What I’m Watching: Glee

Glee: Season 1, Episode 7 “Throwdown” (B)

I happen to think that the exaggerated slow-motion screaming matches often used in movies and TV, and present in this episode’s opening scene, are a little much and aren’t nearly as effective as just hearing them narrate via voiceover. Some pieces of the squabble between Will and Sue are more entertaining, like Sue’s comments about not trusting men with curly hair and her telling him that she was about to vomit down his back. Her plan to divide the club by singling out minorities and turning them against each other and Will was amusing though ultimately a bit over-the-top. Her stepping down was a nice moment though it seemed a tad out of character, along with her genuinely hurt semi-scolding of Quinn after she found out she was pregnant. I suppose everyone has a soft side, and Sue let hers out for a second, probably more than she’ll ever do it again in the future. Will’s findings that most of the cheerleaders don’t know a thing and usually fail Spanish was fun, and it was refreshing to see him finally take action and fail the students as a way of getting Sue to back down. It seems that Quinn, naïve as she might seem, isn’t quite as dumb, as one of her fellow cheerleader friends professes not to know anything on a Spanish quiz and tries to cheat off Quinn, and the most idiotic baby name (Drizzle?!) is presented to her by a character we already knew wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the box. Terri proves herself to be completely crazy as she and her off-the-walls sister blackmail Dr. Woo and continue the charade for Will, further upping his hopes as he’s told he’s having a girl instead of a boy. Rachel trying to keep Quinn’s pregnancy suppressed was entertaining, and a great chance for her to interact with someone to whom she can actually talk down. Two of the musical sequences in this episode made it all worth it, and those were the free-spirited rendition of “Ride with Me” and the emotional ending number, “Keep Holding On.”