GLEE 1.6 - "Vitamin D"

WRITER: Ryan Murphy
DIRECTOR: Elodie Keene
GUEST CAST: Patrick Gallagher, Iqbal Theba, Naya Rivera, Heather Morris, Harry Shum Jr., Kent Avenido & Joe Hursley

[SPOILERS] I found myself enjoying this episode a lot more than recent Glee's, mainly because the humour was clearer and funnier, it contained significant plot developments, the actors were given more time to actually act their roles, and it found a way to make unlikeable Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig) into a more agreeably comic villain...

"Vitamin D" found Will (Mark Morrison) deciding to split the glee club into competing teams, boys versus girls, both tasked to create a "mash-up" of two songs, fully choreographed, to be judged by Emma (Jayma Mays). The prize being that the winning song-n'-dance will headline the club's performance at "sectionals", which the troupe are becoming too blasé about winning given the weak competition.

Will's wife Terri also decided to get a job as the school nurse, partly to keep an eye on Emma, whom she learns has a crush on her husband from Sue (Jane Lynch), who's still desperate to foil the glee club because it's having a detrimental effect on her cheerleader's stamina, particularly top girl Quinn (Dianne Agron), who's actually feeling less healthy because of her pregnancy.

And that's another reason for Terri's decision to get a position at the high school, as she has plans to secretly adopt Quinn's baby to become the child she's not actually pregnant with. Again, I'm still very confused about Terri's plan in this regard -- as she'll assumedly have to fake a pregnancy for nine months (is that even possible?!) and then time her "labour" to coincide with Quinn's, take the cheerleader's baby, and somehow find a way for Quinn to explain her own baby's absence. Sorry, but this is a frankly ridiculous plan that can't have a hope of succeeding, although I guess anything's possible in Glee-world...

Anyway, there were some amusingly silly storylines going on in "Vitamin D", most borne of Terri's poor aptitude for being school nurse, where she immediately "cured" Finn's (Cory Monteith) tiredness by giving him over the counter pills containing pseudoephedrine, which cranks him up to 11. Indeed, Finn's turnaround is so astounding and vitalizing that all the boys decide to pop some of Terri's pills, enabling them to perform a high-octane mash-up of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and Usher's "Confessions Part II". Their performance is so astonishingly good that the overconfident girls -- who were all overconfident and planning to "wing it", apart from Rachel (Lea Michele) -- soon discover the boy's drug-enhanced secret and likewise take some pills to belt out a hybrid of Beyonce's "Halo" and Katrina & The Waves' "Walking On Sunshine". Both of these numbers were deliriously good fun, almost as if you'd hit the fast-forward button.

But away from the silly joys of chemically-enhanced boys and girls locked in unfriendly rivalry, there were more human moments sewn throughout this episode, too. Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) was convinced by Terri to propose to his girlfriend Emma[*], as a way to end her rival's pursuit of her husband, and Emma eventually came to agree to his idea of marriage (after Will failed to persuade her otherwise) -- well, provided Ken honour her ludicrous caveats: like keeping her last name, not seeing each other after school hours, living in separate homes, and basically not telling anyone. Ken, the dope, agreed to her outrageous conditions. I give it five months. No, days.

Overall, I had a good time watching this episode, accepting the outrageous direction a few storylines are taking us (Terri's pregnancy scam, Emma's misguided marriage), mostly because there was more time dedicated to the characters and less of a feeling people were just being pushed around into scenarios designed to get them singing to line iTunes' pockets. I particularly appreciated the smarter use of Terri here, who has been pretty dislikeable from the start, but Gilsig was better able to show the funny side of her manipulative, determined character.

It was also nice to return to the Emma/Will/Terri love-triangle, which kind of got pushed into the background after the first few episodes this season, and there was a nice moment when Rachel gave Quinn her support (which showed a more mature side of the strong-minded girl who dreams of Grammy success). And it goes without saying that Sue's dialogue was to die for as she self-narrated her journal scribbling, and now we have the prospect of Sue co-chairing glee club with Will to look forward to next week...

8 FEBRUARY 2010: E4 (HD), 9PM

[*] Maybe it's just me not paying enough attention (deafened by sugary a capella pop songs?), but I didn't even know Ken and Emma were a couple, so this sudden marriage proposal surprised me all the more.