"Glee" recap (1.17): "Bad Reputation"

I'm gonna say it upfront: I didn't like this week's episode. After the heights of the Madonna episode and last week's heart-string-tugging tearjerker, this week was a real let down. I wasn't crazy about the music selections and the story was weak. But hey, at least that means plenty of shots!

Hope you've got your drinking pants on. You're gonna need 'em.

We start off with the Glee kids cracking up while watching a video on Kurt's laptop. It's a video of Sue dancing to "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. Kurt apparently stole it from Sue's locked filing cabinet when she sent him to get her hormone replacement injections during Cheerios practice. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first shot in the very first scene of the episode. Sue Sylvester would never leave something so incriminating where it could be found so easily.

Finn wants to post the video on YouTube, but some of the kids aren't so sure. Jesse encourages them to do it, telling them it's time to stop being asses and start being bad asses. Um, hello? Glee Club here. Singing off-key back up for Rachel is about as bad ass as these kids can get. Well, except for Puck.

The next day, everyone has already seen the video and they're all teasing Sue. She's furious and drags Will in to see Figgins. "As soon as I figure out the difference between slander and libel, I'm filing a lawsuit." 

Will tries to shrug it off, but Sue is after blood. She produces something called a Glist, "a weekly ranking of the Glee Club based on a hotness quotient of sexual promiscuity." They know it was posted by someone from the Glee Club because of the computer login. Oooh-kay. That’s certainly watertight evidence.

Figgins panics because apparently similar scandals have brought down entire schools -- that exist in some fantasy land or maybe Utah. Figgins insists Will find the culprit who posted the list or he'll suspend and disband the entire Glee Club. Shot. That seems like a huge over-reaction after some of the other stuff that's gone on at McKinley High.

No one will fess up to posting the list, and between that and the video of Sue, Will is afraid the kids are getting a bad reputation. To make a point, this week's assignment is for the kids to find a song with a bad reputation and rehabilitate it. As an example, he busts some moves with "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice.

I'm sorry, but not even all the choreography in the world can save that song which was a joke five minutes after it hit the air. Please, lock it up and throw away the key. Oh, and the look on Artie's face when everyone goes to dance but him ... heartbreaking.