Glee recap/review: Feud

Girls (and Boys) On Film recap/review

Well, after a solid couple of episodes, Glee descended into madness again with Feud. And not only that, the episode also contained what I think is the worst mash-up the show has done, from the songs of two bands I absolutely loved in the 1990s.

But we'll get to that in a bit.

At McKinley, Will is feuding with Finn after the revelation that Finn kissed Emma. I'm not sure how Will is acting towards Emma, but it seems in this not quite love triangle, the relationship between Will and Finn is the most important.

So after a couple of funny scenes where Finn is made to get coffee by Will, and where Artie (true leader), Blaine and Tina confront Will and Finn, we get this week's challenge - sing songs by artists who had famous feuds.

Will and Finn decide to pick N Sync, with Will doing Bye Bye Bye, and Backstreet Boys, with Finn doing I Want It That Way. Now, I loved Backstreet Boys when I was younger, and then I loved N Sync too. For me, there wasn't any competition, but it's a great feud to pick.   

The mash up started out well with Will doing Bye Bye Bye, Blaine and Jake backing him up looking all sexy like, with all three on strings, recreating the N Sync cover for the single. And then I Want It That Way cut in and the whole thing just went to pot. If you're going to do a song battle, why pick a ballad? Couldn't Finn have done Everybody (Backstreet's Back) or Larger Than Life? Something with a bit of oomph (even if it wasn't contextually perfect - but when has that stopped Glee?). Instead Finn and his back up of Artie, Sam and Ryder floated around the stage like they had no clue what they were doing, their lackustre boyband moves making me hang my head in frustration.

And after the misery of having to sit through that mash-up, Will and Finn didn't even make up. I get why, Will can't find it in him yet to forgive, but goodness, what a waste of time and rubbish music that was. Still, Finn finally decided to become a teacher after the encounter, although it took Marley to tell him so.

Elsewhere at McKinley Jake and Unique were both feuding with Ryder - Jake because Ryder kissed Marley, and Unique because Ryder wasn't acknowledging Unique is a woman. Let's take the boring one first - blah blah, Jake loves Marley, Marley loves Jake, Marley persuades Jake to forgive Ryder, Jake forgives Ryder. Anyway.

The feud between Unique and Ryder was much more interesting. We've previously seen Wade/Unique's gender identity discussed in the context of Grease, and the idea that people may not have wanted Wade/Unique to play Rizzo. But up until now, we've not really seen how other students respond to Wade's decision to spend most of the time as Unique.

Ryder, while insensitive, probably articulated some of the confusion around gender quite well, saying he didn't know what to think when Unique came in as a girl one day, and as a boy on other days. And Unique articulated it well when she explained that she was a woman, and that was her choice. Ryder finally understood when his mystery chat companion told him that Unique's truth was that she was female, and it wasn't down to Ryder to judge that, Ryder just had to believe it because Unique did.

It was also interesting to get an insight into how others at McKinley treat Unique - Kurt may have made inroads into getting people to accept his sexuality, but McKinley is still a pretty intolerant place. Hopefully we'll get to see more of Unique tackling her issues head on, and triumphing.

Oh, also, Ryder is chatting to some girl online, but we don't know who she is. And when he asked to meet her, she logged off.

McKinley's final feud was between Sue and Blaine. I love both characters, particularly the latter, but this feud wasn't exactly believable. Also, adults bullying pupils? Really, really, really horrible.

Sue, annoyed that Blaine has quit the Cheerios, basically bullies him into rejoining. Blaine, meanwhile, has been running a game of his own, pretending to be reluctant, but really wanting to be a Cheerio so he can bring Sue down from the inside. It's some plan he's concocted, and while it's with Sam (Blam!), we don't know much more and it's all slightly (read: terribly) ridiculous at the moment.

In New York things were much more interesting. Brody finally revealed himself to definitely be a gigolo - he doesn't want to be doing it but he's poor so he's hanging around a plush hotel and sleeping with older women for money. Meanwhile, not pregnant Rachel is mooning at home for him. We find all this out as the two of them sing How to be a Heartbreaker by Marina and the Diamonds, in what I thought was a not too shabby number.

Of course, Rachel doesn't know Brody's a gigolo, and despite Santana throwing her hints she's still not breaking up with him. So Santana takes matters into her own hands and confronts Brody on his turf - NYADA - where she sings Paula Abdul's Cold Hearted.

Remember when Rachel sang Oops! I Did It Again at NYADA, writhing on tables, trying to be sexy? Well, Rachel should watch Santana's rendition of Cold Hearted on repeat, because, Rachel Berry, that is how you do sexy. It might have been a Paula Abdul song, but Santana rocked in what I thought was the best number of the night.

For all her trouble, Santana got chucked out of the apartment by Kurt and Rachel, in a scene which ended hilariously ("Bitch took my pillow"). But we all know Snix won't stop, and so she calls in the big guns - Finn - who beats Brody up and threatens him, telling him Rachel is Finn's "future wife". While I appreciate that Finn loves Rachel and has flown to New York to defend her, he really needs to get his anger issues under control.

And that was the hot mess that was Glee feuding.

Best bits
Continuing from last week, I loved Santana. She may not show it in the best way, but she is a great friend. And hilarious.

But the absolute best bit this week was Blaine and Sue's song battle (despite the confusing feud they had going). Blaine started off sweetly with Mariah's I Still Believe, but let's face it, cute as he is we all forgot who Blaine was when Sue started rapping Nicki Minaj's Superbass in her glow-in-the-dark outfit with her Cheerio dancers.