'Glee' Season 4, Episode 2 Recap & Song List - 'Britney 2.0'

This is the second time that "Glee" has taken on Britney Spears (hence that "2.0" thing), and the difference between the first stab and this one is night and day. The first Britney episode made little to no sense, and used the premise that the students were having Britney-themed hallucinations at the dentist's office. Remember that? That was a thing that happened.

This time around, there's no gimmick to make the songs work, other than the old standard Schuester assignment for the week, which at this point we just have to sigh and deal with. As a result, this was a far better episode, with some moments that got back to what "Glee" is really about. Here's what happened in Ohio and New York:

Ohio Side

Brittany is having a rough week. She gets kicked off the Cheerios by Sue because of her still-failing grades, and she misses Santana, who is busy with college (but does make a brief Skype appearance). This has caused her to start eating bags of Cheetos, packages of Oreos, and other junk food treats that comically increase in size throughout the episode until Brittany is found eating from a box of Pop-Tarts as big as her head.

So to cheer her up and get her back on track, Schuester announces another Britney week. Everyone seems pretty excited about it, but Brittany takes things too seriously: she goes into full meltdown mode, just like Britney did. She even tries to shave her head and lashes out at the "paparazzi."

Brittany is so thorough in this Britney-imitating exercise that she lip syncs and does a lazy dance to "Gimme More," just like Britney did. It's all a fun trip down "hey, remember when this happened" lane.

It's all a bit silly, but it helps set up perhaps the best line of the episode: when Schuester finds out that Brittany lip synced for the school assembly, he cries "If the National Glee Club Board of Review gets wind of this, we could be barred from competing!"

That, of course, is totally ridiculous, but it's exactly the kind of irony that made this show truly great in the early episodes. Self-aware, fourth-wall-breaking commentary is one thing, and it can be fun, but it takes finesse to have characters take something silly very seriously while also giving us enough of a wink to know that they're not actually taking it seriously. As Rachel said in the pilot, "There is nothing ironic about glee club!" before storming off dramatically. Of course there is, and that's why that was such a funny line.

Brittany completes her comeback and gets on the Cheerios again, having finished her reenactment of Britney's meltdown. Yay.

But the real heart of the episode lied, oddly enough, with our two new members: Jake and Marley. Marley has a thing for Jake, despite (or because of) his bad boy persona, and the two have a lovely duet and the sexual tension flies. However, Jake ends up dating Kitty (aka Quinn 2.0) instead.

Jake does end up in the glee club, however, after a confrontation with his half brother Puck, who shows up from L.A. apparently just for this purpose. Guess the pool business is doing well to be able to afford that airfare. The spinning camera in this scene was unnecessary, but boy was it nice to have Puck back for a few minutes and get a few good one-liners out of him.

That still leaves Marley in the dust, though. Are she and Jake the new Rachel and Finn? Is this the Year of Jarley?

New York Side

Speaking of Rachel, she's still having major issues with Cassie, who excludes her from the lesson on the tango, saying that she isn't sexy enough for it. With that, Rachel goes to Brody for some help putting together a sexy number to show to Cassie to prove her sexiness.

It's still a Britney Spears song, so that's kind of a terrible way to be sexy, and Cassie says as much. That's when Rachel flies off the handle and calls Cassie out for picking on the students because she's jealous of them.

She's right, too: Kurt recognizes Cassie as "Crazy July," an up-and-coming Broadway star from a while back who threw a fit on stage over an audience member's cell phone and was caught on video. How Kurt knew this and Rachel didn't, I have no idea.

Anyway, Cassie and Rachel make up somewhat, and Cassie explains that she's hard on everyone because Broadway is hard. Makes sense.

On the home front, Rachel and Kurt have found an impossibly huge apartment with exposed brick that is explained as being just really far away. Still. Rachel keeps asking about Finn and paints his name on the wall (weird), but Kurt keeps patiently explaining that Finn is just respecting her boundaries and giving her space.

Things get complicated when Brody shows up to deliver Rachel an orchid and to tell her that yes, she is very sexy and to attempt to kiss her. He probably should have known she would turn that down, based on the big heart painted on the wall with the name "FINN" in it. But hey, can't blame a guy for trying I guess.

He tells her how he feels, says that he will respect her relationship, and leaves. Will the new Rachel fall for Brody? Gasp!

Line of the Week: "I had my first threesome at 7 and I once beat up a police horse." --Puck

This Week's Song List (all songs by Britney Spears):

"Hold It Against Me" -- Brittany (and Kitty?)

"Boys"/"Boyfriend" (Justin Bieber mash-up) -- Artie and Blaine

"Womanizer" -- Unique, Tina and Marley

"3" -- Tina, Joe and Sam

"U Drive Me Crazy"/"Crazy" (Aerosmith mash-up) -- Jake and Marley

"Oops! I Did It Again" -- Rachel

"Gimme More" -- Brittany

"Everytime" -- Marley