Glee - Wheels

Glee - Season 1, Episode 9: "Wheels". Original Air Date: 11 November, 2009.

This one's just summary, sorry.

This episode's primary focus is Arty, which is awesome, because he has yet to have his own episode or song. The problem is, the school won't front the money to get the Glee Club a wheelchair accessible bus to sectionals, so the club needs to fundraise in order to afford it. Arty gets his own solo, and we learn that he likes Tina. When Will suggests that everybody does a bakesale, the kids are less-than-enthusiastic; disappointed with their decision, he makes them all spend three hours a day in a wheel chair, and they have to prepare a wheel chair number. At first, it's not very easy for them at all. The club really pulls together for Arty, and they raise the money necessary to get the wheelchair accessible bus, but he tells them that he'd rather the money go to installing a ramp in the auditiorium. When they go to tell the principal this, everyone is shocked to discover that Sue has already donated enough money for multiple ramps to be installed throughout the school.

At the same time, Quinn continues to press Finn for financial support. Finn is trying, but no jobs are hiring, and in the meantime, Puck keeps trying to move in on Quinn. He says that people say he's a screw-up because he doens't care for school, but he would never desert his family. We can see that the sparks between the two of them aren't completely gone, but Quinn remains adament that she doesn't need him. I feel bad for Finn, because he's doing what he can. I mean, this is a difficult situation for both of them, but I can't imagine any of my male friends from high school really being able to do so much to help, especially if no place will give him a job. And I still think that Quinn is being a total jerk in being dishonest with and using Finn. At the same time, however, I think that a teenage father should step up and do what he can to help the mother. As if things aren't hard enough for her. Rachel has an idea for Finn: she goes to a store and tells the manager he needs to hire Finn because he's disabled and not hiring him could look like discrimination.

And then there's the issue of the song to sing. They're going to do "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, one of Kurt's absolute favourites. Initially, Will won't let Kurt try out for the solo, but after Kurt complains to his father, and the father gets the principle involved, they arrange to have an audition between him and Rachel. Kurt's father receives an anonymous phone call that says, "Your son's a fag," before hanging up. This clearly bothers him, so Kurt misses the high note in the diva-off so that his father doesn't have to go through more of that than necessary.

Sue has to hold try-outs for someone to replace Quinn on the Cheerios. She picks a girl named Becky who is mentally disabled [sorry, I really don't know with what or how to call it], and Will is freaking out, trying to discover her angle. At the end of the episode, we see that Sue's big sister is like Becky. I guess, if there's anything Sue has a heart for, it's disability.

Arty and Trina go on a date in wheelchairs, and it seems like it's going very well. Trina gets up and kisses him and then admits that she's been faking her stutter since middle school. This really offends him, something, it seems, she did not take into account.



Things I liked:
I like that there are multiple male cheerleaders, and they're not portrayed as anything but male cheerleaders, none of the silly things that come along with the label.
Kids are busier than when Shu was in school. They've got "homework, football, teen pregnancy, lunch?"
Kurt's father to Kurt: "It's not about a guy, 'cuz I'm not ready to have that conversation."
Arty tells Tina the story of how he was in a car accident. "I still retain the use of my penis." Oops.