t tend to be with tribute episodes, but I will say this, “Yes/No” is definitely a highlight of the season for me. I hope that it can keep up this quality instead of the up and down show it’s starting to become. Granted, the music will always make me happy, so I’ll continue to keep watching. I just wish all episodes could be great like I know they can be.

Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 PM on FOX.