This week “Glee” was all about dreaming big, which was apparently a main theme in the John Travolta hit “Saturday Night Fever,” the movie whose soundtrack was featured in the episode.
Having been made in the ’80s myself, and therefore scorning anything my parents may have thought was cool, I was only vaguely familiar with most of the songs.
No one tell my mom, but I actually kinda liked the music.
Three of the glee club’s seniors (Mercedes, Santana, and Finn) seem to have no real goals or plans for after graduation, which is quickly approaching. So the teachers devise a plan to create a fake dance contest for which the three of them will be finalists. You know, to motivate them.
Side note: I always knew those ‘Student of the Week’ awards were rigged! I remember thinking, “Power of Suggestion, much?” when week after week mediocre students got bumper stickers for their parents’ cars. For the record, I only got one in my entire elementary school career, despite being the kid that spent recesses in the school library reading back issues of Reader’s Digest. And now you know more about my dorkiness than you probably ever wanted to know.
Back to the show.
Mercedes says she does have ambition and desire; she just doesn’t know how to get there. She wants to sing big bad songs that inspire people but is too s-s-skeered to try. She doesn’t know the first thing about moving to Los Angeles, finding an agent, or generally making it.
Santana just wants to be famous no matter what, which she learns is a mistake when her girlfriend Brittany posts a sex video of them on YouTube. Then again, it worked for Kim Kardashian… Meanwhile, Mr. Schue claims that her cover of “If I Can’t Have You” proves that she should go to law school to fight for “marriage equality.” Um, okay.
Rachel says that she can’t live without Finn, even if it means not going to New York. It’s a very sweet moment, actually. Rachel says that she’s always felt out of place, and she knew that when she got to New York, she’d be ‘home.’ But she tells Finn that ‘home’ isn’t some place, it’s someone, and it’s him. Awwww!
In another plotline, new character Wade approaches Rachel and Kurt and claims to be their biggest fan. His name is Wade, and he’s from a rival Glee club. He tells them that he feels inspired by them to be himself – or herself? Wade has an alter ego named Unique, and Unique likes her some sparkly dresses and sky-high heels.
Coach Sue coaches them to tell Wade to be Unique for their regionals, because Ohioans would never accept a cross-dressing teen and the New Direction’s competition would be sunk. The joke is on them, however, because Unique steals the show.
“I cannot believe Unique pulled that off,” Mercedes tells Kurt. He responds, “Something to be said about the power of a dream… took a risk and it paid off… but I guess that’s just having a dream.”
The key thing to remember with dreams is that they’ll stay dreams unless action is taken to make them reality. It’s scary as hell, and you’ll probably fail more than you succeed, especially at first, but how primeval would life be if Wilber and Orville hadn’t turned to each other one day and said, “Let’s make something fly”? Does anyone else picture the Wright brothers as Phineas and Ferb? Just me? Moving on…
The episode ends with Santana getting a cheerleading scholarship, so at least she can get an education while she figures out what she wants to do. Finn decides that he wants to pursue an acting career in New York while Rachel tries to make it on Broadway. Resident cutie-patootie Sam puts a video of Mercedes singing on YouTube, where it didn’t get quite as many views as Santana and Brittany’s sex tape, but it does get a great Internet reception. Sam tells her, “It’s time for your dream to stop being a dream and become a reality.”
Dream big. Then go do something about it.
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