Finn heads over to the teacher’s lounge, where Sue immediately tries to herd him out as he tells her he’s come to apologize for the way he spoke about her baby in the last episode. He apologizes calmly and with shame, but Sue does not accept it and says she sees his true colors, that he still has hate and prejudice in his heart. Defeated, he says that since he tried to make things right and was rejected, the issue is on her now, and when he starts to leave for rehearsal, Sue lets slip that since Finn’s redefined what it means to be a McKinley teacher, she’s done some redefining of her own and booked out the auditorium for Cheerios practice. Presumably what she’s redefined is the fact that April Rhodes bought them that auditorium specifically so that Sue could not do this any more, but, like, you know, whatever.
Finn takes the boys in the Grease cast over to Hummel Tires and Lube to help him work on an old car while rehearsing, and for some reason, when they show up they look really confused as to how the situation is relevant to their musical, or how they can perform without a stage, and all sorts of other issues that seem a little odd from a group who’ve performed on mall elevators, in mattress stores, in the cafeteria… but I guess some of these guys are new and have not yet been hit with the irrationality stick. Finn does his best to be inspirational as he, Mike and Artie lead the boys in some method acting as they perform “Greased Lightning,” which basically mirrors the movie as it switches between the car shop and the old clunker to a white fantasy world with their suped-up “honey-wagon.” (Yes, Glee took some liberties with the lyrics in order to keep things PG.) Blake Jenner as Ryder Lynn as Danny Zuko is really likeable and quite green and unrefined, in a good way, and Sam as Kenickie is flaw-free, but the whole thing was a little flat, for something that should be an explosive number. I initially thought this was just Glee missing the mark, but when they finish, Finn tells them it’s a good start and to do it again with double the energy, so I’m thinking maybe the flatness was on purpose.
Kurt is helping Rachel stretch in the dance studio when he gets a text from Tina updating him with some Grease news. He starts to pout and Rachel reads his mind and pre-emptively tells him that no, they’re not going to go to the show, that it is not their problem or their business any more. They’re interrupted by Cassandra, who promptly makes their conversation her business, and Kurt explains the scenario. “Her recently broken-up-with ex-boyfriend is directing my recently broken-up-with ex-boyfriend in a school production of Grease.” Cassandra says that they should go – go for closure, go to have fun, go because it’s Grease, go because it’s their high school, their friends. Kurt, raw and open, tells Rachel that he’s going to go and see Blaine – “I need to see him, I haven’t seen him since. I’m not sleeping, I’m living off of Ambien and The Notebook,” – and that he can’t do it alone. Cassandra plays the understanding teacher and offers the pair her frequent flyer miles to take the trip, and she definitely doesn’t have any ulterior motives in getting Rachel out of the city for the weekend she was meant to spend rehearsing her audition with Brody.
The New Directions ladies gather at Kitty’s house for their promised sleepover, laden with junk food. Marley nervously asks if there are any healthy snacks, and Kitty thoughtfully takes her aside and explains the basic principles and benefits of bulimia. While Marley contemplates life in the bathroom, Kitty comes out and makes fun of Marley’s innocence, leading into a perfect, almost-frame-by-frame staging of “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee.” Kitty’s room is set up almost identically to Frenchy’s in the film’s sleepover scene, down to the placement of the school pennant on the wall, and the number is one of the strongest in the episode. Kitty’s closing line, “some people are so touchy,” was perfect and in context without duplicating Stockard Channing, and all the scene was really missing was Tina as Jan doing some Brusha-Brusha-Brusha.
Back at school, Sue is going out of her way to ruin all Finn’s work, and her current plot is that she’s informed Wade’s parents that she, as Unique, will be appearing in Grease as Rizzo. They had no idea. The Adams’ seem like nice people – this isn’t a ‘Mike Chang as Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror‘ situation – and were proud of Wade’s performance at Nationals, but cite Chicago as being a very liberal place, different from Ohio, and that they actually fear for Wade’s safety if he does this at McKinley. Sue, claiming to be concerned, reveals that she’s seen Unique being physically assaulted in the halls, which Finn apparently wasn’t aware of, and the Adams’ decide to pull their son out of the play and ask him to not dress as a girl during school, purely for protection, saying he can do whatever he likes at home. Wade claims it hasn’t been a big deal, but sadly goes along with his parents wishes and Finn is left without a Rizzo, which was Sue’s big plan, of course. Apparently there’s no one else in the whole school who could pull off the role – like, I don’t know, Kitty, who has only a small role currently and knocked a Rizzo number out of the park in the prior scene, so Finn calls in Santana, because of reasons. Tina, who was apparently the understudy and prepares a costume, gets turned down by Finn and plays the part of fandom by stating ‘you have got to be kidding me,’ absolutely disgusted. I love Santana a lot, but really, she doesn’t even go here. Do you even go to this school? No. Come on. But I bet Unique’s even more upset than Tina, as she stares in on the girls’ proceedings.
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