Summary
Business begins with a Traumatic Haircut, as the Puckerman mohawk is temporarily no more; we get a POV shot of McKinley reacting accordingly, we then follow Puck into the Gleelands, where the rest of New Directions stand stunned. Apparently, Mama Puckerman found a mole on Noah's head and freaked out, presuming it was a form of skin cancer; it was in fact a mere freckle. Nonetheless, Puck feels with the 'hawk gone, so goes his source of power. He laments in front of Santana, who is simply not aroused by this new look. Blah blah blah, Hilarious in Hindsight, you get the routine. And from that, we go from the traumatic to the OH GOD WHY, as human cockroach Jacob Ben Israel approaches, with some slightly more human looking allies. Seems with the haircut gone, plus Puck being in ND, the social standing now falls below JBI, so said roach decides to assert himself by having karma come and collect Noah and deposit him in a dumpster. Of course, SOP in this scenario is for Puck to crush the lot of them, but in a subversion, he allows himself to be tossed. The V/O explains that for Puck to attempt to regain some standing, he should attempt to date one of the Cheerios!. Thing is, it's not the one you'd expect; apparently, Puck figured out Quinn's not gonna give him the time of day for at least four more seasons, so upon exiting the dumpster, he hears Mercedes' tones, giving him a big burst of confidence as we hit the Title Card.New Glee Wales. Rachel, always one to never go by half measures, is displaying to Will her various and sundry vitamins, which she apparently takes thrice daily. Seems that she's been handling the bulk of the singing and is starting to feel it; perfect pitch giving her a sensitive ear, allowing her to hear ND be lackluster in their vocals. To confirm it, she went to A/V club president (and future ND member) Lauren Zizes for a need to bug the choir room; Zizes demanding two boxes of Mallomars and Snickers for her brethren. After replaying the tapes, Rachel provides a list of those not pulling their weight, namely Finn, Puck, and the Unholy Trinity. Speaking of Noah, we cut to him staring at Mercedes; gathering courage, he approaches and puts on some moves. As you'd expect, Mercedes no sells all of them, Puck floored at yet another girl rejecting him, not helping his case by, after Mercedes mentioned Quinn, his dismissing the pregnancy as her understanding Puck can't be tied down. Noah, you're an idiot.
Back to the glee and the restless, where Will chastises ND for their complacency, giving them the assignment of a song that describes their self-image. As Kurtcedes exits, Kurt bragging about his prowess, we see and hear the familiar shape and tones of Papa Burt, there to unintentionally drive Kurt up a wall by picking up Finn for a Reds game. When Kurt asks why he wasn't invited, Burt says he's tried, but it turns into a fashion routine. Burt leaves as Kurt stands depressed. Cut to Puck again putting the mack on Mercedes and being shot down again. Will arrives as Rachel leaps up to perform some Miley... but then her voice gives out DUNDUNDUN.
Kurt's locker. The Marques de Sylvester arrives, seems Kurt skipped a Cheerio! practice the previous day due to Burt and Finn, saying he's afraid Burt's slipping away due to having someone with common interests, even saying it might also be due to his being gay. Sue calls BS, saying he's too young for labels, though it does seem to give Kurt an idea. Cut to Kurt's bedroom; Burt arrives as Kurt reveals himself in full Burt Hummel regalia, saying his song for the assignment is some Mellencamp. Burt is nonplussed. Cut to Finchel in a doctor's office, Rachel panicking over possibly losing her voice. Finn gives a half-assed peptalk, saying it's unlikely the doctor'll say she'll never sing again. The doc arrives and diagnosis her with tonsillitis which is giving her an inner ear infection. He prescribes antibiotics as Rachel asks for options. Unfortunately, Finn chooses that moment to make a play for Rachel; seems that despite his dressing down of her in the previous episode, his latent feelings have returned to the surface. Rachel is not pleased, especially when Finn says Jesse, who as mentioned is not in this episode, will dump her if he realizes she can't sing. Rachel's stubbornness kicks in, dismissing it as base jealously.
And ladies and gleeks, we have Finn wanting someone who has a boyfriend named Jesse. Thus, the Springfield is obvious, as is Rachel's mortified face throughout. Afterwards, it's Puck's turn, and he decides to do his pursuing of Mercedes from a different angle; namely, some Sinatra. Mercedes approves, Santana not so much. After the break, we see Mercedes getting positive looks from the student body. We then see her approach Quinn, who encourages her to go for Puck; seems Quinn's living with the Puckermans for now, and Puckcedes would distract him from annoying her. However, she then gets to the root of the problem, namely how both Puck and Mercedes are using each other for popularity. Thing is, Mercedes knows it, but doesn't care, saying this way there's no real emotional attachment. Unfortunately for Mercedes, there is also an apparently territorial Santana to look out for.
Back to the Gleetucky Downs, where Kurt's next up. He makes an attempt at Mellencamp, but only Brittany seems to be into it, the rest having the appropriate expressions. Afterwards, when Will reminds Kurt of the point of the assignment, Kurt tries to bluster, but clearly isn't buying it himself. Someone was though, as Brittany approaches, seems she's liplocked with everyone from students to employees, minus one. She throws herself at Kurt, who is still stubborn enough to accept. Cut to Finn's locker where he sees Rachel looking like she's aged 20 years. Seems the antibiotics have given her insomnia, but haven't returned her voice. Finn is tired of her self pity, while Rachel insists her voice is the sum of her worth; we then get another insight into her psyche, saying she's like Tinkerbell, she needs applause to live. Finn then says he has a friend for her to meet as we go to break. We return to witness the page image above and... no... just... just...no, although we did find out Brittany likes the taste of her armpits. Brit-Brit, you are a treasure. The mood is broken by Papa Burt, and awkwardness ensues, ending with Burt offering the token warning of protection, though of course highly unwarranted.
Cut back to Mercedes locker and Puck extolling the virtues of SuperMarioBros3, only for her to tell him to find out more about her as a person, starting with her love of frozen mocha's. We then see, thanks to him slamming JBI into a locker thank fucking god, that Puck's rep is slowly returning. After acquiring money for Mercedes' mocha, we see Santana and Puck share looks, unfortunately Mercedes observes this byplay and this leads to the obvious duet, with Mercedes as Brandy and Santana as Monica. Refer to the spoiler tag at the top of the recap. This, incidentally, is only Naya's second time singing; we heard her in the Madonna tribute, but this adds another powerhouse voice to the rest of the pack. Afterwards, shoving ensues, we pan to Puck both amused and disturbed.
We return from break to JBI IN A DUMPSTER PRAISE AND HALLEJUAH! Unfortunately, someone is not pleased with these events, as we see Mercedes look on disapprovingly. She confronts Puck for reverting back to old patterns, Puck saying this is the order of things. We then cut to Finchel at a "friend"'s house; this is actually a Long-Lost Uncle Aesop who got paralyzed during a game. Obvious message is obvious obviously: don't let the loss of one aspect of yourself affect the rest of you. Cut back to Puck's locker as we see Mercedes has ditched the Red and White. Puck is aghast, but again, it ties back into being true to yourself. This is the lesson Mercedes tries to teach Puck, calling him out for dumpster tossing, saying he doesn't really like the guy he's become. Puck contemplates as we cut to Kurt and Brittany holding hands, Kurt's true self slowly reemerging via skin care secrets. They come across the rest of ND, still with WTF faces on, then Papa Burt arrives, apparently still looking through Kurt as he tells of plans with Finn. Kurt, after dismissing Brittany, gets an almost thousand yard stare as we cut to what is normally a song within Kurt's wheel house, but in this context seems more like a Sanity Slippage Song. Turns out to be Kurt venting on stage as we reveal Burt applauding. He then admits to going overboard with Finn, saying that while he will fight for Kurt's right to love, he wished that he could take Kurt to games and talk about girls. Kurt admits seeing Burt with Finn breaks his heart, hence the charade. Burt insists Kurt doesn't have to do that, being himself is enough.
We enter the home stretch with Rachel returning to Long-Lost Uncle Aesop's house, thanking him for showing her that just because she's not good at anything over than singing doesn't mean she's not any good if she can't sing. When Rachel offers singing lessons (of course her voice returned), LLUA accepts as he, Rachel, and the rest of ND breakout the U2 to close us out for the week.
Next Time: We are the dream makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
Songs
- "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus, performed by Rachel Berry
- "Jessie's Girl" performed by Finn
- "The Lady is a Tramp" performed by Puck with Mercedes
- "Pink Houses" performed by Kurt
- "The Boy is Mine" performed by Mercedes and Santana
- "Rose's Turn" performed by Kurt
- "One" performed by New Directions with Sean
Tropes appearing in the episode
- Betty and Veronica: Finn and Jesse, for Rachel. Mercedes and Santana, for Puck.
- Cat Fight: Narrowly averted during "The Boy is Mine."
- Important Haircut: Puck has to shave his head. It leads to the beginning of his Character Development.
- Male Gaze: Subverted. After Brittany hits on Kurt and walks away, we see a pan down to Brittany's ass and legs in her Cheerios skirt. Then pan up to Kurt's Oh, Crap! look.
- Momma's Boy: Puck, whose mother still washes his hair.
- Really Gets Around: Brittany says the only reason she hasn't made out with Kurt is she thought he was gay.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Played with during Mercedes and Santana's performance of "The Boy is Mine." Rachel gives one to the Glee club. Mercedes gives a good one to Puck.The guy I saw throwing dweebs in the dumpster yesterday, I don't like him very much. And you know what? I don't think you do, either.
- The Tonsillitis Episode: It's called "Laryngitis", which Rachel gets.
- Token Minority Couple: Puck tries to invoke this, to seduce Mercedes and ride on the coattails of her newfound popularity, because she's Black and he's Jewish.
- Transparent Closet: Kurt tries to pretend he's straight, to please his dad. He fails spectacularly. (And seems to have forgotten that he came out in "Preggers")
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Dissected. Kurt's attempts to get Burt to like him have everyone scratching their heads, and Kurt only really earns awesome points with his performance of "Rose's Turn."
