Glee Season 3 Re-watch - 3x21 - Nationals
I mean, we open with a scene that contains the sentence “I just don’t want everything we’ve worked for to collapse because of one bad burrito.” And that’s what you missed on Glee.
Okay, seriously, we’ve all made it to Chicago, and the girls (except Rachel) and Sue are tending to a possibly food-poisoned Mercedes. Random thing about Coach Roz taking the Cheerios aside, even Sue wants these kids to win. What can they do? Make sure all of the girls (except Rachel) perform with the Troubletones, even those who never defected in the first place, while Sue goes to extreme measures to nurse Mercedes back to health.
Out in the hotel hallway, Will is having a crisis of confidence when Emma walks up to him. “What if they don’t win? What if it wasn’t enough?” He just wishes they could have the experience of walking the halls of McKinley as champions for once. Emma, thankfully, is the voice of reason. The kids are aware that it’s a competition and only one team can win. That’s all they can do.
Beiste, meanwhile, calls them down to the conference room where they’re ACTUALLY REHEARSING. Or, well, getting into fights about rehearsing. Tensions are running high, but only because everyone really really wants this. (And why are Santana and Brittany in their Cheerios uniforms??) Yay for hard work!
Nationals time, and Rachel is outside hoping to catch a glimpse of Carmen Tibideaux when who should she run into but one Jesse St. James. He talks some trash about New Directions not winning and Carmen not showing, but Rachel knows he’s just nervous. And he is, those crazy-ass Vocal Adrenaline people sure as hell want him to win. They ramble a bit about WTF does “33% vintage” even mean and crises of confidence, but I am just so on board the Jon Groff bandwagon that I barely even care what they say. They’re competitors, but they aren’t jumping down each other’s throats. May the best group win. And the brief stare-down between Finn and Jesse just gives me all kinds of conflicting feels about losing Finn and that these two men both love(d) Lea Michele in real life in their own ways. Sigh.
Backstage, Finn is all kinds of excited. He got Rachel a souvenir mug to smash at their wedding (lemme tell you a thing - you want something a lot thinner than that big-ass mug, my friend, or you're going to break your foot), he bet Rick the Stick $500 that they’d win to double their honeymoon money, and basically everything is going to be awesome. He’s sure of it. They’re adorable.
Pep talk time, but Finn takes over for Schue. They all want to win this for him, for how great he’s been to them. (I would take issue with that, but I appreciate the feeling behind it.) And just before they can do show circle, Mercedes has returned from the dead and all is right in the world.
Performance time, and I’m just excited that Coach Bieste is eating a box of Frango Mints in the audience, and it’s sponsored by Celozzi-Edison Chevrolet. (It’s a Chicago thing, trust me.) Oh, and I had forgotten that Lindsay Lohan and Perez Hilton are two of our celebrity judges. Super.
I love the Troubletones’ “Edge of Glory,” even with the random handful of girls that silently show up and then disappear whenever they perform. I love the song, I love the choreography, I love the red dresses. Love it.
Rachel’s turn for a solo (naturally), and though she’s bummed that Carmen’s seat is still empty, Finn reminds her it’s time to go own the shit out of that performance. And, I mean, it’s Rachel singing Celine Dion, so of COURSE she owns the shit out of it. She’s got the entire audience completely rapt, and Jesse St. James nearly in tears. And hey, Carmen shows up halfway through! Hooray!
And then there’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” I know some people don’t love this song, but I freaking LOVE this performance. LOVE IT. I love the boys’ black short-sleeves, vest, and red tie just as much as I love the girls’ dresses. I love the fun, varied choreography that is high-energy even if it isn’t perfect. I love that, despite the fact that it’s largely a Finchel song, there are great moments for whomever you favorite characters are. (Yes, I LOVE that there’s some Klaine dancing together in a totally nonchalant way.) I think it might be one of the best-suited songs to Finn’s voice in the entire series. And, frankly, I love that Finn is sweating buckets by the time the song is over. BOOM.
After their own performance is done, Kurt and Mercedes spare a few minutes to find Unique and deliver good luck and a flower. But Unique is freaking the hell out, having a really hard time dealing with the pressure of sudden stardom and being “the poster child for any kid who’s different.” Poor thing. Kurt and Mercedes encourage her to go for it and take the stage, and Unique isn’t sure why they’re being so nice to her. “Aren’t we supposed to be enemies?” Yeah, that’s not really how they roll, and Unique knows perfectly well that she’s transferring to McKinley in 4x01.
Vocal Adrenaline and Unique kick it off with “Starships,” and I’m torn. Unique sounds fabulous, as she always does. But I don’t really love this style of song when they use it in competitions, and the explicit-lyric substitution of “higher than any other” is incredibly grating to me for some reason. And one of the things I find most annoying in competition episodes is when they have a great guest star do amazing vocals, but mostly pose and preen while a bunch of professional dancers do crazy shit around them. Could we not have people who look and act like an actual show choir perform, and then make it more believable when New Directions wins? I dunno. Just little quirks that bug me.
And then, as someone who spent much of her junior year of high school listening to the revival of “Tommy,” I can’t decide if “Pinball Wizard” is a delightful surprise or total sacrilege. Probably a lovely surprise.
Sorry, but I could do without the silly judging scene. Yes, yes, Alderman Martin Fong is a show choir junkie, and Perez is posting about Lindsay while they’re speaking and Lindsay is trying to reboot her image and I’m sorry but she just looks awful. Snooze.
Before we can get to the results, though, we find Jesse out in the lobby, chasing down Carmen Tibideaux. For once, his arrogant facade is dropped, and he is humble in the face of the diva. He auditioned for her once, but that’s not the point. He wants to be another voice in praise of Rachel, the most talented person he’s ever met, and the person destined to be a star. Carmen says nothing about Rachel, but throws him a bone and remembers his audition down to the details of his diction. He had passion and promise, and he exhales and smiles at the faint compliment from the intimidating Mme. Tibideaux.
Results time. Unique wins the (never before seen and probably never again) Individual MVP award, but New Directions wins the competition. Yay!
They make it back to the school as a group, and enter under a (misspelled WTF?) “Congradulations” sign, looking almost terrified by the fact that the hallways are lined with other students staring at them. Even worse, some of the hockey guys walk right up to them with cups full of… confetti. “Tongue Tied” starts, and the whole school is celebrating them: cheerleaders smiling at Rachel, jocks hugging Kurt, random girls kissing Rory. (And the creepiest pamphlet Emma has ever made is waiting for Will, so now we get to see them head to bed and NO THANKS.) Rachel even gets asked for her first autograph (in a yearbook).
If ever you were going to be a Klaine-loving kiss-counter, this is the song that makes you bonkers. All of the other couples (Mike/Tina, Finn/Rachel, Brittany/Santana, even Will/Emma) get a big kiss during the song, but not Kurt and Blaine. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I don’t think they were making a statement by excluding them. Maybe it was an oversight that no one noticed at the time. Maybe it was a pretty accurate character moment in that Kurt and Blaine would never (well, until 5x01) be comfortable with PDA at McKinley. Who knows. But while I am wary to assign a vast right-wing conspiracy to this moment, it remains really noticeable to the viewer. We couldn’t have seen them sneak off to the corner of the choir room or an empty classroom for a celebratory smooch of their own? Alas, so it goes.
But when this episode first aired, I already had some built-up anger at Season 3, wanting there to have been much more focus on Klaine. So “Tongue Tied” REALLY made me upset. Almost two years later, I’m willing to cut it some more slack and not get so grumpy over it, but it remains a somewhat glaring moment if that’s what you look for.
Moving on. Finn and Rachel get called into Figgins’s office for a congratulatory McKinley High bumper sticker, a personal gift towards their wedding (woo, $5!), and to ask New Directions to perform once more as a surprise.
Emma is lint-rolling Will’s suit, and do we really have to see them talking about their magical first time? No thanks. Icky. But anyways, thanks for a great year, la la la. Apparently, they’re at school at night for the Teacher of the Year awards ceremony, and Sue is festive in a top hat with her track suit. But hey, we get a joke about her being pregnant “for an indeterminate number of months,” and she can totally tell something’s different about Emma.
Award presentation time, and Finchel is up to present it to a shocked Will Schuester. But before he can come up to accept, they’d like to say something. Finn is super cute reading off of his notecards. “Three years ago, I thought I had everything. I was quarterback of the football team and dating the head cheerleader. And then I met you and found out everything I was missing. [...] You teach your students how to dream.”
(Good thing, since he is clearly incompetent at teaching them Spanish. Or History. I maintain that this is a fairly ridiculous award based on actual teaching, but I understand the emotional moment they’re trying to achieve and I can only shit on Will Schuester so much. It's not like you guys don't know how I feel about the guy.)
Anyways, they’re all there in their Nationals costumes (whoa, reuse of wardrobe!) to sing “We Are the Champions.” I don’t *love* it as a performance - I think Finn’s voice is really straining and it’s just not spectacular. But it’s celebratory and triumphant, it’s nostalgic for the end of an era, and it has everyone singing along. So I can’t get too down on it.
I know everyone who enjoys Glee watches it for their own reasons. I know there are those who watch it almost exclusively for the musical performances, but that has never been me. For as much as I love the songs, and the fact that the show itself is a musical, I have even been known to fast-forward through a song to get to the next piece of plot. And with that being the case, competition episodes are very often NOT my favorites, because they tend to be heavy on the songs and light on the plot.
But for “Nationals,” I find that I don’t mind the fact that there’s almost no plot except the competition itself, and I actually really love the competition songs, themselves. And, frankly, it’s a nice cap on the underdog story of New Directions. From daily slushies to national champions, finally celebrated in their own hallways. For the seniors in particular, it’s a hell of a way to go out.
Only one more episode to go, and only one more week until Season 5 picks up again! See you tomorrow with “Goodbye.” Get the tissues ready.
Okay, seriously, we’ve all made it to Chicago, and the girls (except Rachel) and Sue are tending to a possibly food-poisoned Mercedes. Random thing about Coach Roz taking the Cheerios aside, even Sue wants these kids to win. What can they do? Make sure all of the girls (except Rachel) perform with the Troubletones, even those who never defected in the first place, while Sue goes to extreme measures to nurse Mercedes back to health.
Out in the hotel hallway, Will is having a crisis of confidence when Emma walks up to him. “What if they don’t win? What if it wasn’t enough?” He just wishes they could have the experience of walking the halls of McKinley as champions for once. Emma, thankfully, is the voice of reason. The kids are aware that it’s a competition and only one team can win. That’s all they can do.
Beiste, meanwhile, calls them down to the conference room where they’re ACTUALLY REHEARSING. Or, well, getting into fights about rehearsing. Tensions are running high, but only because everyone really really wants this. (And why are Santana and Brittany in their Cheerios uniforms??) Yay for hard work!
Nationals time, and Rachel is outside hoping to catch a glimpse of Carmen Tibideaux when who should she run into but one Jesse St. James. He talks some trash about New Directions not winning and Carmen not showing, but Rachel knows he’s just nervous. And he is, those crazy-ass Vocal Adrenaline people sure as hell want him to win. They ramble a bit about WTF does “33% vintage” even mean and crises of confidence, but I am just so on board the Jon Groff bandwagon that I barely even care what they say. They’re competitors, but they aren’t jumping down each other’s throats. May the best group win. And the brief stare-down between Finn and Jesse just gives me all kinds of conflicting feels about losing Finn and that these two men both love(d) Lea Michele in real life in their own ways. Sigh.
Backstage, Finn is all kinds of excited. He got Rachel a souvenir mug to smash at their wedding (lemme tell you a thing - you want something a lot thinner than that big-ass mug, my friend, or you're going to break your foot), he bet Rick the Stick $500 that they’d win to double their honeymoon money, and basically everything is going to be awesome. He’s sure of it. They’re adorable.
Pep talk time, but Finn takes over for Schue. They all want to win this for him, for how great he’s been to them. (I would take issue with that, but I appreciate the feeling behind it.) And just before they can do show circle, Mercedes has returned from the dead and all is right in the world.
Performance time, and I’m just excited that Coach Bieste is eating a box of Frango Mints in the audience, and it’s sponsored by Celozzi-Edison Chevrolet. (It’s a Chicago thing, trust me.) Oh, and I had forgotten that Lindsay Lohan and Perez Hilton are two of our celebrity judges. Super.
I love the Troubletones’ “Edge of Glory,” even with the random handful of girls that silently show up and then disappear whenever they perform. I love the song, I love the choreography, I love the red dresses. Love it.
Rachel’s turn for a solo (naturally), and though she’s bummed that Carmen’s seat is still empty, Finn reminds her it’s time to go own the shit out of that performance. And, I mean, it’s Rachel singing Celine Dion, so of COURSE she owns the shit out of it. She’s got the entire audience completely rapt, and Jesse St. James nearly in tears. And hey, Carmen shows up halfway through! Hooray!
And then there’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” I know some people don’t love this song, but I freaking LOVE this performance. LOVE IT. I love the boys’ black short-sleeves, vest, and red tie just as much as I love the girls’ dresses. I love the fun, varied choreography that is high-energy even if it isn’t perfect. I love that, despite the fact that it’s largely a Finchel song, there are great moments for whomever you favorite characters are. (Yes, I LOVE that there’s some Klaine dancing together in a totally nonchalant way.) I think it might be one of the best-suited songs to Finn’s voice in the entire series. And, frankly, I love that Finn is sweating buckets by the time the song is over. BOOM.
After their own performance is done, Kurt and Mercedes spare a few minutes to find Unique and deliver good luck and a flower. But Unique is freaking the hell out, having a really hard time dealing with the pressure of sudden stardom and being “the poster child for any kid who’s different.” Poor thing. Kurt and Mercedes encourage her to go for it and take the stage, and Unique isn’t sure why they’re being so nice to her. “Aren’t we supposed to be enemies?” Yeah, that’s not really how they roll, and Unique knows perfectly well that she’s transferring to McKinley in 4x01.
Vocal Adrenaline and Unique kick it off with “Starships,” and I’m torn. Unique sounds fabulous, as she always does. But I don’t really love this style of song when they use it in competitions, and the explicit-lyric substitution of “higher than any other” is incredibly grating to me for some reason. And one of the things I find most annoying in competition episodes is when they have a great guest star do amazing vocals, but mostly pose and preen while a bunch of professional dancers do crazy shit around them. Could we not have people who look and act like an actual show choir perform, and then make it more believable when New Directions wins? I dunno. Just little quirks that bug me.
And then, as someone who spent much of her junior year of high school listening to the revival of “Tommy,” I can’t decide if “Pinball Wizard” is a delightful surprise or total sacrilege. Probably a lovely surprise.
Sorry, but I could do without the silly judging scene. Yes, yes, Alderman Martin Fong is a show choir junkie, and Perez is posting about Lindsay while they’re speaking and Lindsay is trying to reboot her image and I’m sorry but she just looks awful. Snooze.
Before we can get to the results, though, we find Jesse out in the lobby, chasing down Carmen Tibideaux. For once, his arrogant facade is dropped, and he is humble in the face of the diva. He auditioned for her once, but that’s not the point. He wants to be another voice in praise of Rachel, the most talented person he’s ever met, and the person destined to be a star. Carmen says nothing about Rachel, but throws him a bone and remembers his audition down to the details of his diction. He had passion and promise, and he exhales and smiles at the faint compliment from the intimidating Mme. Tibideaux.
Results time. Unique wins the (never before seen and probably never again) Individual MVP award, but New Directions wins the competition. Yay!
They make it back to the school as a group, and enter under a (misspelled WTF?) “Congradulations” sign, looking almost terrified by the fact that the hallways are lined with other students staring at them. Even worse, some of the hockey guys walk right up to them with cups full of… confetti. “Tongue Tied” starts, and the whole school is celebrating them: cheerleaders smiling at Rachel, jocks hugging Kurt, random girls kissing Rory. (And the creepiest pamphlet Emma has ever made is waiting for Will, so now we get to see them head to bed and NO THANKS.) Rachel even gets asked for her first autograph (in a yearbook).
If ever you were going to be a Klaine-loving kiss-counter, this is the song that makes you bonkers. All of the other couples (Mike/Tina, Finn/Rachel, Brittany/Santana, even Will/Emma) get a big kiss during the song, but not Kurt and Blaine. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I don’t think they were making a statement by excluding them. Maybe it was an oversight that no one noticed at the time. Maybe it was a pretty accurate character moment in that Kurt and Blaine would never (well, until 5x01) be comfortable with PDA at McKinley. Who knows. But while I am wary to assign a vast right-wing conspiracy to this moment, it remains really noticeable to the viewer. We couldn’t have seen them sneak off to the corner of the choir room or an empty classroom for a celebratory smooch of their own? Alas, so it goes.
But when this episode first aired, I already had some built-up anger at Season 3, wanting there to have been much more focus on Klaine. So “Tongue Tied” REALLY made me upset. Almost two years later, I’m willing to cut it some more slack and not get so grumpy over it, but it remains a somewhat glaring moment if that’s what you look for.
Moving on. Finn and Rachel get called into Figgins’s office for a congratulatory McKinley High bumper sticker, a personal gift towards their wedding (woo, $5!), and to ask New Directions to perform once more as a surprise.
Emma is lint-rolling Will’s suit, and do we really have to see them talking about their magical first time? No thanks. Icky. But anyways, thanks for a great year, la la la. Apparently, they’re at school at night for the Teacher of the Year awards ceremony, and Sue is festive in a top hat with her track suit. But hey, we get a joke about her being pregnant “for an indeterminate number of months,” and she can totally tell something’s different about Emma.
Award presentation time, and Finchel is up to present it to a shocked Will Schuester. But before he can come up to accept, they’d like to say something. Finn is super cute reading off of his notecards. “Three years ago, I thought I had everything. I was quarterback of the football team and dating the head cheerleader. And then I met you and found out everything I was missing. [...] You teach your students how to dream.”
(Good thing, since he is clearly incompetent at teaching them Spanish. Or History. I maintain that this is a fairly ridiculous award based on actual teaching, but I understand the emotional moment they’re trying to achieve and I can only shit on Will Schuester so much. It's not like you guys don't know how I feel about the guy.)
Anyways, they’re all there in their Nationals costumes (whoa, reuse of wardrobe!) to sing “We Are the Champions.” I don’t *love* it as a performance - I think Finn’s voice is really straining and it’s just not spectacular. But it’s celebratory and triumphant, it’s nostalgic for the end of an era, and it has everyone singing along. So I can’t get too down on it.
I know everyone who enjoys Glee watches it for their own reasons. I know there are those who watch it almost exclusively for the musical performances, but that has never been me. For as much as I love the songs, and the fact that the show itself is a musical, I have even been known to fast-forward through a song to get to the next piece of plot. And with that being the case, competition episodes are very often NOT my favorites, because they tend to be heavy on the songs and light on the plot.
But for “Nationals,” I find that I don’t mind the fact that there’s almost no plot except the competition itself, and I actually really love the competition songs, themselves. And, frankly, it’s a nice cap on the underdog story of New Directions. From daily slushies to national champions, finally celebrated in their own hallways. For the seniors in particular, it’s a hell of a way to go out.
Only one more episode to go, and only one more week until Season 5 picks up again! See you tomorrow with “Goodbye.” Get the tissues ready.