A Night of Neglect
It features the McKinley High glee club, New Directions, fundraising for a fellow extracurricular activity group by holding a benefit concert, while cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) attempts to thwart them.
The episode's comedy moments attracted some praise, though the guest stars and League of Doom plot were ill-received, as was the cutting short of a solo by Jenna Ushkowitz, and a rendition of Adele's "Turning Tables" by Paltrow, which critics found inferior to the original.
New Directions members Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.), Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) and Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) reveal they are on the Academic Decathlon team, which is also having funding problems.
Will's girlfriend, substitute teacher Holly Holliday (Gwyneth Paltrow), suggests holding a benefit concert for the Academic Decathlon team instead of selling additional taffy.
Former McKinley student Sunshine Corazon (Jake Zyrus), who defected to rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, is awarded the closing number at the concert after promising to bring her six hundred Twitter followers.
The targeted relationship begins to crumble anyway, when Will helps his former love Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) with her stress-worsened OCD, after she reveals that her husband Carl Howell has asked for an annulment.
They are confronted by closeted homophobic bully Dave Karofsky (Max Adler), who is forced to back down by Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), in retribution for previously throwing a slushie in her face.
Sunshine and her followers pull out of the concert on Dustin's orders, and Sandy and McKinley students Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman), Azimio (James Earl) and Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter)—the only other members of the audience—heckle the glee club.
Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), who on the advice of Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink) has spent the lead-up to the concert making outrageous demands on her fellow club members to gain greater respect from them, performs the final number: a powerhouse version of Aretha Franklin's "Ain't No Way".
The episode ends on the Academic Decathlon final's tiebreaker question, which is in the category "hermaphrodite Nazi sympathizers", a topic earlier taught in an irreverent history lesson by Holly.
[7] She eventually declined the request, as later revealed by Glee creator Ryan Murphy, because she felt the song would not have been appropriate to use in its proposed accompanying scene, but remained open to future suggestions as she mentioned that she had enjoyed the show.
[23] The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes lambasted the League of Doom plot, which, she wrote, consisted of "[two characters] whom viewers will barely remember, one who is super creepy, and another who fans despised".
[22] "It's nice to see Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Ushkowitz get a chance to perform, but making a spectacle out of it does nothing but point out the show's mistreatment of these characters outside of such special showcases.
He too praised the comedy storylines, particularly the League of Doom plot and the academic decathlon scenes, as: "it's this type of off-topic shenanigans (read: not about fitting in or Rachel Berry becoming a star) that breathes refreshing life into Glee and keeps reminding us how funny and entertaining this series can be."
Futterman wrote that Charice "pull[ed] out all the stops", with her cover of "All By Myself", which reached "power notes [that provided] a viable threat to Rachel and Mercedes' diva singing".
[22] The Wall Street Journal's Raymund Flandez commended her vocal "control and efficiency belying her young age",[30] Semigran called it a "stirring rendition",[11] and Gonzalez gave it an "A", her joint highest grade of the episode.
[30] In contrast, Reiter called it "a restrained rendition", but "prettily sung nonetheless",[27] and Gonzalez struggled to connect with the "uncharacteristically average" song, though noted that for Mercedes that is "still 10 times better than a normal person" and awarded it a "B+".
