Episode 5 - The Rhodes Not Taken

To be perfectly biased, although I have watched every episode a bajillion times, I keep turning back to this one.

Why?

Because it's got songs galore, hardly any Terri Shuester (woot) *and* Kristin Chenoweth guest starred as April Rhodes, a former McKinley glee-club all-star who hasn't made much of herself since her high school glory days.

Plot Lines

Mr. (Will) Schuester decides that if Vocal Adrenaline can have kept-back students as part of their glee club, than so can New Directions. Mr. Shue convinces his former glee club member April Rhodes to come back to WMHS and take a couple classes so she can be in the glee club, which is minus a diva since Rachel quit last episode to star in the musical (Cabaret). April ends up being a drunk who buddies up to the other glee kids by teaching them how to shoplift (Tina and Mercedes), offering drinks/porn (Kurt) and sexing them up (Puck). Wide-eyed guidance counselor Emma told Will that having April as part of the club takes away from the kids, but he doesn't listen. Though drunk, she knocks out Heart and Carrie Underwood covers out of the park... and then quits the glee club before the second half of the invitationals.

All the while, Emma suggests to Finn that he try and earn himself a music scholarship to college. She urges him to try to get Rachel to re-join the glee club so they have a better chance of doing well at Sectionals and he has a better chance at a scholarship. Finn flirts with Rachel - offering to run lines with her and go bowling to de-stress from the pressures of the musical. Rachel thinks that Finn is doing all this to be closer to her, and even though that is a small part of his motive, he's using her crush on him to get her back into the glee club.

This whole plan almost works - Rachel agrees to quit the play and rejoin the glee club. However, right before her return, Puck tells the rest of the club that Quinn is pregnant (true) and that Finn is the father (false). This glee club gossip overshadows Rachel's return and she tracks Finn down and smacks him across the face, angry with him for lying to her and using her. He tries to explain that he was doing it to provide for his kid, but that he actually really does like her and the kiss they shared at the bowling alley was real.

Rachel makes amends with Finn and the rest of the glee club kids when she offers to step in for April during the second half of their performance. Agreeing to be an understudy, she says that she'd rather be a friend to the glee club than the star of the musical (which she quit). Although Quinn and Santana shoot down Rachel's offer to fill in, Finn voices his support for her to rejoin the glee club. the episode ends with a soulful rendition of Queen's "Somebody to Love"... soooooo good.

Relationship Woes

Finn/Rachel

Yes, I am of the population of fans cheering for Finn and Rachel to be together, though I am content that they are not for now. Cheers to the show's writers for making Finn lead Rachel on like that - the boy is not perfect and it's good to have Rachel realize that every so often. They were cute at the bowling alley and cute before/during "Somebody to Love," but they were a hot mess when Rachel confronted Finn about Quinn being pregnant.

Puck

Puck, though a jerk, obviously cares about Quinn (we'll see this theme expanded on in upcoming episodes). I am looking forward to seeing his character fleshed out a bit more.

Music

This episode had a bunch of songs in it, which I always appreciate:

"Maybe This Time" - April and Rachel - Kristin Chenoweth knows how to belt one out! Her duet with Lea Michele of this song from the film version of Cabaret was goose bump-inducing. The song was very fitting for Rachel's character - love those lyrics :)

"Alone" - Will and April - This Heart classic was perfect, as Chenoweth and Matthew Morrison's voices complement each other very well. Great duet!

"Last Name" - April and glee club kids - Solid rendition of Carrie Underwood's hit; country music suites Chenoweth as much as broadway ballads do. The best part about this number, however, was the costumes... all those glee club boys looked so cute in their cowboy hats, boots, jeans and belt buckles!

"Somebody to Love" - glee club kids - This song has been sung a bajillion times by a bajillion people, but this version seemed fresh and new and was definitely powerful. The ensemble has a way of making their group songs soar, but it was Amber Riley's/Mercedes's solo at the end which brought that number to another level of awesome.

My favorite moments

Epic lack of Sue Sylvester in this episode meant that my favorite moments all had to do with the glee club kids...

- Even though it was shady of Finn, I liked the scenes where he sucked up to Rachel... the look on Cory Monteith's face when Finn is running lines with Rachel is priceless... as is the exchange where he says "You know what we should do?" and she said "Elope?" and he says "What?" That is *brilliant*. (I tried looking for a clip/picture, but couldn't find it. Sadness!)

- When Rachel slaps Finn across the face and storms off while saying "...I hope you have fun playing house with Quinn while you languish in your little ensemble, but my dreams are bigger than that and they’re bigger than you."

- The group number of "Last Name" (those boys looked adorable...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFz1P9aTHy4

- The group number of "Somebody to Love" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDbRHAK0kGg