Glee S4 Ep5 “The Role You Were Born To Play”

Shannon Beiste plays relationship counselor to Will and Emma

All in favor of Coach Beiste taking over relationship counseling at McKinley raise your hand.

Meanwhile, Emma and Will are receiving some counseling over this D.C. dilemma. Will wants Emma to go – this is a great opportunity for both of them! Emma counters she isn’t a 50’s housewife and shouldn’t be expected to follow her not-even-her-husband-yet and sacrifice her career. Their counselor? The awesome Coach Beiste who gives an inspiring speech couched entirely in sports terms. (I’m going to be honest, I don’t want to know what compression shorts smell like or what they have to do with this situation.) But her heart is in the right place. You do have to know when to punt and when to pass.

Will thinks he knows what Shannon is saying so he calls a time out (well played!). He starts over. He shouldn’t have expected her to come – he should have asked. So, Will earnestly and sweetly asks his equal partner to accompany him to D.C. When Emma says she’ll go, Shannon sees the lie and Will… does not.

The “Grease” brain trust needs to find a Danny now that Blaine has demurred. They run down their options. Sam? No, he has his heart set on Kenickie (something about knocked out with a car door and wanting to recreate it on the stage). Joe? No, he won’t cut his dreads and wigs don’t work. Seriously. Puck’s brother? He’s not on the cast list. Curses!

What to do? Well, back in the day, Mr. Schue had a similar problem finding leading men for New Directions, which is why he went looking. And found Finn! Because he’s a literalist, Finn returns to the scene of the crime. The football field.

He and Coach have a friendly chat on the bench. She encourages him to keep trying to find his confidence – this is the biggest change of his life. He’ll figure it out. Finn asks if there are any “Finns” on the field right now. They both notice an enthusiastic end zone dancer, who seems oblivious to the seriousness that is high school football in Ohio.

Finn meet Ryder, your new project. As played by the Glee Project Winner. Ironic, no?

Ryder Lynn (“Glee Project” winner Blake Jenner) has flunked out of his old school and transferred to McKinley which is clearly an indictment of their educational standards. Nice kid but kinda goofy and a loner. Possibly lazy.

He is Finn!

Coach feels like Finn is the right guy to unlock Ryder’s potential. And now the transformation from Finn to Will is complete – he has a project student!

In the girl’s bathroom, Marley is surprised by Wade exiting a stall. “I sit when I pee” seems enough of an explanation, and the two start talking about the upcoming auditions. Marley is of course going out for Sandy and Wade feels born to play Rizzo – but won’t try out since she assumes they’ll make her take a boy role instead of the one she wants. Marley has faith Artie et al will allow her to try out and encourages her to do so. Side note: Give me all the Marley/Wade (Unique) friendship, please and thank you! They have a nice chemistry and Marley’s kind acceptance is exactly what Wade needs. And frankly, Unique will work to knock Marley out of her comfort zone. A perfect match.

Unfortunately, their sweet moment is interrupted by Sue, who is in full evil bitch mode. She savages both teens, shooting down the idea of Wade auditioning for Rizzo with a deck gun on the S.S. Bigot. She’s so caught up in her ranting insults she can’t even come up with a proper smack down nickname for Marley. Darn it.

Does this trample the dreams of our nice kids? Oh no. In fact, it spurs them to flounce out the door on their way to audition. Their song? Pink’s “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” – cheeky and two snaps up, thank you and goodnight. They sound good together, enthusiastic and happy, egging each other on to be more and more sassy on the stage. It’s a great showcase for their growing friendship. And Wade is Unique on stage, exactly as she wanted, thanks to Marley’s support.