THE NEW DIRECTIONS ARE LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOCA ON AN ALL-NEW “GLEE”

Ricky Martin Guest-Stars

“The Spanish Teacher” – Will assigns the glee club a Spanish singing assignment, and enlists the help of his musically-inclined night school teacher (guest star Martin). Meanwhile, Rachel spills the beans to Kurt and Mercedes on Finn’s marriage proposal, and Mercedes has love complications of her own.

Cast: Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester; Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester; Lea Michele as Rachel Berry; Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson; Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury; Dianna Agron as Quinn; Chris Colfer as Kurt; Kevin McHale as Artie; Amber Riley as Mercedes; Mark Salling as Puck; Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina; Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez; Heather Morris as Brittany; Harry Shum as Mike Chang and Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson.

Guest Cast: Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans; Damian McGinty as Rory Flanagan; Vanessa Lengies as Sugar Motta, Grant Gustin as Sebastian, NeNe Leakes as Coach Roz Washington, Ricky Martin as David Martinez.

CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1 (GLE-312) (TV-14 D, L)

New Directions subsequently challenges the Warblers for the right to perform Jackson material, and they meet in a parking garage at night and compete singing and dancing to “Bad”. At the end of the number, Sebastian throws a slushie at Kurt (Chris Colfer) but Blaine interposes himself and is hit in the face; he falls to the ground, crying out in agony.

Finn (Cory Monteith) asks Rachel (Lea Michele) for her answer to his proposal since he has waited the three days she requested, but she is not ready, so he agrees to wait longer. Rachel asks Quinn (Dianna Agron) for advice on what to tell Finn, and Quinn advises her to refuse: Rachel has an amazing future, and needs to say goodbye to her past. Quinn has done so, and she has been accepted at Yale; she sings “Never Can Say Goodbye” to past boyfriends Puck, Finn and Sam (Chord Overstreet), and to the glee club, after which she tells them of her college plans. Sam calls Mercedes to the auditorium and asks her to duet with him, something they have never done in glee club. She refuses and starts to leave, but he begins “Human Nature” and she sings it with him. Afterward, they kiss.

Blaine’s cornea was deeply scratched in the incident and he needs surgery. The glee club wants revenge on Sebastian; Kurt says he should be expelled from Dalton, but Will asks them to let the system handle it. Artie (Kevin McHale) refuses: he is fed up with being told it will get better and says it should be better now, and leaves. Despite wanting revenge, Kurt is unwilling to use violence, so Santana goes to Dalton and accuses Sebastian of lying about the composition of the damaging slushie. He challenges her to a duel: the song “Smooth Criminal”. Afterward, he admits he added rock salt to that slushie, and hits her with an unadulaterated one. But Santana was taping the encounter, and plays her evidence to New Directions, who in turn invite the Warblers to their auditorium, show them that they “get” Jackson better by performing “Black or White”, and reveal to the Warblers the proof that Sebastian deliberately tried to injure one of them.

Kurt’s father Burt (Mike O’Malley) takes Kurt out of class to hand him his letter from NYADA. Kurt opens it and discovers to his elation he is a finalist for admission; Burt is overcome with pride. Kurt tells Rachel, only to discover that she has not received any letter from NYADA; Rachel dissolves in tears. Finn later sings “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” to Rachel, and she tells him she loves him and wants to marry. She ultimately does get a finalist letter from NYADA and tells Kurt, to his joy, but she has not yet told Finn.

“Michael” is the eleventh episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 55th overall. It originally aired January 31, 2012 on FOX Network.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

THE KING OF POP REIGNS IN LIMA ON AN ALL-NEW “GLEE”

“Michael” – In a special episode celebrating the music of Michael Jackson, the rivalry between New Directions and the Warblers intensifies en route to Regionals. Meanwhile, Kurt and Rachel receive news regarding their admissions process at NYADA, and things continue to heat up between Sam and Mercedes.

Cast: Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester; Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester; Lea Michele as Rachel Berry; Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson; Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury; Dianna Agron as Quinn; Chris Colfer as Kurt; Kevin McHale as Artie; Amber Riley as Mercedes; Mark Salling as Puck; Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina; Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez; Heather Morris as Brittany; Harry Shum as Mike Chang and Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson.

Guest Cast: Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans; Damian McGinty as Rory Flanagan; Vanessa Lengies as Sugar Motta.

CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1 (GLE-311) (TV-14 D, L, S)

Mercedes (Amber Riley) is taxed the glee club girls about her summer relationship with Sam (Chord Overstreet), and the boys similarly quiz Sam. The two sing “Summer Nights” about their “fling”. Sam responds to Will’s proposal assignment by suggesting to Mercedes that they get back together, but she reminds Sam she is dating Shane (LaMarcus Tinker). Sam, hoping a varsity letterman jacket will improve his chances with her, joins the one sports team still adding members: synchronized swimming. Later, Mercedes sings “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” with Rachel (Lea Michele), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and Santana (Naya Rivera) for Will as their suggestion for his proposal number, but she mentally pictures Sam rather than Shane and is distressed by this.

Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter, with inner voiceover by Helen Mirren) decides she wants Artie (Kevin McHale) for her boyfriend, and asks him for a date. He combines the date with his idea for Will’s proposal: a sexy mash-up of the songs “Moves Like Jagger” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. Becky is thrilled by the performance, and informs him that this was part one of their date, with part two at a restaurant. The two are seen there, and the glee club stages a “Beckyvention”: they fear Artie will be raising her hopes, though Santana, Becky’s cheerleading co-captain, thinks Becky is the manipulative one. Artie tells them he had fun on the date, and that they should look to their own prejudices. However, when Becky tells Artie they are going to “do it” on Friday and sends him suggestive photos of herself, he panics and asks Sue for advice: he does not want to date her again. She advises him to treat Becky like anyone else, and tell her that. Becky is disappointed when he does.

Will asks Finn (Cory Monteith) to be his best man, and Finn tells Will that he has talked to an army recruiter about enlisting. Finn is later surprised to discover his mother Carole (Romy Rosemont) and stepfather Burt (Mike O’Malley) at the school, along with Will and Emma—his parents had not previously known of his army plans. Finn explains that he feels an obligation to his late father to be a good man and help people like he had. His mother reveals for the first time that Finn’s father had not died in Iraq, but had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder there, been dishonorably discharged, and died from a drug overdose after coming home. The news is devastating to Finn, and he, Rachel and Kurt talk about how the future has arrived and is not as promising as it seemed. Rachel sings “Without You” to Finn, and they embrace.

Will asks Emma’s parents (Don Most and Valerie Mahaffey) for their blessing to marry her, but they refuse. Emma later asks him about their progress toward marriage, and he asks her how she will deal with a baby and other uncontrollable messy parts of life. But he does a spectacular marriage proposal, aided by the glee club and synchronized swim teams, who sing and perform a water ballet to “We Found Love”, which Emma tearfully accepts. Later, Finn asks Rachel to meet him in the auditorium, where they had their first date, and surprises Rachel with a proposal of marriage, complete with engagement ring. The episode ends as she is about to reply.

“Yes/No” is the tenth episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 54th overall. Directed by Eric Stoltz and written by Brad Falchuk, the episode aired on Fox in the United States on January 17, 2012.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

LOVE IS IN THE AIR AT MCKINLEY HIGH

NeNe Leakes (“Real Housewives of Atlanta”) Makes a Special Guest Appearance

“Yes/No” – When Will tries to plan a special surprise for Emma, he enlists the glee club to help him sweep her off her feet. Meanwhile, Becky sets her sights on Artie, and Finn makes an announcement about his life plans after high school that surprises the glee club.

Cast: Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester; Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester; Lea Michele as Rachel Berry; Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson; Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury; Dianna Agron as Quinn; Chris Colfer as Kurt; Kevin McHale as Artie; Amber Riley as Mercedes; Mark Salling as Puck; Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina; Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez; Heather Morris as Brittany; Harry Shum as Mike Chang and Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson.

Guest Cast: NeNe Leakes as Coach Roz Washington; Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans; Damian McGinty as Rory Flanagan; Mike O’Malley as Burt Hummel; Dot Marie Jones as Coach Beiste; Vanessa Lengies as Sugar Motta; Lauren Potter as Becky Johnson; Romy Rosemont as Carole Hudson-Hummel; Graham Kurtz as Vinny; Patricia Raven as Webber; Valerie Mahaffey as Rose Pillsbury; Don Most as Rusty Pillsbury; Rock Anthony as Rick the Stick; LaMarcus Tinker as Shane.

CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1 (GLE-310) (TV-14 D, L)

Rachel (Lea Michele) gives Finn (Cory Monteith) a long list of Christmas present suggestions. Finn is appalled by how much Rachel wants, but she tells him five items are plenty. When she later hints that an early gift would not be amiss, he surprises her with the donation of a sow in her name to needy Africans. Rachel is not happy, reminding Finn that she is a vegan, and recommends that he stick to her list to avoid embarrassment, pointedly mentioning earrings.

Rory (Damian McGinty) dedicates the song “Blue Christmas” to his family; this is the first Christmas away from them. Santana (Naya Rivera) is depressed by the number, and Rachel and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) want to emphasize the joyous aspect of the holiday season. Glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) interrupts with good news: New Directions has been asked to create a holiday special for the local PBS station, with Artie as director. The station manager agrees to Artie’s concept—a black-and-white homage to both The Star Wars Holiday Special and the Judy Garland Christmas Special—as long as it costs no more than $800. Sam (Chord Overstreet) learns from Rory that he needs a place to stay for Christmas, so he offers to take Rory home with him and to show him a true American Christmas.

Rachel auditions with “River”, but Artie tells her the song is too morose for his artistic vision: a cozy chalet in the Swiss alps with hosts Kurt and Blaine welcoming their friends for suave banter and happy, cheerful songs. Rory will play Itchy the Holiday Elf and recite “Frosty the Snowman”. Sam points out that Frosty does not have a happy ending, and that a little sadness is also part of Christmas. Artie only wants to present the “merry” part and will be rewriting Frosty to fit, so Sam bows out. He asks Rory to man a donations kettle with him, but Rory decides to stay and start learning his lines.

Blaine and Rachel sing “Extraordinary Merry Christmas” for Artie, who loves the song. Sue interrupts the rehearsal to reconfirm that New Directions will be singing at the homeless shelter on Friday, but the television special is also on Friday. Artie asks to reschedule, but Sue says they are already expected and is adamant: it must be Friday night. New Directions decides to do the broadcast, and Sue leaves in disgust.

The Glee Holiday Spectacular television special goes on as scheduled. Kurt and Blaine lead off by performing “Let It Snow”, Rachel and Mercedes arrive and sing “My Favorite Things” with their hosts, Finn and Puck (Mark Salling) show up as not-quite-real Star Wars characters and perform “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”, and finally “Christmas Wrapping” is sung by Brittany (Heather Morris), with backup by Santana, Tina, Mike (Harry Shum, Jr.) and several Cheerios. When Rory as Itchy arrives to read “Frosty the Snowman”, the others are initially dismayed when he decides instead to read something he feels is more appropriate, but it turns out to be the biblical Christmas story from the Gospel according to Luke.

Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Sam are at the homeless shelter with Sue, helping to serve the rapidly disappearing meal, when New Directions arrives, late, with more food and some presents. The glee club sings “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” for the people there. Back at McKinley, Rachel has a change of heart and names the gift sow Barbara. Finn gives her the earrings she wanted, but she ultimately returns them and he returns the iPod she gave him: they donate the money to the Salvation Army, joining Rory and Sam to ring bells at their donations kettle.

“Extraordinary Merry Christmas” is the ninth episode and mid-season finale of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 53rd overall. Written by Marti Noxon and directed by Matthew Morrison, it aired on Fox in the United States on December 13, 2011, and featured the post-Sectionals holiday celebrations.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME AT MCKINLEY HIGH

“Extraordinary Merry Christmas” – When New Directions is asked to perform at two different events – on the same day, at the same time – they have a tough decision to make. Will they choose correctly and spread Christmas cheer, or will their ambition get the best of them?

Cast: Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester; Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester; Lea Michele as Rachel Berry; Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson; Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury; Dianna Agron as Quinn; Chris Colfer as Kurt; Kevin McHale as Artie; Amber Riley as Mercedes; Mark Salling as Puck; Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina; Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez; Heather Morris as Brittany; Harry Shum as Mike Chang and Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson.

Guest Cast: Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans; Damian McGinty as Rory Flannagan.

CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1 (GLE-309) (TV-14 D, L)

New Directions invites several band members to join the group since they don’t meet the minimum requirement of 12 members. Despite this, Rachel and Finn (Cory Monteith) travel to Kentucky to recruit Sam (Chord Overstreet) to return to McKinley High and compete in Sectionals. Sam, currently dancing at a strip joint, wants to go but is afraid of leaving his family. He tells his parents and they agree on his leave, telling him how proud they are of him for stepping up for the family but it’s still his time to be a teenager. Sam comes to Ohio and sings “Red Solo Cup” to celebrate his return. Quinn attempts to reconnect with him, but he rebuffs her, telling her she has “rich people problems” and she should “hold on to sixteen as long as [she] can”, a line from the song “Jack & Diane”. He then announces to Mercedes (Amber Riley) that he intends to woo her back, regardless of her new boyfriend.

Blaine and Sam have an argument about the choreography for sectionals. Sam, due to his work in the strip club, wants to “sell sex”, and insists on doing a strong pelvic thrust, and starts to get the club to do crotch-humps. Blaine refuses to sell sex, and after an argument, Blaine storms off. Finn goes off after him, and finds him taking out his anger with a boxing bag. Blaine confronts Finn about Finn’s low tolerance of anything he has to say and Finn admits his jealousy towards Blaine’s talent, and how he was afraid that Blaine would replace him. The two agree to working hard together, for Sectionals.

Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and Mike (Harry Shum Jr.) quarrel when he reveals that he intends to give up his dream of dancing to be a doctor, solely to please his father, as he was disowned and his father had never spoken to him since the performance of West Side Story. Tina confronts Mike Chang Sr. (Keong Sim) about Mike’s gift as a dancer, and brings a recording of the performance for Mike Sr. so he could see his son perform. Mike Sr. originally asks Tina to leave but then tells her his feelings of Mike dancing are only because he loves Mike and wants him to succeed in life and that being in the show business is too hard. Tina tells him both Mike and her understand that but they have a need to perform, no matter the odds of getting a job. He ignores her and goes back to work and she suggests that he needs to honor his son’s gift. When the New Directions are preparing for Sectionals, Mike learns that Tina was talking to his father and gets mad for speaking to his dad. Mike tells Tina that she has made matters worse and that he is disappointed in her. She rebuffs by telling him “that can make two of them”, due to her anger over Mike not accepting what Tina did.

During Sectionals, Harmony (Lindsay Pearce) and the Unitards perform “Buenos Aires”. After the performance Quinn gets up to inform Figgins about Shelby having sex with Puck, but Rachel follows her and asks her not to do it before the Troubletones’ performance because she wants the competition. Rachel also tells Quinn to tell Shelby before she reports to Figgins, seeing it as the adult thing to do. Quinn confronts Shelby, in which Shelby expresses how she empathizes with Quinn and tells her to live her life regularly because she won’t be young forever. Shelby leaves the backstage telling Quinn how she will enjoy her last moments as a teacher. Shelby enters the audience to watch the Troubletones, who perform a mash-up of “Survivor” and “I Will Survive”. New Directions decide to perform “ABC”, “Control” and “Man in the Mirror”.

During the performance of New Directions, Mike Sr. appears to watch his son perform, much to the surprise of Mike and Tina. After the performance, Mike Sr. confronts Mike and Tina and tells them that he now understands what they were saying and that he will fully support Mike’s path to become a dancer. The judges reveal the results of Sectionals- the Unitards finish in 3rd, the Troubletones finish in 2nd, and New Directions win, moving on to Regionals.

Back at McKinley, Quinn decides not to reveal Shelby’s secret upon Rachel’s urging and her wanting to keep Beth’s life normal. She also contemplates on going to Yale due to her singing talent being mediocre compared to Rachel and Kurt, and the fact that Yale has a good drama program. Quinn convinces Troubletones members Mercedes, Santana (Naya Rivera), Brittany (Heather Morris) and Sugar (Vanessa Lengies) to disband the Troubletones and return to New Directions with the promise of increased visibility. With Rachel’s suspension finally over, all of New Directions, which now consists of Finn, Blaine, Kurt, Mike, Puck, Sam, Quinn, Rachel, Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Tina, Sugar, Artie (Kevin McHale) and Rory (Damian McGinty) all sing “We Are Young” together in the auditorium.

“Hold on to Sixteen” is the eighth episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 52nd overall. The episode title is from a line in John Mellencamp’s song, “Jack & Diane”. Written by Ross Maxwell and directed by Bradley Buecker, the episode aired on Fox in the United States on December 6, 2011, and featured the return of Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) to McKinley High and New Directions, and their participation in the Sectionals show choir competition.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

MCKINLEY HIGH HOSTS SECTIONALS ON AN ALL-NEW “GLEE”

GUEST STAR CHORD OVERSTREET RETURNS TO THE GLEE CLUB

“Hold On To Sixteen” – In an attempt to recruit a few more members, Finn tracks down former teammate Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) and convinces him to come back to the glee club. Tina comes to the defense of Harry and encourages him to pursue his dream while McKinley prepares to host the big sectionals performance.

Cast: Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester; Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester; Lea Michele as Rachel Berry; Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson; Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury; Dianna Agron as Quinn; Chris Colfer as Kurt; Kevin McHale as Artie; Amber Riley as Mercedes; Mark Salling as Puck; Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina; Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez; Heather Morris as Brittany; Harry Shum as Mike Chang and Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson.

Guest Cast: Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans; Keong Sim as Mike Chang; Idina Menzel as Shelby Corcoran; Damian McGinty as Rory Flannagan; Vanessa Legies as Sugar; Grant Gustin as Sebastian; John Schneider as Dwight Evans; Tanya Clarke as Mary Evan.

CC-HDTV 720p-Dolby Digital 5.1 (GLE-308) (TV-14 D, L, S)