Season 2, Ep 10 - A Very Glee Christmas
As the Glee kids sing “Island of Misfit Toys” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
they decorate a pathetic-looking Christmas tree with an array of broken
and previously discarded ornaments. Will enters the choir room.
Mercedes explains that the tree is a perfect mascot for the Glee Club:
despite winning Sectionals for the second straight year they (according
to their slushy throwing classmates) “still suck.” Will refuses to let
the kids wallow in self-pity; he says this year he wants them to lend a
hand to those less fortunate. By going caroling from classroom to
classroom he hopes to raise money for a local program that supports
homeless children. While most of the kids consider it to be an exercise
in futility, Finn notes: “it’s Christmas, a time for miracles.”
Brittany
helps Artie trim his locker with festive decorations; he is shocked to
learn his girlfriend still believes in Santa Clause. In the teachers’
lounge Will and Emma discuss their holiday plans; Will is still
recovering from the news of Emma and Carl’s marriage. She invites him
to join them for their Christmas Eve party, but he prefers to spend the
holiday at home… alone. Coach Beiste enters, and instructs all the
teachers to pull a name from her jar for their “Secret Santa”; Will is
thoroughly disheartened when picks Sue’s name. The kids commence their
Christmas caroling; the experience is as bad as they had feared. Back
in the choir room the kids decorate a new, beautiful tree courtesy of
Mr. Schu. Artie tells the others about Brittany’s belief in Santa; they
think someone needs to tell her the truth: “she’s going to find out
sooner or later.” Artie says he would prefer if it were “later,” and
says he has a plan to that end.
Artie, Brittany, and some of the
other Glee-Clubbers visit a mall Santa; Artie thinks if his girlfriend
sees that others still believe in Santa too, it will strengthen her
resolve enough to withstand all the “Santa naysayers in the world.”
Tina mentions that the mall Santa doesn’t even really look like Santa;
Artie says all Brittany will see is the suit. One by one the kids sit
on the mall Santa’s lap, and tell him what they want for Christmas.
When Brittany takes her turn, she tells Santa she wants Artie to be
able to walk again. The kids are stunned by the request; Artie thinks
the situation has just gone from bad to worse. Finn meets Rachel in the
holiday-decorated auditorium; she wants to sing him a Christmas song as
a way of apologizing for cheating, but he says (despite the season
being a time for forgiveness) he’s not ready. After he leaves her
alone, Rachel sings the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas, Darling.” Will
sits in his office trying to figure out what to get for Sue’s present:
his list of possible gifts include “a robot dog” and “a soul.” At
Dalton Academy, Kurt helps Blaine rehearse the Frank Loesser holiday
standard “Baby it’s Cold Outside” for his upcoming Christmas pageant
performance; it is clear the two young men truly like each other. Mr.
Schuester enters; he tells Kurt he needs help with his Christmas
present for Sue. The next day Will, Emma, and Coach Beiste ⎯ each with
presents in hand ⎯ are shocked to learn they all pulled Sue’s name for
the Secret Santa. Sue readily admits she replaced Beiste’s jar of
faculty names with one filled with only her name, adding that while she
hates Christmas, she loves presents.
Sue returns to her office
to discover Will directing some of the A/V kids to remove all her
ill-gotten gifts; he tells her the staff has agreed to donate
everything to the homeless kids’ program. An irate Sue tries
unsuccessfully to stem the flow of her rapidly diminishing pile of
presents; Will accuses her of being “a Grinch.” In the locker room the
Glee guys approach Coach Beiste. After explaining the situation with
Brittany, they ask her to dress in a Santa suit, sneak into Brittany’s
home, and explain to the Cheerio why Saint Nick can’t give her the gift
she asked for. The coach is dubious but agrees. That night Sue (dressed
as the Grinch complete with green face paint and Santa hat) and Becky
(dressed as the Grinch’s rein-dog) sneak into the choir room; Sue
steals back all her presents, and utterly destroys all the holiday
decorations… including the Glee kids’ new tree. As she carries out her
dastardly plan, we listen to an adapted (and personalized) version of
the Dr. Seuss classic “You’re a Mean One Sue the Grinch.”
The
next day Will and the Glee kids discover the vandalism; they are all
disheartened except for Finn, who notes that there are people all over
the world who are suffering through way worse than they; he says he
won’t let this get them down. Rachel tells Finn that as “leaders of
this Club”, it is up to them to fix this; she asks that they put their
differences aside, and “save Christmas for Glee Club.” Later Finn and
Rachel visit a Christmas-tree lot, and search for a replacement tree;
she uses the opportunity to try once again to make amends, but he is
still unresponsive. They split up to look for a tree; as they search
they sing Wham’s “Last Christmas.” As the song ends they find
themselves face-to face; she kisses him, but he says “no,” and pulls
away. He tells her that what she did to him “really messed (him) up”:
he has had two girlfriends, and they both cheated on him; he says he is
“officially” breaking up with her.
In the choir room the kids
have taken a page from “The Gift of the Magi”: the guys are donating
their watches, and the girls prepare to cut off their hair to they can
raise enough money to buy gifts for the homeless kids. Will enters in
the nick of time, and puts a stop to it; he tells them that all too
often in life ⎯ as in the O. Henry tale ⎯ Christmas becomes more of an
obligation than a reminder of what’s possible. He says that while
everyone’s first Christmas is alive with magic, as people get older the
“hard realities of life” take over, and the magic fades. As opposed to
just handing over money to get the feeling of their first Christmas
back, they will find some people who “really need some Christmas
spirit,” and sing for them. That night Coach Beiste (dressed as Santa)
goes to visit Brittany. Santa tells the Cheerio that he doesn’t think
he can give her the gift she asked for: there are some things even
Santa can’t manage. Instead he wants her to have the gift of patience.
The coach tells her a story of a little girl who was “a little husky,”
and was always asking Santa for the same thing: to look more like the
other girls. Instead of granting her wish, he gave her patience: one
day she realized she was grateful for being different, and she “put
being husky to good use.” Santa leaves; Brittany is crestfallen.
The
next day Artie finds Brittany at her locker; she is taking down all her
holiday decorations. She tells him she’s lost her Christmas spirit, and
she’s not sure she even wants to believe anymore. His inability to walk
makes her feel terrible, but he tries to console her. Will approaches
them, and says they’re needed in the teachers’ lounge; Artie tells him
Brittany isn’t feeling too good, and wonders if he can take her home
instead. In the teachers’ lounge most of the staff has gathered; most
of the Glee kids are there too. Finn addresses the educators; he tells
them they’re trying to raise money for the less fortunate: while the
holiday season has been hard on everyone, there’s nothing that “a few
more jingle bells can’t cure.” As Sue sits in her office admiring her
piles of pilfered gifts, she hears music from down the hall; as she
investigates she discovers the Glee kids singing Dr. Seuss’s “Welcome
Christmas” to the other teachers. In the lounge the teachers donate
what they can to the collection bucket; the kids’ voices are pure, and
Sue cannot fight the emotional response: her heart “grows three sizes.”
Afterwards, as the kids walk back to the choir room, Rachel invites
Will to spend a Jewish Christmas (Chinese food and a Barbara Streisand
movie) with her and her two dads; he gracefully declines, saying
there’s “nothing wrong with being alone” on Christmas. Upon arriving at
the choir room, everyone is stopped dead in their tracks by the sight
of Artie standing next to Brittany. As the kids approach, they realize
Artie is wearing a robotic exoskeleton: an Israeli invention called a
ReWalk. He says he can’t wear it all the time, but he’s overjoyed
nonetheless. The kids note that the device looks quite expensive, and
they wonder how Brittany could afford it; she says she didn’t buy it.
Artie says at first he thought Brittany’s father bought it, but he too
had no idea where it came from; the only logical conclusion is that it
was a gift from Santa: it’s “a real Christmas miracle.” As the kids
surround Artie, we see Coach Beiste watching from the doorway with a
tiny smile on her face.
That night Will returns home, alone
and lonely; he is shocked to discover Sue there along with a
beautifully decorated Christmas tree and piles of presents. She
confesses to stealing all the stuff from the choir room, and says she’s
sorry. She blows her whistle, and all the Glee kids emerge from the
other room: Rachel says, “no one should be alone on Christmas.” As the
kids continue to decorate the tree, they all sing “Jingle Bells.”
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