Glee S01E17: Bad Reputation

[Ed. Note--You all know our resident Glee recapper extraordinaire, Erika. Presented is her recap of last week's episode, "Bad Reputation". SPOILER ALERT, duh.]

Week before last: Rachel started dating Jesse from Vocal Adrenaline but now he sings for Glee and she hasn’t slept with him yet; Emma almost slept with Will but chickened out; Finn slept with Santana but said he didn’t; and Mercedes and Kurt joined the Cheerios.

Last week: Mercedes made it through some weight issues with help from Quinn; Kurt’s dad and Finn’s mom started dating; April came back and bought the auditorium for the Glee club; and Sue narrowly escaped getting exposed by an investigative reporter with help from Mercedes.

(Also I’m free from classes and finals now, which means I am all yours this summer.)

The show opens with Sue dancing to the classically awful Olivia Newton John horror from the 80s, “Let’s Get Physical”, on the computer courtesy of Kurt. Finn’s idea? Post it on YouTube. When he is met with objections, Jesse suggests that Glee should be more badass.

Sue, unsuspecting, is walking down the hallway. The typical fear of Sue Sylvester has been diffused into cheerful (or Gleeful?) informalities.

Sue is confused.

So, Sue does the only thing she can do: goes directly to Figgins’ office and rats out the Glee club. She has also updated her insults: Will’s chin, apparently, looks like a baby’s ass. When Will states, calmly, that Glee club had nothing to do with it, because Sue is generally disliked, Sue replies with the Glist.

A Glist, you ask? It is a “weekly” ranking of the Glee clubbers based on sexual promiscuity. Figgins is, of course, unhappy. He cites a recent incident in which an entire school was expelled because of a photo of the superintendent in lingerie and riding a pony surfaced. Figgins’ ultimatum? Find and suspend the student responsible or the entire Glee club will be held accountable.

At rehearsal, Will shows the club the Glist and begins his interrogations. Everyone accuses Puck, who is offended by their accusations. The club’s star troublemaker says, “Sure, I like setting stuff on fire and beating up people that I don’t know. I own that. But  I’m not a liar.” Will says that this reputation is damaging to the club, but Artie counters that maybe this more dangerous edge of the Glee club will stop people from flushing his glasses down the toilet. That sounds horribly expensive, Artie!

Will says that things are hard and starts handing out new music. Anything can be solved with music.

The club is a little apprehensive of their assignment to pick a song that’s a joke and get rid of its bad reputation, with like, magic or something? It’s not really clear. Will decides to provide an example, and goes into the first number, “Ice Ice Baby” from Vanilla Ice.

This song is paroled. Thank you, Glee. And poor Artie. (Wheelchair=No Dancing.)

Meanwhile, Sue walks into the faculty room to face the “cruel slow-motion laughter.” A new staff member, Brenda Castle (guest star Molly Shannon), approaches and calls Sue an embarrassment. Sue storms from the room, mortified.

Rachel and Artie are having a little chat in the hallway. Rachel was dead last on the Glist with a score of -5. (How does that even happen? What are the scoring rules of the Glist again?) She wants the AV club’s help with her new video project that she wants to use to boost her bad reputation. She does not want a good reputation, in fact she wants to be “ musically promiscuous.” Can anyone smell this backfiring?

Rachel isn’t the only Gleek concerned with her reputation, or lack thereof. Kurt, Mercedes, Artie, and Tina were not even featured on the list. So Kurt has summoned them to plan their descent into depravity. Brittany is there too, because…

“I’ve been here since first period. I have a cold. I took all my antibiotics and the same time, and now I can’t remember how to leave.”

We love you Brittany. [Ed. Note--So much.]

So they include Brittany in their plot, which is great since she’s the greatest. Kurt’s diabolical scheme? Be a disruption in the library. Not by trying to check out a reference book, no, but by causing full on chaos–SINGING IN THE LIBRARY. Seriously, what a bunch of nerds.

Sue is pouring out her heart to her sister with Down’s syndrome, Jean. Sue is in a state of shock at the way that people were treating her and apologizes for not protecting her sister more. It’s moments like these that remind us Sue Sylvester is human. Jean reminds her that they used to “give back” when they felt bad like this.

So Sue becomes Emma’s new therapist. Wait… what? Emma is rightly apprehensive, but it’s okay because Sue has her masters in… Counseling. Sure, television, whatever you say. Oh, and she had baby monitors planted in Will’s house (thanks, Patriot Act!), which caught his make out session with Shelby (Vocal Adrenaline coach/Rachel’s secret mom/Idina Menzel) and his sleepover with April. Sue spills the beans and tells Emma that she needs to stand up for herself and confront Will in a public setting.

Meanwhile, Puck is in Rachel’s room. Uh oh. What are you doing Rachel? Oh and Puck is moonlighting as the Phantom of the Opera.

Go Puck.

Rachel asks him to help with her Glee club project a video of “Run Joey Run” by David Geddes. Puck asks her if she thinks he made the Glist. And then they start talking about reputations, and…

Just say no, Rachel! [Ed. Note--DO IT, RACHEL!]

Well, Rachel doesn’t kiss him and when Puck realizes he won’t be getting any he tries to leave. Rachel gets him to stay to help with the project.

At school, Emma is being propelled along by Sue to the faculty room to confront Will. They are slightly detoured by Brenda and they exchange words. (Sue has met her match) Brenda leaves, and Sue pushes Emma into the teacher’s lounge.

Will is talking to another teacher, solemnly. Emma wants to talk, but Will asks her to give him a second. Emma looses it. She tells him that she can’t wait for the end of his heavy petting session with the teacher, which was actually a discussion about the aforementioned teacher’s recent widowing. (Nice going Emma.) Undeterred, she plows on, saying that no one is safe and tears him a new one.

And then she calls him a slut.

Wow Emma. [Ed. Note--When she's right she's right.]

Meanwhile, Kurt, Mercedes, Brittany, Tina, and Artie enter the library. They perform their rendition of “U Can’t Touch This” from MC Hammer.

Yikes.

The librarian tells them it was very cute. And asks them to perform for her church’s Sunday service.

Sorry guys, better luck next time.

Will is now interrogating the Glee club member by member. Finn, Mercedes, Artie, Tina, Puck, Brittany, and Quinn all deny and push the blame off to someone else. Frustrated, Will slams the desk and says that they aren’t leaving until he gets answers.

Kurt: May I be blunt?

Will: Shoot.

Kurt: Ever since you’ve separated from your wife, you’ve spent a lot of late nights watching reruns of Law and Order, haven’t you? (beat) Thought so.

Will dejected, stops the questioning. Meanwhile, Artie suggests that they confess to Sue that they posted the video.

Sue, meanwhile, is writing in her journal about the humiliations she has endured because of this video scandal. (Is this karmic retribution for the video she tried to hold against Figgins in Season 1?) She gets a phone call from Olivia Newton John. Sue, annoyed and thinking this is a hoax, calls her accent ridiculous and hangs up on her. Olivia calls back and this time Sue drops the phone. She wanted to know why Sue danced to the video and wants Sue’s help to save it.

In the hallway Will is facing Sue’s criticisms, Brenda’s come-ons and Figgins’ prayers because of his reputation. Ken makes a comeback, popping out of nowhere to chew on Will for breaking Emma’s heart. And Sue walks by again just to call him a slut.

Kurt is saying his farewells to Brittany, Tina, Mercedes, and Artie. He approaches Sue, confesses, and she thanks him.

Kurt is stunned.

Confused, they go and search for the video and find this amazing footage featuring Olivia Newton John and one Sue Sylvester in a new rendition of “Physical.”

Muscles, tans, and spandex. What more could we ask for? [Ed. Note--A better song?]

Go Sue and Olivia.

I agree, Mercedes.

At rehearsal, Will gives the club an ultimatum about the Glist. Rachel shows them her project.

Puck is singing. Jesse is confused. Finn is confused. Then Jesse is singing. Now Puck is confused and Finn is still confused. Then Finn is singing, and everyone is confused.

Now Finn, Jesse, and Puck are, on top of being confused, also pissed.

Bad Rachel. Very bad Rachel.

The boys break out in protest. Finn tears her a new one and they walk out on her. Will looks disappointed.

Jean and Sue are hanging out again. Sue is happy about her new attitude change, but she kind of skims over the part where she bragged about being a top 700 recording artist to the faculty lounge. But Sue is taking the money that she’s getting from the video and donating it to the home where Jean lives.

Bring on the warm fuzzies.

Speaking of warm fuzzies, Will has flowers for Emma. She takes them, uncertain, and Will apologizes for his actions. He wants to fix things with Emma, but Emma is somewhat unresponsive. She thanks him for the flowers and Will leaves, a little crushed. However, he realizes that Quinn made the list, because of some stupid and lazily written reason.

Quinn breaks down and says that “a bad reputation is better than no reputation at all.” Will gives her a few inspirational words and… Figgins walks in the door, seeking the culprit.

Will doesn’t rat out Quinn and gets Glee club off the hook. Oh, and Figgins is still praying for him.

In between classes, Jesse approaches Rachel. He confronts her about what she did. Rachel says, “I knew you’d break my heart.” To which Jesse responds, “You broke mine first.”

Wow, this makes me think that Jesse really cared about Rachel and isn’t a spy like I originally thought. [Ed. Note--"I became a spy before I really got to know you!" -Jesse, before the season's end, mark my words.]

Which brings us to our final song from Bonnie Taylor, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, complete with Jesse and Rachel doing ballet for the number. Finn and Jesse seem to be her focus, but she’s definitely spending more time looking at Jesse.

As the song ends, Finn, the entire club, and Jesse walk out on Rachel. Good going Rachel.

Next week: Rachel becomes mute; Puck goes after Mercedes; and Brittany and Kurt elope.