GLEE RECAP: Episode 4 'Pot O' Gold'

What's going down?

This week's episode saw the introduction of one of The Glee Project winners Damien McGinty as Rory Flanagan, an Irish exchange student who's staying with Brittany. In typical Brittany fashion she believes that Rory really is a leprechaun and asks him to grant her three wishes. If they come true then he gets to have a taste of her 'pot o' gold'. Because, like all the other guys at McKinley, he has a massive crush on her and wants to keep the only friend he has, he plays along as we find him sitting in an empty classroom making an all-marshmallow box of the cereal Lucky Charms for her. Whilst he has Brittany on side, he's finding it difficult to make friends and fit in, regularly being barged into a locker. As an outpour of his apparent pain and an ode to the colour of his nation he gives us a very lovely and endearing rendition of 'It's Not Easy Being Green' from the Muppets.

Morale is low in Glee now that Mercedes has defected to Shelby's glee club and the mood isn't helped by the fact that Kurt and Rachel are running against one another for senior class president and that Finn is become more and more annoyed at Blaine stepping up to be the male lead of the group. Just when it looks like things can't get any worse, Sue gets all of Lima het up about the budget for the musical of West Side Story. Totalling $2,004, it's hardly anything compared to the Cheerios spend but she manages to get the money pulled by Figgins, meaning no school musical, unless they can raise the money.

Schue suggests that they sell adverts in the program to local businesses as a way of getting the fun but as the club points out that would be an awful lot of adverts to sell. However, Kurt's dad Burt comes to the rescue after his son tells him of their money woes. He manages to get the money together after going around Lima's undertakers, because who isn't friends with a few undertakers? Luckily the show is now all back on and in celebration we're treated to another Katy Perry cover, this time of 'Last Friday Night'.

Quinn's scheming to get back Beth hits another level when she and Puck persuade Shelby to let them babysit her. Telling Puck that Beth is the only good thing to have happened to her, she seizes the opportunity to plant various incriminating pieces of evidence, such as a book on baby sacrifice, that would prove to child services that she's not a fit mother. Puck's happy to go along with her plan but when Shelby recommends him for a lucrative pool cleaning job, he isn't so sure that she's such a bad mother after all. In order to get rid of all they planted, he goes back to Shelby's and, when she can't get Beth to settle, picks up his guitar and serenades her with a Foreigner song.

Mercedes has been trying to persuade Santana to defect to Shelby's glee club with her and hopefully bring Brittany too. When Finn overhears, he tries to stop the New Directions losing any more members but slips up when he calls Brittany an idiot, ensuring that the girls leave. With Shelby dubbing them The TroubleTones, Brittany, Santana and Mercedes along with the highly untalented Sugar, who suddenly it would appear can dance, perform 'Candyman' by Christina Aguilera. Finn and Schue spy on the performance and you can tell from their faces that this New Group spells trouble for them.

Schue has decided that someone needs to run against Sue and he thinks that Burt would be the ideal candidate for it. Burt's already one step ahead of him though and as luck would have it has had the very same idea himself. However, the only way that he can be in the running now is as a write-in candidate. Together Schue and Kurt are going to manage the campaign and he makes a rousing speech on TV that leaves Sue fuming. Maybe, just maybe, he could clinch it from her.

Brittany eventually comes to realise that leprechauns don't in fact exist; meaning that despite his best efforts Rory isn't going to get into her 'pot o' gold' at all. This also means that she's willing to accept Finn's apology when he tells her that he shouldn't have called her an idiot. Despite this, the girls aren't willing to return and he offers Rory a chance to fit in by asking him to join Glee. He performs 'Take Care of Yourself' by Teddy Thompson, prompting Rachel to say, "He's magical." However, what isn't so magical is having to watch Puck and Shelby awkwardly kiss over the top of Rory's beautiful voice.

11 o'clock number

Tonight's favourite numbers have to be the TroubleTones rendition of 'Candy Man' with some super dance moves, tight harmonies and diva notes, and 'Last Friday Night' was your typical rousing Blaine number with bags of energy. However, I felt the rest were a bit bland, it's been a while since we've had a Puck solo and I definitely prefer something rockier from him; we've seen on The Glee Project that Damien has a fantastic voice and I don't think these songs showed all that he has to offer.

That's how Sue Cs it

Sue: 'If this nation wants to impress its future Chinese overlords, we need to get our priorities straight.'

Overall

I wasn't too sure what to make of tonight's episode. It's clearly going to be a struggle for the creative team to fit in story arcs for all four Glee Project finalists without it becoming too wishy washy. They've created some serious drama in getting the TroubleTones together and one has to wonder if they could end up stronger than Schue's club. I think the introduction of Rory could be a good one but only time will tell when we see what direction he's taken in.

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