Glee/Recap/S2/E07 The Substitute

Summary
Will walks into McKinley one day to find out that Sue is principal after getting a sick Lauren Zizes to sneeze on Figgins. Sue makes it her first order of business to DESTROY THE GLEE CLUB. Zizes later sneezes on Schue, who decides to stick it out... until he sees that his Glee Club students have become young children. He then goes home, where after a few days, his ex-wife Terri comes to take care of him at the request of one of his neighbors. Terri tells Will that she does really still care about him. Meanwhile, at McKinley, Kurt is not happy that Rachel has taken over Glee club. He asks Holly Holiday, who subbed for his English class before and is currently subbing Mr. Schue's Spanish class, to take over Glee. She proves herself to be relatively Genre Savvy, if a bit on the cheesy side, and does not fall victim to the Glee clubbers' pranks. She asks the students, unlike Mr. Schue, who has over the past two weeks been flanderized so that all he wants the glee club to sing are Journey songs, exactly what they want to sing.

Sue tries to find a cause during her time as principal. She starts off with disbanding the football team, but after Bieste points out that if she does that, the Cheerios will have no one to cheer for, Sue decides to ban tater tots. Mercedes does not take this well, going to Coach Sue to complain and starting protests. Rachel is not happy with Holly, in part because Holly's don't-think-about-the-consequences ways are a Foil to Rachel's more organized ways. Rachel tries to get Mr. Schuester back so that they can get back to their normal schedule. However, after Rachel and Holly get along after Holly lets Rachel have a solo in glee club. Rachel's point that Sue likes Holly better than Will worries Will, and so he is willing to accept Terri's help so he can get better. After Terri brings out the rub-in menthol, they end up having sex. Karofsky is still freaked about how  in the previous episode and threatens to kill Kurt if he tells anyone. Will comes back too late to claim his position, as Sue has fired him and replaced him with Holly, who is not giving up her position. They do, however, discuss their teaching methods and meet later. They have some beer together and Holly admits that she isn't a very good teacher, because Holly let Mercedes out of class so that she could shove tots up Sue's tailpipe and doesn't know how Sue punished Mercedes.

Mercedes is shown to be a third wheel in Kurt and Blaine's new friendship, as she can't really connect when they talk about gay issues. Kurt calls her on this and gets her to give up her tot-sneaking ways and ask out the wide receiver on the football team. Sue realizes that while Holly was fun and that she doesn't like Will, Will is ultimately a better teacher and ally than Holly and gives Will his job back. Will wants to get the Glee club to do a song from his favorite thing when he's sick: Singin in The Rain. He enlists Holly's help so that he can make the number modern, and so the episode ends with a mashup of "Singin' in the Rain" and "Umbrella" by Rhianna.

Songs from this Episode

 * "Forget You" by Cee-Lo Green performed by Holly Holiday and New Directions
 * "Nowadays/ Hot Honey Rag" from Chicago, performed by Holly Holiday and Rachel Berry.
 * "Make 'em Laugh" from Singin in The Rain.
 * A mashup of "Singin in The Rain" and "Umbrella" by Rihanna, performed by Holly Holiday, Will Schuester, and New Directions.

This episode contains examples of
"Mercedes: Any non-black activities? Kurt: I don't know. My google search was a little..."
 * Ascended Meme: the glee version of "Forget You" became one of the best selling songs in the show's run, and Gwyneth Paltrow sang "Forget You" with Cee-Lo Green at the Grammys.
 * Berserk Button: Do not take away Mercedes' tots.
 * Bowdlerization: The song "Forget You" was originally "Fuck You".
 * Comfort Food: tater tots for Mercedes.
 * Flanderization:
 * All Will wants to do are Journey songs
 * Kurt and Blaine have their Camp Gay traits taken Up to Eleven.
 * Genre Savvy: Holly's been subbing for a while and knows all of the usual tricks.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holiday.
 * It's All About Me: Rachel, when she takes over Glee club.
 * Token Minority Couple: Kurt sets Mercedes up on a date with one of five black guys in the school.

"Sue, holding up broccoli: Do you know what this is? Mercedes: A toilet brush. Sue: This is broccoli. When I showed this to Brittany, she started to whimper because she thought I had cut down a tree where a family of gummy bears lived."
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm: Sue takes over the school.
 * You Fail Biology Forever: Mercedes and Brittany do not know what broccoli is.