Glee 1.12: "Mattress"

“Of course the wedding was going to be in Hawaii, but then they told me I couldn’t bring my own fruit.”

-Emma

I’m going to break out the HIMYM quote one last time for posterity. “Fake baby! Trust me, I was there! It’s fake baby!” It’s one last time because- huzzah!- the ridiculous fake baby storyline is over! Or at least Will finally knows the truth. I’m sure we have yet to see all the ramifications. The truth is enough for me, though- for now, at least. Oh and it would be nice to resolve the other half of the fake baby plot (the Puck’s really the daddy half) in next week’s fall finale, too. Is that too much to ask, Glee producers? I think not. And if you’re feeling really generous, ending the Emma/Ken sham of a marriage before it even starts would be an excellent bonus.

This week’s episode mostly centered around yearbook photos. Every year at McKinley High, multiple pages of the Thunderclap are devoted to the Cheerios, and the lone picture of the Glee Club gets defaced. I like the name Thunderclap for the yearbook, considering the McKinley mascot is the Titans- it works. Certainly better than the unpronounceable Greek word that was the name of my high school’s yearbook. And I don’t think there was any way that word could have been related to our mascot, either. But I digress.

Sue, being merciful (yeah, right), has decided to spare the Glee kids the usual humiliation. She has convinced Principal Figgins to not include a Glee Club picture in this year’s edition of the yearbook. Really, the only people upset about this are Will and Rachel. Kurt calls a meeting of the rest of the Glee Club to discuss how not being in the yearbook gives them enough anonymity that their torment by the “popular” kids isn’t upgraded from slushies in the face to swirlies or “patriotic wedgies.” Will is trying to figure out a way to bribe Principal Figgins into reinstating the photo. Prinicpal Figgins says that Will can have the photo if he pays the same rate that a local business would pay for ad space. All Will can possibly afford (which he pays for over Terri’s objection) is a quarter page ad, which is enough for a photo of two of the Glee kids.

Will decides to hold elections for Glee Club co-captains to choose who will be in the picture. The kids unanimously vote for Rachel, but nobody wants to be her co-captain because they are all still afraid of the humiliation of being in the photo. Rachel finally convinces Finn to do it by appealing to his desire to be a leader. Some of Finn’s football buddies harass him and give him a hard time, though, drawing on his face with marker and gloating about how they’re going to deface his picture. When it comes time to take the picture, Finn doesn’t show up. I thought this was pretty consistent characterization for Finn. He was the one who almost abandoned Glee altogether because of the football guys, after all.

Rachel has a plan to get the rest of the club back in the game. The yearbook photographer is shooting a commercial for a mattress store, and Rachel manages to get the entire Glee Club cast. The result is a fun, high energy performance of Van Halen’s “Jump” while the kids run around and jump on mattresses at the mattress store. The gig turned out to be a bad move on Rachel’s part, though. The mattress store delivered a stack of mattresses as “payment” for the commercial, and Sue is threatening to use that to take away the Glee Club’s amateur status that allows them to compete.

Meanwhile, Will’s personal life is completely falling apart. First, he gets into a sort of heated argument with Emma. Ken announced that the wedding is moving from Hawaii back to Ohio, and it’s going to be on the day of Sectionals. Later, Will confronts Emma about the possibility that Ken purposely scheduled the Wedding during Sectionals to retaliate against whatever it is that’s going on between Emma and Will. Emma responds by firmly defending Ken (even though we all know she’s only marrying him because she’s afraid of being single forever), and Will apologizes and admits he was out of line.

Things with Terri aren’t quite so easily fixed, though. While looking for a pocket square for the yearbook photo (how adorable), Will finds one of the pregnancy pads Terri has been using to fake a baby bump. Will immediately suspects something is up, and the aftermath is one of the most superbly acted scenes of this television season. Going from the high of “Jump” to the darkness of the confrontation is quite the emotional rollercoaster. Will is scary mad, but he stops just short of actually hitting Terri. To Terri’s credit, she spills the whole plan, even down to how she faked the sonogram. Will’s not appreciating her honesty at this point, though (absolutely understandable), and he storms out of the house.

Will sleeps in the choir room at the school, opening and using one of the mattresses. This, according to Figgins and Sue, makes the mattresses non-returnable, so the Glee Club will be absolutely disqualified. Will decides to step up and only disqualify himself, since he’s the one who used the mattress. He wants to let the kids shine and see what they can do on their own. And also, it’s unclear (even though it should be perfectly clear given how horrible Terri’s betrayal was) whether or not this is the end of Will and Terri. Will didn’t really consider divorce until Emma mentioned it, but Emma also sort-of defended Terri. Emma said that while she disagreed with Terri’s methods, she could understand where Terri was coming from, because Will is “a lot to lose.” I usually agree with Emma, but this time, I just can’t.

Oh, and mildly embarrassing confession time. I Googled my seemingly random high school year book name after I wrote the rant near the beginning of this post. And it fits perfectly with the name of my high school, if not our mascot. Oops. What’s that you say? I should Google before I rant next time? Noted.