The Gleek Critique: "Pot O' Gold" Episode

One of The Glee Project winners, Damian McGinty, plays an Irish foreign exchange student on Glee.

by Jack Garcia

Brittany's family is housing a foreign exchange student from Ireland named Rory, and Brittany assumes her new house guest must be a leprechaun!  She asks him to grant her three wishes in order to receive her "pot o' gold" and the lovestruck young Irishman readily agrees!  Santana decides she deserves a wish as well, and asks Rory to convince Brittany that she should join the rival glee club with her.

Why?  Well, since Mercedes left New Directions last episode, she's been trying to recruit more girls to Shelby's glee club.  Santana figures she will get more opportunities to shine there, but doesn't want to switch choirs without Brittany by her side.  So once Rory works his "magic" (aka the power of suggestion) Brittany decides to do it, and she and Santana join Mercedes and the off-key Sugar in the newly formed Troubletones all-female glee club.

Meanwhile, Sue Sylvester is continuing her war against the arts.  After a rant she gives on her television spot Sue's Corner about the alleged over-funding of the high school musical at McKinley High, parents start to harass Principal Figgins until he is forced to cut the funding all together for the production of West Side Story.  Mr. Schuester and the kids are upset about this, but come up with the idea of selling ad space in the playbill to cover the show's costs.  When Kurt talks to his father about the whole situation, his dad gets so upset about it that he confronts Principal Figgins and makes quite a stand in favor of the arts.  Mr. Schuester is so impressed by Burt's passion that he encourages him to run against Sue as a write-in.

Quinn Fabray is still desperate to have her baby back in her life and comes up with a vicious plot to frame Shelby as an unfit mother.  But after Shelby helps Puck get some more pool-cleaning business, he feels bad about Quinn's plan and goes to Shelby's apartment to undo all that Quinn did.  While there he sings a song to soothe his poor daughter's crying, and he and Shelby find themselves sharing a very scandalous kiss...

The Pros:

• Damian McGinty made a good debut on the show.  I'm still a little unsure of his acting chops, but he definitely has a nice voice.  His two songs, "Take Care of Yourself" by Teddy Thompson and "Bein' Green" by Kermit the Frog, were both really good.  He even hit some high notes to rival Kurt!
• I really like the idea of Burt Hummel running for a local political office!  He's such a great father to Kurt and a really grounded individual...  I would vote for him!
• I also like the very inappropriate teacher-student relationship between Shelby Cochran and Puck.  It will create a lot of drama, especially between he and Quinn who seemed to be coming together better than ever.  Not to mention all the trouble Shelby could be in if it ever got out...
• Sue said something about being "literally horny with fear"... or something like that... and I thought it was hilarious!  She sure had some fun zingers in this episode.
• The Troubletones rendition of Christina Aguilera's "Candyman" was lots of fun and I really dug the retro outfits!  The girls looked hot!
• Puck was shirtless and lookin' dreamy!

The Cons:

• Rory's character wearing green every day is kind of silly.  Do we think Irish people just wear green all the time?  Perhaps he was wearing green only to go along with Brittany's idea that he was a leprechaun... but I guess we'll see what he wears in the next episode.
• I really haven't enjoyed Finn's character at all this season.  Tonight he was just jealous and annoying.  And Quinn isn't so enjoyable either.  She really needs to get a grip on her situation.  On a plus side, I'm starting to like Sugar!
• Blaine's cover of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" was enjoyable enough, but is it his mission in life to cover every Katy Perry single ever recorded?  He needs some new material...