Season 2, Ep 17 - A Night Of Neglect
Will addresses the glee kids; he says the money they were supposed to get from the Cheerios’ budget for their trip to Nationals has mysteriously disappeared, so they will need to raise the five-thousand dollars themselves. He suggests they do as his Glee Club did when he was a student at McKinley and sell salt-water taffy: at twenty-five cents per piece, they “only” need to sell twenty-thousand pieces; nobody seems very optimistic. Mike mentions that he - along with Artie, Tina and (last-minute emergency replacement) Brittany - are members of McKinley’s Academic Decathlon team (“The Brainiacs.”) Like New Directions, they too (thanks to Brittany’s savant-like knowledge of feline diseases) have reached the finals by defeating the Carmel High team but have no way to fund the trip to Detroit. Will says the Glee Club will help The Brainiacs by selling even more taffy. That night, Sue meets with (Vocal Adrenaline coach) Dustin Goolsby, (former McKinley Glee Club coach turned medicinal marijuana salesman) Sandy Ryerson and Will’s ex-wife, Terri. She says they all share a common hatred for Will (and New Directions) and as such, she wants them to form a “League of Doom” whose primary goal will be making sure New Directions implodes. After giving each of them “super-villain nicknames,” she hands out beepers and tells them to await further instruction. Meanwhile, Will and Holly enjoy a pizza date; while he clearly wants to spend as much time with her as possible, she reminds him she is a “rolling stone” who can’t be tied down. He tells her about his taffy fundraiser idea but she suggests a better plan: the gleeks should put on a benefit musical performance. The next day, Will tells the kids the new plan; he adds that seeing as how New Directions and The Brainiacs are both clubs that have been neglected by McKinley, their benefit will be called “A Night of Neglect” and feature songs by artists “whose brilliance isn’t always appreciated.”
The next day, Sue puts her evil plans into action: she tasks Dustin (aka “Captain Handsome”) with coming between Will and Holly, and instructs Sandy (aka “Pink Dagger”) to organize a “Heckling Club” in order to disrupt the benefit. As the gleeks discuss which songs they should perform, their former teammate (who defected to join Vocal Adrenaline at the beginning of the school year,) Summer Corazon shows up. Rachel and the others think Summer is there to spy on them but the girl explains that, as a member of Carmel’s Academic Decathlon team she knows what it feels like to be unappreciated by her classmates; she says she wants to help The Brainiacs get to Detroit. The kids are skeptical but when Summer tells them she has six-hundred followers on Twitter – all of whom will buy tickets to see her perform – they agree to let her join them. The gleeks play audience while Summer performs Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself.”
Lunchtime in the teachers’ lounge: Emma confesses to Will that she and Carl are separated and (seeing as how their marriage was never consummated) he has asked for an annulment. Holly watches from a distance as Will tries to comfort Emma. Later, Holly teaches her history class about “hermaphrodite Nazi-sympathizer” Wallace Simpson; after the class is dismissed, Dustin enters. He begins to flirt with the indifferent Holly and is interrupted by Will’s arrival. Will wonders why Holly missed their lunch date; she tells Will she saw him with Emma. Later, as the kids prepare for their benefit concert, Santana breaks the news that – according to Summer’s Twitter feed – she is no longer planning on performing and as such, none of her “followers” will be attending the show either. Puck notes that their audience currently consists solely of Kurt, Blaine and four others (Sandy and his Heckler Club: Becky Johnson, Jacob Ben Israel and Azimo.) He thinks they should just cancel the performance but Finn and Rachel convince everyone “the show must go on.” Tina kicks off the evening by singing Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers.” Despite her fine performance, the quartet of hecklers mercilessly boo her off the stage. Backstage, Tina is sobbing; Will tries to raise everyone’s spirits and suggests that performing in the face of adversity will actually make them a stronger team. Will thinks he has a way to keep the hecklers quiet for the next number; Quinn passes out free salt-water taffy. During Mike’s dance number (to Jack Johnson’s “Bubble Toes,”) the hecklers’ mouths are so full of the chewy treat they are unable to hurl their insults at the stage; Will’s plan has seemingly succeeded but with no taffy left, no one is sure what will happen during the second act. Holly says she will “deal with the haters.”
During the intermission, Holly finds the student hecklers in the library; after complimenting them on their “rad” heckling skills, she subtly turns the tables by talking about how they are tearing down others just to feel better about themselves. She suggests the three could really “lift up the world” if they turned “those barbs into roses.” Her message gets through and they all go home. As the second act of the concert begins, Holly performs Adele’s “Turning Tables” followed by Mercedes performing Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way.” Despite Sandy’s determination to carry on the heckling duties solo, he can’t help but be amazed by Mercedes’ stirring performance. Later, Holly and Will talk; she tells him she has been offered a job substitute teaching at a school in Cleveland. At first, Will is crestfallen but Holly points out what Will already knows: he is in love with Emma. Will returns to the choir room and finds Sandy there along with the glee kids; Sandy admits that despite his attempt to ruin the fundraiser, he was so moved by Mercedes’ performance he has agreed to personally pay for The Brainiacs’ trip to Detroit. Later, Sue meets with her “League of Doom.” After chastising Dustin and Sandy for failing to achieve their objectives, she turns her attention to Terri (aka “The Honey Badger”) and says, “Your time has come.” Later, at the Academic Decathlon the team from McKinley is in a dead heat with their competition; The Brainiacs are pleasantly surprised to discover the category for the tie-breaking question is “Hermaphrodite Nazi-Sympathizers.”
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