GLEE - Episode 8 - Mash-Up

What's going down?

Ah, the slushie, the bane of everyone's high school life. You're innocently walking down the corridor and someone comes right up to you and plants one in your face. Once limited to those lower down the social ladder, it now seems there's "a new world order" with Finn and Quinn feeling the ice. The glee kids are worried; if those two can get it in the face, anyone can.

In the school canteen Emma and Ken are in need of Will's help. Having persuaded Emma that for their marriage to take place she probably does need to be there, they've decided to get married in Hawaii. The problem? They can't decide on a first dance. Emma would like "I Could Have Danced All Night" while Ken wants, wait for it, "The Thong Song," as he needs "something he can shake his money maker to." The solution? Will create a mash-up of the two songs, as well as throwing in some dance lessons as a wedding gift.

At Glee, Will decides to keep going with the mash-ups, as the club like them so much. He challenges them to find a song that goes with "Bust a Move." He asks Finn to show them how it's done but due to "corn syrup in his eye" he declines. Cue a performance from Mr Schue himself, quite literally busting a move, with some nifty breakdancing.

In need of some advice of how to be cool, Quinn and Finn turn to Emma. Popularity is like currency and at the moment they're "toxic assets." While in her office Will walks past and dances at her through the window, sporting a natty pair of shades. Unfortunately for the couple she blurts out, "Sunglasses are so sexy," and to cover, tells them that wearing a pair will get their popularity right back up there.

After school Emma and Will meet for dance lessons. She comes dressed in full bridal wear, having borrowed her cousin's, in order to make sure she can bust a move in the dress. Glee's really spoiling us this week, as we get another song from Mr Schue, with his take on "The Thong Song". Disaster strikes as he trips over her dress, taking down Emma in the process. The two share a moment but Ken watches from the door.

Things aren't going too well for Finn at football practice. With his fall from grace, the team are starting to ignore what he says and refuse to follow his orders as captain. When one player says he "can't believe he was actually man enough to knock up Quinn Fabray", he loses it and starts a fight. Ken, already angry because of Will and Emma, yells at them, telling them they need to be more of a team and decides to add an extra, mandatory practice. Problem is it coincides with Glee rehearsals. Which will Finn pick? Football or Glee?

Rachel and Puck are practising for Glee in Rachel's bedroom. Weird, yes? It gets even weirder when Puck asks if she wants to "make out". Turns out that during an annual viewing of "Schindlers List" his mum asked him why he wasn't dating "a nice Jewish girl." After dreaming of Rachel coming through his window, he knew that it was a message from God for him to get into her pants. The easiest way to get into her pants, of course, is singing. Things don't go quite to plan as Rachel freaks out during their make-out sesh, imagining it's Finn she's kissing. Her excuse is she can't get with someone who "isn't brave enough to sing a solo."

Next day at Glee club, Puck mans up and gives us a rendition of that classic "Sweet Caroline."  Cue lots of glances between the various members of the club. Rachel is happy that Puck is singing the song to her; Finn notices this exchange between the two and looks less than impressed, while Quinn lovingly gazes at Puck, thinking that he is singing it about her. Is this a love square we have here?

Emma's advice of wearing sunglasses is not going too well for Quinn and Finn as nearly the whole of the football team slushie them in the middle of the hallway. They tell Finn that worse will be coming their way if he doesn't show up to football practice and quit Glee once and for all.

"Why can't people marry dogs?" is topic of the week on "Sue's Corner." She also lets us into a little secret; she's not too keen on intimacy, surprise surprise. Off air, newscaster Rod says he needs "a gal with a bit of backbone" and thinks that Sue could be just the woman he's looking for. She agrees to go on a date with him. Was that a glimmer of a smile that we saw there Sue?

Pure genius is the only way to describe the ensuing swing dance that occurs between Will and Sue as she practises for a competition that she and Rod are going to enter. Pigs may have just flown. Who would have thought that we would have seen her dancing, let alone with Will, though he is clearly the woman in this partnership? She reveals to Will that she's in love. Rod has sunk her battleship and he has sunk it hard. She also lets slip about Ken forcing his footballers to choose between that or Glee.

Will storms into the locker room and confronts Ken. Will thinks he's doing it because he doesn't like Ken's choice of "The Thong Song" but it's really because Ken is a "consolation prize" to Emma as his fiancée is really in love with Will. Will tells him that he'll back off with the "Gene Kelly charm" but it isn't enough for Ken who refuses to give him his rehearsal time back.

Now that Puck and Rachel are officially a couple, it's time for this jock to get slushied. As Rachel cutely cleans him up in the toilets, he apologises for ever doing it to her. So humiliated, he tells her that he "feels he could burst into tears at any moment." However, he also mentions that at 3:30 he's going to be choosing football over Glee. Despite feeling "like a bad Jew" this essentially ends their relationship.

Later on, Emma and Will go shopping for wedding dresses. Will is there to help her see if she'll be able to dance in any of them. After finding the perfect one, the pair dance to an instrumental of "I Could Have Danced All Night", with Emma singing along. She looks beautiful and Will knows it. Realising that they're getting too close for comfort he leaves to prep for the Glee/football showdown.

3:30, and the club anxiously wait to see if any of the jocks will show at rehearsal. Without the footballers there aren't enough of them to qualify for sectionals. Matt and Mike are the first to come through the door, closely followed by Puck who runs straight into the arms of Rachel. The relief is soon over though as Finn fails to show up. To prove that he really has given up Glee for good the team challenge him to slushie Kurt. When he goes to do it though, he finds he can't, leaving Kurt to take one for the team and slushie himself.

As Sue struts down to the TV station to show Rod her best moves and her new zoot suit, she finds him making out with his fellow news reporter. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and this is Sue Sylvester we're talking about. She turns even crazier than she was before, taking down Will and Quinn in her way. She wants involvement back in the Glee club and kicks her head cheerleader out of the Cheerios.

As Puck watches the football team from the bleachers Rachel sits next to him and tells him she hopes that he didn't pick Glee over football because of her, as their relationship just isn't going to work out. He tells her that he was going to break up with her anyway as she "wouldn't let him touch her boobs."  Ultimately he wants to be with Quinn and Rachel wants to be with Finn but both of them realise that they're never going to get what they want.

Will turns up at the practice and plays catch with Finn while giving him a pep talk. He asks him to come back to Glee and encourages him to make his own choices and decisions no matter what other people think. Off all the students that he's ever had Finn reminds him the most of himself. Finn then goes to Ken and tells him that he sees a future where "it's cool to be in Glee club"  and that making the footballers choose between sport or music is seriously un-cool. Eventually Ken relents and cancels the extra practices allowing them to do both.

We end as Will tells Emma that he simply cannot mash "I Could Have Danced All Night" together with "The Thong Song", which essentially is his way of saying that the two of them could never be together. The club then decide to give Will a taste of what they've had to put up with as the cover him in slushies.

11 o'clock number

We've been spoiled this week as we get not one but two numbers from Will. And who would have ever thought that we would be seeing "The Thong Song" on Glee?  A teacher busting out some moves should give us all a case of serious second hand embarrassment but of course Mr Schue pulls it off effortlessly. We also finally got a chance to hear Emma sing and her voice is just as adorable as her character.

Quote of the week

Sue's threat to Will if he doesn't hand her Glee's set list: "Here's what I'm gonna do, I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat and then on some dark cold night I will steal away into your home and punch you in the face."

Final thoughts

Please, Emma, don't marry Ken. It's so obvious now that her and Will are destined to be together after that dance in the wedding shop. Poor Rachel/Puck; I'm all for breaking up Quinn/Finn after tonight's episode, baby or no baby. It seems that Puck might not be quite so much of a jerk after all. Could it be that Sue Sylvester really does have feelings? Now that Sue has danced the next logical step is for her to sing. Please, Glee creators, make this happen.

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