GLEE: Season 2, Episode 9 - 'Special Education'

What's going down?

In the staffroom Will tells Emma that he would "be honoured" if she would be his plus-one at
Sectionals and luckily for him Emma says that she would love to. He tells her that he has a "killer set list planned" but before he can tell her what, she has already guessed it. "Finn and Rachel are going to do a ballad, right? Followed by the kids joining in with a classic rock number where Mercedes will belt out the last jaw-dropping note?" Yep, Emma, you've got it exactly right. She tries to remind him that there's other talent in the club.

At Glee Rachel has an announcement; she has found "the perfect moving ballad" for Finn and herself to sing. Schue interrupts her and says he has something he wants to say. First up he says that their competition are your perfect "stool choirs", they have great voices but they don't move and in order to beat them they need to do what they can't, so he's decided to feature Brittany's and Mike's dance moves in one of their numbers. Secondly, he tells Rachel that she won't be getting a solo for this competition. Mercedes thinks that this is her moment but Schue reveals he's going to let the winners of the duets competition, Quinn and Sam. have their own number. Talk about mixing it up, Mr Schue. Arguments start flying and when Rachel questions Santana's bitchy attitude and Finn tells her she isn't worth the fight, Santana turns around and says, "That's not what you said in that motel room last year."

Over at Dalton, Kurt is welcomed into The Warblers. An old tradition at the school, Kurt is presented with his own 'warbler', a canary named Pavarotti to look after. Things work slightly differently in their club, they don't have a director, instead every year three upper class men as elected as a council and they are responsible for song selection.

Rachel has brought Finn into Emma's office for couple's counselling and confronts him about
whether or not he did lose his virginity to Santana. He admits it's true and that he didn't tell her
because he didn't want to hurt her. "Can't you see it's ten times worse now? Do you think she's
prettier than me?" Rachel questions. Emma suggests that the best way to get past this is to sing
about it. Neither of them seems too taken with the idea and she tries to get the two to talk, which ends with Rachel storming out.

Artie finds Brittany hiding in the corner of an empty classroom. She's "paralysed with fear" about
her and Mike's number at Sectionals. Catering to Brittany's childlike ways, Artie decides to give her
a "magic comb", which if you comb your hair with it means "you can't lose". Believing every word
she tells him that he's "the best boyfriend ever".

Schue has an important task for Puck. With Kurt gone, they have one less than the magic twelve
that a Glee club needs to compete and entrusts him to try and find them a twelfth member. Schue
declares him as "the most well-known kid" in McKinley, so thinks the has the best chance of finding
someone and he doesn't seem to mind what methods Puck uses to do so.

"It's a different energy in there," Kurt comments on Dalton's Glee club after his song selections
were shot down by the council, though he can't decide if it's better or worse than at McKinley. Due
to his enthusiasm the club have decided to invite him to audition for a solo at Sectionals and Kurt
absolutely jumps at the chance. "Sing something good," Blaine tells him. Well, it's more of a shot than he ever got being in New Directions.

In the locker room Puck gets up and tries to convince some of the jocks to join Glee, using Bruce
Springstein as back-up. As you can imagine this doesn't go down too well, as none of them still
want to join "homo explosion". "Glee club is cool," he tells them but the only response he gets is
that "Glee club is most definitely not cool" and a good beating from the rest of the football team.

At Glee the mood is low, with the whole club thinking that they're going to losE. Mercedes thinks it'll be because she's not featured enough and Tina thinks that the only reason The Warblers will win is because they "practically gave them Kurt". Schue isn't pleased with this attitude and when Rachel enters with tape across her mouth, in protest, he snaps. She could choose to "be happy that [she's] part of a Glee club that's bursting at the seams with talent" but of course she won't. Schue continues and tells them if at Sectionals, if the Warblers win, they are going to congratulate them.

Lauren Zizes escorts Puck into the choir room saying that she "found him in a Porta Potty". Turns
out after trying to recruit for Glee in the locker room, the football team decided to shut him in there
and tip it over. He was trapped in there for twenty-four hours but luckily for him, Lauren came to
his rescue. She also has come to the club's rescue by deciding to join and becoming their twelfth
member. She did have some demands to Puck before agreeing: "A carton of Cadbury eggs and
seven minutes in heaven" with Puck himself. "I have to say she kinda rocked my world," Puck tells
the club.

Santana is still tormenting Rachel: "Didn't I tell you? He bought me dinner after," she tells her. Puck
sees this and tries to comfort her, turns out in juvie he started praying and promised that he'd
be nicer to people if he could get out; he then decided that would be too much like hard work, so
decided to just help Jews. When she admits she is having boyfriend troubles, he tells her he's the
perfect guy to help her, due to the fact he's usually the cause of them.

Tina arrives in school the next day wearing a very strange goth-style cheerleading outfit. Why is she wearing this? "Mike likes cheerleaders," she says. She goes to Artie, convinced that Mike and Brittany are having an affair, sprung from all the time they've spent together practising for Sectionals. At first Artie thinks she's crazy but she soon manages to convince him that it's true and the two plan to confront them.

Kurt has come back to McKinley to ask Rachel for advice on his upcoming solo audition. Rachel asks
him why she should help her competition. "Even though we both hate each other, we've had our
moments and I could use your expertise. No one knows how to kill a ballad quite like you." He has
chosen the Celine classic "My Heart Will Go On" but Rachel thinks he's needs something "more
personal". "Do you ever fantasise about your own funeral?" she asks him. While he may not, she does and there's one song that she feels expresses the feelings that should be felt then. To show Kurt how it's done she performs "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from the musical "Evita", which cuts between her and Kurt performing it in front of The Warblers. Unfortunately for Kurt, he isn't picked to go through to the next round, with Blaine telling him that he doesn't need to try quite so hard next time.

After taking on board what Tina said, Artie is saddened to have Brittany reject his offer of watching a movie because she has rehearsal with Mike. Turns out she doesn't have time tomorrow or right now as she has to go practise.

Just as everyone is boarding the bus to Sectionals Will tells Emma that he's beginning to think that
his "new directions for the New Directions" was a terrible idea. Emma also has something to tell
Will, she can't go to Sectionals with him. She didn't tell Carl that she was going with him and ever
since Rocky Horror he's had issues with her spending time with him and that counselling Finn and
Rachel has shown her that sometimes "withholding the truth can make someone feel as bad as
lying".

Rachel bumps into Kurt before the competition and asks him if he got his solo or not. "Wow, if you
didn't get a solo then they must be really good, we are doomed," she comments. The two then have a bonding moment as they talk about how much they actually do miss each other; Kurt doesn't think the Warblers appreciate his individuality as much as the McKinley kids did. Rachel, in turn, says that he shouldn't feel like he let the club down, as he wasn't safe there anymore.

First up to perform are the Hipsters, a Glee club composed entirely of elderly people who have
returned to school to finish their education, who perform "The Living Years" by Mike and the
Mechanics. If the New Directions thought that they were going to be easy competition, then they
were very much mistaken. Next up it's the turn of The Warblers as they perform "Hey Soul Sister" by Train. With Blaine as the perfect frontman, the club deliver a perfect performance as the McKinley kids look more than happy to be watching Kurt up there.

The New Directions are nervously waiting in the green room before they go on to perform and
Quinn is feeling rather queasy about her solo with Sam. Artie decides that this would be the perfect
moment to confront Brittany and tells her he knows what's going on. Brittany questions him as to
how he found out and says that's she never felt so bad about anything but instead of replying Artie
leaves, prompting Tina to tell Mike he's a jerk. Just then Rachel walks in and it becomes obvious that everyone knew about Finn and Santana and they all kept it from her. As she's about to storm out, refusing to go on stage with Finn, both Artie and Tina also say they're not going on. Will walks in and gives them a good talking-to, essentially telling them to get a grip and be a team.

So it's show time for the kids. Before the performance starts and they're all warming up, Artie asks
Brittany why she would cheat on him. Brittany is confused, she thought adultery meant being stupid, something she would always agree to and says she didn't cheat on him. She tells him that she did something much worse: she lost his magic comb. Artie admits that it wasn't actually magic and that he just told her that so she wouldn't be so nervous. "You don't need a magic comb. You're magic, Brittany." So the two kiss and make up.

Sam and Quinn kick off their set as they perform the classic "Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing,
before the whole club joins in. After this first number the whole audience is on its feet just in time
for Santana to take the lead on the Amy Winehouse version of The Zutons' "Valerie". With Mike and
Brittany's killer dance moves it brings the house down and the club are looking more in sync than
ever.

The clubs await the final decision as to who has won and will go on to compete at Regionals. In third place is The Hipsters. So it's down to The Warblers and New Directions. Who comes out on top? Both of them, as first place is a draw between the two clubs, meaning they are all going to Regionals.

Will visits Emma, triumphant after their win. While he may be in possession of a massive trophy, she
is now in possession of a massive rock - a ring, as her and Carl decided to elope to Vegas and are now man and wife. "I'm happy for you. Let's just leave it at that," is all Will can muster.

"When I first joined Glee club I told Mr Schue that being a part of something special makes you
special and I just think that somewhere down the line I lost my way," Rachel muses to Finn. "Are we a part of something special, you and me?" Finn asks her. The two declare their love for one another and their relationship seems firmly back on track. He tells her that there's going to be no more lying between them but before that can happen Rachel has something to tell him. She was so hurt by what had happened, that she decided that the best way to get back at Finn was to make out with Puck. "I knew you were a lot of things but I never thought you were mean," he says. Rachel insists that what he did with Santana should cancel her misdemeanour out but he tells her it doesn't as they weren't together when that happened. Rachel suggests they go back to couples counselling but Finn shatters her dreams by telling her "you can't go to couples counselling if you're not a couple."

At Glee, Tina and Mike have kissed and made up, as Tina apologises for ever doubting Mike. "Mr
Schue, we've heard the news about Miss Pillsbury marrying the finest dentist alive," Santana tells Will but he doesn't want to talk about it. Now that their family is back in their "happy place" he suggests they celebrate through song and offers Rachel the solo but she declines saying she doesn't "really feel like a solo right now" and instead defers it to Mercedes and Tina. And so we close as the club perform "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence and the Machine.

11 o'clock number

With tonight's show featuring Sectionals we were treated to a whole host of musical numbers. Kurt
and Rachel's rendition of the Evita classic fitted the pair right down to a tee, with their melodramatic personalities. The New Direction's competition offered two great performances and I particularly loved The Warblers' "Hey Soul Sister" in brilliant eight-part harmony and with Blaine at Dalton it might be quite a while before Kurt gets any solos. I wasn't overly keen on "Time of my Life" but Sam and Quinn give a completely different energy and chemistry to that of Finn and Rachel. I did, however; love "Valerie", which was a perfect fit for Santana's voice, so I seriously hope that she'll be getting more solos in future.

Quote of the week

Quinn [to Rachel]: "You used to be just sort of unlikeable, but now I feel like punching you every
time you open your mouth."

Overall

So Finn and Rachel have broken up. I'm sensing that this is not the last that we're going to hear of
this, as Rachel will desperately try to win him back. Poor Will, he just can't catch a break, can he?
He looked completely gutted when he found out that Carl and Emma had eloped. Really though? I
can't ever imagine that it's the kind of thing that Emma would do. Now that both The Warblers and
New Directions are both through to Regionals, how is Kurt's friendship with his old friends going to
survive?

 

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