Glee Thinks You're Lucky You're In Love

This week's episode was rightfully and not confusingly titled "Duets," and consisted of a competition between the Glee Club-bers as to who could perform the best duet, the prize being dinner for two at Breadstix, a thinly veiled reference to Olive Garden with its never-ending salads and breadsticks (Santana: "It's, like, illegal for them to stop giving you breadsticks. One time I brought a wheelbarrow to fill up and when they made a fuss, I called corporate and got them fired."). Overall, the episode was successful because it not only included a great song selection, but that it was a theme episode that wasn't forced on us like Artie was forced to lose his virginity. But how did some of the characters fare overall?

Rachel & Finn: B+
Rachel and Finn are still going strong romantically, and decided to be altruistic this week by throwing the competition. Although, as Finn pointed out, they did this solely so that Sam-I-Am could win the duet competition and feel better about himself so he'll stay with Glee Club. So they scrap their delightful "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," in favor of "With You I'm Born Again," a pretty terrible song made worse by their costumes- pretending to be a school girl and a priest (pictured, hilariously, above) in love generally doesn't win you points in the awesome category. But they were cute when they tried to hide their shock at losing the competition.

Brittany & Santana: D
Ouch. After essentially dumping Brittany after twelve hours of celibacy with Puck in juvi (about time, but what's up with that? THEY NEED PUCK, OKAY?), Santana aims to be one of the two baddest bitches in the school by teaming up with Mercedes in a jaw-droppingly amazing cover of "River Deep, Mountain High." Brittany, on the other hand, decides to go after a vulnerable Artie, and they quickly start "dating" for about three days before Brittany takes Artie's virginity to help him get over Tina and he breaks up with her, both in life and Glee Club, telling her that something as simple to her (sex) is complicated and special to him, since after his accident he didn't know if he'd ever be able to have sex. It's a bittersweet scene, especially when Brittany tells Artie she wanted them to win so they could share an extra long piece of spaghetti á la Lady and the Tramp, and that she had even practiced moving a meatball around with her nose.

Quinn & Sam: A-
AWWW, these two are so cute! I love them and their blonde hair and her big eyes and his big mouth. It was also nice to see the shy side of Quinn, the side in which she's damaged from her pregnancy, her season 1 romances, and her fall from grace like Satan. Ugh, they're just so cute I can hardly stand it, and "Lucky" was really good, too. You can tell Sam is trying really hard, and that's what makes it so endearing. Also, Sam really does dye his hair! You can never fool Kurt.

Kurt: B
Kurt, like Quinn, is damaged goods, but in a different way- he ruined his father's relationship with Finn's mother, he professed his love to Finn in an inappropriate way, and now he has to deal with the consequences. He's lonely, too, which makes it hard to watch- who doesn't want Kurt to find a soulmate and be happy? He did a heartbreakingly good cover of "Le Jazz Hot" from Victor/Victoria as a duet with Harvey Dent/Two-Face-esque costume. And, in the end, he realized that it's okay to be alone, but that having friends is even nicer, as he and Rachel's "Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy" mash-up  shows.

Oh, yeah, and Mike Chang "sang." Overall, and the internet seems to agree with me, this was a good episode hopefully to get Glee out of its theme rut.