'Glee' Season 3, Episode 12 Recap & Song List - 'The Spanish Teacher'

It was a tale of two guest stars in "The Spanish Teacher," as Ricky Martin dazzled with she-who-must-not-be-named showed up yet again, further giving me doubt in Ryan Murphy's taste.

Martin was of course charming and fun to watch in his musical numbers, but what was surprising was the adeptness with which he handled the dialogue. He's no Brando, but the guy held his own among guest stars with little to no acting background. Well done Ricky.

And then, on the other side, there was NeNe Leakes. If I have to hear that woman speak another word on this show, I might lose it. The worst part is that not only is she a terrible actress, but she also delivers her lines in the slowest way possible, making what should be a 30-second scene a five-minute affair. Watching her spit out a line and then turning around and watching Jane Lynch speak is like watching Federer play a tennis match with a three-legged turtle.

This was also the first of at least two Blaine-less episodes, as he's still recovering from his eye slushie incident (read: doing a two-week run on Broadway), and it showed. Maybe it was because I couldn't understand half the words to the songs that were being performed (it was like they were being sung in some kind of foreign language or something!), but they just lacked the oomph that the big numbers usually have.

Perhaps because of the lack of Blaine, this was mostly an adult-centric episode, with most of the attention on Will. See, there's a tenure position at McKinley that just opened up, and Will wants it so that he can start a family with Emma. The only problem is that Will knows shockingly little Spanish for a Spanish teacher, so he takes night classes. That's where he meets David Martinez (Ricky Martin), who just so happens to also be into Glee clubs.

The prospect of a Will episode isn't terribly exciting at a point where his character has become a non-factor in most storylines, but it was at least interesting to see him truly challenged by something, as opposed to his usual float-throughs. He had a motivation (Emma and his family) for this position, and the stress showed when he struggled with it (hence his blow-up at Emma, one of few jerk moments from Will).

But since Will was so much of a joke throughout the episode, and mostly just a device to allow Santana to give a speech about stereotypes, we never really got to root for him. We did, however, root for Emma, whose cuteness knows no bounds and whose new set of pamphlets were one of the better sources of humor in the episode.

Emma also dealt with almost everyone's business this episode, as she uncovered Sue's reason for wanting Will's sperm as a donation. Yes, Sue wants to be a mother, and yes, she went to Will. Thankfully, that completely out-of-character moment was explained somewhat by Sue admitting her bouts of rage and how she thinks it could be undercut by Will's kindness... but still, you'd think Sue would never stoop that low. The "Please Don't Hog My Fiance's Nog" pamphlet was priceless, though.

Mercedes and Sam also went to Emma for advice about their relationship issues, which seems unlikely but hey, it's all make-believe here. Emma's suggestion was that Mercedes and Sam not speak to each other for a week, which didn't accomplish anything by the end of the episode.

Kurt and Finn had a pretty nice scene after Kurt found out about the engagement from Rachel. Kurt thinks that both Rachel and Finn are throwing their futures away with this decision, which seems a little harsh. Why hasn't anyone considered that Finn could move to or near New York and just get a job in an auto shop there, or something? Emma was not involved in this decision, because it's all secret-like.

Oh, and Emma got the tenure position. Yay!

In short, Ricky is invited back but NeNe has to go. Soon. Please.

This Week's Numbers:

"Sexy and I Know It" - LMFAO - David Martinez

"Don't Wanna Lose You" - Gloria Estefan - Mercedes

"Bamboleo/Hero" - Gipsy Kings/Enrique Iglesias - New Directions men

"La Isla Bonita" - Madonna - Santana and David

"A Little Less Conversation" - Elvis Presley - Will

Sue line of the week:

-"Have a seat, Lady Bird Hollow Pelvis"