GLEE - Episode 17: Bad Reputation

What's going down?

We kick off as the Glee kids are gathered around a laptop, obviously finding something funny. Turns out what they're watching is a home video of Sue dancing to "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. Kurt stole the video from Sue's filing cabinet when she sent him to get her hormone replacement injections during Cheerios practice. Finn wants to put it on YouTube to give her a taste of her own medicine but some of the others, such as Rachel who fears for her life, are not quite as enthusiastic. Cue Jesse who tells them "it's time to stop being asses and start being bad asses." "10 bucks it goes viral by lunch," Finn says as he posts it. Those Glee kids are just too hardcore.

As Sue walks down the corridor, she knows something isn't quite right as the students openly taunt her. As if they would ever have the nerve to do such a thing. When she realises what has happened she's furious and storms into Figgins's office, dragging Will behind her: "As soon as I figure out the difference between slander and libel, I'm filing a lawsuit." Schue thinks that she's overreacting and that any claims that it was the Glee kids that did are unfounded. After all, there are a lot of people who hate her. Sue isn't happy though and pulls out the Glist, which as it stands, is "a weekly ranking of the Glee Club based on a hotness quotient of sexual promiscuity." How do they know that it was a member of the club that printed it off and stuck up in school? They used the password Glee Club. And so it's shown that Glee is capable of doing such a thing as posting home videos on YouTube. Figgins stresses out as apparently scandals like these have brought down other schools completely and refuses to have "these shenanigans" at McKinley.

At Glee rehearsals none of its members will confess to making the list. Everyone accuses Puck but he's adamant it's not him, telling them he may be a delinquent but he isn't a liar. "You're getting a bad reputation," Schue tells the club. None of them seem to care, with Artie commenting that "if people are scared of us maybe they'll stop flushing my glasses down the toilet." That's not the point, says Schue, as he sets them this week's assignment; find a song with a bad reputation and rehabilitate it and hopefully apply this musical lesson to their own lives. To demonstrate Will dishes up much second-hand embarrassment as he busts a move to "Ice Ice Baby."

As Sue walks into the teachers' lounge she's the subject of cruel slow motion laughter. Enter Brenda Castle, the newest teacher at McKinley who can't teach in Indiana any more because she had a 'drug problem' that involved some of her 'students.' Turns out she's just as much of a bully as Sue and she takes great pleasure in laughing at her over the video. "You are an embarrassment. And that's me talking," she tells her.

After coming last on the Glist Rachel has decided she needs to revaluate her reputation and enlists the help of Artie and the AV club. She has plans to become musically promiscuous. I'm not quite sure what that means but I like it. Similarly Kurt calls a meeting with Artie, Mercedes and Tina to try and save their also dwindling reps. He plans to cause such a huge scandal that they can no longer be ignored. Artie interrupts to ask why Brittany is sitting at the back of the choir room, and she replies, "I've been here since first period. I have a cold and I took all my antibiotics at the same time and now I can't remember how to leave." Among other things she can't quite comprehend is how she only made it to fourth on the Glist, considering that she's made out with nearly everyone in the school. So with that she's in. The plan? Cause a stir in the library and they don't mean trying to check out a reference book.

Sue goes to visit her sister Jean and comments that she now understands what it feels like to be laughed at and an outsider. She's sorry that she didn't help protect her sister more. Jean tells her to "remember what we used to do when things got bad? We helped at the animal shelter to give back," making Sue realise "there's always someone who has it worse."

Emma is both suspicious and terrified when Sue offers to be her therapist. Apparently she has a masters in counselling, which is a slightly disturbing thought. Her decision to give back to those who are less fortunate than her has led her to make Emma her new project. Emma is insistent she doesn't have to, but hey, that's what makes Sue Sylvester so nice. (Yes, that is a cheap Wicked pun). She decides the best action is to tell her of Will's escapades with Shelby and April: for the record Sue bribed Will's landlord to place baby monitors under his bed and couch. She then tells her that she needs to make a bold move, ie confront Will in public and tell him exactly how she feels.

"Did you know that while we were dating people in school gave us the nickname Puckleberry?" Rachel asks Puck. Unsurprisingly he doesn't but Rachel insists that "slumming" it with her actually improved his rep. Rachel wants Puck to help her with her video project, a video for "Run, Joey, Run" by David Geddes, a song that she feels will help him express his inner pain. He, however j,ust wants to make out with her on the bed. They both bond over their lack of good reputations and before you know it the pair nearly kiss.

Sue takes Emma to the teachers' lounge for her showdown with Will. On the way in she once again runs into Brenda. She begins to lay into Sue but this time she's had enough. "Don't start with me, Castle, or I'll kick you in the taco," she tells her. Sue may have won this round but it doesn't seem like Brenda's going to give up any time soon. May she have finally met her match? And so Emma starts to yell at Will. She goes all crazy and declares to what must be nearly the whole faculty that Will Schuester is in fact a slut, before promptly storming out. All that Schue can do is stand there speechless, while making a half-baked attempt to defend himself.

Over the library Kurt and co are ready to rock McKinley and create some major drama, though what goes down I don't think anyone had in mind. Wearing ridiculous outfits they break out into a rendition of "U Can't Touch This", hoping to cause a stir. However, they don't get quite the reaction they were hoping for as the librarian responds with "that was very cute" and wants to book them to perform at church.

Cut to Will who interrogates the Glee clubbers one by one to get to the bottom of the Glist scandal. He's quick to accuse and they're all willing to accuse each other leading to an unimpressed Mercedes who quips, "Why does everyone assume I'm angry all the time? It's called being sassy." Kurt isn't fazed and simple decides that Schue has been watching too many late night reruns of Law & Order.

After their failed shenanigans in the library, Kurt and co decide the only way to go down in infamy is to admit to leaking the Sue Sylvester video. They risk exclusion or expulsion, or death if Sue has anything to do with it, but their leader doesn't care as they'll be remembered as "badasses."

Meanwhile, Sue is writing in her infamous journal. She ponders how much longer she can take the humiliation but also considers if this is karma for the way she's treated people. Just then her phone rings - who else could it be but Olivia Newton-John? At first she hangs up thinking it's a prank call and declaring "that accent is ridiculous." She decides that she needs to "start playing nice full time" and not be so horrible to everyone. Could this be a breakthrough? However, Olivia rings again and after singing down the phone Sue is convinced it's her. She saw Sue's video and wants to help to save her reputation. She just so happens to be in Ohio doing charity work and wants to reshoot the "Physical" video with Sue's help.

Back in the corridor Will is having a hard time clearing his name after Emma's revelations in the teacher's lounge. Brenda wants to have sex with him in the closet, Figgins is praying for him and Ken feels angry that he's hurt Emma's feelings. Kurt goes to Sue to fess up about both stealing the video and leaking it on to the internet. However he's left surprised again as she thanks him for doing it. They're left wondering why she hasn't smacked him one until they see Olivia Newton-John's latest video on YouTube: the "Physical" remake, with a new addition - Sue. The video has also had a bit of a makeover and features lots of hot men wearing next to nothing being felt up by the pair.

At Glee it's time for Rachel's big unveiling of her video for "Run, Joey, Run". But first Schue tells them that unless they admit to the Glist the issue is going to be taken out of his hands and it's up to Figgins to decide what to do. Still none of the club budges. On to Rachel's video. I'd never heard the song before tonight's episode and I know why, it's terrible. Yet it still has a so-bad-it's-good quality about it. Rachel has cast not only Puck but Finn and Jesse to play her boyfriend at various parts throughout and none of them are impressed when they realise this as Finn states that she was just trying to make herself appear to be "some hot, slutty girl singer", before they all storm out. Uh oh, looks like Miss Berry is in trouble. However, I must give her kudos for getting Sandy to play her crazy Dad.

After gloating in the teachers' lounge that she's now a top 700 recording artist, Sue goes back to visit Jean, who congratulates her on her rocket to stardom. However, she tells her: "I spent so much time worrying about what other people thought of me, I forgot there's only one person in the world I want to impress." Her big sister. We catch another glimpse of Sue's softer side as she donates all her earnings to Jean's care home in order for them to have a garden. I really wish there were more scenes between these two sisters as they're always so sweet and tender. "After all these years, how is it that you still know so much more about everything than I do?" Sue asks.

Will takes flowers to Emma to try and win her back but she's having none of it. He admits he's messed up and wants her to be able to look at him in the way she always used to. Unfortunately she can't. She sees it as a good thing, though, as she says if their relationship has any chance of working out then they need to start seeing each other for who they really are.

As he leaves Emma's offices he sees Quinn getting shoved about in the hall, which somehow leads him to believe that it was she who posted the Glist. He understands why she did it: after all, she's lost everything, especially her reputation. They really are shoving the main point down our throats this episode. She eventually cracks, bursts into tears, declares "she never meant to hurt anybody" and swiftly cries. She can no longer handle that people won't part when she walks down the corridor. The ways Quinn views it is that "even a bad reputation is better than no reputation at all." After a quick pep talk from Will, she's all psyched up again and feeling a lot better. Figgins walks in demanding the culprit of the Glist but in true Schuester style he decides not to rat out Quinn, telling him that no one admitted to it. Figgins doesn't seem that arsed about it so decides to let the whole thing slide.

Rachel gets dumped in the corridor yet again, but this time by Jesse. She tries to plead with him but unfortunately the fact she double-cast him in a music video is just too much to take: "Do me a favour: if we end up next to each other on the barre in ballet this week do me a favour and do your arabesques and piques in silence." And so we end in a song, Rachel, accompanied by Jesse and Finn on backing vocals, singing "Total Eclipse of The Heart". This week's montage is of Rachel looking desperate and Jesse looking brooding as he flings her around in ballet class.

11 o'clock number

In "bad reputation" style tonight's songs were all ones considered vomtastic but they weren't quite as bad as I thought they'd be. "Ice Ice Baby" and "Can't Touch This" were both saved by rather outrageous choreography and costumes and "Run, Joey, Run" had its cringeworthy melodramatic video but who couldn't help but crack up at Sandy? "Physical" with Sue and Olivia Newton-John was again another stroke of genius on the creatives' part. It should have been ridiculous but somehow it wasn't and was by far the best scene of the whole night, being seriously camp: I would only note that Sue's voice sounded somewhat overproduced. It's no lie that I'm going to love anything that Rachel sings and "Total Eclipse", which I'm sure is everyone's guilty pleasure, was no exception and her vocals were as strong as ever.

Quote of the week

Kurt: "What does a C-Lister do when their tiny star is about to fall off Perez Hilton's radar screen? They cause a scandal so extreme they can no longer be ignored."

Final thoughts

OK, so overall I didn't enjoy this week's episode quite as much as the rest, probably because I felt they pushed the whole reputation idea far too much. The only saving grace for me was the scenes between Sue and Jean, as it made a very nice change to see Sue's softer side. I thought that more could have been made of Olivia Newton-John's cameo but admittedly it didn't fit all too well with the rest of the narrative. Big questions as ever are Will and Emma  - will they ever get their act together? And what will become of Rachel and Jesse? Is there a chance she could go back to Finn? Please do better next week, Glee.

 

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