Glee 2.13: "Comeback"

“My dad always said there are two ways to get a woman to love you- take her hunting, and rock and roll.”
-Sam

“Comeback” was a decent episode of “Glee,” although I felt it was a little disjointed. And I didn’t love the fact that it was a bit of a love letter to Justin Bieber, either. But you can’t win them all. There was a musical performance that I think I will count among my all-time favorites, and there was just good energy throughout the episode. Oh, and Emma was back and not constantly talking about John Stamos, so that was most definitely a good thing too. I missed her awesome wardrobe! I was in a bit of an old school HIMYM mood earlier this week, and I watched “Okay Awesome,” one of my favorite episodes. After seeing so much of Jayma Mays as Emma on “Glee” I was impressed by just how different she was as the Coat Check Girl. Beyond the drastic difference in the mind-set of each character, you couldn’t even hear a trace of her Virginia accent as the Coat Check Girl. I kind of wish Ted had dated her longer than the space between “Okay Awesome” and “Slutty Pumpkin” so we could have seen more of her.

Anyway, the episode opens with Will actually teaching his Spanish class (we don’t see that often anymore). He voice-overs about how he thinks he’s finally “back” after all the drama that went down with Terri and Emma. Ironically, seconds after he says he’s over Emma, Emma appears at the door, says she needs his help, and he comes running after her. Emma thinks she has found Sue’s suicide note. Sue was indeed attempting suicide. Sort of. If you count taking lots of chewable vitamins as a suicide attempt. Later, Sue is physically violent towards glee kids she sees in the hallway. Will and Emma have had enough. Emma thinks Sue should join New Directions for a week- work out her issues through song and dance. Emma even has one of her awesome pamphlets that I don’t think we’ve really seen since the second episode of the series. Have I mentioned how much I missed Emma?

Meanwhile, Sam is (rightfully) worried that he’s losing Quinn to Finn, so he comes up with a plan to try to impress her again. He goes Bieber. As in, he combs his hair in that signature ‘do and forms a one man band calls the “Justin Bieber Experience.” He knows he’s a hit when he gets mobbed by tween girls at a birthday party. At glee rehearsal, Will says that this year, the rules say that everyone must perform an anthem at Regionals. Will gives the kids an anthem for their assignment of the week. Not surprisingly, Sam decides to perform “Baby.” My reaction is pretty much “eww,” but the glee kids mostly all seem to dig it. Even Puck is singing along, which I find completely ludicrous. Pucks a badass, not a belieber. And yes, I’m in my late 20’s and I’m familiar with that term. I blame it on reading too much E!Online when I’m procrastinating.

In yet another “comeback” related plot in this episode, Rachel pays Brittany a week’s allowance to try to make one of her signature looks popular. The first attempt involves leg warmers. Because this is Brittany, though, things don’t go as Rachel planned. Brittany wore a tank top because she forgot it was winter, so she decides to wear the leg warmers on her arms. It most definitely becomes a trend around school, but it’s not a trend associated with Rachel. Finally, Rachel gets Brittany to wear the right thing- a pony sweater and a plaid skirt. All the girls start wearing the same thing, just like Rachel planned. To Rachel’s chagrin, even though they all look like her, they still don’t give her credit. They basically all say that Brittany is an amazing trend setter for the school.

Meanwhile, continuing my least favorite plot of the episode, Puck, Artie, and Mike beg Sam to let them in on the Justin Bieber experience. All their relationships are in a post-Valentine’s Day lull, and they think a Bieber impersonation might be just the thing to get their ladies interested in them again. Sam reluctantly agrees as long as Puck promises to do something about his hair. The boys all do another Bieber performance for glee rehearsal- this time of “Somebody to Love.” And not the awesome “Queen” song. Again, I say, “Eww.” Tina, Brittany, and Quinn are really into it, but Lauren isn’t into it quite as much. Finn just sits through the whole thing like a sourpuss until Quinn decides she’s going to stay with Sam because she’s turned on by the whole Bieber look. Santana, who was also pretty turned on by the Bieber explosion, approaches Sam and tells him she knows he and Quinn are having problems. She wants to be Sam’s mistress. By the end of the episode, Sam has broken up with Quinn and announced that he’s dating Santana.

Sue sees her week with New Directions as an opportunity to destroy the organization he hates from within. Which is really so first season of her, but I’ll forgive her because it leads to awesomeness. She tells Rachel and Mercedes that each has said rude things about the other, and the girls decide that the only way to settle their differences is through a diva-off. They sing “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent,” and it is amazing. Rachel and Mercedes are all happy and smiley afterwards, and Sue accidentally lets slip that the whole thing was a set-up. Will notices that Sue is still in need of an attitude adjustment. He takes her to a hospital, where he apparently visits once a month to sing with the kids in the pediatric cancer ward. Although this was a pretty blatant emotion-grab, I did appreciate the rare occasion of seeing Sue acting like something remotely human.

Puck confronts Lauren about why she wasn’t into the Bieber performance, and Lauren says that she sort of was. She has a proposition for Puck. Later, she tells him that she’s afraid to sing her first solo at glee rehearsal, and she needs some advice. Puck gives her the “classic” advice to picture the audience in their underwear. Lauren ends up performing “I Know What Boys Like,” and it starts off really rocky. Puck mouths “underwear” to Lauren, and she gets her act together. I still didn’t find the performance very good, but she put more energy into it at least. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t wearing an awful 80’s knock-off outfit.

Sue is sick of all the performances that aren’t really anthems, so she wants to pick the next song. She chooses “Sing,” which I don’t think is all that anthem-y, either, but it was sort of a fun performance. The best part was that Sue had a plaid track suit to match the lumberjack look the rest of the group had going on. I think that’s the most creative use of Sue’s signature track suit to date. Following the performance, Rachel says that she doesn’t think the song is good enough to compete with the Warblers and Aural Intensity. She thinks they should write their own music for Regionals. And she’s shot down completely. Sue then pulls the mother of all turnarounds and announces that she’s coaching Aural Intensity. Which I find kind of lame. After rehearsal, Finn very smarmily tells Rachel that she’s right about her original song idea, and she should write the song herself. He also tells her she’s making a comeback. If he wasn’t being such a jerk right now, I’d be happy about that moment.