Gleecap: “Wheels”
“Being different made me stronger… at the end of the day, it’s what’s gonna get me out of this cow town.”
- Kurt
“Wheels” opens with Quinn glumly watching the Cheerios practice. She frets to Finn about the expenses accompanying the pregnancy (she’s been hiding the bills from her parents) and asks him when he’s going to man up and support her.
Meanwhile Mr. Shue begs Principal Figgins for money to pay for a bus to properly transport Artie (and the rest of the kids) to sectionals, but Figgins says it’s a no-go due to budget cuts. The glee club has to raise money to pay for the bus, Shue announces at practice, but everyone balks. Consequently Artie stays behind after classes change and breaks into a heart-stopping rendition of “Dancing With Myself.”
Tensions grow as competitors line up to earn rights to sing “Defying Gravity,” the Wicked hit selected as the solo for sectionals … and which Mr. Shue has earmarked for Rachel, clueless about the favoritism he’s displaying. Kurt professes his plans to Mr. Shue at practice. Shue brushes him off, saying, “Kurt, there’s a high F in it.” Kurt confidently responds that it’s “well within my range.”
Kurt confides in his dad (so refreshing that he is okay with Kurt’s gayness!) about his disappointment at not being allowed to compete for a girl’s part. His dad offers encouraging words (“You sing like a girl … in a good way.”) Kurt’s dad complains to the school – it’s discrimination after all. Shue owns up to the unfairness of it all and agrees to let Rachel and Kurt duke it out.
Disheartened by the glee club’s insensitivity toward Artie’s plight, Shue forces every member to use a wheelchair for at least three hours of the day and announces that they’ll also do a wheelchair number. The glee clubbers soon come to empathize the challenges Artie faces every day. Later, in a priceless scene with Tina the Stutterer, we finally learn how Artie came to be in a wheelchair after all (car accident) and he provides the best line of the night (sorry, you’ll have to watch it on DVR).
Puck slips Quinn some money, saying” I was getting that you kind of need money, for our kid.” But Quinn brushes him off, saying: “I don’t care if that baby comes out with a Mohawk; I will go to my grave swearing it’s Finn’s.” However, the scene ends with a seductive and flirty egg-and-flour fight between the parental units in the Home Ec room, which Finn intercepts. Eyebrows rise.
Principal Figgins is so inspired by Shue’s wheelchair mandate that he orders Coach Sylvester to do something similarly bold with the Cheerios auditions: opening them to the public. She storms off in a huff.
Puck and Finn come to blows after Finn complains one too many times about being picked on by Quinn for being too poor to support the baby on the way. (Seems Finn is a little too dense to wonder why Puck is taking such an interest.) Determined to help out his baby mama pay the bills, Puck decides to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to the glee club’s bake sale cupcakes: weed, scored from the always-colorful Sandy Ryerson in a brilliant exchange. (Wheelchair-bound Puck: “The doctors say the shark fractured my spinal cord!” Sandy, empathizing: “This is why I don’t go to the aquarium!”) Like clockwork, cupcake sales soar.
Puck offers Quinn the cupcake money to show her that “family comes first.” Touched, she compliments him for his efforts but says he’s too good a person to take money from a friend in a wheelchair. Another flirtatious moment passes as Finn approaches with news he’s got a job, thanks to Rachel encouraging a local restaurant to hire him (“My friend Finn is handi-capable… My dads are gay, and unless you want the full force of the American Civil Liberties Union coming down on you… I’d work something out.”)
The Diva Off results in heartbreak, as Kurt purposely blunders the high F out of worry that his dad is getting harassed because of him (in the form of anonymous calls at work).
“That’s enough for the short bus AND two cases of Natty Light for the ride home!” says Puck as he presents the bake sale money to Artie on behalf of the glee club. But Artie turns it down, asking that instead it be used for a handicapped ramp in the auditorium to benefit all of the kids with disabilities in the school. He and Tina later share a romantic kiss – and some poignant words – but the moment quickly turns sour.
Coach Sylvester, following Figgins’ orders, carries out a seemingly nefarious plot to select a “special needs” cheerleader at her forced open auditions. To Shue, it looks like she’s only doing it to prove a point about the pointlessness of political correctness. Later, she mysteriously donates a large chunk of money to pay for the handicapped bus, to the consternation of Mr. Shue and Principal Figgins, who are convinced she’s up to no good. But in a moment that brought me to tears (yes, I’m emotional and high on cold meds, but still…) we found out that Sue’s got an older sister with Downs Syndrome – and a soft side.
The episode culminates with some truly powerful scenes, including a confrontation between Kurt and his dad, who is upset to learn that he blew the auditions and let Rachel get the solo. But when Kurt explains, touchingly, that he loves his father more than he loves being the star, we have to hold back tears yet again as we see the gratitude and love creep across his dad’s face: “You are your [late] mother… she was always the strong one.”
We get jolted out of our melancholy funk with another Glee-tastic number: the gang, wheelchairs a-spinnin’, belts out “Rollin’ on the River” with Mercedes and Artie taking the lead.
Photo credit: SpoilerTV
