Duets

Duets is the fourth episode of Glee's second season and the twenty-sixth episode overall. It premiered on October 12, 2010.

When Puck is sent to juvenile detention, Sam is introduced to the New Directions as a pseudo replacement. As well as a new member being introduced, Will also introduces a duets assignment to the Glee Club, offering a meal at Breadstix for the winning team. Kurt has his eye on Sam as his duet partner, but Finn tries to prevent them from being partners, thinking back to Kurt's crush on him the year before. Finn and Rachel plan to throw the competition so that Sam can have a shot at winning. Mike has difficulty singing as Tina assists him to create an entertaining duet, while Quinn and Sam begin a romance.

The episode was directed by Eric Stoltz and was written by Ian Brennan.

Plot
Will sets a duet assignment, offering a meal at Breadstix for the winning duo. He announces that Puck has been sent to juvenile detention for stealing his mother's car and driving it through a convenience store window, then driving away with an ATM in tow. He then introduces new member, Sam. Kurt suspects that Sam is gay, a certain clue being his dyed hair which Kurt can spot a mile away, and asks him to be his duet partner. Though Sam agrees, club co-captain Finn talks them out of partnering up, fearing that Sam will be subject to bullying for having a male partner. Kurt ignores him at first as he is still angry with Finn for his homophobic comments in Theatricality, the twentieth episode of Season One. After talking to Burt, who agrees with Finn, Kurt decides to break his partnership with Sam. Finn sings Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Rachel, who suggests letting Sam win the competition to boost club morale, make him feel a winner which will ensure he stays in the group and thereby increase their chance of winning at Nationals.



Brittany and Santana make out on Brittany's bed, but when Brittany suggests they sing Melissa Etheridge's Come to My Window together, Santana then refuses and trivializes their relationship. Santana believes her best chance of winning is by partnering with Mercedes, and together they sing River Deep, Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner. Attempting to make Santana jealous, Brittany pairs up with Artie, who rejects his ex-girlfriend Tina when she asks him to duet with her. Kurt sings Le Jazz Hot by himself, after choosing not to sing with his previous duet partner Sam, stating that when you're different and special, it sometimes means that you're on your own. His outstanding performance gains him a standing ovation from his peers.



Tina and her new boyfriend Mike duet on Sing! from A Chorus Line. Artie loses his virginity to Brittany, but is later informed by a very jealous Santana that Brittany was using him for his voice and dissolves their partnership. Brittany apologizes, but Artie does not accept the apology and declines Brittany's invitation to Breadstix, so she sadly goes alone.

When Sam has a slushie thrown in his face by bullies, Quinn helps him to clean up. He asks her why she is still in Glee Club and she said those people were there for her last year. Later, he asks her to be his partner and tries to teach her the guitar-chords for their duet. He tries to kiss her, when they're looking into each-others eyes intensively. Quinn, still haunted by her mistakes of the previous year, is frightened to become involved with a guy and pulls away, telling him they cannot sing together. Later, Rachel connivingly persuades Quinn back into her partnership, by saying she wants a fair competition. Quinn agrees and tells Sam in the hallway they are duet partners. Rachel and Finn, dressed as a schoolgirl and a priest, respectively, in an intentionally offensive move, performs With You I'm Born Again, hoping to damage their own chance of winning the competition. Sam and Quinn sing Lucky. All of the club members vote for themselves, except Finn and Rachel, who vote for Sam and Quinn, ensuring that they win the competition. Over dinner at Breadstix, they form a friendship, and Quinn tells Sam that he should pay, as that is the proper thing for a gentleman to do on what has become their first date.



As the scene at Breadstix ends, Brittany is by herself, nosing a meatball across a plate ala Lady and the Tramp. Noticing that Kurt is lonely, Rachel tells him how much the club members value him and asks him to duet with her for fun. The episode ends with them singing the famous Judy Garland/Barbra Streisand mash-up of Happy Days Are Here Again and Get Happy in a content mood in front of the rest of New Directions.

Unreleased Songs

 * With You I'm Born Again by Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright. Sung by Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry

Guest Stars

 * Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang
 * Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans
 * James Earl III as Azimio Adams
 * Max Adler as Dave Karofsky

Co-Stars

 * Jean Sincere as Librarian
 * Jonathan Wolf as Guy

Absent Cast Members

 * Jessalyn Gilsig as Terri Del Monico
 * Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester
 * Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury
 * Mark Salling as Noah Puckerman

Trivia

 * Kevin says his favorite dance was Mike Chang's in Sing!.
 * Naya and Amber said their favorite number they've done together is River Deep, Mountain High.
 * This episode was watched by 11.36 million viewers.
 * When Mercedes votes, she spells Santana's name as "Satan" making reference to Santana's mean nature. This is done again in Prom Queen, in which Kurt actually calls Santana "Satan" before correcting himself ("Go with God, Satan! ...Santana.").
 * Puck is absent in this episode, as he is in juvie.
 * "Viewing Party", an episode of "The Office", which aired a month later, was centered around the characters gathering at the home of a co-worker to watch this episode; Kevin McHale had appeared on the show as a pizza boy in "Launch Party", where Michael - who at one point in "Viewing Party" states that "the invalid" is his favorite Glee character - keeps him hostage after he refuses to honor a coupon.
 * The use of the term "scissoring" - a reference to a sexual position utilized by lesbian couples - marked a first in American network television, as well as the first time such a term had been used in a series with a wide family viewership. Its utterance garnered international media attention in publications such as the UK's Daily Mail.
 * Chris Colfer said that Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy was the hardest song he ever had to lip-sync and they kept messing up the words during filming because many sentences are repeated only with different endings.
 * When Santana and Artie are talking in the cafeteria, Dominic Barnes is seen behind them as a student at William McKinley High School. He currently portrays Trent, a member of the Dalton Academy Warblers.
 * This is the third episode (after Throwdown and Home) in which two duets are sung by the same two people.
 * When Brittany and Santana make out, Brittany says she wants to sing Melissa Etheridge's song, Come to My Window, which can be interpreted as a "coming out" song, featuring lyrics like: I don't care what they think, I don't care what they say, what do they know about this love anyway?.

Errors

 * When Santana chastises Kurt about doing his duet on his own (Victor/Victoria), Santana says, "it's like vocal masturbation," you can hear Brittany say, "That's so funny!" But, due to how the show is edited, Santana looks disgusted at her own comment, is saying something else, and Brittany isn't talking at all.
 * Artie tells Brittany that she never spoke to him, but in Preggers, Vitamin D, Sectionals, The Power of Madonna, Bad Reputation, Theatricality, and Journey she does.
 * When Brittany lifts Artie from his chair and carries him to her bed, right before she puts him down, he is obviously lifting his feet to prevent them from bumping into the bedframe.

Quotes
"Artie: Am I about to lose my virginity? Brittany: Before our duet, we're gonna do it."

"Rachel: Hey, I have something I want to talk to you about. Kurt: Please, not another pregnancy."

"He's on team gay. No straight boy does his hair to look like Linda Evangelista circa 1983."

"When you're different... when you're special... sometimes you have to get used to being alone."

"I was going to order us one really, really long piece of spaghetti, like in Lady and the Tramp. I've been practicing nudging the meatball across the table with my nose."

"I'm making this a competition."

"Watch and learn."

"Brittany: I'm really into you. Artie: ...okay."

"We will be the undisputed top bitches at this school."

"So freaking charming."

"Kurt: You have issues with me being gay. Finn: No. I have issues with the fact that you don't understand that 'no means no.'"