Glee Recap: Did New Directions Win Nationals?

Lindsay Lohan makes her debut on the Fox hit, judging the show choir competition

By Jenna Mullins May 16, 2012 3:08 AMTags
Glee, Lindsay LohanAdam Rose/FOX

Body-swapping, show choir, lots of emotional moments plus Lindsay Lohan? It must be a supersize night of Glee.

Tonight's back-to-back episode extravaganza was full of many callbacks to season one, which was especially poignant considering lots of the original Glee castmembers will be graduating from the show. It sure felt like a season finale, but there's still one more to go!

Anxious to see how Lohan did in her guest role? We were, too. But first, the most important question: Did New Directions win Nationals?

WHAT WE LEARNED:

Yes! New Directions Wins Nationals: Did you ever have any doubt? After three seasons—and with a lot of New Directions members not returning for season four—of course they had to win the big one. Did anyone else think "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" was arguably the most complicated performance they've ever done? And if you shove down all the recent Glee cynicism, the moment of confetti glory in the hallway was quite touching. Especially when you remember how far back they started, as Tina (Jenna Ushkowtiz) reminded us, with "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat."

Rachel Won't Give Up: She called Carmen Tibideaux (Whoopi Goldberg) at least 14 times, sent her a muffin basket and even crashed one of her master classes. Yes, Rachel (Lea Michele) was straight up stalking the person who would decide her NYADA (and New York) future. But all those passionate pleas must have resonated with Lady Tibideaux, because she came to Chicago to watch Rachel perform at Nationals. And who was the surprising "just tumbled out of heaven in all his Renaissance baby-angel glory" man who gave props (episode title!) about Rachel to Carmen? Jonathan Groff! We mean, Jesse St. James. Although we never, ever want to complain about Groff being on our television screen, it was very disappointing to not hear him sing.

Especially when we found out he auditioned for NYADA with "Giants in the Sky" from Into the Woods. Alas, life goes on. Especially when Ryan Murphy puts him in season four. You hear us, Muprhy?!

Mike Yarish/FOX

Sometimes You Got to Mix Things Up: Glee's formula can sometimes feel a wee bit tired, especially for an audience that has been watching since the first performance of "Don't Stop Believing." But the "Props" episode breathed fresh 'n' crazy air into Glee with the body-swapping storyline. Who was your favorite mix and match? We adored Quinn (Dianna Agron) as Sugar Motta.

Lindsay Lohan Makes Her Debut: We all held our breath as Lindsay Lohan (playing herself as a Nationals judge), began the scene where she had to, you know, speak lines. Especially since we heard so many stories about her on-set antics. But her guest role was silly in a good way, and we actually got to see some of the old Lindsay sparkle we fell in love with back in Mean Girls. And like she said, "Everybody loves a comeback!"

Wemma Had Sex:  Cue this song! What did it take for Emma (Jayma Mays) to give her, um, flower to her fiancé Will (Matthew Morrison)? He just had to win Nationals! Well if he had known that from the beginning...just kidding. It had to be the right time. How does it feel Wemma fans to finally get the sex? You know what follows baby-making right? Babies! Although, was anyone a little creeped out that she refereed to her virginity as a prize to him for winning Nationals? Whatever, give us Wemma babies!

Puck Does Not Want to Be a Lima Loser: Besides the Nationals triumph and Freaky Friday situation, we got a surprisingly moving pair up of Puck (Mark Salling) and Coach Beiste (Dot Marie Jones) and their wish to be stronger than they feel. Puck felt like a Lima Loser after the captain of the hockey team beat him up and threw him into a dumpster, and Beiste was afraid to leave her abusive husband. But they found strength in each other, and their performance of Taylor Swift's "Mean" was one of the highlights of the season. Especially when it led to Beiste finally walking out on Cooter and Puck realizing he deserves to have a future.

What did you think of tonight's back-to-back Glee extravaganza? Any opinions on Lindsay Lohan's guest apperance?