Episode Review: GLEE, "Vitamin D"

Up until this point, I was only a casual viewer of Glee, but everything changed after I watched "Vitamin D" which will probably go down as one of my favorite episodes in the history of the series.

Sue continued her pointless vendetta against Will and his glee club, and it dawned on her that they way to destroy the club was to destroy the man, so she duped Terri into applying for the school nurse job despite being wholly unqualified as a way to keep her eye and Will and Emma. Apparently, Principal Figgins was a sucker for anyone who could use a defibrillator because he hired Terri on the spot. Once in the school, Terri constantly tried to get in between her husband and the guidance counselor, but her actions backfired as she pushed a wedge in between her and Will.

Will's life was not the only thing that was rocked by Terri. With everything going on in his life, Finn has not been able to sleep and has been dragging at school. He visited the school nurse with hopes of getting in a quick nap because he was too tired to help with the boys routine for the battle of the sexes glee-off that Mr. Schue orchestrated as a way for the group to avoid complacency. Instead of Terri giving him good advice on how to manage his life, she gave him decongestants to help him with his pep. A high Finn returned to his team, gave them "vitamin d," and prepared a number that blew the competition away.

Since the girls thought that there was no way the boys would be good, they didn't take the competition seriously until they saw what they were up against. Kurt, who was upset that he was grouped with the boys instead of the girls, told his rivals that they took something and that's why they were able to perform so well. After confronting Finn, Rachel panicked and decided that the only way to keep up was to take the same stuff the boys did. When it was all said and done, both Finn and Rachel felt bad about what they did, so they confessed to Will, but Principal Figgins had no choice to but to ask Terri to resign and to appoint Sue as co-glee director when it was brought to light.

In all honesty, "Vitamin D" was just as crazy as some of the previous episodes mostly thanks to Terri's involvement at McKinley, and ultimately everything that involved her were the least enjoyable moments. What made it work for me was the idea of boys vs. girls which brought out the best in the show. The scenes where Finn and Rachel bickered about cheating were so sexually charged yet somehow innocent and cute that they were the clear highlights, and once again proof that these two were more interesting before they were a couple.

As for the music, the performances were what made me realize how great this show was, especially the boys' mash-up of "It's My Life" and "Confessions Part II." I'm seriously amazed every single time I watch Harry Shum, Jr. dance during that number. While I thought that the girls' "Halo/Walking on Sunshine" number was too frantic, and didn't mesh as well as the boys' effort, it was still impressive.

Other Odds and Ends

• Emma's accepting Ken's marriage proposal was a huge misstep and the beginning of the end for a character that I really enjoyed up until that point.
• Previously, it was hard for me to care about Quinn, but I genuinely felt bad for her because of how Terri treated her.
• Speaking of Quinn, this was a pretty great episode for Dianna Agron.
• Ah, Sue's journal. Probably the best and worst thing that ever happened to Glee.
• Why does Rachel look so darn cute in her little fuchsia vest?
• Matt didn't say or do much during his time in New Directions, but his reaction to when Will makes a crack about something being slipped into their juice boxes was pretty great.
• The fact that Rachel knew so much about baseball made her even cuter.
• "I'm going to start storyboarding our choreography tonight."
• "Let me be frank. Your husband is hiding his kielbasa in a Hickory Farms gift basket that doesn't belong to you."
• "I think you should both pack up and move out of the district. Unless you want to lose your man to a mentally ill, ginger pygmy with eyes like a bush baby."
• "As a matter of fact, I'm going to start calling you F-Rod."
• "And also angels."
• "What's up, A-Rach?"

So, while "Vitamin D" was not the best episode narratively speaking, it did excel at what the show did best. The musical performances were fun, and the stuff that revolved around the kids was entertaining. It's just too bad the grown-ups had to go ahead and ruin everything.

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