Glee Episode 3 Recap

Physical and professional makeovers were the theme on this week’s episode. So were older songs that some of the audience probably didn’t recognize. Interesting choices, Glee.

Presidential elections are on at McKinley High, so Brittany prepares for reelection while Blaine runs against her as he looks for activities to keep him busy in Kurt’s absence. Oh, and he sings “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears as he signs up. Brittany takes Artie on as her running mate, then suggests that Blaine take on Sam as his (which he accepts). It becomes obvious that Brittany and Sam aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed and need a makeover to appeal to McKinley’s student voters. They get new business wardrobes and practice debating as they sing a duet of – OK, make sure you’re sitting down for this – “Celebrity Skin” by Hole. No, really. And no, it doesn’t quite work the way some of Glee’s unexpected songs do. Sam’s voice fit well enough with the song, but everything else just sat slightly wrong.

Over in NYC, Kurt scores an internship at Vogue.com under Isabelle Wright (played by Sarah Jessica Parker). She was once a fashion designer, but her line failed and she lives in constant fear of failing again and is no good at managing or saying no to dumb ideas (which she admits to Kurt way too openly, considering she’s known him for a day). Being from Columbus, Ohio, she feels that she and Kurt are kindred spirits. She likes his ideas and encourages him to follow his dreams, but would like him to make fashion his dream instead of Broadway. Together, Kurt and Isabelle give Rachel a makeover and make a video of it to put online; during this, Isabelle breaks into a mash-up of “The Way You Look Tonight” and “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” She breaks into show tunes? They really are kindred spirits.

As the director of the national show choir champion New Directions, Mr. Schuster must host the rule committee at McKinley High. In one of my favorite parts of Glee (that’s been missing for a while), the students point out problems with the show, like that some schools at nationals performed only one song while others performed many, or that not everyone followed the original song rules. As part of the committee, Mr. Schue must come up with new ideas and themes for this year’s competition, but finds himself without ideas. He’s lacking motivation and creativity since he achieved his main goal (winning Nationals).

He is horrified to learn from his fellow committee members that arts clubs are losing funding and decides to apply to be on a panel to try to get more funding for the arts, even though it would take him away from McKinley for months. Emma encourages him, Sue writes him an over-the-top recommendation, and he applies so that he has something to fight for again. By the way, Kirk from Gilmore Girls was on the committee. Well, the actor was, but since the character didn’t speak, I like to imagine it was actually Kirk.

The presidential debate gets weird when Sam answers the question, “Are you ashamed of being a stripper?” by stripping on stage, and Brittany promises to do away with summer vacation and weekends so that everyone can spend more time at their beloved school.  As you can guess, Blaine and Sam (or Blam) wins.

Blaine realizes that Kurt has so much going on in his life that Kurt’s not paying attention to him. Kurt, who was hanging out with his Vogue.com coworkers, didn’t even take the call when Blaine tried to tell him that he has won the election. Looks like they’re going the way of Mike Chang and Tina. They’re not the only couple on the rocks.

After Rachel’s makeover, which mainly involved her swapping her colored leotards out for black like everyone else wears, Brody takes a renewed interest in her. They sing “A Change Would Do You Good” by Sheryl Crow while doing some sexy dance moves, they run around the city taking photos of each other on their iPhones (are they sponsored by Apple? Everyone has the same phone), and seductively eat ice cream while maintaining eye contact. You don’t do that with a friend. Rachel asks him over for dinner at the end of their number. He comes, they drink wine and eat pizza (she burned the duck entree, which is weird because she’s vegetarian and underage), and end up swapping saliva on the loft floor (which is weird because he just finished saying that he was hands off and just a friend; trust me, he was hands-on). Rachel answers a knock at the door, thinking that Kurt has forgotten his keys, but it’s a surprise visit from Finn.

He can put two and two together. Looks like another long-distance relationship is on the rocks.

By the end of the episode, Brittany is snuggling up to Sam. Are they really good friends, or is she looking to replace Santana? Next week could have more breakups than this week had makeovers. In breakup-free relationship news, Sugar asked Artie on a date.

So all in all, looks like Schue is leaving, everyone is breaking up, Kurt is doing well at Vogue (the video even got a “great” from Anna Wintour), Blaine is president, and Finn is back in town. Oh, and half of the glee club was barely in the episode. Oh, and all of the songs performed are fairly old. The most recent song in the episode was “Celebrity Skin” from 1998, making it older than some of Glee’s viewers.