"Glee" was desperate this week to let us know the theme -- dreams. A number of people sang about dreams, and Neil Patrick Harris alternated between giving the club its dream and taking it away.
Joss Whedon was a great choice to direct this episode, since he is really the best at figuring out complex character dynamics. We've seen it on "Buffy," in "Firefly," and even the web series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" that introduced many of us to Neil's singing voice. The plot gave the guest star of the week plenty of chances to work his magic, and Whedon also worked some of the overarching plots.
The story of Brian Ryan
We learned early on this week that Will and Neil's Brian have a checked past -- the two performed together in the glee club in high school, where Brian ended up getting most of the solos (and the women). However, things hadn't turned out so well for him since. He became addicted to drugs, worked on a cruise ship, and finally settled down with a used car dealership before getting on the school board. In a way, he's like the more successful version of Kristin Chenoweth's April (though that really say more about April than him).
Brian really just came to the glee club with one goal -- cutting the budget, while all the while working to destroy as many hopes and dreams as he could in the process. He started this out by telling the club all to their faces that the majority of them were never going to leave Ohio, and would be perpetually stuck in some sort of sad, depressing state of redundancy.
However, much of this changed when Will convinced the guy to go out to a bar, and quickly realized that Brian was ultimately just repressing a dream of his own. The two went down to audition for a local production of "Les Miserables," which led to the killer performance of "Dream On" that we've heard the most about over the course of the past few weeks..
Unfortunately, Will was given the lead role, while Brian was relegated to a supporting cast member with one line ("hooray"). This immediately caused Brian to wreck havoc again, that is until Will decided to drop the role in return for Brian allowing the glee club to stick around. There was some sort of message in here about sacrifice, but it didn't necessarily shine through as well as it could have.
Artie takes up dancing
One of the other main plots this week involved Artie and Tina, which is always one of the more entertaining romances that the show has. Artie's character works well because he is so flawed -- he's not a victim because he's in a wheelchair, and he often says things you wouldn't expect people in wheelchairs to say.
One thing we certainly didn't expect to find out was that his dream was to dance. Tina tried to help him out to the best of her ability, but really all it amounted to was Artie getting more frustrated. He knew that his dream wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and she tried to get his hopes up by finding some "research studies" that proved that his condition could be healed someday.
Artie had a fun song-and-dance dream sequence in here, but in the end he had to once again come to terms with his condition -- however, he also knew that he had plenty still to offer the world. The best thing we really got out of this plot was how we are really starting to see Artie and Tina mesh well as a couple. My hope? That we actually find out more about Tina soon, since she is still one of the club's most mysterious members.
Rachel's search for mom
The final plot from this week worked simply because it answered a question that most of us have been thinking about for much of the season -- who is Rachel's mom? We still haven't met her two dads, but this lack of a mother figure has been driving her crazy for much of her like.
Jesse, back from his spring break with Vocal Adrenaline, decided to "help" her in the search. Granted, he had other motivations, which included getting her distracted from the glee club long enough to give V.A. the win at regionals.
However, it also was more complicated than that. Why? Because the Vocal Adrenaline coach is actually Rachel's mom. (Oh, snap!) Kay, I can't actually say I'm that surprised, since Idina Menzel pretty much looks just like Lea Michele, but it's nice to see some movement coming in with this plot. There was also a beautiful rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" thrown in there, even if I think of it now as the "Susan Boyle song."
We don't know what's going to happen here -- maybe Rachel will want to compete with her mom, or that she will get so obsessed with the search that nothing else will matter. Either way, this will be a storyline we'll be seeing more of.
The full picture
There were a few issues here and there with this episode -- mainly the lack of screen time for Sue Sylvester -- and there's also the feeling that there are so many different plots going it's tough to see how they will sort them all out.
That said, this was still a fun episode that had a nice mix of laughs and a great guest star. What did you think? Feel free to share your thoughts below. To view photos from the "Glee" tour, follow the link here.
"Glee" archive -- all the latest happenings from McKinley High
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