Glee Season 1 Episode 18 Review
This episode begins from the point of view of an unknown student as he/she walks down a busy school hallway. The other students are all looking at this student shockingly. As the unknown student enters the practice room it is revealed that the student is Puck. Why is everyone looking at him so crazy? He has cut his signature Mohawk because his mother found a mole on him when she was washing his hair and freaked out. She sent him to the dermatologist who then cut his hair to get a closer look. Turns out it wasn’t anything major. It was a freckle. Now he feels that he’s lost all of his strength. After school, the nerds gang up on him because without his hair he has no more ‘juice’. Puck then begins to think of ways to become cool again and thinks that if he dates a Cheerio this will happen. He chooses Mercedes as his target.
Meanwhile, Rachel pulls out an old lady’s medicine cabinet worth of vitamins and other assortments. She explains to Mr. Scheuster that she is tired all of the time because everything that she sings is a solo. The other members are horrible. She even went as far as to have the choir room bugged. She compiles a list of the members that she feels are not pulling their weight. It’s half the club.
In the Hall… Puck approaches Mercedes at her locker. He tells her that he has a proposition to make. He’s done some research and found out that Blacks and Jews have a history of sticking up for each other and, according to Wikipedia, King Martin Luther loved the Jews. His point is since she’s popular now and he needs to spice up his image that they should join forces, stroking Mercedes’ arm while telling her that he likes a girl with curves. Mercedes gives him a side-eye of death as she tells him that she is just not attracted to him and she knows what he does to the girls he dates. They just aren’t compatible. He’s top 40 while she’s Rhythm and Blues.
In the Choir room… Mr. Scheuster is telling the guys how disappointed he is in them. Finn whispers to Rachel that he can’t believe that she told on them and she goes all defensive saying how she’s tired of carrying all of them with Regionals being in a month. When asked why he stopped singing, Finn says that it’s because Mr. Scheuster gave all the male leads to Jesse and it shook his confidence. Mr. Scheuster gives them their assignment to come up with a song that best describes where they are in their life right now. He gives them all solos in an attempt to get their voice back.
As class ends… Kurt and Mercedes are walking out of the choir room talking about what songs they will choose when Kurt’s father enters. He sees Kurt and speaks. Kurt thinks something is wrong but the only reason his father is there is to pick up Finn and take him to a baseball game. Kurt asks why he wasn’t invited. Simply because he’s more interested in the uniforms and not the game.
Later in the choir room… Puck is still trying to get with Mercedes with lines like “Girl you got more curves than a Nissan ad”. Seriously? As Mr. Scheuster comes in to get things started Rachel volunteers to go first. She has chosen to perform “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus because it’s about overcoming obstacles and beating the odds which in her case is the rest of the glee club. She performs horribly! All off key and pitch. As she tries to fight through it, Mr. Scheuster stops her and tells her that he thinks that she’s lost her voice.
The next day at school… As Kurt is in the hall looking in the mirror, Coach Sylvester comes up and asks why he wasn’t at Cheerios practice. He begins to talk to her about his relationship with his dad and how his sexuality may be causing a conflict. She goes on to ask if he’s kissed a boy? No. Has he kissed a girl? No. Then he doesn’t know what he is and he may not be gay just because he likes Show-tunes, he may just be awful. She comes up with one sure person who can tell him who he is. Her. She hasn’t quite made up her mind about him yet. As he tries to continue the conversation about his Glee assignment she stops him and leaves.
Later at Kurt’s house… Kurt’s dad comes down to the basement to see him and he’s dressed just like his father and tell shim he’s just working on his assignment to sing ‘Pink houses” by John Mellencamp. His dad is kind of shocked. When he finds out that Kurt thinks the song is about interior design, he explains that it’s really about how the 80′s was a tough time for people and that the American dream is not always what it’s cracked up to be. Kurt suggests that they go grab a couple of burgers and talk more about it. He leaves to go get his coat.
At the doctor’s office… Rachel is in the chair freaking out as she talks to Finn. Just as Finn tells her that he’s not going to say that she’ll never sing again, the doctor walks in and tells her that she’ll never sing again. It’s just a joke, and explains that it’s a case of severe tonsillitis that resulted in an inner ear infection. She thinks that instead of him butchering her throat, rest and herbal tea will have the same effect. He ensures that this is a very serious infection and gives her a prescription for antibiotics. When she asks Finn what to do, he says that maybe she should as her boyfriend but oh wait, she can’t because he isn’t there. He’s on spring break with his friends from Vocal Adrenaline. Finn then asks her when will she realize that he’s not into her the way that he is? She thinks that he’s jealous and that she still cares about Jesse deeply and knows that he feels the same about her. As she goes behind the curtain to change out of the hospital gown, Finn starts to sing ‘Jessie’s Girl‘ by Rick Springfield. This transitions into his performance for the Glee Assignment in the choir room. After the performance, Mr. Scheuster is congratulating Finn and saying that he should be an inspiration to the others.
In The Choir room… After Finn’s performance Puck decides to go next. For his performance he is accompanied by the black kids in the jazz band. He goes on to say that since he’s shaved his Mohawk he’s seen things differently. He recently joined a black church and downloaded every song by Sammy Davis Jr on iTunes. He then goes on to perform Sammy Davis Jr’s ‘Lady is a Tramp‘. This turns into a duet as Mercedes feels it and joins in. After the song everyone is cheering except Santanna as she sits scowling and looking pissed off at Puck.
Later in the Hall… Everyone seems to be staring and admiring Mercedes as she walks. When she turns the corner she sees Quinn at her locker and approaches her. She tells Quinn that she’s not normally into guys like Puck especially since he’s the father of Quinn’s baby but something just came over her. Quinn surprisingly tells her to go for it. She realizes that she made a mistake by getting pregnant from him and that he’s an idiot. At least if they start dating then she won’t have to deal with him and his insane theories anymore. Like how Mario Bros. changed civilization. She tells him that he is using her to regain his popularity. She just doesn’t want Mercedes to get hurt. Mercedes realizes what the situation is and has protected her heart. While that’s all fine and dandy, Quinn isn’t worried about that, she is worried about her emotional state. She’s more worried about her physical state and what Santanna is going to do to her.
In the choir room… As they start the next round of solos, Kurt goes first. He walks in dressed in a plaid shirt, jeans and a hat like how his father would dress and begins to sing ‘Pink Houses‘ by John Mellencamp to a confused crowd. After the performance, he asks Mr. Scheuster if anything is wrong. Mr. Scheuster explains to him that the assignment was to define who they really are not who they think people want them to be. He then tells him not to be someone he’s not just to please someone else. As he’s leaving, the dumb Cheerio approaches him and says that she’s slept with every guy at school except him because she thought he was gay and that he should let her know when he’s ready to ‘tap’ that.
Later in the hall… Rachel is walking down the hall eating a bowl of cereal in a daze. Finn sees her and asks if she’s sleep walking. She says that she has been on the antibiotics for three days and hasn’t had any improvements which means she has to have the surgery and her life is over. He tells her that he’s sick of her always feeling sorry for her self. She feels that her voice is all she has without it she’s nothing. He then comes up with an idea for her to meet an old friend of his.
Later that night… Kurt and the cheerio Brittney are making out and he asks her what a boy’s lips taste like. She says usually dip, burgers or her armpits. for some reason kissing her armpits is a big turn-on for her. As they go back to kissing, Kurt’s father comes downstairs. He left a note on the door stating “do not disturb under any circumstances because I am downstairs making out with a girl”. He then asks his father to respect his privacy because he and Brittney are going to have sex. His father pulls him to the side and says that it has taken him months to come to realize and accept that he’s gay and now he’s not? He’s a bit confused, telling Kurt that it’s okay for him to be whatever he wants to be, he’ll support him either way. then he leaves the two alone and goes back upstairs.
The next day at school… Puck is going on and on about how great Super Mario 3 is to Mercedes as she gets things out of her locker. She tells him that she agreed to date him because they have musical chemistry but he needs to start trying to figure out things about her and stop constantly talking this video game nonsense. She begins to tell him that she would like for him to get her a frozen coffee drink. As he walks away to get it, he notices that a nerd scared of him so he grabs him and slams him into a locker asking him what is going on. The nerd then fearfully says that whatever he did, he’s sorry and gives Puck his lunch money. Puck tells him to put it away and asked why he didn’t look at him when he first walked by. The nerd then goes on the tell him that now that he’s dating Mercedes his cool meter is off the charts and he’s back to normal. Mercedes sees how he looks at Santanna as she walks down the hall.
Mercedes calls Santanna, who is standing right next to her by the way, as they do their own rendition of ‘The Boy is Mine‘ by Brandy and Monica. This transitions between different scenes in the hall, classes, and the choir room. By the end of the performace the two girls are about ready to throw down! Mr. Scheuster has to break them up.
After school… Mercedes sees Puck and his friends dumping some kids into the trash. She tells him that no man of hers is going to be doing things like this. He explains to her that this is the order of things and that she needs to accept them for the way they are because now they are a part of the system at the top of the heap.
Later in the afternoon… Finn and Rachel arrive to see the person Finn wanted her to see. He’s a guy that Finn met at football camp named Sean. Rachel seems confused about what is going on so Sean explains his situation. it’s the third game of the season and he is paralyzed from the upper chest down by a tackle. He then asks about her voice. He then goes on to tell of how he tried to kill himself by driving his wheelchair into the swimming pool only to be saved by his mother. He goes on to tel her that he’s miserable but that he has other stuff going on, and he’s good at more than one thing. His mother interrupts because it’s time for his physical therapy. Rachel thanks him before leaving and realizes that even if she does lose her voice, it’s not the end of the world and that she can do other things.
The next day at school… Puck asks Mercedes why she isn’t wearing her Cheerios uniform. She quit because it’s not who she is. She wasn’t being true to who she is. She feels that he isn’t being true to himself either when he picks on the dweebs at the school.
Also walking the halls… Kurt and Brittney are walking through holding hands to the shock of all the other students. His father is back at school to pick up Finn to take him for some hoagies and motocross. When asked why he wasn’t invited his dad says that Finn is going through some things but they hang out as much as he wants just not tonight. Kurt then breaks into his version of ‘Rose’s Turn‘ By Bette Midler from the play ‘Gypsy’ as he walks down the hall transitioning into him performing it under a spotlight on the auditorium stage. As he ends his performance his father is there clapping for him. He tells him that he decided not to go with Finn so that he could hang out with him. They have a touching moment as he tells him that he will love Kurt no matter what.
Later that evening… Rachel goes back to see Sean. She came back to thank him for showing her that just because she can’t sing doesn’t mean that she can’t do something else. To repay him she will give him voice lessons since he is interested in singing. Her voice is back because of lots of antibiotics, herbal tea remedies and resting her voice. She has to eventually get them taken out but for now she is okay. They begin to sing ‘One‘ by U2 Featuring Mary J Blige. This then transitions from the two singing in his bedroom to the glee club performing this song together in a dress rehearsal in the auditorium for the last number of the night.
