‘Glee’ season 4, episode 12 review: Did Dianna Agron’s Quinn save Rachel?

Lea Michele“Glee” Thursday night was about something pretty controversial in young people taking off their clothes … but strangely, it still managed to be one of the best overall products of the season. There was a strong message here, but it was not shoved down our throats so much as reinforced through storytelling: you don’t have to pose in next to nothing in order to feel good about yourself.

Luckily, Rachel had both Quinn and Santana there to help shake her out of that, as she came a few seconds from exposing herself for a student film. The two ladies showed up at the request of Kurt, who realized that she was quickly evolving into a sort of self-obsessed starlet who was tuning out the Rachel that we came to know and root for the first few seasons.

While this story was largely about Rachel, did you notice that little hint that Santana is thinking about moving to New York? We’ll get to that more next week…

Back at McKinley, there were stories about body issues on two separate extremes. Artie did not feel comfortable stripping down for a Men of McKinley calendar to raise money for Regionals, since he (like many guys) was not so comfortable with taking his shirt off. Meanwhile, Sam was gallivanting around like a member of the “Jersey Shore” cast after he convinced himself that there was pretty much nothing else he was good at after he bombed on his SATs.

Luckily, Blaine was there to lend a helping hand. Yeah, it’s true that he was pretty motivated by a little crush that he has, but he convinced Sam that there was so much that he was good at beyond just taking his shirt off, and he decided to take some more conservative poses in the calendar to help Artie feel comfortable. The only thing sweeter than this? Seeing Marley and Jake finally say “I love you” to each other … and then ending things with our favorite new song of the year in “This Is the New Year.”

What did you think about this episode, and were there any moments in particular that made you tear up? If you want to watch some clips from this hour, you can do so over here.

Photo: Fox

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