Heart

Last night's new Glee was a good episode overall, and had plenty of great moments in it. At the same time, though, I think it was a little too overstuffed for its own good. Most of the multiple running subplots felt to me like they could have easily filled more space, and some even seemed to suffer for the short time they were forced into.

The one subplot that seemed to have exactly the amount of space it deserved was the love triangle of Artie, Sugar, and Rory. The character of Rory has basically been given nothing since his initial appearance. Given that he was chasing after Brittany in that episode, all we can really conclude of Rory is that he's a big horndog. Basically, a high school student. The highlight here was the fun "one upsmanship" montage.

The longer running love triangle of Sam, Mercedes, and Shane (aka "whathisname") should have been given more space to breathe, I think. Mercedes' confession to Shane was almost off-camera (shown only by flashback, mid-song), and though she has expressed guilt about loving two guys before tonight, her sudden transformation to "and so I can't have either of them" seemed a bit of a contrivance just to accommodate the song "I Will Always Love You." I think with just a bit more time, I could have gotten there. I'm all over giving Mercedes (and Amber Riley) more things to do.

Rachel's dads had taken on such mythic proportions in the two-and-a-half seasons leading up to now (they were mentioned in the pilot!) that I'd really hoped to see more of them than happened here. Especially when the bit we did get to see was so entertaining. It really gave insight into why Rachel is the way she is, because her dads were loving, outgoing, and secretly very manipulative. Of course, the parenting instinct here is probably dead-on, that you can't make a teenage girl do what you want by telling her what that is. I do assume, though, that we'll be seeing more of the dads again before the season is out.

Given even shorter space was the romance between Brittany and Santana. They finally did get to kiss on screen (briefly), so at least there's that. But I'm more interested in the moment where the principal busted them for kissing in public. Frankly, that's dark stuff right there. Some serious exploration of the straight/gay double standard was warranted there, and Principal Figgins has tried to argue the righteous high ground on so many occasions that I think it would have been really good to see him taken down a peg. But instead, this serious issue was skirted just to put Santana in a "fighting mood."

Which led to another interesting story, Santana's request to have the "God Squad" deliver a singing telegram to Brittany, and the angst that involved. This plot had some real flaws for me. Putting a new guy into the mix (another winner from The Glee Project, by the way) was certainly necessary to give this play at all, because basically, it was completely unrealistic for any of the other characters to have any problem with this whatsoever. Sam and Quinn (especially Quinn) did a very articulate job of laying out one point of view there.

Mercedes' position was hard to accept. One of her best friends is Kurt. Yet suddenly she might have a problem with someone being in a same-sex relationship? The writers tried to salvage this by making her conflict be more about "I don't want to force people to do something they don't want to do," but I still don't think that does justice to Mercedes' history. Again, Kurt's a best friend. But she's going to not stand up to a total stranger on behalf of that friend? I'm all for using a new character to explore the issues here, but I feel like a bit of injustice was done to the established characters in the process.

But shortest shrift of all was given to the story of Kurt's secret admirer, who turned out to be Karofsky. I can only say that this storyline had better be picked up on in future episodes, because I don't think the episode really conveyed just how huge a thing it was for a person like Karofsky to lay it all out on the line like that. (Instead, I think the episode more conveyed a creepy stalker vibe.) Kurt was trying to handle the situation with wonderful tact and sensitivity, but then another student caught Karofsky in the act, which should pile on an already tough situation and force the poor guy back into his shell. I want to see the consequences here in future episodes.

Musically, the episode ended up being mainly about one big moment -- the unfortunate coincidence of including a Whitney Houston song just days after she died. Amber Riley did perform wonderfully, and the emotion from both her and Chord Overstreet as Sam felt very genuine.

As a footnote on the music, I'll just observe that I love The B-52s and "Love Shack," but Kurt's rendition of Fred Schneider's wild vocals was much better than Blaine's.

One more episode before Glee goes back into hibernation to make more episodes. This one, I grade a B+.