A week after Thanksgiving proper it’s Thanksgiving in the world of “Glee,” and sectionals to boot. We kick right off with the medley of “Home/Homeward Bound” by Phillip Phillips and Simon & Garfunkel respectively, featuring all the graduates minus Kurt and Rachel.
They’re all back in town for Thanksgiving, and after a bonding sessions at Breadstix, Finn employs them as mentors for the new kids in a way that makes it evident exactly which role the new kids were cast to play. Mike tutors the boys on dance while Quinn and Santana team up with Brittany to show the girls their Unholy Trinity powers by performing “Come See About Me” by the Supremes, a homage to Quinn’s original audition for the club. While mentoring a worshipful Kitty, Quinn is told that Jake is pressuring Marley into sex and she takes it upon herself to stand up to them. Santana later confronts her and points out that Marley has a stash of laxatives she assumes were supplied by Kitty. The two mentors begin to bicker, forgetting their mentees and focusing on their own deep-seated resentments — Quinn thinks Santana is jealous of her, Santana thinks Quinn is clinging to a man to define her life (in this case, her married professor at Yale). It climaxes with a slap fight only broken up by Brittany’s entrance. Remember how we said we started to like the new kids last week? We retract — this is what we miss.
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Sectionals arrive and Warblers are up first with two masterful performances. Hunter leads on Flo Rida’s “Whistle,” which is the Warblers’ trademark inappropriate song choice, complete with backflips. They only take the gymnastics up a notch with Sebastian’s lead on One Direction’s “Live While We’re Young.” We know we’re supposed to be rooting for the New Directions, but if the Warblers don’t take this win it’s a damn shame. In a close second is the Mennonite group with the surprise powerhouse singers.
Meanwhile in New York, Rachel and Brody are using an uncooked turkey as foreplay as a boatload of fabulous New York characters show up in Bushwick to invade the loft for their orphan holiday party — they opted not to travel home and instead embraced their New York selves. Isabelle calls and begins the Scissor Sisters’ “Let’s Have a Kiki” spoken-word portion of the performance, which is hands down the most gorgeously queer thing “Glee” has done in ages. And to only add more magic to the fire, Rachel can’t help but break out into a “Turkey Lurkey Time” chorus right in the middle of their kiki. After it’s over, Kurt calls Blaine, spurned by advice from Isabelle that perhaps for him to move on he has to accept the apology that’s been offered and deal with the end of their relationship. He catches Blaine before their sectionals performance and the two talk, both expressing their love and Kurt admitting that he’s just not ready to forgive and forget Blaine’s transgression. They hang up with the promise of a mature talk at Christmastime. Klainers can breathe a sigh of relief.
If you thought there was any possible chance “Glee” could avoid doing PSY’s “Gangnam Style” at some point this season, you were delusional. The group trots out the super-hit as their opening sectionals number, with Tina on lead (she’s Asian so that’s either offensive or thoughtful of “Glee”) and Brittany pairing with Jake on the lead dance moves. It’s definitely passable, but we don’t get to find out what number they’d follow up with because Marley, who’s been evidently struggling with her Kitty-imposed eating disorder, faints on stage in a shower of confetti.
The episode ends abruptly — Who will win sectionals? Is Marley dead? Does anyone remember the name of Sue’s baby? All these questions will be answered next week, we assume, when the kids start embracing the cold weather while Kurt gets his second chance at NYADA. It’s weird to call a sectionals episode a filler one, but this week mostly served to propel us forward in longstanding plots to get to what we assume will be the greater payoff come this year’s Christmas episode.