Glee: Wheels Review

This week's installment of Glee changed gears and focused the story on the kids more than Mr. Schuester and his baby drama. I for one welcomed this. We get to know more about each of the students lives and stories. Well, lets start off, shall we?

 The show begins with Mr. Schuester speaking with Principal Figgins about getting a special bus for Glee club due to Artie needing a wheelchair accessible bus. Figgins, being the penny pinching principal we've come to know, won't give it to them and suggests they raise money for one. Mr. Schuester acts on that by getting everyone in Glee club to help out in a bake sale. While discussing the need for the bus the rest of Glee club seems to react negatively to the fact they have to work just to get Artie to come with them. This makes Mr. Schuester realize the students aren't taking Artie's feelings into consideration, so what does he do? He gets a wheelchair for each Glee club student so that they can walk a mile in his shoes (so to speak). Mr. Shoe also lets them know that for Regionals they'll be doing a whole routine with all of them in wheelchairs. On top of that, they'll be doing "Defying Gravity", a popular number from the broadway musical Wicked. Kurt wants nothing more than to do the solo for it, but Mr. Shoe gives it to Rachel. Kurt being the diva he is, calls both Rachel and Mr. Schuester out for the solo. So begins the the Diva Off!

While Artie was doing his "Dancing with Myself" routine, I realized he was rocking that wheelchair.  And yes, I realize most of that was probably a stunt double, but still kudos on the choreography.  I was also glad when Mr. Shoe grew a pair and told them to get in the wheelchairs, because I think that time was good for all of them.

We also get to see more of Sue and Mr. Shoe going at it. After Quinn got kicked off Cherio's, there's now an opening. Principal Figgins suggests that Sue holds open try outs to let someone take the spot, with Mr. Schuester being the other judge. Sue chooses a girl with downs syndrome out of all the potentials, and Will immediately assumes she's up to something. Sue starts training the girl in the way of the Cherio, which means Sue constantly yells at her for not being good at anything. The girl just smiles and replies with "Thanks coach!" Schuester thinks something is still up, but Sue's playing coy to the whole thing. Near the end of the episode, we find out that Sue's sister is at a mental hospital and also has downs syndrome. For me, seeing Sue being caring and seeing an emotion that wasn't rage of some variation was stunning. I highly enjoyed it.

The stuff with Sue kinda threw me off, I was stunned to find out she willingly took that girl on the squad and also gave money for new ramps at the school.  I was starting to agree with Shuester that she was up to something but I was relieved at the end when it was revealed she had a sister with the same condition, I think it makes Sue a more grounded and more believable character.


 Back to the Diva Off! Kurt and his dad have several talks about the solo and the fact that Kurt is an outed homosexual in high school. It's fun to see Kurt try work things with his dad. His dad obviously has no idea what to do, but still offers his support. We then see Rachel and Kurt face off in Glee club for the solo, where Kurt ends up breaking on the high F note that would make or break him. He then tells his dad about losing the solo on purpose, all so that his father can keep his cool when people make negative remarks against his son's sexuality. It was heartwarming.


I liked this part of the episode, we got more about Kurt and his dad going through dealing with the homosexuality thing, which they kind of just left off at the end of one of the previous episode.  It was good to see how Kurt felt responsible for his father and broke the F on purpose so things would be easier on his dad.  Especially after his dad gets a call saying Kurt is a fag, didn't know he was that into bikes!  Plus I am liking Glee's style of putting appropriate styles of songs in the show.  You could almost start watching the episode at the Diva off and understand the story just by the lyrics and the way it was edited with Rachel and Kurt.
 Lastly (I'm sure you're tired of reading) we get to know more about Artie, who the episode somewhat revolves around. We come to the realization that he has a thing for Tina (the girl with the stuttering problem). He also opens up about how he got into the wheelchair, and how it's affected his life. We also get to see a great musical number of Artie singing Billy Idol's "Dancing By Myself". After the bake sale gets more than enough money for the bus (due to Puck making Hash cupcakes), Artie decides to use the money to get a wheelchair ramp for the auditorium. Scene goes to Tina and Artie sharing a date by racing around in their wheelchairs. Tina then gives Artie a kiss and comes clean -- she doesn't have a stutter. She started doing the stutter in sixth grade to stop from having to do reports in front of the class. Artie tells her "Well, that's good. You can be a regular person now but I'm still stuck in the wheelchair." and leaves her standing there. Way to BRO up man! DON'T LET NO HOE PUSH YOU AROUND! (and now I can have her all to MY self....yes...)


I am really getting into Puck's story line, you start to see how he still cares about Quinn and didn't just knock her up.  I think they should really be together because no offense Finn is a bad baby's daddy.  Plus that would leave Rachel and Finn to get together, which even in this episode you can see sexual tension between them.  We see Artie takin' charge in this episode along with my favorite quote by him, "Let me be perfectly clear I still have the use of my penis."


Anyway, it was a good episode. We FINALLY got to see something other than Mr. Schuester get played by his lying wife. Once again I digress, but I enjoyed seeing more of the students being the focus of the episode.

Til Next Time & See Ya,
Mike & Razz