Glee Review: Bummer Episode

Man, I am so bummed I missed last week.  While my babymoon was certainly much-needed, last week’s episode kinda rocked, plus, at long last, there was an explicit Pretty in Pink reference to Blaine’s name!   “What about prom, Blaine?”  *sigh*  That made me so happy.

Anyway, on this week’s episode:

Jesse Not A Saint James is coaching New Directions, because the Rachel/Quinn/Finn love triangle just wasn’t enough — we must quadrangle it!  During the announcement, Finn suggests he and Rachel duet (what ever happened to Quinn forbidding that from happening?  Have we just dropped that?  Does this show care about consistency, like, ever?  And why do I still ask these questions?) but Jesse basically says, no, cause Finn sucks.  Jesse Not a Saint James suggests that they build a performance around their star performer, which will be determined though the audition process.  Jesse Not A Saint James will then use the skills he learned in his UCLA class on Judging Reality TV Shows to give blistering, unhelpful feedback to Glee.  Santana sings Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” and sounds great, changing the lyric from “kept his dick wet” to “kept his lips wet” for obvious reasons.   Kurt sings “Some People” from Gypsy and is appropriately theatrical.  Mercedes sings Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” which I will take as another Pretty in Pink homage.  She’s awesome.  Rachel then sings Babs herself, “My Man,” from Funny Girl, over a Finn montage.  She kills it, which we all knew she would.  Jesse Not A Saint James tells Will that he thinks that by picking Rachel, they will be able to beat Vocal Adrenaline, but, ultimately Will is a total sap, so he decides to screw the Best Singer plan.

Becky (whom I can’t think of another way to describe other than the Down Syndrome character) now wants to be in New Directions, ’cause Sue kicked her off the Cheerios because being around her reminded her of her sister, Jean, who died this week.  Everyone’s nice to Sue upon learning this news, which baffles me because it is still totally horrible to kick Becky off of Cheerios.  Still, Finn wants New Directions to help plan the funeral.  Jesse Not A Saint James disagrees, thinking New Directions should focus on the competition. Finn ignores him, though, and he and Kurt determinedly decide to help Sue make arrangements, and sweetly use Willy Wonka-inspired decorations for the funeral since it was Jean’s favorite movie. At the funeral itself, Sue loses composure at the podium, and Will reads her speech for her.  And New Directions tops the service off with a performance of “Pure Imagination” that is quite touching.  By the end of the episode, Sue gets Becky back and makes her head cheerleader.

After the funeral, Finn breaks up with Quinn, having come to the realization that he doesn’t have the feelings for her he has for Rachel.  Yay!  I don’t have to write “Finn and Quinn” anymore.  Of course, with Not A Saint James moving in on Rachel, he’s going to have to work fast.  And, because there’s only one episode left.

Overall, this felt like a filler episode, with one notable exception – Jane Lynch’s performance.  Sadly, though, Sue decides this episode to not go after New Directions anymore, which is probably a good thing; she was kinda terrible at it, a kind of Wile E. Coyote to New Direction’s Road Runner.  I’m anxious to see what kind of role she will play at McKinley in the season to come.  And Terri’s moving to Miami, so who is going to make Will’s life horrible now?  I wish there were more momentum going into the finale, but with Sue out of the picture, and the gay bully pretty much wrapped up, I’m not feeling much dramatic tension.  It’s all about whether Will will leave (he won’t, or he will, then he’ll come back in the first or second episodes of Season 3) and whether Rachel and Finn will get back together (of course they will).  Am I missing something?  Are you psyched about the finale?  Convince me, please.

For more on this episode, check out The Funeral of Hearts by Inisia Lewis.

Season 2, Episode 21: Funeral (originally aired May 17, 2011)

Glee airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Fox.

Images courtesy of Beth Dubber and Fox.