Glee – Recap & Review – Bad Reputation

photo: fox

Glee
Bad Reputation

Original Air Date: May 4, 2010

Farrah Kaye – Sr. Editor
farrah@thetwocentscorp.com

The last few episodes of Glee have been … meh. I have been very underwhelmed. Until now. I’m going to admit it: I’ve already watched the episode three times. It’s just that amazing. When the preview first came out, I didn’t think it would that great. I mean, a “Glist?” Come on.

But all my worries were gone before the first commercial even came. Some of the best Glee moments in the show’s history are in this episode. I’m not exaggerating. There’s Vanilla Ice, the return of PuckleBerry, Kurt in M.C. Hammer pants, Sue becoming … human?, Emma telling someone off, and a ballet scene that you’re not sure if you should take serious or laugh at. No joke. This is hands down one of the best episodes ever. And with that, I give you … BAD REPUTATION.

As usual, we begin with the end of American Idol. If you care, Lady Gaga will be on next week and Harry Connick Jr. is hotter than ever. But thankfully, Glee begins. Some of the Gleeks are in the practice room watching Sue doing a reenactment of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.” Kurt stole it from her office and they post it on YouTube. As Sue walks through the halls, it’s obvious the video has gone viral as students are making remarks to her about it. She goes to Figgins and brings Will with her, blaming the Glee Club for putting the video up. As evidence to prove the Gleeks are behind it (because they have gone bad?), she brings a “Glist,” a list of the students in school ranked by hotness. The password “gleeclub” was used to make the list on a school computer. Quinn was on top and Rachel was on the bottom. Figgins tells Will if he doesn’t find out who made the Glist, he will expel the entire club. “He cannot have THESE shenanigans at THIS school!” Everyone assumes it’s Puck but he swears it wasn’t him. Sure he does bad things, but he doesn’t lie. Will tells the club they’re starting to get a bad reputation and that’s not such a good thing. He hands them a song that is a good song that got a bad reputation. Their assignment is to find similar songs and make them good again. Jesse says “This song should be arrested for the crime of sucking.” What could it be? “ICE ICE BABY!!” Will turns into Vanilla Ice and they even bust into cheesy dance moves and I truly believe this is one of the better random singing/dance numbers done in the room for “assignment” reasons. Sue goes to the teacher’s lounge and she smells coffee instead of fear. Everyone is laughing at her (in slow motion) and there’s Molly Shannon! She is a transfer teacher from Indiana named Ms. Castle who has a “drug problem” and calls Sue an embarrassment. She leads the group in pointing and laughing at her. Rachel hits up Artie for help from the AV club so she can show a new side of herself. As Artie said, “you had me at sex tape.”

Kurt brings together Tina, Mercedes and Artie to discuss not being on the list. Brittany is in the room too … for two reasons. 1) She took too many anti-biotics and she forgot how to leave and 2) she’s upset for not being higher up on the list. Kurt decides they’re going to get their bad reputation by “getting their glee on” in the library. Sue visits her sister (remember her?) after feeling the humiliation from the tape. Jean tells Sue to feel better she should help someone, because someone always has it worse than you do. This brings Sue to Emma, because she has a Master’s degree in psychology and wants to help her since she is “crippled by mental illness.” She brings up Ken and her love for Will and tells her about the makeout session Will had with the Vocal Adrenaline coach and the April Rhodes sleepover. Sue tells her to “grow a pair” and confront Will. Rachel has Puck over and mentions their time as PuckleBerry (a term made up by the fans, it’s written into the show as being made up by their fellow students) and asks him to help her increase her “bad reputation.” He assumes this means she wants to date again but she just wants him to be in her music video. He asks her if she thinks he wrote the Glist and she says yes. He says he didn’t do it and he doesn’t understand why he does bad things. “I try to be a good guy. I go to school and I say, ‘Be cool, Puck. Be nice.’ But by second period I have a fire extinguisher in my hands and I’m spraying some dweeb with it and I don’t know how I got there.” They nearly make out and he wants to leave since they’re not going to. She gets him to work on the project – without making out. GR! I want more PuckleBerry! By the way, I love that Rachel calls him Noah instead of Puck. AH.

Sue is taking Emma to confront Will in the teacher’s lounge. He’s holding hands with an older teacher and he asks for a moment. Emma says NO (well, she actually says he can return to his heavy petting session after) and the other teacher says her husband just died. Emma finally let’s everything out. “Nobody’s safe!” She tells him she’s been going to therapy to work through her OCD and it’s humiliating for her and she knows about Shelby and April Rhodes. And he’s a slut. He’s a slut, he’s a slut, he’s a slut! And everybody should know it! Go Emma! Kurt, Tina, Artie, Mercedes and Brittany go to the library decked out in MC Hammer outfits and do their rendition of “Can’t Touch This.” I can’t tell you how hard I laughed the first time I saw this number … and even harder with each time I saw it again. It’s brilliantly bad. After they are done, they are ready to be reprimanded when the librarian tells them it was cute and wants them to perform at her church. HA! Epic fail.

Will starts interrogating the Gleeks one by one to see who wrote the list. He gets no where. The library crowd decides to admit to posting Sue’s video so they can be seen as bad asses, even if it means suspension. Sue is in her office writing in her journal about the embarrassment of the video. The phone rings and it’s Olivia Newton-John. She doesn’t believe her until the phone rings again. Sue is in shock that Olivia has seen the video. Olivia wants to know why Sue made the video. It’s a classic Sue answer: “Some people like to film themselves getting physical with their partner. I happen to enjoy revisiting the impeccable form of my jazzercise routines.” The video gave Olivia an idea and wants to meet with Sue. All the teachers are picking on Will after Emma called him out (Figgins is praying for him while Ms. Castle wants to “pork” him).

Kurt admits to taking the DVD and Sue thanks him. Everyone is confused so they go to YouTube and discover why. The video has been redone and is now a duet between Sue and Olivia and is remade in the same way as the original, except instead of the chubby guys, it’s filled with chizzled hot men. At the club meeting, no one has come forward yet about the list and it’s also time for Rachel’s project to be revealed. Her song is “Run Joey Run.” Santana and Brittany play angels (HA!) while Puck and Finn are her leading men and a small guest spot from Jesse. Jesse is NOT happy about this. Finn seems quite confused and upset as well. The ending ends with “Fin” (end) and a wink from Rachel (I’m also going with double meaning here…Fin/Finn). Finn finally has a smart realization that Rachel only cares about her reputation instead of her relationships with people. I wonder if his brain hurt during that moment?

Sue visits Jean and tells her that she’s going to give the profits of the song to the nursing home (it won’t be much). I love Sue and Jean scenes. Will brings flowers to Emma to apologize for hurting her while trying to figure himself out. She doesn’t follow apology protocol and says she can’t look at him the way she used to. As he walks out, he sees Quinn and realizes that it was her that made the Glist. How did he figure it out? How he felt when his reputation was ruined, just like hers. She had so much to gain from the Glist … because a bad reputation is better than no reputation at all. When Figgins comes in, he tells him that no one admitted to making the list but that the lists have stopped and they should all move on. Figgins agrees (and is still praying for him!). Jesse confronts Rachel about the video and Rachel explains her need to be popular. Jesse doesn’t care and breaks up with her. Rachel says she knew he’d break her heart but he tells her she broke his first. Then the club sings another great song “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Finn, Puck and Jesse all sing with Rachel on the lead and it’s amazingly delicious. It’s also being sung as Rachel and Jesse are at ballet class. This is the point where you’re not sure whether to laugh or say “aw.” Poor Jesse. I think this is the episode where we realize his intentions were true. By the end of the song, everyone has left the room, Jesse last … leaving Rachel alone.

Next week … Puck shaves his Mohawk, Rachel loses her voice and Kurt tries to be manly by making out with Brittany. Oh man! The goodies just keep on coming!

I loved, LOVED, this episode … obviously considering I quoted half of it. The songs were great (although I could’ve done with one version of “Physical” and two music videos was a tad much) and the plot lines all fit together. I loved the intertwining of Puck, Finn and Jesse and how Rachel is all of a sudden the bad girl while Quinn is the invisible one. It really is a total difference from the beginning of the season. Ryan Murphy is seriously a genius. But anyhoo, what did you think? Leave your two cents below!

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