Glee Review: “What The World Needs Now” (Season 6, Episode 6)

Glee continues its somewhat schizophrenic-in-quality final season with a bit of a valley this week, especially when considering the past few peaks the show hit with “The Hurt Locker” two-parter. “What The World Needs Now” was admirable in its laser-focus in on a few dropped-by-the-wayside relationships (Santana/Brittany and Rachel/Sam), but it had none of the infectious silliness – courtesy of Jane Lynch, with not a single scene in the entire hour – of the last few episodes of the season.

And you kind of know from the get-go what kind of episode you’re going to get when Sam and Rachel break off into a duet of “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” before the opening credits. The episode is jam-packed (and, perhaps, overstuffed) with songs all written by composer Burt Bacharach, and though there’s some awesome 60’s throwback moments (the eponymous song provides fuel for the episode’s finale), most were a bit too same-y sounding to this layman to make any sort of lasting impression.

So, despite Sue’s hypnotization seemingly failing last week, Sam and Rachel’s fling has survived. But neither shows up for their date at Breadsticks, both too afraid to commit and using lame excuses as their reasoning behind bailing before even trying. Thankfully, Sam’s own lame excuse shows up at McKinley in the form of iTunes’ 89th single hit-maker Mercedes Jones. It’s good to see her back, and meddling in attempting to not only get Rachel to move back to New York (where she believes her “endgame” is), but also to give it a shot with Sam (which, in retrospect, are sort of conflicting goals). There’s just not much else for her to do.

Brittany and Santana take up most of the spotlight here, following Brittany’s parents’ (Ken Jeong and Jennifer Coolidge, of course) big revelation that her real father is none other than Stephen Hawking. Guess that explains all the Rain Man stuff? Sure, Glee, sure. Elsewhere, Brittany goes on a mission to convince Santana’s close-minded abuela to go to the two’s wedding by disguising herself as a nurse and bringing her on the Latina version of Fondu for Two, Queso por Dos (which, fans will be happy to hear, Univision has picked up for two more seasons).