Glee, Actually

• Title: Glee – Glee Actually
• tv.com: link

Christmas comes to McKinley High, and New York City, as the current and former members of the New Directions continue to sing and celebrate the holiday by putting aside their individual issues and the uncertainty of the club following their loss at Sectionals. The episode gives us five different Christmas tales before ending the show with a final group performance of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by all the members of Glee Club.

The X-Mas episode begins with a wounded Artie (Kevin McHale) is given his own It’s a Wonderful Life dream sequence as he gets a glimpse of what his life, and that of the other Glee Club members, might have been if had never gotten into the car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Horrified at the life Rory (Damian McGinty) shows him, a walking, dancing, and singing Artie tries to wake his black and white cohorts out of the dreary lives with an impromptu performance of “Feliz Navidad” before waking up and looking at his circumstances with a fresh perspective.

As Rachel (Lea Michele) prepares for a holiday cruise with her fathers, Kurt (Chris Colfer) gets a surprise visit from his father (Mike O’Malley) who decides if his son wont’ return home for Christmas Burt will bring Christmas to him – along with Blaine (Darren Criss). Despite the awkwardness of their relationship limbo, the pair celebrate their own Christmas tradition with a duet of “White Christmas” while ice skating. All the tidings aren’t good as Burt breaks the news that doctors have diagnosed him with prostate cancer, which he hopes the doctors caught in time.

Puck (Mark Salling) returns home to spend some time with Jake (Jacob Artist) who he convinces to take a road trip with him to Los Angeles. There the pair break into a movie lot and perform “Oh Chanukah” before returning together to Lima for an uncomfortable family dinner with both their mothers (Aisha Tyler, Gina Hecht), each of whom was cheated on and eventually abandoned by their father.

Sue (Jane Lynch) gets the Christmas spirit while trying to find the perfect gift for Marley’s mother (Trisha Rae Stahl) after becoming the cafeteria lady’s Secret Santa, especially learning that Mrs. Rose and Marley (Melissa Benoist) are having a serious budget crunch that may make them forgo Christmas all together. All Marley can offer her mother is a rendition of “The First Noël,” but Sue decides to cutback on her expensive Christmas and make sure both women wake up to a magical Christmas morning complete with presents, a tree, and all the trimmings.

And, in the most ridiculous storyline, Brittany (Heather Morris) cashes in her savings for extravagant gifts for her friends after watching a documentary on the Mayan apocalypse and becomes convinced the world will end in a matter of days. Sam’s (Chord Overstreet) conspiracy-driven mind finds himself agreeing with her and chooses to make the most out of their time together by performing “Jingle Bell Rock” for her in the school library with the help of the Cheerios and getting  Coach Bieste (Dot Jones) to marry them in a Mayan ceremony.