‘Glee’-Cap 1.16: Fun Times at Rinky Dinks

I adore Kristin Chenoweth. I’m still sad that ‘Pushing Daisies’ was canceled. She proved a perfect fit for ‘Glee’ during her first appearance earlier this season, though. I wish the producers would find a way to add her to the cast permanently. Chenoweth returned this week as the boozy April Rhodes in ‘Home’. Since we’ve last seen her, April has become the mistress of a wealthy strip mall magnate who set her up in charge of the town roller rink, which has the absurdly perfect name Rinky Dinks. Naturally, this sets the stage for April and Will to do a duet to Springsteen’s “Fire” on rollerskates. Awesome.

This episode has an abundance of storylines, and hits some big emotional notes, as well as the expected big musical notes. Mercedes struggles to fit in with the Cheerios after Sue orders her to lose 10 pounds in a week. This leads to a nice moment of Quinn and Mercedes bonding. Meanwhile, Kurt engineers a plan to set his dad up with Finn’s mother, so as to get himself closer to Finn. That backfires when his own dad (Mike O’Malley, who’s terrific in the show) winds up bonding more with Finn than with Kurt. Finn also has to come to terms with his mother moving on since his father’s death.

Also trying to move on, both from his impending divorce and his decision to slow things down with Emma, Will attempts to sublet his apartment and find a smaller place. April uses this as the perfect opportunity to make a move on Will, which almost kinda-sorta leads to a connection. I support this. Please, producers, let’s go this way. I mean, I find Emma adorable too, but she’s not a viable romantic partner. And as I mentioned, I’d love to see Chenoweth added permanently to the cast.

Of course, Sue has some new shenanigans as well. This week, she’s being interviewed by ‘Splits’ magazine (love it) for a “hard-hitting, investigative report” on her abrasive coaching style. The reporter plans to make it a hatchet-job, until Mercedes and Kurt hijack the pep rally and turn it into a forum for self-empowerment, which the reporter mistakenly assumes was Sue’s plan all along. Naturally, she’s happy to take credit for it.

The climax is something of a cop-out. I doubt real high school students would so enthusiastically flock to support Mercedes and Kurt at that moment. This would be the time that real teenagers mock and scoff. But this isn’t the real world, is it? It’s fantasy, and it’s fine. I like that these two characters are given a chance to take center stage for a change. And Mercedes did a great job belting out “Beautiful.” It did bother me, however, that the reporter from the cheerleading magazine failed to notice that there was no actual cheerleading at the pep rally.

1 comment

  1. Ben Jennings

    +1 vote for adding Kristin Chenoweth to the cast permanently, but it has to be a bit of a tough decision for the creators considering she makes every other performer look second rate.

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