The whole point of the judges is that they don't know anything about show choir, so it's possible they would hand the title to a less-deserving school. Whereas for the Glee kids, this is a really big deal for them — their only shot. To me it's about how you can work incredibly hard for something, but it's up to luck…

He was last seen selling pot to Puck in the wheelchair episode. Why wasn't he a judge at sectionals?! That would've been amazing. But he'd be too biased, I suppose. Biased for or against McKinley, I don't know…

Nate and Serena
need to get it on. that is all.

yeah, congrats. your wife-to-be is a lucky woman… if my boyfriend reviewed Gossip Girl for a living, I would have tied him down in a heartbeat. after making sure he didn't have a thing for Chuck Bass, that is.

martinis
it's all about the dirty vodka martini. best with Kettle One, blue cheese-stuffed olives (or giant Costco olives), and a splash of bitters, served in a Riedel Sommeliers series martini glass. Steve and Genevieve, you need to put that glass on your Christmas lists — it will blow your mind.

ditto on being afraid that this was the end of the recaps. I like Erik's take on things, it's more traditionally critic-y than Daily Intel's reality index or Gawker's… I don't even know what to call their style of reviews (are they even doing them anymore?).

Eric and Jonathan
It's going to be epic when Eric eventually decides he's had enough of Jenny's shit and he and Jonathan start enacting their revenge.

Ah, I totally forgot about Heroes. It's weird that her character there was also called Charlie, since it aired around the same time as Ugly Betty (right?).

what's wrong with Jayma Mays?!
She's great as Emma, and it's nice to see her in a sympathetic role after her turn as Henry's vengeful, pregnant ex on Ugly Betty.

I liked the introduction of Vanessa's mother — she's such a sanctimonious hippie, it makes Vanessa look normal . The writers are doing a much better job with V's character development than with Serena's (the "I'm going to search for my father" thing seriously came out of nowhere).

Chuck had the best line of this ep for sure.

a true first
Vanessa looks great, for once.

The Chase
… was one of the first CDs I ever bought. There's a lot of crap on it, but Every Now and Then is a great song.

Georgina
At first I couldn't believe that Georgina would be so easily duped by Vanya… she has assumed at least three false identities over the course of the series so far, and she isn't even a regular.

Vanessa should have picked up on the Scott thing earlier. He obviously wasn't into her, and was always going on about the Humphreys. Maybe she did sort of get it and the seminar thing made it all click? Anyhow, good riddance.

"reek havoc"
Is this a play on the baked beans? If so, nice.

People who don't like this movie tend to fall into one of two categories: city kids who don't realize that this is EXACTLY what it was like growing up in a small, rural town in the late 90s, and people who think that it's making fun of the dorky characters.

Dan's a douche
Did he forget that Georgina pretended she was someone else in order to sleep with him to get back at Serena? People don't recover from that kind of crazy.

I think there's a lot of variation in the quality of the episodes and agree with Erik that this one was kind of a wash. it seemed like they spent the entire time very obviously laying the groundwork for what is to follow.

I have no issue with Blake Lively's cleavage, but why the costume dept. feels the need to put her in unflatteringly short, tight skirts, rompers, etc. is beyond me. She's a babe! Stop making her look bad! Maybe they had to ugly her up so the rest of the cast wouldn't feel bad (I'm looking at YOU Jenny Humphrey).