Vitamin D

Vitamin D is the sixth episode of Glee's first season and the sixth episode overall. It premiered on October 7, 2009.

Will challenges the kids to a healthy dose of competition with boys against girls in a mash-up showdown. Meanwhile, Terri takes a job as the school nurse to keep an eye on Will, despite having no medical experience, and hands out drugs to the New Directions, which causes a serious boost of energy, but comes with a consequence.

The episode was directed by Elodie Keene and written by Ryan Murphy.

Plot
During Glee Club rehearsals, Will notices that the Glee Club has become increasingly lazy. He reminds them that if they coast at Sectionals, they'll be crushed at Regionals. However, his words have fallen on deaf ears.

During his lunch break in the teacher's lounge, Will confides in Emma about the Glee Club's growing laziness ever since it was revealed that they would be facing two easy Glee Clubs at Sectionals: The Haverbrook School for the Deaf and Jane Adams Academy. Emma suggests that he try a sticker board to motivate the Glee Club, but the two are interrupted by Sue, who can't ignore the "trickly sweet inanity" of their conversation. Sue reveals that every week, she chooses a Cheerio at random and then kicks them off the team. She explains that children need to be terrified in order for them to "grow," and suggests for Will to unleash the competitive nature of the Glee Club. Emma is disgusted, but Will believes that Sue has a point.

At the next glee rehearsal, Will introduces the concept of competition to the group. Since he feels the Glee Club has grown complacent, he suggests a mash-up competition, featuring a boys versus girls format. Rachel is all too eager to take the leadership position, confident that the girls will crush the boys. The boys, however, are not worried at all. Will notices that Finn seems to be really out of it, but Finn tells him that he's alright and walks to football practice with Puck.

In her office, Sue is writing in her journal about her depression and mentions that she remembers seeing Quinn quivering at the top of the pyramid at Cheerios practice. When asked if she was feeling alright, Quinn replied that she has been tired from Glee Club (A lie to hide her pregnancy). However, this reignites Sue's hatred for the Glee Club and tries to think of a way to bring it down. After remembering Will and Emma's flirtatious friendship, she comes to the realization that she needs to take down Will to take down the Glee Club.

Sue visits Terri at hers and Will's apartment to over-exaggerate Will and Emma's friendship by mentioning that Will is cheating on her. Terri is too quick to believe it, as she has been sensing that Will has been slowly pulling away from her. Sue suggests that Terri take up a job as the new school nurse since the position is open. In a flashback, it's revealed that Sue had purposely tripped the school nurse down the stairs, putting her into a coma. Terri applies for the position and manages to convince Principal Figgins to let her have the job by mentioning she has had first-aid training and has used a defibrillator.

Will meets Emma in the teachers' lounge where Will tells her about the mash-up competition in Glee Club. He asks her to be the celebrity guest judge because he feels she's the most honest and impartial person he knows. Just as he says this, Terri catches them and interrupts their conversation. She purposely licks her thumb and wipes it on Emma's mug to "wipe away" the lipstick on it, knowing full well that Emma has mysophobia. As surprised Will asks what Terri is doing at his workplace and Terri reveals that she is the new school nurse and will be around every week.

At a football team meeting, as Ken relays plays to the football team, Finn is struggling to keep himself awake. Finn reveals in a voice-over that he has been struggling with feelings between Quinn and Rachel. He also mentions that he has been struggling to keep up with growing pains, Glee Club, the football team, school, and popularity and is getting overwhelmed. The New Directions boys watch Finn as he struggles to stay awake in glee rehearsals. Artie mentions that they'll be doing a mash-up of Bon Jovi's Puck suggests that he see the nurse and take a nap.

At the girls' rehearsal, Rachel tries to rally the girls to start practicing, but none of them are motivated enough to do anything, confident that they'll win easily. Finn walks into the nurse's office and introduces himself to Terri. Terri, realizing that Finn is the one who is dating Quinn, takes an interest in him. Terri begins asking Finn about his sleeping habits and what he thinks about it. After Finn reveals that he's been thinking of other girls, Terri reprimands him (due to her own paranoia about Will and Emma), saying that even flirting is cheating and reminds him that the "revenge of the jilted woman is pretty messy." Terri then goes on to talk about how she captained the Cheerios, kept a perfect 4.0 GPA, cultivated her popularity, and maintained a "loving" relationship with Will. Terri then gives Finn pseudoephedrine to help him keep awake, saying that they are just like vitamins.

After taking the "vitamins," Finn comically walks into the boys' rehearsals super energetically and gives the rest of the guys the drug to enhance their mash-up performance, It's My Life/Confessions Part II, which is a big hit with Will, Emma and the girls. Will then tells the girls to bring out their best, otherwise the guys' number will be used for Sectionals.

Rachel goes to see Quinn at her locker to ask why she hasn't been in Glee Club lately, but Quinn rudely rebuffs her. Rachel tries to reassure Quinn that no one in glee will judge her and mentions that she doesn't hate her, despite what other people may think. Quinn is surprised by Rachel's kindness and Rachel walks away feeling good about herself.

Terri calls Howard at Sheets-N-Things and asks him to buy her thirty-six boxes of decongestants. Ken walks into her office to talk about Will and Emma's relationship. Ken reveals that he's been seeing them together all the time, while Terri mentions that they need to break them up. Ken suggests they hook-up to "cancel out" Will and Emma's friendship. Terri asks if Ken and Emma have stopped having sex, and Ken reveals that they've never had sex. Ken begins to break down before Terri tells him to man up. She then suggests for Ken to ask Emma to marry him. Ken is reluctant, but Terri gives him a box of decongestants and urges him to propose.

Rachel confronts the girls in the choir room as they all wonder how the boys did so well. Kurt walks in and reveals that the boys took performance enhancers, stating that his allegiance is with the girls since the boys rejected his ideas. Rachel angrily confronts Finn in the hallways about the drugs, but Finn tells her that he doesn't know what it's like to handle the pressure he's under. Rachel retorts that everyone has pressure and she handles hers with a rigorous diet and excerise. Finn then tells Rachel that she's only mad because the boys were good and the girls won't. This pushes Rachel and the girls to go see Terri and take the pseudoephedrines.

In the teachers' lounge, Terri and Will have lunch together as an energetic Ken robotically shreds papers. Will gets upset when Terri tries to lick mustard off his lip, and says that her being around his workplace is not good for their marriage. Terri doesn't believe it, but Will mentions that they have nothing to talk about anymore. Will leaves when Terri appears unreceptive to his words, so Terri encourages Ken to propose to Emma at that moment. Ken proposes, despite Emma being clearly uncomfortable. She is left speechless.

Having taken the decongestants, Rachel opens up their performance with a long-winded speech before segueing to their engertic performance of Halo/Walking on Sunshine. The performance is well received by everyone, just like the boys, and Will mentions that Emma will have her work cut out for her. Will then pulls Emma aside to talk about Ken's proposal and asks what she'll do. Emma counters if she'll have any other options, leading to Will to question if that's a reason to marry someone. Terri watches this exchange from afar and confronts Emma in her office, bluntly telling her that she has no shot with Will. Before she leaves, Terri tells Emma to marry Ken because he's available, unlike married Will.

Quinn runs into Terri in the school hallway and tells her that she'll agree to give the baby to Terri, stating that she loves the life she lives. She then asks Terri for money to pay for medical expenses, but Terri refuses and tells her that she can handle the nine months.

Emma goes to see Ken in the boys' locker room and explains that she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life alone. Ken then asks her if she's agreeing to the marriage proposal.

Finn confronts Rachel and calls her out on her hypocrisy. Rachel admits that she feels terrible for taking the drugs and apologizes for calling him contemptible and deplorable. Finn asks what they should do and Rachel suggests that they should drop out of the competition because it's the right thing to do. Finn agrees as they walk down the hallway together. Rachel then admits that she got caught up the competition and that her goals have been selfish and says that she should stop competing against the Glee Club and start competing with them.

Terri and Will are pulled into Figgins' office, where it's revealed that Howard was arrested because he was suspected for running a meth lab, as pseudoephedrine is an ingredient in meth. Will is angry and upset that Terri could be so irresponsible. Figgins fires Terri and tells Will that, as all of this happened under his watch, he is hiring a new co-director: Sue Sylvester!

The Glee Club get together to apologize to Will for taking the drugs. Sue comes in, all smiles, and the Glee Club is left feeling unsettled at the thought of her being the new co-director.

Emma meets Will in the hallway and tells Will that she is marrying Ken. Shocked, Will congratulates her, but is shown with a lot of disappointment on his face. The two part ways, but not before looking at each other one last time.

The episode ends with Rachel in her room, throwing away the decongestants as she plays Break My Stride on her radio and begins her routine exercises.

Background Songs

 * Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder. Played in Rachel's bedroom in her flashback scene as her work-out music.

Guest Stars

 * Patrick Gallagher as Ken Tanaka
 * Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins
 * Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez
 * Heather Morris as Brittany Pierce
 * Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang
 * Dijon Talton as Matt Rutherford
 * Kent Avenido as Howard Bamboo
 * Joe Hursley as Joe

Trivia

 * This is the first episode in which every song was released.
 * This episode starts the annual tradition of the "Boys vs. Girls mash-up competition," which took place in every season's sixth episode up until Season Four where it appeared in the fifteenth. No such competition was featured in the fifth or sixth season.
 * This is the first episode not to feature a solo.
 * This is the first and only episode that only contain mash-ups.
 * With just two, this episode contains the fewest amount of musical numbers in an episode.
 * Finn mentions that he got vaporized on Level 2 of Halo 3. However, Halo does not have any levels.
 * Sue mentions that she is not an American citizen and was born in the Panama Canal zone, but managed to get a passport and run for presidential office twice. This is a reference to Arizona state senator John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone and ran for the president of the United States in 2000 and 2008.
 * Terri says that the pseudoephedrine products are "over the counter" items that you can get in the store with no problem. In actuality, the U.S. government regulates the sale of pseudoephedrine products, limiting a person to how much they can buy in the store. Most stores scan the license and would prevent Terri from getting as many boxes as she did.
 * Terri mentions to Emma that Ken's "fondue pot of Nationalities" would leave any child they had open to a multitude of genetic diseases. A diverse ethnic background actually makes a person less likely to be affected by genetic disorders, seeing as faulty genes cancel each other out.

Errors

 * When all of the New Directions girls line up to get pills from Terri, there are two girls at the end of the line that are supposed to be stand-ins for Brittany and Santana. This is made especially obvious when the real Santana is seen standing next to Rachel.
 * At 33:52 Terri's shirt was pink and then in the next scene it is blue while talking to Quinn.

Quotes
"Sue: Dear Journal, feeling listless again today. It began at dawn when I tried to make a smoothie out of beef bones, breaking my juicer. And then at Cheerios practice: disaster! It was unmistakable. It was like spotting the first spark on the Hindenburg. A quiver. That quiver will lose us Nationals. And without a championship, I'll lose my endorsements. And without those endorsements, I won't be able to buy my hovercraft. Glee club. Every time I try to destroy that clutch of scab-eating mouth-breathers, it only comes back stronger like some sexually-ambiguous horror movie villain. Here I am, about to turn thirty, and I've sacrificed everything, only to be shanghaied by the bi-curious machinations of a cabal of doughy, misshapen teens. Am I missing something, Journal? Is it me? Of course it's not me. It's Will Schuester. What is it about him, Journal. Is it the arrogant smirk? Is it the store-bought, home perm? You know, Journal? I noticed something yesterday... Of course, it's coming clear to me now. If I can't destroy the club, I will have to destroy The Man!"

"Sue: I'm not an American citizen. I was born in the Panama Canal Zone. But I managed to get a passport. I've run for office twice. My advice to you, if you want to keep your husband, get creative."

"Finn: [voice-over] I can't get Rachel out of my head. She kind of freaks me out in a Swimfan kind of way, but her body is smoking... if you're not into boobs."

"Puck: We should get some trash lids and Stomp the Yard up in this piece. Artie: Puck, with respect, but you're more helpful when you don't contribute."

"Finn: [high on decongestants] I can't wait to do the number, let's do the number, and then afterwards we can build a house for Habitat for Humanity!"

"Rachel: You don't think people whisper about me in the lunchrooms? Or draw pornographic pictures of me on the bathroom walls. Quinn: That was me."