After Mike gets an "A−" on a chemistry test, his father wants him to drop glee club. He instead auditions for West Side Story. Mercedes also auditions, but refuses to share the role of Maria with Rachel when the two are to be double-cast; she also quits New Directions, and joins Shelby's rival glee club. Brittany's campaign for senior class president kicks into high gear, and Rachel becomes a third candidate, infuriating the other candidate, Kurt. Emma Pillsbury's parents visit, and cause a flare-up of her OCD. The musical's cast list is posted.
Next Time: We meet a co-winner of The Glee Project, and both increased jackassery and producer-induced insanity abound. Plus, we finally get the Relationship Upgrade we've been waiting for (Brittana), and also, Leprechauns. Yes.
Songs:
- Spotlight by Jennifer Hudson, performed by Mercedes with Brittany and Tina
- Run the World (Girls) by Beyoncé, performed by Brittany and Santana with Quinn, the Cheerios!, and the girls of WMHS
- Cool from West Side Story, performed by Mike with the McKinley Titans
- It's All Over from Dreamgirls, performed by Mercedes, Santana, Finn, Mike, Kurt, Puck and Will, with Quinn, Tina, and Brittany
- Out Here On My Own from Fame, performed by Rachel and Mercedes
- Fix You by Coldplay, performed by Will and Artie with New Directions (without Mercedes, inc. Quinn and Santana)
Tropes:
- The B Grade: An A- is an Asian F.
- Call-Back: Mike's listing of the all the "got a lot going on" is reminiscent of Finn's list in season one.
- Costume Porn: The Dreamgirls' dresses, and Kurt's mixed suit.
- Family Theme Naming: Emma's parents - ginger supremacists - are called Rusty and Rose, both shades of red.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Mike Senior, who wants his son to drop glee club because his grades weren't high enough.
- Costume Porn: With regards to hair. Quinn runs through about four different hairstyles, and they're all astounding. This is the episode where we admire Quinn's hair, then get concerned at how long they must have had Dianna strapped to a chair in hair & make-up.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Both In-Universe (see Plays Great Ethnics, below) and out. There are three very large Hispanic roles in West Side Story - Bernardo, Maria, and Anita. The glee cast contains two Hispanic actors: Naya Rivera (mixed race, half American-Latina, half African-American) and Harry Shum, Jr. (Costa Rican, of Cantonese descent).
- Jerkass: Sometime between season 2 & 3, somebody at FOX decided to spike Will's coffee with way too many "unreasonable, entitled, bitchy, whiny, idiot Jerk" shots. Will recovers, slightly, towards the end of the season.
- Plays Great Ethnics: In-Universe with Rachel and Mercedes in contention for the Maria part- neither are Puerto Rican (that's Santana) but they're both different ethnic minorities, which is enough and makes it hard to choose between them. Santana instead gets the part of Anita, which is probably better as it's a more traditional Hispanic character compared to Maria; as well as giving the part to Rivera's character possibly because the actress who originated her on Broadway was Chita Rivera. Inverted with Mike, who's Asian but plays Riff, the white guy.
- Title Drop: "I got an A-!" "You got an Asian F?!"
