GLEE: Episode 3 - Acafellas

What's going down?

Episode 3 opens as Will's parents come over for dinner. Despite Terri's protests, for obvious reasons, not to reveal all about the bun in the oven, Will can't hide his excitement and spills the beans. Cue a father and son heart-to-heart where Daddy Schuester informs his son to grow a pair, of balls that is, as he never did; and in order to be the best father he needs them.

Rachel's quest of stardom for Glee continues as the tension between herself and Schue worsens. This isn't helped any by Quinn and her ever-concerned cheerleaders who kindly suggest the club hire big-time choreographer Dakota Stanley - "understudy to the candelabra in Beauty and the Beast, on Broadway", naturally. So Rachel digs the knife in by declaring his choreography is not up scratch and Quinn twists it further by questioning if Schue ever made it to Broadway.

Over in the staffroom Will continues to feel crestfallen over the loss of his dream to join the business that is show, but just when we think he's down and out he strikes gold. Sandy, the old glee coach, returns to the aid of co-worker Henry who tragically lost both of his thumbs in an incident related to too much cough medicine. Along with Ken and Howard, who works at Sheets N Things with Terri, Will discovers that together, they don't sound half bad; in fact they're all quite good singers.

And so Acafellas is born. Will comments that normally "four grown men rehearsing a capella hip hop in his living room" would verge on embarrassment but now he's walking around with the swagger of a 90s boy band member. McKinley's answer to the Backstreet Boys throws up some serious issues for the Glee kids, though, as Schue would rather be "busting out some white hot new jack swing", whatever that is, instead of helping them. Eventually he suggests that they hire Dakota as he simply doesn't have the time for both.

Meanwhile, the sort of love triangle between Will, Terri and Emma appears to have come to a head. Terri wants Will more than ever and Emma is now 'happily' in a relationship with Ken. However we all know that Emma is still holding a torch for Will and Terri is just desperately trying to make that hysterical baby real. The whole Rachel/Finn fandango continues as well, as Rachel promptly tells him that the kiss they shared at the end of last episode was real and that Finn is simply hiding his true feelings.

Quinn, feeling smug with herself, informs Sue that they've hired Dakota in an attempt to break Will. However, she just isn't doing well enough, with these plans appearing tame to someone who was in the Special Forces in Panama. Sue tells her if they want to succeed in their sabotage she's going to have to "pick them apart one by one." First victim? Mercedes. Noticing the friendship between herself and Kurt, Quinn and Santana convince her that Kurt is romantically inclined towards her.

The Acafellas have their first performance in a bar, performing everyone's favourite 'Poison'. It goes down a storm, so much so that Principal Figgins asks them to sing at the next school event. The group may be well on their way to stardom, as Sandy works his way back in to the group on the premise that Josh Groban will be attending their next show. As his number one fan, Sandy knows that he's looking for a new opening act for his tour thanks to Twitter, and feels they are just what he needs.

Back at Glee, Operation Dakota Stanley progresses as the club take a trip and pay rivals Vocal Adrenaline a little visit in an attempt to snare their choreographer. As we witness another rousing performance by the group, this time of Duffy's hit 'Mercy', we realise that our favourite kids may have bitten off more than they can chew. Broadway's finest is a dictator in disguise where none of his performers can leave rehearsals, not even for heat exhaustion, or as we find out Crohn's disease. As well as this his fee is more than the club can afford by a long way.

Determined not to give up, the kids start a car wash in order to raise the money. Meanwhile Mercedes tries to make her ever-blooming relationship with Kurt official. All doesn't go to plan though as he reveals he really has the hots for Rachel, prompting her to put a rock through his car window after belting out Jazmine Sullivan's sleeper hit 'Bust Your Windows.' Just as well it was all a daydream then.

They might have the choreographer but they're not going to have a club if Stanley has his way. Citing that Rachel 'needs a nose job' and that Finn is 'so freakishly tall' that he makes him 'feel like a woodland creature'  one by one the kids quit until he's left with just the Cheerios. Rachel eventually steps in and saves the day, firing him and warming all our hearts, declaring that it is the club's differences that make them special, using Barbra Streisand as inspiration.

With the promise of Josh Groban at McKinley High, all seems lost though as two of Acafellas' members leg it before the performance, suffering a serious bout of stage fright. Enter Finn and his fellow jock Puck to take their places. Their performance of 'I Wanna Sex You Up' is a hit with the audience and with its newest and youngest members stealing the limelight it would appear that the group is destined for bigger and better things. Backstage we see Groban but what we weren't expecting was him to slap Sandy with a restraining order, taking his style of creepy to a whole other level.

We close on a happy note when Kurt and Mercedes share a moment as he opens up to her and finally reveals that he is gay. The club is back together and now stronger than it ever was and for the time being it seems that there's nothing Sue or her Cheerios can do about it.

11 o'clock number

With no song from Rachel this week, it's left to Mercedes to blow us all away with her version of 'Bust Your Windows' showing us that she has just as big vocal chops as her main rival. Set to the back drop of a car wash and with cheerleaders as back-up dancers, it should be cheesy yet Amber Riley manages to rein it in and sings her heart out.

Quote of the week

Sandy in a response to a lack of knowledge of who Josh Groban is: "Who is Josh Groban? Kill yourself. He is an angel sent from heaven to deliver platinum records unto us. And if he were here right now I'd club you to death with his Critics' Choice Award."

Final thoughts

Episode 3 is all about having guts and it continues with a much more solid performance than its previous two outings, covering an unbelievable amount of musical genres this week.

It was great to see Schue finally doing his thing as well as Rachel and Quinn both learning the valuable lesson of believing in yourself.  The Josh Groban cameo may have appeared a little random but in all was worth it for to see him hit on Will's drunk mum. Sandy is fast becoming a shoe-in to rival Sue in the hilarity stakes with some brilliant lines, though no doubt he would receive the same treatment from her that those in Panama did if she ever learnt of this.

My favourite scene was most definitely the one shared between Mercedes and Kurt and I will enjoy seeing how this storyline progresses. 

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