Glee: Kiss Me, Stupid

So apparently there IS someone out there who is immune to the charms of Darren Criss — it’s the slightly older guy who works at the Gap.

Ever since Criss made his debut as the too-good-to-be-true Blaine, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop or at least SOME hint that this guy wasn’t completely perfect. (And I’m only talking about his character on the show. I’m not even taking all the winning media appearances Criss has made in real life since he joined the show.)

Well last night, it was revealed that (gasp!) Blaine is, um, a little clueless when it comes to romance! (Oh well, I guess it’s something.) More importantly, the show did a much smoother job of incorporating Kurt (and Blaine) into the main plot, though the writers are still struggling to fit the rest of the Warblers’ into the show in a natural way. (Maybe those snobs SHOULD be confined to the Dalton Academy.)

Overall, I thought “Silly Love Songs” was the perfect title for the Valentine’s Day episode of “Glee” (or ANY episode of “Glee”, really) and one of the show’s strongest outings in recent memory.

(Pause to reflect on, as hilarious as she is, how completely inessential Sue Sylvester is to this show. Once again, Jane Lynch is great, but did we really miss Sue last night?)

I tend to prefer the episodes that focus on the show’s deep and talented young cast, so I was delighted to see characters like Mark Salling’s Puck and Naya Rivera’s Santana take more prominent roles.

I especially enjoyed the focus on Santana, because Naya Rivera has been giving excellent bitchface for a long time and deserved a mini-showcase. In fact, she was called out for said bitchiness early in the episode by the rest of the glee club, culminating with Rachel telling her that she was going to end up on a pole. I actually felt bad for Santana momentarily, but then I remembered that she HAS been a major bitch to everyone. The show also found a way to quickly bring the wounded/crying Santana back to a funny place by having her explain that the reason she’s such a bitch is because people suck. (Ain’t that the truth!)

By the end, Santana had gleefully re-embraced her villainous role. After noticing a vibe between Finn and Quinn, she threw on her skimpy candy-stripper outfit (that she clearly bought at an adult sex shop), contracted mono from a sick dork, and gave the kissing disease to Finn to prove her hunch. Two things: 1.) I love that Santana has developed an immunity to mono. 2.) Why wouldn’t everyone who Finn kissed after locking lips with Santana get sick too?

It was also good to see the episode shower some attention on Puck, who spent the hour comically pining after Lauren. (The way she constantly insults him reminds him of his mom. I also loved how confused he was to be in the library.) Yes, this storyline was very reminiscent of season 1’s “Laryngitis” when Puck decided he was into big girl Mercedes (also to the chagrin of Santana). However, instead of fighting over Puck by singing “The Boy Is Mine”, Lauren manhandled Lima Heights’ (adjacent) own Santana during a funny fight.

However, I kind of liked that they didn’t exactly have Lauren completely cave in to Puck’s (seemingly genuine) charms. And I REALLY like that the most interesting thing about Lauren isn't that she's fat. (It's that she's a badass.) I hope this isn’t another storyline the writers drop because I’d be interested to see if it goes anywhere.

I’m encouraged that they won’t drop it because the show quickly followed up on the Super Bowl episode’s kiss between Finn and Quinn. Finn was pretty much acting like a douchelord this entire episode because he was back on top of the world following the football team’s success. (Hey, that kissing booth DID make enough money to buy half a ticket to Nationals.) And I didn’t really mind — I mean, teenagers are pretty much selfish and horrible people.

Still, despite very strong chemistry between Cory Monteith and Dianna Agron last night, I just can’t get back on board with Quinn and Finn reconnecting. I mean, doesn’t this (and Rachel’s newfound, independent focus on her own destiny to become a star) just feel like the show is marking time until Finn and Rachel get back together? Oh well. Teenagers dump each other and get back together over and over again, so it is what it is.

Since the episode was called “Silly Love Songs”, I suppose I should talk about the evening’s musical performances:

“Fat Bottomed Girls”…A-: Another strong musical showcase for Mark Salling. The evening’s best performance managed to be both totally sincere (on Puck’s part) and completely inappropriate (Lauren was understandably insulted). Mr. Schue’s eye roll kind of summed it up perfectly.

“P.Y.T.”…C+: I liked Kevin McHale’s voice on this Michael Jackson cover, but the introduction(“Our girlfriends are awesome…”) and execution of this musical number was way off. This had “DVD Deleted Scene” written all over it. Also, the way Mike Chang funkily dances around during most New Direction performances is basically a joke at this point.

“When I Get You Alone”…C: Yes, Blaine, it was too much. More specifically, too much of the artifice that we get from most New Directions performances infected this Warblers number. Also, this Robin Thicke song is supposed to be sexy. This performance was more like a Gap commercial.

“My Funny Valentine”…D: This was just weird as hell. It wasn’t really clear why Tina was blubbering in the middle of this song, and when we found out why (she loves Mike SO much) it was neither funny nor did it make sense. The only reason it doesn’t get an F is because Jenna Ushkowitz appeared to be singing live and (gasp!) sounded pretty good. Can we please make the musical numbers sound more like this?!

“Firework”…B+: Just like when Darren Criss took on “Teenage Dream”, pretty much any member of this cast singing Katy Perry is going to be an upgrade over Katy’s questionable vocals. Still, except for the power she brought to “…baby, YOU’RE A FIIIIIRE-WORK” Lea Michele didn’t knock it out of the park like I expected it to. This was a ground-rule double.

“Silly Love Songs”…B+: This was more of a typical, rock-solid Warblers performance. Still, my favorite part Blaine seemingly looking at Santana when he sang the part about how love “won’t come at all.”

So what’d you think of this episode? Do you know your sweetheart’s coffee order? (I know how mine likes her tea…that counts!) Finally, do I detect a Santana/Sam pairing down the road? (Blech! I can already imagine people calling them “Samtana.”)