'Glee': 'Somebody to Love' and Kristin Chenoweth? Be still, my heart...

"Glee" hit another high point tonight, combining music with drama more successfully than it has since the pilot episode. And Kristin Chenoweth, fresh off her Emmy win, really helped to catapult this episode to the top of the heap. Well, Kristin Chenoweth and a truly outstanding rendition of "Somebody to Love."

Bringing in a ringer: With Rachel out of the club, Will panics and recruits April Rhodes, a McKinley High dropout who just so happens to be the most talented performer in Glee Club history. She's also fifteen years out of high school, an underwear-less drunk, and Will's first crush. Emma is simultaneously happy to hear that Will's been in love with someone other than his wife, and worried that he's trying to find that someone again. I really loved Jayma Mays in this episode, incidentally.

The Glee kids are skeptical at first, but April stuns them with a heartfelt and very appropriate rendition of "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret, trading off verses with Rachel, who's rehearsing the song separately. She also goes about winning the Glee kids over individually, turning Kurt on to alcohol as a stress reliever, teaching Mercedes and Tina to shoplift, and joining Puck in the shower. Wow. These are some very malleable kids. Except for Puck...he was already a man whore.

Emma not only disapproves of April's bad influence, but thinks that Will is taking away a kid's chance to grow and "giving it to someone whose brain is soaked in corn booze." Yeah, that really doesn't sound like something a great teacher would do. But one bowling alley duet later, April is promising to sober up and starring in Glee Club's first big show. Oh, Will. Sweet, naive Will. April shows up drunk as a skunk (though she still brings down the house with "Last Name"), and Emma shames Will into refusing to let her go back out for the second act. Thankfully, April is a generous drunk, and though she loved her moment of glory she agrees that she should step aside so the kids can shine.

Just as Will is about to pull the plug on the show, Rachel offers to go on for April, choosing her friends in Glee over being a star in the play. Aww. It's totally cheesy, but it works. They perform "Somebody to Love," one of my favorite songs, and one that's a natural for Glee Club. It's great. GREAT.

Finn...not so great after all?: After Emma suggests that Finn stick with Glee and try for a music scholarship, which has better odds than a football one, he goes about bringing Rachel back to Glee so that they can make it to regionals and improve his scholarship chances.

And how exactly does he go about doing this? In the tool-iest way possible: he tries to flirt her back into Glee. Someone's been spending too much time around Puck! They go on what's basically a bowling date, and Rachel misinterprets (though I'm not really sure you can call this misinterpreting) and plants one on him.

Finn asks her to come back to Glee, and when she asks about Quinn, he just says that he doesn't know about the future (um, except that he does), but he wants to spend time with Rachel now. Buddy, I don't care how true that might be - it's not the whole story, and there's no way this ends well for Rachel. She agrees to quit the play and rejoin Glee, but immediately finds out thanks to Puck that Quinn is pregnant with "Finn's" child. Scholarship be damned, a wounded Rachel freaks out at Finn and goes back to the musical until, well, you know the rest.  

Odds and Ends:

• I was happy to see them rehearsing "Don't Stop Believing," since it's a little unrealistic that they'd be learning so many new songs without rehearsing the old ones.
• I think the morning sickness question was perhaps the beginning of Will's eyes being opened to what a real pregnancy looks like, now that he's around an actual pregnant person.
• I think it's funny that "Glee," of all shows, doesn't have a theme song.
• Can we please, puh-leeeeze make Kristin Chenoweth's role recurring?

Favorite Quotes:

• "A few years ago, I started an online flirtation with a high school friend, Andy. Things got weird and I called it off. And two months later, Versace was dead. [whispered] Dead." --Emma
• "I just cracked open a fresh box of wine!" --April  (Ah, Franzia. Drink of champions!)
• "Do you think we can make it to regionals without Rachel?" --Will 
"Remember the Jamaican bobsled team? Biiiig longshots." --Emma
• "You guys look like the world's worst Benetton ad." --April to the Glee kids
• "The old noodle just ain't what she used to be. I huffed a lot of upholstery cleaner in the 90's." --April
• "Oh, Bambi. I cried so hard when those hunters shot your mommy. [retch]" --Kurt  (And you know, I can see the Emma/Bambi resemblance. Mostly in the eyes.)
• "You know, when Sandy wanted to write himself into a scene as Queen Cleopatra, I was aroused, then furious." --Sue

Songs:

• "Maybe This Time," from Cabaret, performed by April and Rachel in rehearsal
• "Alone," by Heart, performed by April and Will at the bowling alley
• "Last Name," by Carrie Underwood, performed by April and the Glee Club at the concert
• "Somebody to Love," by Queen, performed by the Glee Club at the concert

Were you happy to see the pregnancy storyline take a backseat this week? How did you feel about Finn's actions? And how many times did you rewind your DVR to re-watch "Somebody to Love"?

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon