Glee 2.19: "Rumours"

“Stakeout! So exciting! It’s like an episode of ‘Hart to Hart.’”
-Rachel

I found “Rumours” to be a decent episode of “Glee.” The musical performances were a little lacking (just because I’m not a huge Fleetwood Mac fan…I know…I’m a horrible person), but I was happy to have Kristin Chenoweth back on the show as everyone’s favorite alcoholic McKinley alum April Rhodes. I didn’t love that Terri, my least favorite character on all of television, was the one pulling the strings behind April’s visit, but any chance to hear Chenoweth sing makes me happy. Even if one of her songs was really, really stupid (and no, not one of the Fleetwood Mac songs). I also liked that the episode had a really cohesive theme. Every plot was about rumors and gossip and the damage it can cause. We even got some decent character development in this one, especially for Sam, who had really been an non-entity to me before now, although some characters motiviations (cough…Santana…cough) were a little more difficult to discern.

The episode opens with Brittany taping a new show for YouTube called “Fondue for Two.” Despite the show’s name, she’s eating fondue while interviewing two of her classmates (leading to “fondue for three,” in actuality), Tina and Mercedes. Brittany’s “interview” basically consists of her blurting out rumor after rumor and asking the other girls to comment. In this process, she manages to out Sanatana. This kind of throws a damper on the party, so Brittany ends up feeding fondue cheese to her cat. I prefer beef fondue, myself, and Brittany mentions that will be the featured fondue in the next episode.

Meanwhile, Terri and Sue meet up at the local coffee shop. Sue is using silly disguises to remain incognito, including a David Bowie costume, and she tells Terri she has restarted the McKinley school newspaper, called the “Muckraker.” She’s going to try to use the newspaper to tear apart the glee club. Terri says she has another idea that will destroy the club from the outside instead o
Terri and Sue meet at coffee shop (sue in silly disguises). Sue has restarted the “muckraker.” Terri has idea to get Will out of Glee club. It’s soon obvious that Terri’s plan involves on April Rhodes. April pays a visit to Will and tells him she needs to borrow the auditorium. Her all-white production of “The Wiz” wasn’t exactly successful, so now she’s trying to mount a one-woman show on Broadway called “CrossRhodes: The April Rhodes Story.” Will is only too happy to help.

Both Sue and Terri’s plans have some success. The first issue of the Muckraker causes some big time fighting amongst the members of the glee club. Meanwhile, April and Will are sharing some wine, and Will complains about the glee club’s fighting. April thinks the situation sounds like Fleetwood Mac, and that gives Will an idea. This week’s glee assignment is going to be to perform a song from Fleetwood Mac’s album “Rumours.” To kick things off, April and Will perform a Fleetwood Mac song for the club. April is all over Will while she’s singing, and the kids most definitely notice it. The next singer is Artie, who performs a different Fleetwood Mac song after a fight with Brittany. They were fighting over Santana, Artie called Brittany stupid, and Brittany ran off crying. The song itself was kind of boring (Artie was backed by a veritable orchestra of acoustic guitars), but I was happy to see some movement for this particular triangle.

Following up on another Muckraker story, Rachel and Finn go on a stakeout to see if Quinn is cheating on Finn again, this time with Sam. They’re parked in front of the cheap motel where Sam and Quinn have been rumored to have been seen. They see Kurt leave the motel room, followed by Sam. Now everybody thinks Kurt is cheating on Blaine with Sam. A group meeting is held to figure out how to deal with this, and they end up deciding they need more information before doing anything. It seems to become more clear soon enough, however, when Rachel sees Sam wearing one of Kurt’s jackets. Rachel confronts Kurt, but Kurt refuses to say anything about the rumors, saying instead that any time spent on gossip is time wasted that they could be spending rehearsing for Nationals.

Santana sings yet another Fleetwood Mac song to Brittany, and since she and Artie have broken up, Brittany is open to the idea of a relationship with Santana. Santana’s still reluctant to definitively come out, but Brittany has a plan. She’s going to come out first by bringing Santana on “Fondue for Two” and asking her to prom. This sounds good to Santana, although Santana is back to her old ways soon enough, standing Brittany up for the “interview” and telling Jacob Ben Isreal that she and Karofsky are soulmates in front of Brittany. Brittany decides to work for the Muckraker. Of course anything she does for the Muckraker is dictated by Sue. Brittany interviews Will, but it’s more tabloid fodder than hard hitting journalism. Then Brittany starts grilling Will about April’s show and the rumor that Will might be going with April to Broadway and leaving New Directions. Will confronts Sue about this, and Sue suggests that maybe Will really should go to Broadway.

Finn and Rachel go on another stakeout, and this time they see Quinn with Sam at the motel. They both think Quinn is cheating again, but at this point, I started to figure out what was going on. It was pretty obvious Sam was living at the motel and Kurt and Quinn were helping him out, but I hadn’t yet figured out why. At the next glee club rehearsal, Quinn and Finn have a confrontation about what Finn saw. Quinn’s not happy Finn was alone with Rachel, and Finn assures her that Rachel just wanted to figure out a Fleetwood Mac duet. Quinn says that if Finn wants to stay with her, he needs to never sing another duet with Rachel again.

Will and April are in the auditorium rehearsing April’s show, which is really hilariously bad. Emma stands in the back of the auditorium and watches the performance. She also hears April try to convince Will to go with her to Broadway. Later, Will notices that Emma is eating some grapes without cleaning off each individual fruit. She reveals that she has been taking meds for the past few weeks. Will is extremely proud of her, but then the conversation turns to him. They have a bit of a heart to heart about Broadway, which I thought was nice. Will reveals that although he really doesn’t want to leave the glee kids or Emma, the thought of passing up his Broadway dream hurts, too.

Since she’s got to do a solo now, Rachel sings “Go Your Own Way” for her Fleetwood Mac song. It was a great, energetic performance, which really pissed off Quinn (partly because Finn was playing drums for the number). It was fun to see Lea Michelle really go to town on a song that wasn’t a Broadway standard. At that glee rehearsal, the truth also comes out about Sam. His family is living at the motel because his dad lost his job, and Kurt and Quinn were indeed helping out, Kurt with clothes and Quinn with babysitting services. Rachel and Finn are rather embarrassed about the accusations they made, so they pay Sam a visit at the hotel and are nice to his little siblings. They also bring some of Finn’s old clothes, which they think Sam will like better than Kurt’s old clothes, and they also have Sam’s guitar, which he had sold. Sam breaks down at the sight of his guitar. I think I might actually like Sam now if he didn’t have that obnoxious Justin Bieber hair. Despite the hair, it was some much needed character development for Sam.

The episode ends with Will shooting down the rumors- he assures the glee club that he’s not going anywhere. The club does a big performance of “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” for Sam’s little brother and sister. It had a lot of energy, and I thought it was one of this season’s better performances. All may not be well in New Directions-land for much longer. April sits next to Will as he’s watching the performance, and it looks like Will might be having second thoughts about his decision to stay in Lima.