Glee - Yes/No

Cooter and Beiste eloped! Beiste showed off her ring and new marital status to Sue and Emma in the teacher’s lounge. Emma looks sad, which means Beiste’s situation is about to become all about her. And people gave RACHEL trouble for making things all about her this week? Uh uh, Emma was way worse. At least she prefaced her taking over of the episode by assuring Beiste that she was so happy for her, but it was like a disclaimer. Emma imagines a version of “Wedding Bell Blues” with Sue and Beiste as backup singers. The song is all about how Emma is sad that Will hasn’t proposed yet.

There are a myriad of good reasons for this. Emma has mental problems. Emma and Will have not had sex, that we know of. This being Glee, we think we would know if they had. Emma has shown no indication that she will ever be able to have sex. Will just got out of another marriage. They haven’t been together that long. Emma’s parents are more insane than she is. But Emma has supposedly been expecting a proposal. So she runs up to Will and proposes. Then she takes it back, sort of, and runs away. Will gets the message. He goes to New Directions and asks them how he should propose, because he thinks that CLEARLY it should be done via song.

Artie’s idea is for will to sing a song where he can show off his dance moves, next to Mike Chang, which leads to “Moves Like Jagger,” sung by Artie. It was hard for us to want to watch this and we didn’t like the experience of doing so. The girls in the group sing “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” It’s sweet, but forgettable. One thing we hated was Rachel crying during it. We get that she loves Finn and drama, but we thought it was annoying. Also, when you cry, you get a lump in your throat. She would not sound normal if she were crying and singing at the same time and she sounded like she always does.

Mercedes runs out of the theater when it’s over, stealing Rachel’s drama, and cries in the bathroom about loving Sam more than her current boyfriend. Good. Speaking of Sam, the episode started with him and Mercedes singing “Summer Nights” from Grease, our second-favorite number of the night. It was cute and it fit both the show and story.

Will goes to Emma’s parents to ask permission to marry him. How did he THINK that was going to go? They don’t want him to marry Emma, because he is not red-haired. When they denied Will permission to marry Emma, they actually had a decent reason. Because of Emma’s OCD, she would not be able to handle children and all the mess they make, what with poop and vomit coming out of their every orifice at all times. However, marriage doesn't HAVE to lead to children. Just saying. Will goes to Emma and passes those concerns onto her. Emma tells Will to make up his mind if he wants her or let her go. Ballsy, Emma. She also lets him know that she’s been taking her meds and is getting better.

Will realizes he needs to step up, so he proposes to Emma at the school pool. The Glee club and synchronized swimming club have pooled…heh…their resources to create a performance of “We Found Love” complete with pool dancing and Artie in a floating chair. Best part of the entire episode (and probably season, and maybe series): Artie rolling his wheelchair into the pool. The look on his face was priceless.We want to be able to swim in those adorable outfits the girls were wearing. Will must think he is Jesus now, because he walked on a clear surface that made him look like he was walking on top of the water. He walked right up to Emma and proposed to her. We were surprised she thought it was acceptable to be near public waters. People pee in pools, Emma. Emma says yes. We don’t know if we liked the performance. We will think about it.

Speaking of the synchronized swimming team, Sam joined up in order to get a letterman’s jacket to impress Mercedes, since her boyfriend, Shane, has one. Sam cannot imagine another reason why Mercedes would pick Shane over him. We can't either. The team is coached by guest star NeNe Leakes, who wants to let the world know that black people can, in fact, swim.

We got to hear Becky’s internal monologue voiced by Helen Mirren, which might be our favorite thing about the episode. It worked and it was hilarious. We hope Helen does this for Glee again. Becky has a crush on Artie, so she asked him out. She watched one of his performances and then had dinner at Breadstix. Becky then decided it was time to make love. Sue tells Artie that he should treat Becky just like he would any other girl he was not interested in.

Artie used a great breakup line that we are going to use (“I like being friends with you, but I don’t think we should date”) and Becky was crushed. She knew it was because she had Down’s. Becky went to Sue, who comforted her with ice cream, TV, and kind words. Sue was the sweetest she has ever been throughout this whole episode, and it felt right, rather than forced, weird, and unfunny, like when she volunteered with the homeless or visited cancer kids.

The most emotional part of the episode happened when Finn tells Will that he is planning to join the army to be like his father, a man Finn has revered for the entirety of his life. Will tells Finn’s parents about Finn’s plans, wisely deciding that they should counsel Finn before Finn signs up. Carol tells Finn that his father did not die in Iraq. A part of him died. Finn’s father had a drug problem after his horrible war experience and died of an overdose. Finn freaks out and we feel really bad for him. He no longer has a role model, even though Carol says that there was so much more to his father and his father’s life than the time he spent as an addict.

Rachel sings “Without You” in the club to inspire Will, to everyone’s derision. It was our favorite number of the night, so screw all you other Glee club members. We love when this show swaps the genders on a song. Rachel usually doesn’t sound great singing popular music, but this song worked for her. She inspired Finn instead of Will. Finn decided that Rachel was the best thing about his life and future. He takes her to the auditorium, gives her a sincere and wonderful speech, and then Finn proposes. Rachel’s face holds a myriad of emotions, so we wonder if she will say yes. Our advice to her would be to say no, since she is so young. Our other advice to her would be to get rid of the bangs already! We’ve forgotten if she has a forehead.

This was a sweet episode that lacked wtf moments and Kurt. It wasn’t as funny as former entries, but it brought the heart we’ve been missing. Glee runs hot and cold, and this episode was hot.

Episode grade: B+