Thursday 24 February 2011

Glee - S2 E14 - Blame it on the Alcohol

Rachel throws a boozy party for the club while her dads are away, ironic considering it's Alcohol Awareness Week at McKinley High.


Recap after the jump.

Student drunkenness is hitting alarming highs at the school so Principal Figgins ropes Will into Alcohol Awareness Week, encouraging the glee club to perform at an assembly to discourage drinking. They find this hypocritical as adults get drunk all the time but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Will himself is pretending to be over Emma and gives her a housewarming present. He is somewhat adrift following his divorce and talking to Coach Beast later, she decides to take him to a honky tonk bar to unwind where he gets drunk and sings. Once home, he drunk dials Emma and leaves a rambling, randy message of love.

Rachel isn't having much luck on the songwriting front so far, her best effort being a melodramatic rhyming ballad about her hairband. She reasons that she doesn't know what to write about because she hasn't lived life yet so she decides to throw a party with alcohol beverages for the glee club. Her idea of a party is two wine coolers each, but Puck convinces her to open her dad's liquor cabinet and the debauchery begins. Kurt and Blaine have also shown up, while Kurt and Finn remain teetotal as designated drivers, everyone else gets thoroughly hammered. In an attempt to prove to Finn that she's not a clingy weepy girl while drunk, Rachel starts a game of Spin the Bottle which leads to her kissing Blaine. It's oddly passionate and they perform the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" together for the group.

The next morning, Blaine wakes up in Kurt's bed. He crashed there being too drunk to return home but nothing happened. Still, Kurt's father Burt walks in on a compromising scene and is taken aback. He and kurt get into it later with Kurt claiming he wouldn't have minded if it was Finn with a girl. On Monday, the kids are still seriously hungover, but Artie has the perfect cure;  more alcohol! They perform Jamie Foxx's "Blame It" for Will, but while he likes the performance, he's not so sure about the message it sends, as it seems to glorify alcohol. Rachel points out that there are few to none songs out here that don't. She is fixated on Blaine after their kiss and asks him out on a date which he accepts much to Kurt's chagrin. Blaine explains that he liked the kiss and is curious to experiment and find out if he is or isn't gay.

At the assembly, the New Directions perform Ke Dollar Sign Ha's "Tik Tok" with Brittany taking the lead in an unusual change up. Before they go on stage, Rachel feeds them each a shot of home mixed liquor from a murky jug and after wowing the crowd with some wild dance moves, Brittany and Santana each projectile vomit everywhere and chaos ensues. Shortly after that, Sue makes a school wide announcement, playing Will's drunk dial which actually reached her instead of Emma over the PA. They're called to Figgin's office and assume they will get suspended, but he seems to think it was special FX - turns out everyone was scared straight by the graphic display. They're commended and given coupons for frozen yogurt. Will meanwhile is given some friendly advice about his "sex addiction"... Back in their room, and after some moralizing, Will makes the club sign a pledge proclaiming that they will remain alcohol free until after Nationals, promising to hold to it himself also.

A fun, glossy episode for the most part. The thorny subject matter was mostly handled well and hit some very important points; specifically that social drinking after hours is fun, but drinking by yourself while grading papers is sad and pathetic and drinking at a time you're meant to be sober is really fucking stupid. Actually I'm not so sure that last point was made particularly clear but hopefully it's common sense. Where they completely whiffed however was the Blaine/Rachel story. After going out on a fun date, they kiss again at the end of the episode and Blaine declares himself gay. Rachel, far from being upset, thinks this is great songwriting material and rushes off to compose. It would have been interesting if Blaine had decided he was bisexual, or even just unsure. It seemed like way too simple a resolution, and one that pleased Kurt, aka the most annoying character on television ever. What a damn drama queen that kid is! Everything has to be about him all of the time.

Notes: Mike drinks straight from the bottle because he's hardcore. Rachel started feeling him up and later claimed to Kurt she wants a Eurasian baby (Darren Criss who plays Blaine has filipino ancestry) which is curious. Supposedly, at least this is what white guys claim, Asian girls think Eurasian babies are cute. It varies as they grow up though. For example, Alexa Chung and Rachael Yamagata may be cute, but Devon Aoki and Namie Amuro are definitely not. Brittany's bra was hanging from the door while Rachel was cleaning up, looks like she went all the way with her striptease. I have to mark this down because Kurt talked too much and they used a Kesha song. I mean seriously, the woman is from Nashville and she makes dance music?


"Glee" airs Tuesdays on FOX at 8:00 pm EST.

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