...Set: Glee 1x16 "Home"

Look, I know Kristin Chenoweth can belt a tune like nobody's business. She did it on Pushing Daisies, she did it on Broadway, and she even did it once already on Glee. But in her return tonight, did we really need three whole songs featuring her? I would argue no. Particularly since they had the entire songs. I was getting bored out by them, maybe because I had never actually heard any of them before. Point of fact, I'd only heard one of the songs featured on the show tonight. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which one.
But anyway, the reason we didn't really need all of those songs was because the story wasn't really about April. She had her own little side story about being a mistress to some old dude, who then ends up croaking in the end so she gets some money to go out to Broadway, but it was nearly exactly the same story as before, though with a little more of her trying to flirt with Will. So that's all the time I'm going to devote to it. Because the real stories of this episode were about Mercedes, Kurt and Finn.

Let's start with Mercedes. Last we saw, she and Kurt joined the Cheerios. Now that they're members, however, Sue has some harsh criticisms. She demands that Mercedes lose 10 pounds before a critic or something shows up for a pep rally. Mercedes struggles to lose the weight and ends up fainting in the cafeteria. Oddly enough, it is Quinn who talks some sense into her. She doesn't need to lose weight, she just needs to be comfortable with herself. This leads her to take a stand during the pep rally and sing Christina Aguilera's Beautiful, which really does rally the school together, since everybody has felt fat, ugly or stupid at some point.

As a side note, this inadvertently gives Sue an edge in her interview with that aforementioned critic, who was prepared to write a scathing review of her, but instead decides he must've been wrong about her all along. Little does he know! Though it does seem like Sue may be wondering if her evil ways are so great after all.

As for Kurt and Finn, their story really hit the theme of home more than any of the others. Apparently, some time ago, Kurt set up his dad and Finn's mom while at a parent-teacher conference. They've been quietly dating since then, but only now does Finn figure out what's going on when his mom starts moving out some of their old stuff, including a lot of the stuff he associates with his dad, who died in Desert Storm, in case you've forgotten. At first, Kurt is very gung-ho about their families meshing together while Finn is very against it, not wanting to let go of his dad. Kurt sings a great version of A House is Not a Home that hits him more emotionally than he thought it would at first, I think. (We'll just forget that one verse that Finn adds into the song, because it's pretty much the worst verse he's ever sung on the show. Sorry, Montieth, but it's true)

Things start to change, however, once the Hummels and the Hudsons get together for dinner and Finn connects with Kurt's dad over sports, something that Kurt has never really connected with him over. Finn and Kurt then decide they're going to break them up. But when Finn tries to do his part, he ends up getting a couple of rather heartfelt talks from not only his mom (definitely the most emotionally poignant moment in the episode) but also Kurt's dad. Finn ends up changing his mind about them dating, leaving Kurt to watch from the outside as Finn and his dad bond some more over their shared hatred of Duke basketball.

And that's pretty much all she wrote. We barely saw any of Rachel and Jesse, and none of Emma. Did you miss them? Did anyone else laugh as much as I did at Brittany's "I'm pretty sure my cat's been reading my diary" line as me? (I doubt it. I downright guffawed.) And.... I've already forgotten what the preview for next week showed, apart from Emma yelling in the teacher's room that Will is a slut. When he's not sporting a manly teary eye, I'm sure.

Quotes:

"How do you two not have a show on Bravo?" - Sue

"You got hips like a pear." - Sue

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put in a call to the Ohio Secretary of State notifying them I will no longer be carrying photo ID. You know why? People should know who I am." - Sue

"I live in a closet. There's cowboy wallpaper on the walls." - Finn

"I'm pretty sure my cat's been reading my diary." - Brittany

"I haven't had a solid meal since 1987." - Sue

"Sometimes I add a teaspoon of sand." - Brittany

"You both have dead spouses! Maybe you should talk." - Kurt

"I'm sure when the Bouviers and the Kennedys first broke bread, there was a similar sense of joy and urgency." - Kurt

"If he still had the power of speech, I'm sure he'd be thankful." - April

"With a name like Tracy, I assumed you were a lady." - Sue

"On assembly days, I arrange for the rest of the school to be fumigated, leaving the gymnasium the only place with breathable air." - Sue

"You're bossy, insulting, and the fact that twice you called me Rerun makes me think you're a little racist." - Tracy

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