‘Glee’ Recap: New Directions Say Goodbye to Whitney Houston, and Each Other, in ‘Dance With Somebody’

Graduation is right around the corner, and emotions are running high at McKinley High. This week, the club decided to honor the music of the late, great Whitney Houston, and PopCrush is here to recap everything.

The show opens on Mercedes, Santana, Kurt and Rachel singing the phenomenal isolated vocal version of ‘How Will I Know’ that made the internet rounds following Whitney’s tragic passing. From the way that Mr. Schuester looks on, it’s apparent that he feels the Glee club slipping away, and doesn’t want to see them go.

After Emma suggests to Will that the kids’ grief over Whitney is a physical manifestation of a deeper pain, he assigns the songs of Whitney Houston to the club, hoping it will help them address the feelings they have about leaving high school and beginning their new lives. Few members feel this pain deeper than Blaine, who is upset over Kurt’s impending absence.

Kurt goes to the sheet music store to learn his song for the week, and he meets Chandler, an enthusiastic (and cute) music nerd who’s his age. Chandler snags Kurt’s digits.

Brittany shows off her moves to a rendition of ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody,’ and pulls Santana into it with her. Soon, the whole club is dancing in the choir room, except for Quinn. She’s starting to feel like the wheelchair is where she’ll spend the rest of her life, and when Joseph notices her despondency, he offers to accompany her to physical therapy to support and help her work through it.

Will is going nuts over he and Emma’s wedding, trying desperately to move the date to May in order to accommodate a performance by the Glee club before they all move away. It seems that he’ll do anything to have them in his life for as long as possible. The kids aren’t the only ones coping with loss.

Kurt has been getting flirty texts from Chandler for a few days now, and when Rachel confronts him about it, he brushes her off, saying that it’s okay as long as there’s no hanky panky. Blaine does not feel the same way, and after discovering the texts, gives an emotional performance of ‘It’s Not Right But It’s Okay.’

It looks like Joseph and Quinn have been getting pretty close, and after they perform a flirtatious version of ‘Saving All My Love For You,’ Joseph goes to Sam for advice. Sam tells Joseph that the rules of the Bible aren’t meant to be taken so literally anymore, but that the most important thing is that he follows his heart. Quinn doesn’t feel that she’s worthy of being liked by Joseph. “He’s not into me,” she says, “and I don’t blame him.” It seems, though, that he really does want to be with her, and stay strong in his faith at the same time.

Santana gets an unlikely duet partner in her version of ‘So Emotional:’ Rachel. These two have hated each other since day one, but during their song together, we get a taste of how powerful they can be as a team. Afterward, Rachel approaches Santana to make amends, and they admit that they’re actually going to miss each other. With all the big issues that this show tackles, it can still make a simple friendship seem profound.

Always the fastidious one, Kurt is getting a head start on packing for his move. His dad sits him down and tells him that he’s going to miss his son, but also that life is just too short, that things will always change too quickly. Kurt sings ‘I Have Nothing‘ for the club after after realizing that there’s too few days to stay apart from Blaine. The two go to couple’s counseling with Emma, and Blaine admits that he’s mad at Kurt because Kurt is leaving him behind. Kurt swears to Blaine, “You aren’t going to lose me.”

Now that Blaine and Kurt have made up, they go to the auditorium together for an informal Glee club practice. Mercedes and Artie are there, singing ‘My Love Is Your Love.’ Blaine and Kurt join in, and then Rachel and Finn are there too, and the rest come in, and everyone is singing together. Nothing is forever, so it’s up to them to make the most of their fleeting time together.