“As your friend, I respect your strange aversion to fun”- The First Time, Glee

In this episode, we saw Will Shuester once, for 30 seconds, and he had a total of one line. It was also the best episode of Glee in a very long time. I don't think these two things are unrelated.

I'm not sure where to begin, this is an odd moment for me because The First Time was like, good, and I genuinely mean actually good. Yes, there were a couple of odd moments and it completely dropped a lot of plots brought up last week but none of that mattered in quite the same way. What happened Glee? Where did this subtle, considered, well plotted and, at times, really moving show come from? I don't remember this version of Glee since some sections of the Prom episode. I was almost annoyed at it for being as sensible and normal as it was. Which I realise is stupid, because tonight Glee showed just what it could be and what it should be celebrated for; for being able to wade through the showmanship it gets bogged down in and find its heart.

Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, and by that I mean sex. I support any show that shows teen sex as something that is a) positive b) normal c) has no negative repercussions and d) fun. These are elements of teen sex that are rarely ever shown on TV; especially teen sex between same sex couples. So its obviously really great that we're finally getting to see things like this. Also good is that they didn't change the time slot to 9pm as I had heard they were going to; it would have been ridiculous to have done so. We saw no gratuitous sex scenes and nothing inappropriate to the time slot or the age range. Just sweet pre (possibly post) -coital shots. Well I hope they were pre/post cos Kurt and Blaine were still fully dressed. Hint- kids, if everyone's still wearing their clothes, you're doing it wrong. Yes I did laugh at the firelight glow of both the rooms; has any one ever lost their virginity in front of an open fire? No, well not since the invention of central heating. I loved Tina's description of her first time and that attitude should be voiced more often on TV; especially by female characters.

It was also interesting to see the different reasons for having sex. In many ways Finn and Rachel's sex could be seen as the beginning of the end for them. Not because of the sex, obviously, but more that they behaved throughout the episode as couple naturally growing apart to a certain extent. Sex was just a point on their road to breaking up. On the other hand, Kurt and Blaine just grew stronger and more in tune throughout the episode so for them, sex was shown as obvious cementing of their affection and respect for each other. The scene on the stage after after the show was very touching and I also enjoyed the scene in Blaine's bedroom. Although, this was mainly linked to the fact his room looks like it's from the set of Twin Peaks. What 17 year old boy's room looks like that- it felt like an anti-chamber to the Black Lodge? Also, Kurt's outfit was insane even by his crazy-arse standards. He looked like he was wearing a meta take on a leopard print cat suit. God knows what was going on. Also, who wears a tie to sit on your boyfriends bed and listen to Roxy Music?

The Beiste story line was also great (apart from the Artie aspect). Her love interests speech about wanting a woman not a girl was moving and wonderfully done. It was everything the first time Beiste's insecurities were brought up wasn't. It wasn't patronising or demeaning or confusing in it's message. I just wish he wasn't called Mr Cooter; I realise it an “hilarious” joke but well, I employed sarcasm quotes for a reason.

Another reason this episode worked above and beyond the normal Glee episodes was that the music fitted in with the episode. The songs made sense in the context, not because most of them were musical numbers, but because they had managed to make them fit in with the story and felt believable. Even the, frankly quite cheesy, UpTown Girls rendition at Dalton worked. It was fun and boppy and I loved the whole crazy thing even though I didn't understand two things about it:

1. Why was the stupidly hot and sexually available teacher reading a book call Learn French? Shouldn't she be reading a book called Teach French?
2. Why was Blaine dressed like a old man in a black and white film? Did he wake up that morning and decide he was incapable of wearing any clothes that weren't on the grey scale?

Back to point I started with; this episode showed no Will. He wasn't missed. Like even a little. I actually didn't really notice we hadn't seen him until half way through. His role has no substance, he's just a universally bad person and teacher. I have no investment in him. This is problematic as the adults, in many ways, need to be the grounding on this show if it wants to sustain itself long term. To maintain some semblance of reality the kids are the going to need to come and go, like students do, and the adults (teachers I believe they're called) have to stay and "hold the fort", as it where. So we have to have some kind of attachment to them. They only thing I want to see attached to Will is a machete.

What the episode also didn't show was the Trouble Tones (my soul dies a little every time I type that) and the Quinn/Shelby/Puck story line. Normally I would have a go at them for just dropping all that stuff for the message of the week: "This weeks Glee was bought to you by Teen Sex!" but I'm not, because the message story lines were better written, more involving and less inappropriate or tedious than the others. Glee often tries to do too much in terms of story and ends up not doing enough, or sometimes nothing at all, with them. This episode went minimalist and it paid off- they had time to do it all justice. Learn from this Glee. Less is more.

Things I didn't like:

- Artie was fundamentally creepy as hell in this episode. Why did no one say “Oh Artie, you're a 17 year old boy; talking to your middle-aged virgin PE teacher about her love life and trying to get her laid is the stuff of court cases”? Like in what school does this kind of shit go on? NEVER TALK TO YOUR TEACHERS ABOUT THEIR SEX LIVES. It's pretty basic.

- I ain't in love with Sebastian Smythe, not because he's causing hypothetical trouble with K&B, just because he was kind of dull and creepy (but not in a fun way).

- I was kind of (and by that I mean a lot) weirded out by the fact that Brittany was essentially raped and we thought it was ok to laugh this away because she thought it was an alien. I know they have this whole 'aint Brittany kooky' thing going on but there is a different between dim and mentally handicapped. Sometimes I worry which side we're meant to think Brittany is on.

So yes it wasn't a completely perfect episode of Glee but the things that bugged me didn't bug me as much as they usually do. This was because they were either not there (WILLIAM SHUESTER) or minor bits of scum on a sea of genuine, touching and well-advised water. Hmmm... do you know what wasn't well advised? That metaphor!

Final point: The fact we didn't get to see Kurt's Officer Krumpke is the biggest let down since us not getting to see him do a cheerleading routine while singing Celine Dion in French.