Glee club is supposed to be about camaraderie. They’ve gone on about this episode after episode, about how everyone is talented and special…and yet we never hear Rachel shut up, or have anyone but her and Finn sing the solos. But this episode of Glee was different. Oh, it was different, and in a very good way.

Will actually called Rachel out on her shit and told her to shut the hell up.

Excuse me while I do a little dance. This was too much of a long time coming. In that spirit, the majority of episode focused on the other members of the club, the voices that we so rarely hear. As Will said, they’re talented, and it’s a shame that we only ever hear them in the background the vast majority of the time. Their performance at sectionals finally shook that up.

Despite all of that, though, the first number of the episode contained Rachel, as she dueted with Kurt on “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” from the musical Evita. Now, I grew up on that musical, so you can imagine my excitement upon the first few chords. Overall, Rachel and Kurt’s performance could be very closely comparable to their earlier duet of “Defying Gravity” during the show’s first season. Rachel’s voice knocked it out of the park, and while I’ve always been a fan of how pretty Kurt’s voice sounds, it lacked the oomph that is required for a song like this. The contrast between them as they switched back and forth only emphasized that fact. If we’re talking emotion-wise, though, both of them definitely put in what was necessary for it.

Right. Not writing for a showtune blog. I keep forgetting that. Moving on.

Next up came the performances at Sectionals. The first group to perform was called the Hipsters, and in a truly hipster-esque ironic fashion, all the members were over the age of sixty. Hurr, hurr. They took the song “The Living Years” by Mike + The Mechanics, an incredibly popular song when it came out. Two decades ago. I’d have to sum up the performance as fairly bland, though I’m getting the feeling that that was what they were going for anyway. What was more amusing than anything was the structure of their performance: girl has solo, group joins in, African-American girl takes the end of the song. Hmm, where have we seen that before? I wonder.

The acapella group, Warblers, took the stage after with Train‘s “Hey Soul Sister” (aka the song that when it starts I keep mixing up with Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”…what’s with the ukulele trend these days?). Ignoring Kurt’s completely obvious lack of enthusiasm, the guys did a great take on the song, giving it a new life that I actually prefer to the original. Darren Criss’ voice has yet to disappoint me, even if he hasn’t sung a song yet that I’ve actually liked the original of. Well. I’ll admit that I cringed harshly at the “So gangster, I’m so thug” line coming from him, but it’s not like Train ever had any more of a right to say that. Ever.

Finally was New Directions. In a parallel to their regionals performance, the soloists came out from the back of the auditorium, but this time, it was Quinn and Sam instead of Rachel and Finn. While Quinn’s voice has never been particularly powerful, mixed with Sam’s, it was sufficient enough for “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (also known as that Dirty Dancing song that they never stopped playing on the radio for even ages after the movie came out).

The Zutons‘ “Valerie” was their second performance. Ooh, now we’re getting indie. I much preferred New Direction’s cover of it as opposed to Amy Winehouse’s well known cover (which seemed to be what the Glee version was based on, rather than the original). While the singing was good—I’ve always loved Santana’s voice—Mike and Brittany completely stole the show with their absolutely phenomenal dancing.

It wouldn’t be Glee without two things to end an episode: drama and a song. Finn and Rachel break up, and Emma announces her marriage to Carl. Sad faces for Rachel and Will are a go. In fact, Rachel’s so depressed, she refuses a request for a solo, instead giving it to Mercedes and Tina, who are two of the only members who haven’t actually been featured performance-wise this episode. Florence and the Machine‘s “Dog Days Are Over” wrapped this week up (oh god, more ukulele?!). It’s a very typical glee club end-of-episode performance, really, but it was good to hear Tina’s voice again. It wasn’t so much a serious performance rather than a victory dance of winning sectionals.

Next week’s episode is titled A Very Glee Christmas. I can’t even pretend to be surprised. Let’s see if I can push down my utter hatred of most Christmas songs by next week.

Glee Cast – “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” (Andrew Llyod Webber)

Glee Cast – “The Living Years” (Mike + The Mechanics)

Glee Cast – “Hey Soul Sister” (Train)

Glee Cast – “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes)

Glee Cast – “Valerie” (The Zutons)

Glee Cast – “Dog Days Are Over” (Florence and the Machine)