Glee: "The Spanish Teacher" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Tuesday's Glee had a Latin music theme, but that paled in comparison to the storyline movement we were given in "The Spanish Teacher." Usually, it's the other way around, but of late, the overarching storylines on Glee have become far more engaging than what we saw in the first half of the season. The music was fine, but it was what was happening to the characters that was the most enjoyable.

Pushing the episode forward was the tenured position up for grabs at McKinley and Will Schuester's realization that he's a terrible Spanish teacher. Figgins' advice to Will to give him a better shot at tenure: "Learn Spanish." This introduced us to night school Spanish teacher Dave Martinez played by Ricky Martin. In a weirdly convoluted way (a night school glee club?) Schue had an excuse to bring Dave to class to sing and establish a Latin-themed musical assignment for the week. This all seemed a tad bit forced, as if the producers knew they could get Ricky Martin on the show and built this episode around him. But the writers did a fine job of incorporating the tenure, Will's terrible Spanish and the songs into the storylines at play. So ultimately it was just Ricky Martin that felt out of place.

Again, the songs in this episode were fine (though Will's rendition of "A Little Less Conversacion" was very flat), but it was the progress in the storylines that was most intriguing. Rachel finally shared with Mercedes and Kurt that she was getting married to Finn. Mercedes' reaction was fantastic: "Have you lost your damn mind?" But the best reaction came from Kurt, which was a mix of scorn, understanding and then hurt. Why hadn't Finn shared this information? The "brotherly" relationship between Kurt and Finn isn't touched upon much in the series, but in "The Spanish Teacher" it came out in full force. Their conversation in the locker room, where Kurt was trying to convince his stepbrother that he was better than he thought was one of the truest moments of the season so far.

For laughs (and a little heart tugging) we had Sue Sylvester going full boar into trying to have a baby. The reactions from those she told were delightful ("With whose vagina?") but it was swimming coach Roz Washington that had the best moments. Real Housewife of Atlanta Nene Leakes delivered Roz's cutting lines with gusto and she appears to be the only person at McKinley that can put Sue on here heels. Throughout the episode, everyone mocked Sue's decision, which made the moment near the end, where Becky told Sue she would make a great mom, all the more touching. Got me all teary-eyed.

Relationships were also at stake in Tuesday's episode. Mercedes and Sam had to go an entire week not talking to each to see how they truly feel about each other. This helped build their relationship into something we care more about than something we were simply told existed. And the tension between Will and Emma was a welcome change. Overall, the episode kept us interested with its stories and characters while the music this week was just okay.

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