The Rocky Horror Glee Show

This week Glee returned with their Halloween episode, and combined the scary and melodic by tackling the cult film classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The episode began with the big red lips that kicked off the original movie, singing "Science Fiction Double Feature." You can tell from the get go that they've done a great job of fitting into the Rocky Horror theme, especially as the cast's names are displayed like film credits into the first scene of the episode.

Another highlight of the show was the special guest. What better way to celebrate Rocky Horror than with an appearance by Meat Loaf, who played Eddie in the original film. Unfortunately, he doesn't lend his voice to the production, instead portraying a TV exec who's looking for Sue to expose the production as a corruption of the students at McKinley High.

While the narrative adheres to the usual Glee plotlines, I could've stood for some more immersion in the original movie. Personally, never having seen the original Rocky Horror Picture Show left me grasping at straws a little bit with their take on the musical, but as usual the cast delivers magnificently on all of Rocky Horror's Golden Age of Rock n' Roll style tunes. Luckily for me though, some of the characters were in the same boat. Finn gets the role of Brad in New Directions' musical, but he doesn't know anything about it, and gets self-conscious about his image.

John Stamos finally gets properly ingrained into the season, as he tries out for the play. He rocks the audition, and the whole cast gets ready to rock the Rocky Horror for the whole school. Meanwhile, Will steps into the role of the Rocky Horror character since it's too risque for Sam. He goes to guidance counselor crush Emma Pillsbury for coaching, and you can immediately smell the love triangle between her, Will and Carl (Stamos). She agrees to coach him, and breaks out into "Touch A Touch A Touch A Touch Me" while Brittany and Santana steal glimpses through a nearby window. The tension builds, until she rips off Will's shirt, at which point my wife said "Whoa!" with a hint of shock and delight.

However, Sue's adorable sidekick Becky spills the beans and tells Will that Sue thinks the show is an abomination, is only trying to help out because Meat Loaf put her up to it. Will realizes he's been set up, and confronts Sue, who stands by her decision. She maintains that the content is too shocking for high school kids, and Will realizes that he only decided to stage the production to impress Emma. So he cancels the show, leaving a somewhat anticlimactic finish.
Next Will goes to Emma and tells her about his feelings for her, but admits that it's actually Carl who is helping her overcome her obsessive-compulsive disorder. If he does love her, he believes, then the right thing to do is to let her go.

Finally, Will addresses the club and tells them his reasons for shutting down the production, admitting that he put on the show for the wrong reasons. He goes on to explain how when the original movie came out, it was popular among outcasts and people that were on the fringe. "Sound familiar?" he asks. They ask why they're not doing the show, which leaves a somewhat ill-fitting happy ending to this would-be creepfest of an episode. It ends with Rocky Horror's signature hit "Time Warp," while the cast seems not at all upset that they're only performing the show for themselves.

Next week: Puck is out of juvenile hall and returns to the action, making unlikely friends with Artie in the process.
 

Image used with permission by Mike Yarish, Adam Rose / FOX

Justin Starling (@CitadelNow) for Citadel Digital © 2010