‘Glee’ season 5, episode 16 preview: Kevin McHale’s Artie and a secret in ‘Tested’

Next week on “Glee,” the show will air an episode in “Tested” that seems to struggle making up its mind between “silly” and “serious.” Still, all of them revolve around the common theme of intimacy. Good things can come out of it, but of course, so can many bad things.

If you haven’t seen the synopsis below already, it more or less gives away that one of the tentpole moments in this story is Artie finding out that he has an STD. So for those of you who thought that tonight’s “Bash” was completely wasting the character, you won’t be disappointed here:

“When the boys get tested for STDs, Artie tests positive for a disease and he’s forced to tell his sexual partners. Meanwhile, Kurt and Blaine have relationship issues when Blaine puts on his freshman fifteen.”

So let’s talk about the freshman fifteen storyline for a minute. Is that really something worth addressing? Typically, we’d say no, but given the constant concerns that “Glee” has over body image (even for the guys), we have no problem with it. What surprises us is mostly that someone like Blaine would suffer from this, given that he appears to be in pretty good shape, and has an opportunity to walk and stay fit courtesy of just being in New York and also being a student in NYADA. These are the opportunities that don’t really come to some of the students who spend their time shut away in a dorm most of the time.

What do you want to see on “Tested,” and do you think that this episode will be better than it looks or sounds on paper? Share some of your thoughts below, and visit the link here to read our full review of tonight’s episode. You can also sign up to get further updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: Fox