Continuing with our Glee Chat co-hosts writing our recaps, this week we have Natalie detailing what went down in last night’s Glee 3×04 Pot O’ Gold!

After a three-week hiatus – thanks, World Series! – we come back to Glee to find a new face at McKinley. Glee Project winner Damian McGinty is making his debut as foreign exchange student Rory Flanagan, and he’s been shown hospitality by the family of Brittany S Pierce. Of course, nothing could be so simple when Brittany is involved, and she’s convinced that Rory is a leprechaun that only she can see. Although she has trouble understanding his accent, she believes he is truly magical, and has exchanged three wishes for access to her “pot of gold” Rory – a friendless virgin – happily plays up his Irish and plays along.

Meanwhile, Quinn and Puck convince Shelby to let them babysit for Beth, and Sue’s on air telling Western Ohio how McKinley High’s West Side Story budget is a waste of public resources. Her ploy works, and the school is inundated with complaints, including a one-woman #OccupyFigginsHallway protest. Figgins is, as he eloquently puts it, caught between a rock and different, yet equally hard rock, and he cancels the musical’s funding. Will declares that he will raise the money himself.

At Santana’s locker – which is adorably decorated with a cat drawing from Brittany (“Lord Tubbington thinks you are Purrrrfect… and so do I.”) Mercedes confronts the Cheerio about her lack of competition solos with New Directions and asks her to join Shelby’s new girl group, claiming that due to their compatible voices, they’d get all the lead parts together. Santana likes the idea, but says she could never leave Brittany to fend for herself. “That special place where she lives, yeah, it’s beautiful, but someone’s gotta help her cross the street.” Mercedes encourages her to ask Brittany to switch teams as well, and Finn overhears the whole thing.

In the choir room, spirits are low. Most ND members feel that they have no shot at Sectionals without Mercedes to sing for them, Kurt’s openly attacking Rachel about running for class president against him, and they’ve all just heard about the musical funding being cut as well. Finn tries to give a pep talk about sticking together, but when Blaine agrees with him and tries to join in the encouragement, Finn cuts him down. “Didn’t you just say something about us not turning on each other?” Blaine replies, stung. Rachel’s more concerned about the musical being cancelled, but Mr Schue assures her that it won’t be, and that they’re going to raise money by selling advertising space in the programme.

In a scene that’s either awkwardly hilarious or hilariously awkward, Finn encounters Rory while the Irish is fulfilling Brittany’s first wish – an all-marshmallow box of Lucky Charms. Rory is starstruck – he knows of Finn from the infamous Nationals incident that made such a Youtube splash – and Finn learns Rory’s story about coming to America and staying with Brittany. Wide-eyed and isolated young Rory asks Finn to be his friend, and after some consideration and bargaining, Finn agrees.

Puck and Quinn come to Shelby’s house to look after Beth, and Puck’s bond with his daughter is already evident. We see Quinn start to put her plan into action – framing Shelby as an unfit mother. She plants suspicious items around Shelby’s home with the intent of calling Child Protection Services, and while Puck is not comfortable with it, he wants Beth back so much that he allows Quinn to proceed. Meanwhile, Kurt asks his dad to buy advertising space in the musical programme, and when Burt finds out that the show’s funding has been cut, he heads down to the school to confront Figgins. He presents some other local business owners whom Kurt had approached – the owners of Lima’s funeral homes – and together, they sponsor the musical’s full funding in exchange for a full page ad. On his way out, he gives Sue a piece of his mind, saying he is going to organise as much money as possible to ensure she does not get elected. She threatens him, and our number one candidate for Father of the Year 2009, 2010 and 2011 calmly replies with “Bullies don’t have a very good track record of messing with the Hummels.”

After a phone call updating his “mammy” about the USA – in which his phone is slapped out of his hands by a jock – Rory Leprechaun presents Brittany S Pierce with the all-marshmallow box of Lucky Charms she has requested. She hugs him in delight and tells him her next wish – for her cat, Lord Tubbington, to poop candy bars. Rory smiles at her whimsy and uses the opportunity to ask Brittany to dinner, but she cheerfully turns him down, she has plans with a friend, and he’s not meant to eat anything but four leaf clovers anyway.

We follow Rory through his school day as he wistfully performs Kermit the Frog’s ‘Bein’ Green’ while he is alternately ignored and physically harassed. Hey, remember the Bully Whips club? No, neither do the writers. We then see what Brittany’s plans were that evening – a meal with Santana at Breadsticks. Santana nervously approaches “that thing we never talk about” and asks Brittany if she considers them to be dating. Brittany assumed they were – “Wait, isn’t this a date? Aren’t you paying? Because I ordered shrimp… And last week, when we were taking a bath together, wasn’t that a date?” Santana is so happy that she blinks away tears, but Brittany sees it as no biggie – though she’d turned down Santana last year while dating Artie, she’d promised that if she became single, they’d get together, and now they are. During the conversation, Santana also finds out about Brittany’s leprechaun beliefs, but sets it aside to talk about leaving New Directions to join Shelby’s group. She asks Brittany to join her, but allows Britt time to think about it. She then sweetly says that her wish is for Brittany would hold her hand, and Brittany happily complies, but another attack of nerves leads to Santana hiding their joined hands under a napkin.

Puck’s pool-cleaning business is doing well, and we’re reminded that he still likes the older ladies – and they still like him, at least until he starts showing them pictures of his baby. This proves to be a turn-off, though Puck doesn’t seem too bothered. However, Quinn says he needs a real job, if he wants to provide enough money to raise Beth himself – and he better hurry because she’s called Child Protection and they may get Beth back soon. Puck can’t believe Quinn has actually gone through with it, and she breaks down, saying everyone has big plans and dreams except her, and that she doesn’t know what she’ll accomplish, but if she had Beth, it would be one thing that was pure, perfect and hers – so perfect that even she couldn’t screw it up. Puck seems unsure what to make of this, and is even more conflicted when Shelby kindly offers to recommend him as the pool cleaner at her complex.

Back in the choir room, moods are lifted when Will announces that the money has been raised to keep the musical alive. Blaine adds to the high spirits by asking to perform Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ in order to buoy everyone and remind them that being in glee is primarily about fun. Everyone except Santana – even Finn, who stated out eyeing Blaine sceptically – enthusiastically joins in the number, but when a delighted Rachel says they should use it for Sectionals, Santana (in a line that sounds like she’s speaking for half the internet fandom) airs her grievances about Glee becoming the Blaine and Rachel show, and walks out. She then takes out her anger on a stunned Rory – she knows about his crush, she knows about his game, and she’s going to make him play it her way. When Brittany finds Rory granting her wish of cat-poop candy bars, he tells her that Santana discovered his secret and that she made a wish too – a wish that Brittany would join Shelby’s choir. And because Santana wished, it simply has to come true – so Britt feels she has no choice but to leave the New Directions.

Will visits Burt in the tire shop and after a lot of hmming and hawing, Will asks him to run for Congress against Sue. Burt rolls his eyes at Will and says that he’s already thought of that himself, but that he’s too late to get onto the ballot. If he were to run, it would need to be as a write-in candidate, but that it is a possibility, and allows Will to join his campaign team. Puck also makes a visit – to Shelby, to thank her for getting him the pool job at her complex. He thanks her for believing in him, and subtly steals back the incriminating items Quinn had planted in the condo. He then helps calm a wailing Beth by singing to her (‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’, Foreigner) and Shelby shares her woes over being alone – the hardships, but worse, having no one to share the great things, Beth’s milestones with. Puck takes her hand and assures her that should she ever need anything, he will always be there for her.

Finn addresses Brittany about her departure from New Directions, and Santana steps in and confronts him about his hypocrisy and jealousy over Blaine. While Brittany seemed sad to be leaving ND at first, her choice is cemented when Finn calls her an idiot for believing Rory’s leprechaun lies. She doesn’t tolerate being spoken to like that – “it’s mean, it’s bullying, and I won’t accept it” and she walks off with Santana to tell Mercedes they would be joining the girl-group. They go to Shelby’s rehearsal, where Santana informs Sugar Motta that they are not her backup singers, and Sugar concedes. Shelby names the group “The Troubletones” and they perform a dynamic ‘Candyman’, to the delight of Shelby and the horror of Will and Finn. However, Finn congratulates the girls after their performance apologises to Brittany. They share a hug, and Rory races after Brittany, demanding his reward after her third wish – that no one’s feelings would be hurt over her quitting ND – had come true. Brittany rejects him, telling him coldly that she knows he’s a fake, and that anyway, her wish didn’t come true – Finn might have been smiling, but she knows he’s truly upset.

Down at the TV station, Sue is amazed to see Burt on air, giving a segment about his campaign and asking for write-in nominations – and revealing to the world the extent of Sue’s own expenditure at the school. Later, at dinner, Burt and Carole share their potential Congress plans with Finn and Kurt. Both boys are reluctant – Finn, because he’s unsure of his own future, and Kurt because he’s worried about Burt’s health and the stress this may cause. Their dinner is interrupted by Sue, who thanks Burt for reminding her that her original aim for office was not originally about fighting the arts – it was about helping people like her sister, and her new platform would be the lack of funding for special education. “I think that might be a better use of school funds than flying the Glee Club to New York without a setlist, only to lose at Nationals with a song they made up the night before. Have a good aneurysm,” she wishes Burt.

After rescuing Rory from some hockey bullies, Finn brings the Irish student to the choir room to audition for New Directions. Everyone – except Kurt, who expresses contempt and jealousy at Rory’s use of falsetto – is bewitched by Rory’s performance of ‘Take Care of Yourself’. “He’s magical.” Rachel praises Finn for bringing them Rory, and the song is intercut with scenes of the Troubletones rehearsing – Santana scolds Mercedes for waving to her old friends through the open door – and of Puck and Shelby spending time together with Beth – closing on a kiss between the teacher and student.

What did you think of last night’s episode?

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