['Glee' - 'Special Education']

For all of you 'Glee' fans who have been longing for "classic 'Glee'," tonight's episode was likely one you enjoyed quite a bit.

Was it without flaws? No. But this was the closest the show has gotten to the feeling of the show everyone loved at this time a year ago, before Ryan Murphy read the show's press clippings and made 'Glee' into something different than a show about a group of high school misfits trying to be winners.

Most of the kids had stories, and the ones that didn't played big supporting roles (except Mercedes, for some reason). Yes, Kurt was still featured, but his story didn't overwhelm the rest. The musical numbers were well-placed and made sense in the context of the story. And for the first time this season, it felt that the group was actually pushing towards some sort of goal, even if they pushed together at the very last minute.

In his review of last week's episode, Todd VanDerWuff of the AV Club suggested that "'Glee' doesn't need to be consistent to be good." And, to an extent, he's right. The show's goal has been to be entertaining, and if the fans don't seem to care that characters are being stretched to their limits in order to accommodate certain stories, then why should the writers?

But, dammit, there needs to be some consistency. Otherwise, the characters cease being people we root for, and they just become cartoons. And one of the things that grounded Will Scheuster and the kids in New Directions at this time last year was the build towards sectionals. That's all you ever heard about.

Now, of course, sectionals has that "been there, done that" quality to it, and it shows not only in the writing of the show but in how the kids in the show choir treat it. Last year, it was all they could think about. This year, it's an afterthought, for the most part. No wonder why Will was flying off the handle, yelling at Rachel and lecturing the team for its divisiveness.

So it was heartening that, despite all the infighting and the suspicions, despite everyone's seething dislike for each other and the fact that Kurt had to leave because of Karofsky, it was good to see the Gleesters get it together at the very last minute and realize why they're so good together in the first place. The feeling didn't last long, of course, but it lasted long enough to get them to the next level...

... along with the Warblers. Sigh. You could almost see that tie coming, couldn't you? New Directions needed to move on so they could go up against their dreaded nemesis Vocal Adrenaline. And the Warblers needed to stick around because Kurt isn't done feeling like just one of the crowd there yet. The only way the writers were going to keep both conditions in place was to have two teams in a three-team competition tie. Why even have a competition, then? To be honest, the Hipsters, who seemed to have the voices of teenagers, did a better job than the Warblers.

'Glee' Skype Second Opinion
with TVGuide.com's Denise Martin:


Back to that rare story development amongst the kids. They were all stories involving rough patches between most of the club's couples. The only pairing in harmony was Sam and Quinn, who did a nice job with '(I've Had) The Time of My Life.' Because of all the "special episodes," I had lost the thread of why Finn and Rachel worked together as a couple, so when the Santana sex story came spilling out all over the place (gotta love how Santana called Rachel "Yentl" before dropping the bomb), it didn't seem to have the devastating effect that it was supposed to have. Rachel seemed to be more concerned that she didn't have a solo during sectionals.

But then when Rachel revealed her hook-up with Puck, I still couldn't muster up enough sympathy to care that Finn got hurt. In fact, it might be better to see the power couple broken up for a little while. They were getting too co-dependent on each other.

No, it was another couple that intrigued me more. One of the problems with giving Heather Morris a lot of lines in an episode is that Brittany has shown herself to be so damn stupid that if she even strings a couple of normal sentences together, she doesn't sound like herself anymore. So even though there were weird and fun Brittany lines -- she's as sure that she's the most talented in the group as she is that "the cricket who reads to me every night steals all my jewelry," and she thought that "committing adultery" meant being stupid and not like an adult -- the rest of the stuff she said to Artie didn't sound very Brittany-like.

However, it does seem like she really cares for the guy, and not because he's on the football team. So that's leaving Santana as the only bitch in the group. She can't handle that load alone, can she?

More fun stuff:

-- No Sue this week. Oddly enough, I didn't miss her much.

-- How many episodes until Kurt decides to risk the wrath of Karofsky just so he can be himself, dress like Lady Gaga on stage and pick his own songs? For heaven's sake, the Warblers even wear their uniforms when they perform.

-- Emma seems to be oddly troubled that she went off and married Carl, the "finest dentist ever made," according to Santana. Anything that puts a permanent wedge in the creepy Emma-Will relationship is fine by me.

-- Mike Chang! His swing dancing with Brittany really stole the show. It's too bad Harry Shum can't really sing, but I'm really happy he's been more front and center this year.

-- Both versions of 'Don't Cry For Me, Argentina' worked just fine. Chris Colfer has the voice and command to pull it off, which is more of a feat than hearing Lea Michele sing it. Not that she didn't kill, but you expect her -- and Rachel Berry -- to embrace that song like a warm blanket. It's more of a stretch for a guy to pull it off.

-- The final number, sung to 'Dog Days are Over' by Florence And The Machine, was well done, even showing the tension between Finn and Rachel. I was tracking Ashley Fink a little during both the final number and during the regionals numbers, to see if her character, Lauren, was out of sync with the rest of the gang. She was in the regionals, but not in the final number. Considering she had just joined after rocking Puck's world, and the fact that she thought show choir was stupid, you'd expect her to be a little off.

-- Can we put a moratorium on the use of Train's 'Hey, Soul Sister?' Just until New Year's. We can all use the break. Thanks.

'Glee' airs Tuesdays at 8PM ET on Fox.





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