Glee - Mash Off

Things heat up on the latest episode of Glee as Puck (Mark Salling) proclaims his love to Shelby (Idina Menzel), Finn (Cory Monteith) and Santana (Naya Rivera) begin a war of insults that will end with one of them in tears, and things turn negative in both the school and state elections.

Instead of making us wait for a the first number, things get started right off the bat with Puck's dream sequence of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" which turns into a performance for the glee club. Musically it's by far the best number the show has put out, but it fits very well thematically with where the Puck/Shelby relationship seems to be headed.


On the election front, Sue (Jane Lynch) goes negative in her campaign with a ridiculous ad campaign about Burt Hummel's (Mike O'Malley) "baboon heart" that leaves several Ohio voters actually believing Kurt's (Chris Colfer) father is living with a monkey's organ. Things heat up in the school elections as well as one of the candidates refuses to go negative and another decides to drop out of the race and support a friend.

But the real story here is the annual mash-up episode as New Directions and the Troubletones each put together their own number. Things get started with a duet by Mr. Shue (Matthew Morrison) and Shelby with You and I (by Lady Gaga) and You and I (by Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle) which is good enough to even get Santana to stop insulting Finn for a couple of minutes.

The competition between New Directions and the Troubletones heats up enough that it must be solved on the dodge ball court set to an amusing mash-up of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot and Blondie's "One Way or Another."


The episode ends the two teams taking the stage each performing their own mashup and Finn finally having enough of Santana's taunts, but his response will have much more serious repercussions for the cheerleader than anyone could have guessed. New Directions' choice of a Hall & Oates mashup ("I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" and "You Make My Dreams") is fun, but the Troubletones' mashup of Adele's "Rumour Has It" and "Someone Like You" is the better performance.

Aside from providing some of this season's most fun musical numbers, "Mash Off" a strong episode that will have serious repercussions for Santana, as as spending the time to mend fences between Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt and give politicians a moral lesson that negative campaigning will always come back to bite you in the ass.