Recap / Glee S 1 E 2 Showmance

Meet the Unholy Trinity.

Summary

New Directions prepares for their first performance at a school assembly. Sue finds a copy of the Show Choir Rule Book, prompting Will to ask the ND members to recruit their friends. Will and Terri start looking for a new home, prompting Will to take on night janitor duties. Rachel admits her feelings for Finn and joins the Celibacy Club. Quinn, Brittany, and Santana (The Unholy Trinity) join the New Directions, at first to keep Finn away from Rachel and make sure they don't look like beards to the football team, but then Sue requests they spy on the group.

Songs From the Episode

• "Le Freak," by Chic performed by New Directions
• "Gold Digger," by Kanye West, performed by Will Schuester and New Directions
• "All By Myself," by Céline Dion performed by Emma Pillsbury
• "Push It," by Salt-N-Pepa, performed by New Directions
• "I Say a Little Prayer," by Aretha Franklin, performed by Quinn Fabray with Santana and Brittany^note The Unholy Trinity
• "Take A Bow," by Rihanna performed by Rachel, Mercedes, and Tina.

This episode contains examples of:

• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Discussed during the Celibacy Club meeting, and the girls are well aware of the effect they have on the boys.
• Big Fancy House: Terri wants one that she and Will can't afford.
• Blatant Lies: Upon finding out she's not pregnant, rather than be honest and tell Will, Terri tells him they're having a boy.
• Bowdlerise: An early example of the show changing the lyrics. There aren't many words that rhyme with "Gold digger."
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The list of approved non-sexy songs all have 'Jesus' or other Christian vocabulary in the title and are pretty sweet and upbeat and innocent, except one - Nena's "Neunundneunzig Luftballons" which is about kids' balloons being mistaken for foreign aircraft and leading to a 99 year war.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The Title Card will not remain as Will's license plate.
  • Though it looks like Kurt getting tossed in the dumpster will become a Once an Episode thing, the show eventually relents.
  • In this episode, Rachel decries celibacy. Compare and contrast her behaviour in episodes like "The Power of Madonna", "Grilled Cheesus", "Sexy", and "The First Time".
  • Additionally, Quinn's commitment to being celibate is shown to be more of a weapon that she uses to keep guys—namely Finn—in line, and she openly encourages the other girls to tease the guys, but refuse to go through with it. In later episodes, her faith and convictions about sex seem to be much stronger, and less performative and she views sleeping with Puck as a genuine, one-off mistake.
• Gilligan Cut: Emma denying wanting to listen to sad music and cry over unrequited love, a cut showing her doing so in her car.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Quinn calls Rachel "that thing" and "it".
• It's All About Me: Both Terri and Rachel get moments of this, although Will points out how wrong Rachel is.
• Moral Guardians: After the episode aired, the Parent Television Council denounced Glee as the worst show on television because of the performance of "Push It". And this is after the choreographers were forced to chance the routine because the original was too sexy to be aired in its slot.
• The Oner: The shot where the New Directions are shown again with Will at the beginning.
• Pandering to the Base: In-Universe, New Directions try this with "Push It." It does not go over well.
• Romance on the Set: invoked A "showmance" is another term for this, the theatre word, making it what is growing between Rachel and Finn.
• Shaking the Rump: One way to get the other cheerleaders to appreciate you, as Santana does this literally for the Cheerios.
• Shout-Out: It might be accidental, but when Terri pops a flame with the lighter, alluding to her role on Heroes. Some of Quinn's dancing during "I Say A Little Prayer" is also reminiscent of her role on Heroes - the fact that both are included makes it more likely that they are deliberate.
• Stalker with a Crush: Finn accuses Rachel of this. "I had to check under my bed to make sure you weren't there."
• Think Unsexy Thoughts: Finn's solution to his "problem." ("Mailman, mailman, mailman")

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