Glee Recap, ‘Props/Nationals’

Glee gave us two episodes for the price of one and for no other reason than Fox had a free hour. The first episode 'Props' dealt with Tina wanting a little piece of the spotlight and then the gang headed off to Nationals for a third try at the bit title. But did they win?

Tina Chang-Cohen, bless her heart, has always been in the background save for a couple of duets and some failed solos. I know the show thinks it's being meta by pointing out how the show has forgotten about her character, but them to have the chance to do something about it and not do it is what makes me hate this damn show.    Tina confesses to Rachel that she just wants one of the standing ovations she's used to, after Rachel basically tells her that she's not good enough and doesn't try but next year will be her year. You know, when she's gone. If I were Tina I would have slapped, punched and kicked the smug out of Rachel.

At the mall while texting and walking, how relevant, Tina falls into a fountain and hits her head. When she comes to, she's Rachel with boring bangs and an overly childish outfit. Oh look, it's a character swap! Tina belts out a number and gets that standing ovation she always wanted, then she tells herself that she is good enough and that she will have her time to shine. No, just no. The only way that Tina can be good is if she's Rachel? Then she helps Rachel out by driving her to bother NYADA HBIC Carmen (Whoopi Goldberg) and goes to bat for Rachel by telling her how great she is. This all felt weird because what has Rachel ever done for Tina besides let her sing one song, ONCE.

Meanwhile, Coach Beiste is still having problems with her husband Cooter. The girls are disappointed that she hasn't left him yet and encourage her to go with them to Chicago for Nationals. As she explains to them, it's complicated and while I guess we can applaud Santana, Mercedes and Brittany, well mostly the first two, for wanting her to leave that relationship, it's not really their place to be telling her this. Thus another line in the teacher/student relationship line has been crossed.

Puck still doesn't know what he's doing after graduation and even the mulleted hockey player Rick The Stick thinks he's a loser. They decide to settle things out by Puck's dumpster with a fight. Puck gets pummeled and thrown in the dumpster and then pulls out a fake knife to scare off Rick and the crowd. Luckily, Beiste breaks things up and she can Puck bond over their shared badassness. He also gives her the strength to finally break up with Cooter.

So, Shannon is off with Wil, Sue, Emma and the whole club to Nationals. Before the big competition Rachel runs into Jesse St. James who is nervous about Vocal Adrenaline possibly not winning this year. Kurt and Mercedes encourage Wade/Unique to give it his all and he hints that he could be transferring to McKinley.

Surprisingly, because their performances weren't all that great, New Directions finally wins Nationals. I won't mention the other terrible guest stars as judges, they were that bad. They return to school no longer the losers and have a pretty big trophy to show for it. Emma decides to "reward" Will by having sex with him for the first time. (I assume there would have been no nookie if ND had lost.) More importantly for Sue, she got to give the prize money to Principal Figgins and returned as head coach to the Cheerios.

At the awards presentation Mr. Schue wins the "Teacher Of The Year" award and everything ends up wrapped up in a neat, tiny little bow. Next week is the season finale where we will see most of the kids graduate. So we won't have to see them again until the Fall where I will break my promise to finally stop watching this show.

"I Won't Give Up" sung by Rachel. Songs opening the show didn't usually  bother me, except when they were done by Rachel. This little Jason Mraz number is everything she whines about in most of Props, I won't give up and let that black lady tell me I can't live out my dreams in New York.

"Because You Loved Me" sung by Tina with New Directions. Tina finally gets the solo she deserves, but she has to dream that she's Rachel in order for it to happen. Although Tina/Jenna doesn't have as strong of a voice as Amber or Lea, she can still belt one out and this seemed to foreshadow Rachel's pick for her song during Nationals. If next year really is Tina's year, then let her do more of these songs without running off stage crying.

"Mean" sung by Puck and Coach Beiste. I don't think I have to tell you how I feel about Taylor Swift, but I guess Puck likes her enough to feel like one of her songs really speaks to him. Mark is joined by Dot Marie Jones for this one and they harmonized pretty well.

"Flashdance...What A Feeling" sung by Rachel and Tina. This was a bit of a lackluster duet, but apparently Tina is big fan of the movie Flashdance. "Maniac" played in her car while she was with Rachel, and it would have been nice to see her do a little tribute to the movie on her own. Maybe next season?

"Edge of Glory" sung by Tina, Quinn and The Troubletones. Mercedes got sick after eating a bad burrito, so Will decided to have Tina and Quinn take the lead for the songs. Even though Shelby split, I liked that the Troubletones stuck around in some form. With Sue's help Mercedes gets better, but Tina and Quinn still get to sing the lead parts along with Santana.

"It's All Coming Back To Me Now" sung by Rachel with New Directions. Although I love this Celine Dion song and it's way too dramatic video, I think this was a poor choice for ND even though they did win. If they wanted to go with another Celine song, the theme from Titanic on the deck of a boat could have helped. By the way, where were their props?

"Paradise By The Dashboad Light" sung by New Directions. Again, I love this Meatloaf song, but for their retro number they could have gone with something else. They still had at least two or three Journey songs they haven't done. Also, Artie should have sung lead on this instead of Finn.

"Starships" sung by Wade/Unique with Vocal Adrenaline. This song is terrible, but Unique does his best Nicki Minaj rap with this, strutting across the stage in heels better than his fellow female performers. I think VC would have done a better song than this, "Super Bass," if they had to go with a song by Nicki.

"Pinball Wizard" sung by Vocal Adrenaline. Vc, using their pinball props expertly with Unique never falling and no one getting hurt should have easily won. Good choice for their retro song, but not as good as their performance of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

"Tongue Tied" sung by New Directions. You've probably heard this in one of the recent iPhone commercials and it perfectly fits with the group returning to McKinley victorious and celebrating with lots and lots of confetti and sparkling grape juice.

"We Are The Champions" sung by New Directions. After crowning Will the Teach Of The Year, ND can finally say that after all their hard work they are the champions.