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“If you want that closing spot, then you go in there and take it from me.”
- Rachel
I have to say that “A Night of Neglect” was not one of my favorite episodes of “Glee.” The overall idea of the episode was good, but the execution was rather disappointing. We start off with Will telling the kids that they need to raise $5,000 to go to Nationals. Apparently the money they were supposed to get from the Cheerios budget is hidden away in off-shore accounts (could Sue get any more obnoxious?). Will’s idea is for the kids to sell salt water taffy because that’s what they did when he was in Glee Club. Yeah, hate to say it Will, but that’s a really lame idea. The kids are still complaining that they’re treated like dirt by the rest of the student population, and Mike Chang gets up and starts to leave. He, Tina, Artie and Brittany are on the academic decathlon team, and they are totally ignored, even by the rest of the Glee kids. They won their semi-final match against Carmel High (home of Vocal Adrenaline), but they don’t have the money to go their final. So Will adds in how much they need for their trip to how much the kids need to raise for their Glee Club nationals trip.
That night, Sue has gotten what she calls the “League of Doom” together. The League consists of Dustin, the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, Sandy (the guy that sells pot to people and who lost his job to Will) and Terri. It’s laughable how pathetic it is. The Evil League of Evil was so much better [ed. note: as was the 1997 Philadelphia Flyers “Legion of Doom” line]. Anyway, Sue gives them all stupid code names and tells them she’ll be in touch. Meanwhile, Will and Holly are having pizza for dinner, and she tells him that his taffy idea is pretty stupid. She suggests a benefit concert to raise the money instead. It’s a good idea, and Will is really into it. Then again, he’s really into Holly (even though she’s not around all that much since she’s a sub). More on that later.
The next day at school, Sue puts her plan into action. She sends Dustin to break up Will and Holly and tells Sandy to sponsor a new club focused on heckling. Basically Sue’s roped in Jacob, Becky and one of the football guys to heckle the Glee club during their show via this new club. While this is going on, some of the Glee kids (Tina, Mercedes, Mike and Lauren) are talking about what songs they want to do for the concert. Mike obviously is going to dance, because that’s what he does. Mercedes is doing Aretha Franklin. Rachel interrupts to say that the group has picked all good songs to do before her big closing number of “My Heart Will Go On”. She can be so overbearing sometimes. Anyway, Finn shows up and they find Sunshine Corazon (the girl Rachel sent a crack house in the season 2 premiere episode) in the auditorium. She claims not to be a spy and that she just wants to be part of their benefit. She sings “All By Myself” and the group allows her to join (mostly because she has like 600 Twitter followers and all of them will show up). Rachel is still against Sunshine and tells Mercedes she can’t perform last (like she wants to).
Lauren hunts down Mercedes in the library and gives her what at first appears to be a pep talk about respect. Then Lauren says she’ll be Mercedes’ manager. And this is where it gets really over the top and ridiculous. I want to say I was happy for a Mercedes plotline, but this was just horrible. Because Mercedes has gone diva, Finn and Quinn appoint Rachel head of talent relations for the benefit. And this is where things really start to get super crazy. Mercedes is demanding all kinds of stupid stuff (a giant tub of green M&Ms, a puppy to dry her hands on, etc). Rachel tries to make Mercedes happy with all the stupid things she’s asked for. She’s still not happy to be going before the final number. Sunshine is going last because she is bringing in so many people. It’s just really ridiculous, and I’m not going to spend any more time on it right now.
We actually get some drama involving the adults in this episode. In the teacher’s lounge, Will finds Emma back to her OCD tendencies due to stress over Carl leaving her. She’s cleaning a counter with an electric toothbrush. It’s kind of obvious the writers are pushing Emma and Will back together because he basically says he’ll be there for her for whatever she needs (including cleaning a grape before handing it to her). Meanwhile, unfortunately for Sue, Dustin’s attempt to break up Will and Holly doesn’t work. He’s obnoxious and irritating, but Holly doesn’t fall for it. I do have say though that she’s pretty awesome as a teacher. She really gets into the material (dressing up and everything). Will is a little jealous though to see Dustin leave. Will and Holly were supposed to have lunch, but obviously he was spending it with Emma.
It’s now the night of the benefit, and Kurt is showing Blaine around. They’ve obviously come to support the Glee kids. Blaine notices how wistful Kurt looks just as Karofsky spots them. He puts on his tough act like he’s going to beat them up, and Santana gets involved. She basically tells Karofsky to back off or she’s going to kick his ass. It was kind of interesting to see her get up in his face knowing what we know about her. Just as Karofsky storms off, Santana gets a text. Sunshine has pulled out of the benefit and none of her Twitter followers are going to come. One thing I have to say is why aren’t all the parents there supporting their kids? I mean, seriously? Tina is first up, and the heckling kids ruin her self esteem. Will tells the kids to hand out the taffy to shut them up. It works. Mike goes out and does an awesome dance number. Then again I think it is impossible for Mike to do a bad dance number.
They’re still concerned that the hecklers are going to get back to their heckling once intermission is over, so Holly goes to talk to them while Will and the Glee kids go to find Mercedes. She’s acting all extra diva and refusing to perform. Holly gets the heckler kids to go home. Rachel goes to talk to Mercedes in the rain. Rachel basically tells Mercedes that she (Rachel) doesn’t care who she hurts in her quest for stardom, but that Mercedes is better than her. Mercedes needs to fight for the closing number. That’s how she’ll get respect. Holly does a number by herself, singing “Turning Tables” (there was talk earlier about how she and Will were going to do a duet). She’s even got an orchestra. It’s a decent song, and afterwards she basically tells Will that she’s leaving and that they need to break up. It seems okay though, since he’s got Emma. Sue’s not pleased that the hecklers are gone. She sends Sandy back in, but he loves the song that Mercedes sings. She sings “Ain’t No Way” by Aretha. And she gets an entire choir as back up. From where, I’ve no idea.
The next day Sandy’s in the choir room and he’s giving the Glee club (and the academic decathlon team) the money to go to nationals. So much for being a super villain. And Dustin failed Sue too. He wasn’t the cause of Will and Holly’s break up, but he did pull Sunshine from the benefit. Sue declares that it’s time for Terri to try her hand. We end with the academic decathlon team at their finals, and it’s all tied up. And the final category is Hermaphrodite Nazi Sympathizers. Thank you Holly Holiday for being an awesome teacher (she taught the kids her opinion about Wallis, Duchess of Windsor earlier in the episode). They’ve got this one in the bag.
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