Glee: "Dream On"

I've been looking forward to the Joss Whedon directed, Neil Patrick Harris guesting episode since it was announced. As a longtime Buffy fanatic, I was excited to see what Whedon would bring to the show, and true to form, it was dark, funny, and awesome.

Harris' Bryan Ryan, Wills' high school nemesis is at McKinley on a crusade to cut the glee club program, and Will tries to help him get over his grudge against Glee. Meanwhile, Rachel wants to find her birth mother and Tina helps Artie as he struggles with his dream of being a dancer.

The Will/Bryan storyline really worked for me, and Harris was funny, ego-maniacal and a little evil, all at once. Will can be a little cheesy at times, but I thought his tone was perfect in this episode. "Dream On" rocked my world, and both guys were all kinds of sexy performing it. I kind of wish we'd gotten a little Teri appearance in this episode, because it would have been great to see Bryan and Will interact with her. I loved Bryan's scene with Sue, and the "anger sex" bit really made me laugh.

"Safety Dance" battles with "Dream On" for me as the highlight of the episode. I'm so glad that they used a dream sequence to give us a chance to see Kevin McHale dance. He's got some great moves, and I liked the flash mob style performance. I also liked that all the Glee kids made an appearance (except Finn, Santana, and Quinn, though the interwebz tell me Finn was there somewhere, I didn't catch a glimpse of my awesome Frankenteen). I know it could get overused, but I want to see more of McHale dancing so lets do this again. I also liked Tina's tap number with Mike Chang, but Artie totally stole it with his great singing and heartbroken face.

The Rachel storyline with Jesse and Shelby was the weakest part of the episode for me, probably because it included no Finn. Still, I'm loving what Johnathan Groff is doing with the character of Jesse. I already anticipated that they'd have him genuinely like Rachel even though he started out dating her on Shelby's orders. What I haven't figured out yet is whether Shelby is truly Rachel's birth mom or if she's fooling Jesse and this is an elaborate plot to bring down New Directions. I know Idina Menzel is only on the show as a temporary guest star, so it would kind of be weird if she really were Rachel's birth mother and she just went away after Rachel finds out.

Great lines of this episode:
"Was Mandy Patinkin in on this?" - Jesse
"I have a box of playbills hidden away in my basement, Will, like porn!" - Bryan
"Then something amazing happened: I was introduced to Jesus… he was my Honduran social worker." - Bryan
"Any of the guys in there could dance my part better than me without rehearsing...well, except Finn." - Artie

Next week: Kiss! Lady Gaga! I've gotten to listen to the songs on the new CD and I have to say, I'm really excited!