oh good, we're back to an actual storyline

I have a theory. I believe that every episode of Glee in which Mike O'Malley guest stars, turns out to be a pretty great episode. At the very least, watchable. Every scene with his character, Burt Hummel, and his son, Kurt Hummel (played by Chris Colfer) is pure magic. That said, imagine my devastation when in the third episode of the season, Burt has a close encounter with death. I know, I know, it's unlikely that O'Malley's character would be killed off. I think it's obvious the effect his character (sympathetic, supportive dad) has on the show and its viewers. But I was worried for a second. In the end, Burt recovered from his brush with death, but more on that later. Let's start at the beginning.

We open with Finn. Ugh. With me, sometimes Finn is on, and sometimes he's not. I used to like his voice, but the more and more he sings, the worse his voice sounds. Or it at least becomes more apparent that he is not one of the stronger singers on the show...yet he gets quite a bit of songs for himself. This episode--might as well tell you now--was basically all about religion and people's beliefs. And the hoopla starts when Finn finds that he sees the face of Jesus Christ in his grilled cheese. Having taken it to be a sign, as anyone who sees a religious figure in their food would, he prays. He prays to win the high school's first football game of the season. Prayer answered. He prays to get to second base with prudey Rachel. Prayer answered--but I think there will be other issues in that relationship further down the line. Rachel doesn't plan on having sex with him until they're 25--that's a long time. He prays to be quarterback again. After the current one is injured, prayer answered. Due to all of his prayers being answered, he automatically turns to Jesus as his savior and blah blah blah. He of course brings this news to Glee Club. And so begins the religious song craze. But Puck is first up, and in defense of his own religion, he decides to sing a song by a Jewish artist: Billy Joel. May we PLEASE have more Billy Joel songs on the show? I absolutely loved Matthew Morrison's duet with Neil Patrick Harris of "Piano Man." It was lovely, and I was quite perturbed to find that it was unavailable for download. Puck's rendition of "Only the Good Die Young" was also great. And yes, I will be downloading it.

Meanwhile, outside of the walls of high school, Kurt and his dad are having a bit of a tiff at the family auto shop. Kurt seems to be going through a bit of a rebellious phase. They both leave the fight a bit upset. And as we all know, you really shouldn't leave a fight upset, for you never know what might happen before you see eachother again. And, what happened is Burt had a heart attack. And I have to admit, I almost cried when Emma and Mr. Schue pulled Kurt out of class to let him know of the incident. It was scary. What's worse is that we discover that Kurt's dad is in a coma. And everyone wanted to be supportive of Kurt, but mostly through prayer, and Kurt would have none of that. And thank you, Ryan Murphy for creating a character who speaks his mind like Kurt, and isn't afraid of voicing his opinion. Yes, I'm probably saying this because I happen to agree with Kurt's opinion, but whatever. So he doesn't believe in God. That's how a lot of people feel. We all know religion is a topic that no one really wants to get into (well, some people just LOVE it), but Glee got into it. And I appreciate it. Everyone in the club had varying opinions on God and religion. And while people like Mercedes and Quinn wanted to pray for Kurt, he asked that they not, for he doesn't believe in God, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But as we saw as this episode progressed, everyone had their own way of dealing with Kurt's dad being in the hospital. Mercedes, after some coaxing, took Kurt with her to church where she led her choir in a rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water." I commend the girl for her amazing voice, but I'd much rather listen to Simon and Garfunkel's version. Finn at one point sang (tried to) REM's "Losing My Religion." Yikes. And Rachel, being the Barbra Streisand fan she is, sang "Papa Can You Here Me?" from Yentl. And I damn near lost it with this performance (in the bad way) and everything involved with it. I realize this show is all about "theatricality" but this was ridiculous. My eyes were just rolling away as I saw Lea Michele belting it out on a grassy hill with Finn and then suddenly standing right in front of Kurt's dad, doing the same thing at his bed side. Sure, it's a great song, but it was straddling the line of camp and real drama too much that I just had to laugh at the whole thing. It was a bit too much, but because of the subject matter, I didn't know whether to take it seriously or to laugh, so like I said, I rolled my eyes with my mouth agape. In my opinion, it was completely unnecessary; merely an excuse to sing the song--the whole damn song.

Kurt's song was by far my favorite. His performance was one of the best moments of the episode. He simply stood up in front of everyone, and sang his version of The Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." I damn near lost it (in the good way). I cried, yes, I cried. Tears were streaming down my face. The way his performance was intercut with flashbacks of a young Kurt (a STARTLINGLY AMAZING LOOK-A-LIKE) in memorable moments with his dad: a tea party, learning to ride his bike, and then the day of his mother's funeral; as they walked out together, hand in hand. The entire thing was lovely. Well done, Chris Colfer (and little Kurt) and Mike O'Malley.

In the end--as I had mentioned earlier--with Kurt at his bedside, Kurt's dad recovered. He held Kurt's hand. And he could have recovered for any reason. Prayers could have been answered. A miracle might have happened. Or the human body showed just how much it can endure. But I think everyone came to an understanding that, with matters of religion, to each his own.

I think this was a great episode. The kind of episode that reminds me of what I watch the show. Sure, it had its moments of weakness (Rachel is kind of starting to annoy me; could it be the bangs?) but overall, I was quite pleased.

Just a few other things of note:

Sue Sylvester: I loved her in this episode. I loved Jane Lynch (as I always do) in this episode. I loved Sue’s moment with her sister at the end of this episode. It was very touching.
Brittany: Oh, you. You got me again. Favorite line: “Whenever I pray, I fall asleep.”
Rachel: She’s got an amazing voice. But at this point, I think that’s all I can tolerate from her. She’s gotten to be quite annoying. At first, her mannerisms were strangely endearing, but now I kind of sick of them. And yes, I’ll admit part of it is because I’m not taking too kindly to Lea Michele lately. I have to agree with the the recent criticism of Rachel’s physical changes. It’s not helping the show, and it’s definitely not helping to erase the “diva” rumors about Lea Michele. No, indeed.