Glee 2×14 – “Blame it on the Alcohol”

On this week’s episode of Glee, everyone gets drunk, and it’s even more epic and hilarious than the time the kids all got hooked on Vitamin D.

The Characters/Relationships: In the early part of the episode, Rachel was firing on all cylinders.  Her ridiculous song about headbands, having drink tickets and wine coolers at her party, continuing to have great chemistry with Puck…all gold.  When she got that look in her eye after kissing Blaine during Spin the Bottle, I had a bad feeling that grew throughout the rest of the hour.  I was not looking forward to watching Rachel, the daughter of two gay men who organized a “Gay-tervention” with Mercedes last year, fooling herself into thinking that a gay boy really liked her.  When she kissed Blaine again at the end and he shot her down, I cringed and hid my face behind a pillow.  But when Kurt came over to comfort her and she eagerly talked about her new inspiration for songwriting, I let out a huge sigh of relief.  She didn’t really like Blaine so much as she was casting him in a role that is the stage play of her life.  It made me laugh.  I also loved that her friendship with Kurt is still intact.  No, she should not have gone after a boy Kurt liked, but last year Kurt sabotaged and humiliated Rachel because she had the audacity to like Finn, so…they’re even.

I also love Coach Bieste and her friendship with Will.  I would gladly reduce Emma’s screen time to one line per episode, just enough to give Jayma Mays a paycheck and give the good folks at What Would Emma Pillsbury Wear? something to write about, just so we could have more scenes between those two.  Their friendship is believable, sweet, and funny.

Sue, unfortunately, is played out as a character and only ever amusing because of Jane Lynch elevating the crappy material the writers throw at her.

Musical Numbers: I don’t like “Tik Tok” and “Blame it on the Alcohol” as songs, but they were enjoyable performances that featured great dancing from Heather Morris and hilarious drunk faces from the rest of the cast.  The Will/Bieste honky-tonk number wasn’t anything special, but I liked the recording and appreciated the departure from the typical songs they usually do.  “Don’t You Want Me Baby” was utterly delightful, as I have a special place in my heart for that song as it is, and I loved watching Darren Criss and Lea Michele completely dork out during the performance.

Kurt and Blaine: I might be in the minority, but I loved their development in this episode.  Even though Blaine’s “Wait, am I bisexual?  Do I like girls?” story was a little unnecessary, I still bought it on some level.  Blaine just humiliated himself in front of a guy he liked two episodes ago.  His confidence is shattered.  He can’t bring himself to go there with Kurt because their friendship is too important to him to ruin.  Entering a fake relationship with someone who crushes on him is the safer thing to do.  I don’t think for a minute that Blaine actually believed he was bisexual.  People often say things they don’t mean, testing to see how they sound out loud, because they want to convince themselves of something.  I thought Blaine reacted badly to Kurt’s criticism because he (Blaine) doesn’t believe that he deserves Kurt’s admiration.  In Kurt’s mind, Blaine is the “out and proud” gay mentor to look up to (and crush on), but Blaine knows that Kurt is really the braver of the two.

The farther Blaine is knocked off of his pedestal, the happier I am about a prospective relationship between him and Kurt.  They initially became friends because of shared experiences, but there seems to be a bit of hero worship and unrealistic expectations on both sides.  Now they can get to know each other, warts and all.

The Comedy: In terms of laughter, this show had me the first time Figgins said, “Ke-dollar sign-ha,” and never let me go.  The comic highlights include Puck wearing Lauren’s glasses, Santana’s weepy drunk persona and everyone taking turns pawing at Mike Chang’s abs (and Tina getting possessive).  I cracked up when Kurt mentioned that he wanted to act cool because he was trying to impress Blaine, and then we see Blaine dorking out like whoa in the background with his silly dancing.  But the moment that completely slayed me was Will drunkenly grading his students’ tests.  “A+.  A+.  I don’t even know who this is – A+!”