The students form their duos and begin practicing, testing several relationships and initiating others; after first being recruited by Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), Sam ultimately finds himself partnered with Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron).

"Duets" received generally positive reviews from critics, and many praised the show for its character development and varied song choices.

Glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) announces a duets assignment and competition; the prize for the winning duo is dinner at Breadstix.

Santana believes her best chance of winning is by partnering with Mercedes (Amber Riley), and together they sing "River Deep – Mountain High".

Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and her boyfriend Mike (Harry Shum, Jr.) argue about whether they should duet at all, but he ultimately agrees to join her on "Sing!"

Rachel and Finn, dressed as a schoolgirl and a priest in an intentionally offensive move to damage their chances of victory, perform "With You I'm Born Again" by Billy Preston and Syreeta Wright.

[3] Rivera sought clarification on the nature of their relationship from "Sectionals" director Brad Falchuk, who informed her that the two characters had been intimate in the past.

[5] However, at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in August 2010, Murphy stated that the characters would in fact kiss on screen in an upcoming episode.

Morris told Jarett Wieselman of the New York Post that she is a fan of McHale's, and had been pressing Murphy to give their characters a storyline together since the beginning of the season.

[8] Series regular Mark Salling did not appear in "Duets", which prompted media speculation that he would not return to the show due to a breach of contract.

[9] Overstreet stated that Sam was initially created as a romantic interest for Kurt, but his storyline was adjusted to pair him with Quinn as a result of the chemistry the producers detected between himself and Agron.

[10] The episode featured cover versions of seven songs: Ike & Tina Turner's "River Deep – Mountain High", Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat's "Lucky", Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", "Le Jazz Hot!"

[24] In Australia, "Duets" drew 1.04 million viewers, making Glee the ninth most-viewed show of the night and twenty-eighth of the week.

"[34] TV Guide's Damian Holbrook and the Houston Chronicle's Bobby Hankinson appreciated the lack of gimmicks; the former explained "No Britney numbers.

[36] While The Atlantic's Kevin Fallon opined that the series finally achieved the correct "tonal balance of comedy and drama",[37] his colleague Meghan Brown provided one of few dissenting reviews; she called it a lazy, nonsensical episode which contributed to a building "sophomore slump".

[37] MTV's Aly Semigran found it lackluster after "Grilled Cheesus",[38] and although Anthony Benigno of the Daily News deemed it an improvement on the previous episode, he concluded that it was not one of the season's best.

Club was surprised that she did not miss the presence of cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester,[40] but Hankinson, Semigran and Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman all lamented her absence.

[2] Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack wrote that Kurt "stole the show in terms of pure emotional power" and called him "the most important character on television right now".

Online's Jenna Mullins was pleased to see more than her usual "deadpanning and one-liners",[43] and Wieselman called it a "wonderful moment" when she and Artie broke up, which led to the depiction of "real feelings" in Brittany for the first time.

[29] Canning found Brittany and Artie's coupling "uneven" and preferred her with Santana, as their development made them "uniquely interesting and a blast to watch.

"[41] Fallon said that the episode "added some flavor" to the relationship between Rachel and Finn, which was "in danger of going stale",[37] and Berk noted that "Duets" was the first time he had ever been "marginally compelled" by a storyline which involved the pair.

[44] Benigno was far less favorable: he called Rachel a lunatic, and a "self-absorbed crazy woman who will do anything short of black-ops assassination to secure the [Nationals] trophy.

Canning would have preferred for them to become friends first,[32] and Benigno deemed their sexual tension unrealistic, based on Sam's success at charming Quinn in Na'vi, the fictional language of Avatar.

[39] However, while Berk declared himself "fully exhausted with the flimsy cheerleader/quarterback paradigm", Sam's Na'vi and Matthew McConaughey impression led him to concede that they are "cute together".

[36] Wieselman suggested that Colfer and Michele "redefined show-stopper" with their performance,[29] and Itzkoff lauded it as "a powerful reminder of why it's worth sticking with Glee through what has quickly proved a polarizing season.

"[45] Of the remaining songs, Rachel and Finn's performance of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" attracted praise for Monteith's vocals, which Stack and Yahr commented "sounded better than ever".

Burns wrote that Kurt "pulled it off flawlessly",[37] and Fallon called the performance "far more moving and rousing" than any of the songs in "Grilled Cheesus".

[39][41] Reiter felt that the costumes and choreography overpowered the emotion of the piece,[28] and Futterman found the number "too self-indulgent and reminiscent of previous performances like 'Rose's Turn'.