My main gripe with "Mash Off" had to do with the fact that every storyline that I'm not a fan of was front and center, so it started to be a chore to get through which is something I've never felt while watching Glee. Since I wan't a fan of any of the plot points, let's go ahead and start with the least offensive.
Puck's ill-advised, but not illegal since he's 18, kiss with Shelby was still on his mind so he spent most of the episode trying to convince her that they should be together. She tried to deflect his advances, but for some reason it felt like she was keeping the door open. On top of pining after his math sub, Puck also had to deal with Quinn's continued attempt to get Beth back, but he showed his allegiances and told Shelby what was going on. Thankfully, Quinn was finally told that giving birth to Beth doesn't make her fit to be a mother, so let's put this non-sense behind us...pretty please?
I cut Glee A LOT of slack, but I've not been on board with Quinn's crusade to get her baby back, and things took an even ickier turn when they came up with the idea of pairing up Puck and Shelby. All of it has been just so lazy and ill-advised, and this story has done nothing but waste the talents of Dianna Agron and Mark Salling. I just hope and pray that we're seeing the end of this one, but I doubt we're that lucky.
Another season long arc that I haven't been feeling was reintroduced, and by that I mean the elections for student council president and Congress. After a week off from Sue, she was back with a fury and a series of outlandish campaign commercials that insulted Burt Hummel and accused him of having a baboon heart. I also think she accused him of bestiality. It seems that the people of Lima, OH are gullible because Sue's smear tactics put her in the lead, and Burt was ready to fight fire with fire, but he learned another lesson from his son.
You see, Kurt has also been running a clean campaign but was not getting the votes because Brittany was making unrealistic promises (like robot teachers and Topless Tuesdays) while he tried to address teenage obesity. After an illegal dodge ball match between New Directions and the Troubletones (more later), he added a "no dodge ball" stance to his platform as a way to cut down on bullying in McKinley. This move inspired Rachel who decided to pull out of the running and put all of support behind Kurt, which led to the reunion of the best couple on this show.
Honestly, I don't mind the school president race all that much, but it did have a contrived feeling to it, especially when Rachel jumped in the race for self-serving reasons. That being said, I'm glad she came to her senses and she's back to being friends with Kurt. I missed seeing them together. Now, the Congress race is something I could do without altogether even though it has given Burt more of a purpose on the show. Apparently, my tolerance for Sue has vanished because I did not find any of her scenes funny or slightly amusing, and having her back made me realize that this show might be better without her or at least less of her.
OK, back to dodge ball. In order to ease some of the tension between New Directions and the Troubletones, Will and Shelby decided to stage a friendly mash-off. Things started off civil enough, but Santana was in an extra evil mood, so she decided to tear Finn down every chance she got until he finally had enough and challenged them to a dodge ball match. It was all fun and games until Santana took it a bit too far and smacked Rory in the face after the game which bloodied up his nose (hence Kurt's new campaign promise). Things didn't settle down between Santana and Finn because her "apology" turned into more cut-downs, and Finn outed her by saying that she's so mean because she hates herself for not being true to herself and being scared that Brittany may not love her back. This outburst was overheard by the niece of another candidate who used Santana's sexuality as a swipe at Sue's character. Everything blew up after the mash-off when Santana slapped Finn for what he did.
This was the part of the episode that had me the most conflicted. The scene between Finn and Santana was hard to watch, and while I don't condone what Finn did she did deserve to be taken down a notch. Just not like that. Outing Santana like that really upset me, but it also angered me that the writers continued to ruin Finn's character. Yes, they wanted him to man up and put Santana in her place, but the way they went about it did not make him seem like a leader. Instead, he came off as a gigantic jerk. So within a few minutes Glee took two of my favorite characters, and made me feel like crap while watching them tear each other apart. Not cool guys.
On the Music Front: So far Season 3 has been light on the music, but they made up for that during "Mash Off". At first, I wasn't too psyched about "Hot For Teacher", but I'm always a fan of the boys pulling off their best boy band impression, so I ended up digging it. It was appropriate that most of the songs were mash-ups given the name of the episode, but I had no idea that the song that Will and Shelby sang was a mash-up. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot/One Way or Another", the Hall & Oates, and Adele mash-ups were good but not all that memorable with the exception for those sweet staches.
Other Odds and Ends:
- Honestly, I never thought we'd hear Van Halen on Glee.
- So the boys singing "Hot for Teacher" was inappropriate, but Rachel singing "Crush" to Schue was OK? Hypocrite.
- I'm loving this Finn and Rory friendship.
- Did we really need that Rachel/Shelby scene? And why didn't she go to Will for a letter of recommendation? Unless he already gave her one. I'm confused...
- Not gonna lie, Rachel's gym outfit was kinda hot.
- Better Celebration: Finn's when Rachel won the coin toss or Rachel's when Finn won Rock, Paper, Scissors?
- Hall & Oates suits Finn.
- "I made a list of reasons of why we should be together. Number 1: you're hot. Number 2: I'm hot..."
- Finn: "Have you ever heard of the term 'trash talk'?"
Rory: "Is that when you discuss trash?" - "You're skinny like all of the crops failed on your family's farm."
Structurally, "Mash Off" wasn't that bad, and it did a fairly decent job of connecting all of the plot lines, but I cannot get over how uncomfortable and angry I felt during some of the scenes. I don't want my Glee to be overly sweet, and I respect this show when it does go a bit darker, but the Santana/Finn story was a little too grim for my liking.
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