Glee – Season 4 – Episode 8 – Recap – Thanksgiving

A kooky, fun, and best of all unpredictable Sectionals episode of Glee… whodathunk? All your favorite originals return and we are even treated to one of the most touching Kurt and Blaine moments in the show’s history. I love GLEE!

Check out the full recap for episode 8 of Glee season 4, Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving a week late? Yes please! Nothing like opening the show with a bang… several of the original Glee club members are home for the holidays and they sing “Homeward Bound / Home”, a mashup that’s part Phillip Phillips together. It’s not as folky as his rendition, but it’s still a blast. I missed Quinn!

Marley remembers her childhood dream of performing in front of a crowd; it’s finally going to come true, minus the Skeet Ulrich part. At Breadstix, Puck rejoices them all coming home for the holiday, and Quinn seems happy too despite still not visiting Rachel yet. For shame, blondie! She bought you the train ticket, the least you could do would be to actually… ya know… use it. Finn asks all the originals to come visit the glee club to be mentors; they’re obviously all legends at this point.

The pairings are kind of obvious, but cute: Marley with Santana, Puck with Jake, Ryder with Mike (okay, that one was a little weird), Wade with Mercedes, and Quinn with Kitty. With sectionals fast approaching, they could all use some mentoring. It’s basically just a convenient way to get back the original cast, but who’s complaining? I love it. Finn reveals they will be singing “Gangnam Stye” at sectionals, which most of the club seems a little wary about. Jake approaches Ryder about his date with Marley, hoping it “won’t make them mortal enemies again.” Ryder says he just wants the dance lead, and all’s fair.

Ryder shines for Finn while rehearsing for the big sectionals dance number with Mike. Ryder’s dance moves are all kinds of sexy, which is to be expected after seeing what actor Blake Jenner was able to pull off during The Glee Project. The boy’s got moves. Mercedes, Tina, Kitty, and Sugar, are over-the-moon for the trifecta of Quinn, Santana, and Brittany, and they perform a cute and instantly forgettable number (“Come See About Me”) to show how in sync they still are. After the number, Kitty ogles over Quinn, her dead-honest inspiration for everything she does in life. She tells Quinn her fake fears for Marley losing her V-card to Jake, which is definitely a bunch of hogwash. Marley grills Jake about not wanting to take the dance lead for sectionals and is afraid his reluctance to step into the spotlight over Ryder will cost them the sectionals win. He smiles that adorable Jake Puckerman smile, though, and all is right with the world.

Back in NYC, Rachel and Kurt are planning the holiday together, men-free. At dance class, Cassie is suspiciously absent, and TA Brody has stepped in her place. Rachel is understandably cold toward him at first, but his charm wears her down faster than you can imagine. He invites himself over to help cook for her and Kurt for Thanksgiving, and she doesn’t even attempt to protest. So much for a man-less holiday. Kurt also invites his amazing boss Isabelle, who says she wants to bring some friends. She also gives Kurt some timely advice about his ugly breakup, telling him that the first step to letting go is to accept Blaine’s apology. I wish Sarah Jessica Parker gave me advice whenever I needed it!

After her faux heart-to-heart with Kitty, Quinn not-so-subtly tells Jake to back off of Marley because she doesn’t need it right now, especially if they want to win sectionals. Santana then gets all up-in-Quinn’s-face after discovering laxatives in Marley’s bag that she’s sure were given to her by Kitty. The two clearly disagree on the girls and make nasty jabs at each other… and then it’s a double bitch slap as the two of them, Quinn first, slap each other across the face. Jake walks in on Ryder practicing for the dance all hot and sweaty and then he shows him a thing or two about the dancing. Ryder knows Jake is better, but Jake still wants to show him the ropes rather than taking over completely.

Brody is over helping with the turkey, and it kind of looks like he and Rachel are about to have sex atop it when Kurt chimes in. Manhandling a turkey romantically? Kinda awkward. When they finally have the turkey on the table, and it looks to be a nice small thing, a whole bunch of people show up at once. It’s the party Isabelle invited! Just when you think things might turn ugly, Isabelle shows up and so does an awesomely fun rendition of “Let’s Have a Kiki / Turkey Lurkey Time.” I wanna have a kiki!

Marley mentally prepares for the sectionals that are about to come and runs into Unique, who is all dressed in drag and ready to go no matter what anyone else may think about it. The whole glee club, old and new, joins together in a circle and readies for the intense night. Sectionals begins with the introduction of some weird judges, followed by two incredible Warblers performances in a row, “Whistle” and “Live While We’re Young”. As if it was possible to love “Live While We’re Young” anymore than I already did… Will, Emma, and Sue are in the audience for New Directions, waiting anxiously through a painful glee club snuggled in between the Warblers and New Directions.

My personal favorite moment of the whole night: before the New Directions goes on, Blaine gets a call from Kurt. He goes in the back to take it, and Kurt says that while he is trying to accept Blaine’s apology, he is still just not quite there. However, he wants to see him for Christmas and doesn’t want to lose his best friend. Blaine practically bursts into tears while Kurt is talking, and when the two say farewell and “I love you so much” it’s hard to not get choked up. After the call, Isabelle notices Kurt crying, and she pulls him in for a hug.

Marley has a breakdown backstage, too, and she is uber concerned that they won’t win sectionals. Ryder pulls Jake to the side and tells him that he doesn’t want lead dancing anymore; it’s all up to Jake now. They go on, and for once Tina has lead vocals. Their “Gangnam Style” is… fun. Funny. Pretty much everything you’d expect from the performance. Everything except for Marley collapsing before the song even ends. Didn’t really see that one coming.

Wow, a sectionals episode where we actually don’t know the winner till next episode? Scandal! For some reason I feel like the Warblers might have this one in the bag. New Directions had some kickass dance moves, though, so it could be anyone’s game. What did you think of tonight’s Glee? How solid is this season so far, because I’m totally loving it! Catch new episode of Glee every Thursday at 9pm on FOX.

Some of the night’s best quotes:

“I can sense it thanks to my psychic Mexican third eye.” -Santana
“Are you dancing, or impersonating a horny epileptic?” -Jake
“Quinn always was a genius slapper.” -Santana
“So did you do an apple pie 500 times before you had sex?” “That’s exactly what I did, but I wore a condom so I didn’t make any apple fritters.” -Jake & Ryder
“When you two are done using that turkey as a courtship device, would you put it in the oven cuz it’s almost 5 o clock.” -Kurt

Warblers Perform “Whistle”